Bombing of Nuremberg in World War II

Image of the destroyed old city; in the background the Lorenzkirche (1945)

Damages from air raids after 2 January 1945

The bombing of Nuremberg was a series of air raids carried out by allied forces of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) that caused heavy damage throughout the city from 1940 through 1945. Nuremberg was a favored point of attack for allied bombers in World War II even though it was only later included into the radius of action due to its location in the south of Germany. Because Nuremberg was a strong economic and infrastructural hub and had symbolic importance as the "City of the Nuremberg Rally" it was singled out by the Allies as an important target.

The greatest damages occurred from the attack on 2 January 1945 in which 521 RAF bombers dropped 6,000 high-explosive bombs and one million incendiary devices on the city. The population suffered more than 1,800 deaths and 100,000 people lost their homes in this attack. Nuremberg's old town was almost completely destroyed, and the city as a whole was badly damaged. After Würzburg, Nuremberg was one of Bavaria's cities that suffered the most damage in the war, and was also among the most destroyed cities in Germany as a whole.

The eastern half of the city (north of the Pegnitz river) was known as the "steppe" after the destruction and during the clearing of the rubble. The air raids ceased on 11 April 1945. On 20 April, after the Battle of Nuremberg, the city was occupied by units of the 7th US Army.

Nuremberg as a military target

Ruins of Nuremberg, c. 1945

Nuremberg was an important production location for armaments and the densely populated medieval old town was a well-suited destination for the purposes of the area bombing directive of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Nuremberg, which during the period of Nazi rule was officially given the nickname "City of the Nuremberg Rally", was also a target for attacks with a considerable symbolic effect.

In relation to the total building mass, the inner city had a high proportion of half-timbered houses, i.e. buildings with a high proportion of wood that are highly combustible, and was therefore suitable for an effective attack using a combination of explosive and incendiary bombs. The purpose was to ignite a firestorm to increase the effect of the incendiary bombs. Daytime attacks on industrial and infrastructure targets were mostly carried out by the technically better equipped US Army Air Forces as part of the division of labor of the Allied air fleets in order to achieve a high degree of accuracy, which was technologically only possible to a limited extent. Nighttime area bombardments were mostly flown by the RAF's Pathfinder Force.

In the urban area, but not in the old town, which was most severely affected by the attack of 2 January 1945, there were numerous military targets: The factories of MAN in the south of the city built diesel engines for submarines and relevant components for Panther tanks. Other important companies were Siemens-Schuckert, TeKaDe, Nüral (Nürnberger Aluminiumwerke, now Federal-Mogul), and Diehl. In addition the bombers targeted the Nuremberg motorcycle industry (Zündapp/Neumeyer, Hercules, Triumph, Victoria) and 120 other armament and companies that employed forced labor as well as the facilities of the German Reichsbahn: the marshaling yard in the south of the city and the main railway lines running over Nuremberg.

Timeline of the attacks

Until 1942, there were only minor attacks. From 1942 to 1944 there was a fight for air supremacy over Germany which was won by the Allies in large parts. From autumn 1944, airfields of the Allies had moved close enough that it was possible to deploy low-flying aircraft. The following table is based on the information provided by G. W. Schramm.

Date	Aircraft	Bomb load(t)	Description of the air raid	Casualties and damages
1940
7 August			Bombs on Fürth/Burgfarrnbach
20/21 December			Bombs on Nazi party rally grounds
1941
12/13 October	152 RAF bombers, esp. Wellington and Whitley		Only 20 high-explosive and 14 incendiary devices hit target; minor damage to Nuremberg but severe damage to Schwabach	9 casualties; 50 destroyed houses in Schwabach
1942
28/29 August	RAF bombers		South-west of the city park and the southern city, Alte Kongresshalle/Luitpoldhalle in the Luitpoldarena, die Nuremberg castle	136 casualties; 152 destroyed houses, 220 fires
thereafter	4 air raid warnings
1943
25/26 February	337 four-engined RAF bombers		Due to low visibility bombs were dropped on the surrounding Knoblauchsland, northern parts of the city, the Dynamit AG plant in Stadeln/Fürth and the fortified church in Kraftshof	27 casualties; 44 large, 8 medium and 10 minor fires
8/9 March starting 11:00 p.m.	335 four-engined RAF bombers	358 t high-explosive, 412 t incendiary bombs	Southern old town: Mauthalle; Nuremberg Castle, Siemens-Trafowerk, marshaling yard	343 casualties; 171 large, 339 minor and 1746 minor fires; time-bombs
10/11 August 00:48	653 four-engined RAF bombersF: Lancaster, Stirling, Halifax	878 t high-explosive, 878 t incendiary bombs	North, southern old town, Wöhrd; St. Sebald, St. Lorenz; u. a. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, the last remaining hop hall on the Kornmarkt. Fürth, Fischbach and Feucht	585 casualties; 1732 destroyed, 1156 severely damaged 2386 moderately damaged buildings
27/28 August	674 four-engined RAF bombers		Darkness, strong flak and night fighters disturbed the target approach, many bombs fell on southern suburbs. In Nuremberg: Maxfeld, Nordostbahnhof, southern old town, Laufamholz; the companies Neumeyer and MAN	56 casualties; 458 destroyed, 361 moderately damaged buildings and 1704 with minor damages
1944
25 February 12:47 p.m.	172 USAAF Liberator		Target was Fürther Flugzeugwerk Bachmann von Blumenthal & Co.	138 casualties, 122 injured
31 March	795 RAF bombers: 572 Lancaster, 214 Halifax, 9 Mosquitos	910 t high-explosive, 1176 t incendiary bombs	"The Nuremberg Raid": The attackers suffered heavy losses: 95 bombers were shot down. In Nuremberg the attack was classified as "moderately severe", further damage in the eastern neighboring towns (Röthenbach an der Pegnitz, Behringersdorf, Lauf an der Pegnitz).	In Nuremberg: 74 casualties and 122 injured; 130 destroyed, 879 moderately damaged buildings and 2505 with minor damages
10 April 10:48 a.m.	233 B-17G and 241 USAAF escort fighter planes		Fürth, Nürnberger armament companies: MAN, TEKADE	82 casualties, 366 injured; 211 destroyed, 214 severely damaged, 1365 moderately damaged buildings and 1800 with minor damages
	13 air raid warnings
3 October 11:15 a.m.	454 USAAF B-17		Targeted were the MAN facilities but low visibility due to clouds. Instead hit by the bombs: Weinstadel, Viatishaus, 62 Patrician houses	353 casualties, 1033 injured; 518 destroyed, 738 severely damaged, 1097 moderately damaged buildings and 4109 with minor damages
19/20 October	263 RAF Lancaster and 7 Mosquitos		Southern city and old town. Gustav-Adolf church, MAN, Siemens, marshaling yard	237 casualties, 10,383 shelterless
	62 air raid warnings
25/26 November	RAF Mosquitos		Small interference attack, one train and multiple houses hit	over 60 casualties
until 24 December	RAF Mosquitos		Small interference attacks; dubbed "Mosquitos on siren tours" in Britain
1945
2 Januar, evening	514 RAF Lancaster and 7 Mosquitos	1825 t high-explosive, 479 t incendiary bombs	Complete destruction of the Nuremberg old town with irrecoverable damage to the historic building structure. Attacks on MAN, TEKADE, Nüral, Nürnberger Schraubenfabrik	1835 casualties, over 3000 injured, 100,000 shelterless; 4553 destroyed, 2047 severely damaged, 2993 moderately damaged buildings and 7000 with minor damages; 1 conflagration and 2 block fire, 1194 major, 851 medium and 1070 small fires
January and February	RAF Mosquitos		Small interference attacks
20 February 12:30 p.m.	831 USAAF B-17 and 360 B-24		Already on the approach, the B-24 had to turn around because of thunderstorms. Because of cloud cover over the target the bombs were thrown blind and distributed over the whole city; accumulations at railway facilities and in the southern part of town.	see below
21 February 10:40 a.m.	1205 USAAF bombers		Targeted were the main station and marshaling yards, but Gostenhof and St. Johannis were also hit.	1356 casualties and 70,000 shelterless
February/March			2 interference attacks
16 March 08:53 p.m.	301 RAF Lancaster und 40 Mosquitos		Severe damages in the southern part of the city: Steinbühl and Galgenhof, St. Peter, Gostenhof; Muggenhof, Thon, Schnepfenreuth and Poppenreuth	517 casualties
19 March			Störangriffe
5 April	254 USAAF B-17		Targeted were the main station and marshaling yards, but mostly hit were southern residential areas	see below
5 April	72 USAAF B-17		Fürth and Unterschlauersbach air base	197 casualties
8 April	89 USAAF B-24		Targeted was the Bachmann von Blumenthal & Co. air plane factory in Fürth
5–10 April	Low-flying aircraft		Rail transports, anti-aircraft positions around Zollhaus, railroad repair plant in Gostenhof
11 April, afternoon	143 RAF bombers		Marshaling yards and surrounding residential areas	74 casualties

Destruction

US B-17 via Nuremberg Feb 1945

Nuremberg's old town was largely destroyed. The southern parts of the city, St. Johannis and other neighborhoods were also hard hit. After Cologne, Dortmund and Kassel, Nuremberg had the largest amount of rubble per inhabitant among the major German cities. The population of Nuremberg had fallen from 420,349 in 1939 to 195,000 by the end of the war. Furthermore half of all dwellings had been destroyed, the rest often damaged.

Reconstruction

Nuremberg in ruins, summer of 1945

In 1947, ideas for reconstruction were collected in an urban planning competition. The "Kuratorium für den Wiederaufbau Nürnbergs" (Board of Trustees for the Reconstruction of Nuremberg) advised the city administration on questions of reconstruction. A simplified reconstruction was agreed upon.

It was at this time that the organisation 'The Old Town Friends Nuremberg (German: Altstadtfreunde Nürnberg e. V.) was set up to advocate a faithful, accurate reconstruction of the old town. The association supports the preservation and restoration of the existing historical old town houses and other architectural monuments in Nuremberg that are worth preserving.

By 1955 most of the reconstruction work had been completed or at least begun. From 1956 to 1960 the Nuremberg Town Hall (Wolffscher Bau, Rathaussaalbau) was rebuilt. Until 1957 the St. Sebaldus church was repaired. The largest restoration project was the city walls of Nuremberg with its 4 km long double wall and the moat.

The Katharinenkloster Nuremberg, today called Katherinenruine, which was completely destroyed during the air raids in 1945, was not rebuilt but secured as a ruin in 1970/71. Since then it has served as a memorial to the war and as a venue for events.

Bombs found after World War II

Even after the end of the Second World War, unexploded bombs were (and still are) found in Nuremberg. They are often discovered by chance during construction work, and are rarely searched for in a targeted manner. The explosive ordnance clearance service (Kampfmittelräumdienst) is responsible for defusing and securing the aircraft bombs. Large-scale evacuations may be necessary during these operations.

See also

• Nuremberg
• Battle of Nuremberg (1945)
• List of air operations during the Battle of Europe

Literature

• Die Zerstörung (2. ed.). Verlag A. Hofmann. 1988. ISBN 3-87191-124-0.
• Bomben auf Nürnberg. Luftangriffe 1940 - 1945. Hugendubel Heinrich. 1988. ISBN 978-3880343948.
• Der Luftkrieg gegen Nürnberg. Stadt Nürnberg. ISBN 3-87707-634-3.
• Michael Diefenbacher, Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg. 2., verbesserte Auflage. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nürnberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 (online). 
• Martin Middlebrook: Die Nacht, in der die Bomber starben. Der Angriff auf Nürnberg und seine Folgen für den Luftkrieg ("The Nuremberg raid"), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-548-33005-3
• Peter Schneider: 30./31. März 1944. Tod am Meisbach: Absturz der Lancaster ND441 bei Dotzlar. In: Wittgenstein. Blätter des Wittgensteiner Heimatvereins, 2007, pp. 130.

External links

• http://www.luftkrieg.nuernberg.de/
• Beschreibung des Angriffs 30./31. März 1944
• Danièle List: Der Luftkrieg in Nürnberg, in: historicum.net, retrieved 5 Januar 2013