Bombing of Hamburg in World War II


The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war.
As part of a sustained campaign of strategic bombing during World War II, the attack during the last week of July 1943, code named Operation Gomorrah, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces in World War II, killing an estimated 58,000 civilians and wounding 180,000 more in Hamburg, and virtually destroying most of the city. Before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg, there had been no rain for some time and everything was very dry. The unusually warm weather and good conditions meant that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets and also created a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which created a 460 meter high tornado of fire.
Various other previously used techniques and devices were instrumental as well, such as area bombing, Pathfinders, and H2S radar, which came together to work with particular effectiveness. An early form of chaff, code named 'Window', was successfully used for the first time by the RAF – clouds of tinfoil strips dropped by Pathfinders as well as the initial bomber stream – in order to completely cloud German radar. The raids inflicted severe damage to German armaments production in Hamburg.

Naming

The name Gomorrah comes from that of one of the two Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose destruction is recorded in the Bible: "Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens."
– Genesis 19:24

Significant missions

Battle of Hamburg

The Battle of Hamburg, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, was a campaign of air raids which began on 24 July 1943 and lasted for 8 days and 7 nights. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials.
Until the focus of RAF Bomber Command switched to Hamburg, their focus had been on the Ruhr industrial region which had been the target of a five-month-long campaign.
The operation was conducted by RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF Eighth Air Force. The British conducted night raids and the USAAF daylight raids.
The initial attack on Hamburg included two new introductions to the British planning: they used "Window", otherwise known as chaff, to confuse the German radar, while the Pathfinder Force aircraft, which normally kept radio silence, reported the winds they encountered, and this information was processed and relayed to the bomber force navigators.
No 35 Squadron led the target marking and, thanks to the clear weather and H2S radar navigation, accuracy was good, with markers falling close to the aiming point. On 24 July, at approximately 00:57, the first bombing started by the RAF and lasted for almost an hour. The confusion caused to German radar kept losses of aircraft low. While some 40,000 firemen were available to tackle fires, control of their resources was damaged when the telephone exchange caught fire and rubble blocked the passage of fire engines through the city streets; fires were still burning three days later.
A second, daylight raid, by the USAAF was conducted at 16:40. It had been intended for 300 aircraft to attack Hamburg and Hanover but problems with assembling the force in the air meant that only 90 B-17 Flying Fortresses reached Hamburg. The bombers attacked the Blohm and Voss shipyard and an aero-engine factory, with German flak damaging 78 aircraft. However the shipyard was not badly damaged and the aero-engine manufacturer could not be seen for smoke.
RAF Mosquitos of the Light Night Striking Force carried out nuisance raids to keep the city on a state of alert and delayed-action bombs from the night's raid exploded at intervals. Extra firemen were brought in from other cities including Hanover; as a result when the US bombers attacked, these firemen were in Hamburg and fires in Hanover burned unchecked.
Another attack by the RAF on Hamburg for that night was cancelled due to the problems the smoke would cause and 700 bombers raided Essen instead. Mosquitos carried out another nuisance raid.
A third raid was conducted on the morning of the 26th. The RAF night attack of 26 July at 00:20 was extremely light because of severe thunderstorms and high winds over the North Sea, during which a considerable number of bombers jettisoned the explosive part of their bomb loads with only two bomb drops reported. That attack is often not counted when the total number of Operation Gomorrah attacks is given. There was no day raid on the 27th.
On the night of 27 July, shortly before midnight, 787 RAF aircraft—74 Wellingtons, 116 Stirlings, 244 Halifaxes and 353 Lancasters— bombed Hamburg. The unusually dry and warm weather, the concentration of the bombing in one area and firefighting limitations due to blockbuster bombs used in the early part of the raid – and the recall of Hanover's firecrews to their own city – culminated in a firestorm. The tornadic fire created a huge inferno with winds of up to reaching temperatures of and altitudes in excess of, incinerating more than of the city. Asphalt streets burst into flame, and fuel oil from damaged and destroyed ships, barges and storage tanks spilled into the water of the canals and the harbour, causing them to ignite as well.
The majority of deaths attributed to Operation Gomorrah occurred on this night. A large number of those killed died seeking safety in bomb shelters and cellars, the firestorm consuming the oxygen in the burning city above. The furious winds created by the firestorm had the power to sweep people up off the streets like dry leaves.
On the night of 29 July, Hamburg was again attacked by over 700 RAF aircraft. A planned raid on 31 July was cancelled due to thunderstorms over the UK. The last raid of Operation Gomorrah was conducted on 3 August.
Operation Gomorrah killed 42,600 people, left 37,000 wounded and caused some one million German civilians to flee the city. The city's labour force was reduced by ten percent. Approximately 3,000 aircraft were employed, 9,000 tons of bombs were dropped and over 250,000 homes and houses were destroyed. No subsequent city raid shook Germany as did that on Hamburg; documents show that German officials were thoroughly alarmed and there is some indication from later Allied interrogations of Nazi officials that Hitler stated that further raids of similar weight would force Germany out of the war. The industrial losses were severe: Hamburg never recovered to full production, only doing so in essential armaments industries. Figures given by German sources indicate that 183 large factories were destroyed out of 524 in the city and 4,118 smaller factories out of 9,068 were destroyed.
Other losses included damage to or destruction of 580 industrial concerns and armaments works, 299 of which were important enough to be listed by name. Local transport systems were completely disrupted and did not return to normal for some time. Dwellings destroyed amounted to 214,350 out of 414,500. Hamburg was hit by air raids another 69 times before the end of World War II. In total, the RAF dropped 22,580 long tons of bombs on Hamburg.

Aftermath

Cityscape

The totally-destroyed quarter of Hammerbrook, in which mostly port workers lived, was rebuilt not as a housing area but as a commercial area. The adjoining quarter of Rothenburgsort shared the same fate since only a small area of housing was rebuilt. The underground line that connected both areas with the central station was not rebuilt, either.
In the destroyed residential areas, many houses were rebuilt across the street and so no longer form connected blocks. The hills of the Öjendorfer Park are formed by the debris of destroyed houses.
In January 1946, Major Cortez F. Enloe, a surgeon in the USAAF who worked on the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, said that the fire effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki "were not nearly as bad as the effects of the R.A.F. raids on Hamburg on July 27th 1943". He estimated that more than 40,000 people died in Hamburg:
"It was quite a surprise to us when the first Hamburg raid took place because you used some new device which was preventing the anti-aircraft guns to find your bombers, so you had a great success and you repeated these attacks on Hamburg several times and each time the new success was greater and the depression was larger, and I have said, in those days, in a meeting of the Air Ministry, that if you would repeat this success on four or five other German towns, then we would collapse." – Albert Speer – The Secret War

Memorials

Several memorials in Hamburg are reminders of the air raids of World War II:
DateTarget/TypeRoundel and notes
leaflets 10 RAF aircraft.
oil installations 48 Hampdens attacked Hamburg oil installations.
oil refineries Hampdens attacked oil refineries near Hamburg.
oil refineries Hamburg oil refineries were bombed.
Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven and Münster were frequent targets during the Battle of Britain but lack of bombing accuracy meant that little damage was done,.
Hamburg bombed by Wellingtons which started 12 fires with little loss of life.
Hamburg bombed by Wellingtons which started 13 fires with little loss of life.
over 200 aircraft. On the first night damage was caused to the Blohm & Voss shipyard and over 60 fires were started. On the second night only 60 aircraft found their target and damage was far less.
Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin bombed by a total of 257
51 people were killed, the highest number in a single raid to date
During this month Hamburg was a main target.
Hamburg was bombed several times during the month. Raids now usually contained about 100 bombers.
92 aircraft.
a raid on Bremen but most bombed Hamburg – an error of 50 miles. 11 out of 35 bombers were shot down by night fighters.
95 aircraft. Only 48 aircraft claimed to have bombed Hamburg. Altona station was hit and 12 fires, 7 of them large ones, were started. Six people killed and 22 injured. No aircraft reported lost.
96 aircraft. 52 bombers claimed to have bombed Hamburg successfully. 36 fires started 3 of which were large, 3 people killed and 25 injured. 11 Bombers lost.
Bremen was the main target for 83 aircraft, but Hamburg was bombed as a secondary target causing 11 fires and casualties of 5 dead and 12 injured in Hamburg. Four bombers lost.
one or two bombers.
largest raid to date on a single target. Carried out by 272 aircraft. Raid was considered a failure. 17 people were killed and 119 injured. 5 planes lost.
173 aircraft. 75 fires, 33 classed as large were started. Twenty-three people were killed and 66 injured. Eight aircraft lost.
81 aircraft, dispatched on the 100th anniversary of a great fire in Hamburg. 53 aircraft were estimated to have hit the target. 113 fires started, of which 57 were large. 77 were killed, 243 injured and 1,624 bombed out. 5 aircraft were lost.
403 aircraft. Widespread damage was caused, mostly in housing and semi-commercial districts rather than in the docks and industrial areas. At least 800 fires started, 523 of which were large. 823 houses were destroyed and more than 5,000 damaged. More than 14,000 people were bombed out. 337 people were killed and 1,027 injured. 29 aircraft were lost, 7.2% of the force.
256 aircraft. Due to bad weather only 68 bombed in the target area. Fifty-six fires, 15 of them large, were started. Thirteen people were killed and 48 injured. Bomber losses were high, 15.3% for the main group bombing that night.
10 aircraft.
nuisance raid single Mosquito.
nuisance raid 2 Mosquitoes.
light secondary target raid. 2 large fires were started. 8 people were killed and 43 injured.
213 aircraft. There were 26 fires started of which 3 were large. 3 people killed and 16 injured. 15 aircraft lost, 7.0% of the force.
148 aircraft. It was the first H2S radar-assisted attack of the war. H2S use was not successful and the bombs were scattered. However 119 fires were started of which 71 were large. 58 people were killed and 164 injured. 5 aircraft were lost, 3.4% of the force.
263 aircraft. Bad weather affected the bombers with many turning back early. Damage was light for what was planned to be a large raid. 16 bombers were lost, 6.1% of the force, many to nightfighters.
417 aircraft. The Pathfinders marked the wrong target, mistaking a mud bank for the docks with their H2S radar, so most of the bombs landed 13 miles downstream from the centre of Hamburg, around the small town of Wedel. Those bombs which landed on Hamburg did considerable damage starting 100 fires, killing 27 people and injuring 95. The damage to Wedel was extensive. 10 aircraft lost, 2.4% of the force.
nuisance raid 2 Mosquitoes.
Blohm & Voss Mission Number 67: 275 B-17 are to attack submarine pens and industrial areas of Hamburg and Bremen, but the primary targets are obscured by cloud so the bombers hit 167 bomb "targets of opportunity in NW Germany". The 384th Bombardment Group of the USAAF are involved in the attack of an initial 19 aircraft, 11 aborted the mission and only 5 joined the combat wing.
nuisance raid 4 Mosquitoes.
nuisance raid 4 Mosquitoes.
nuisance raid 4 Mosquitoes.
nuisance raid 4 Mosquitoes.
large raid 791 Halifaxes and Lancasters marked the opening of the "Battle of Hamburg" or so called "Operation Gomorrah raid". A countermeasure against the radar-directed German nightfighters in the form of "Window" was used for the first time. In the clear weather visual and H2S marking was accurate and on the town centre. 728 aircraft dropped their bombs in 50 minutes. Less than half the force bombed within 3 miles of the centre with a bomb creepback of six miles. Damage was caused in the central and north-western districts, particularly in Altona, Eimsbüttel and Hoheluft. The Rathaus, the St. Nikolai church, the main police station, the main telephone exchange and the Hagenbeck Zoo were among the well-known landmarks to be hit. About 1,500 people were killed which was the largest outside the range of the "Oboe" radio navigation system which helped to concentrate the bombing pattern. Thanks to the use of Window only 12 aircraft were lost, 1.5% of the force.
Blohm & VossMission Number 76. It is planned that 123 B-17 will bomb the diesel engine works at Hamburg but due to cloud cover, 100 planes from the 91st, 351st, 381st, 303rd, 379th, 384th bomb group bomb the shipyards in a 15-minute period starting at 16:30. 15 B-17's are lost, and American casualties are 1 killed five wounded and 150 missing.
Blohm & VossMission Number 77. 121 B-17's dispatched against Hanover and the U-boat yards at Hamburg between 11:59 and 12:00.
nuisance raid 6 Mosquitoes attacked Hamburg.
Large raid 787 Halifaxes and Lancasters guided in by Pathfinders using H2S bombed about 2 miles east of city centre. Due to the unseasonally dry conditions, a firestorm was created in the built-up working-class districts of Hammerbrook, Hamm, Borgfelde and Rothenburgsort. The bombing was more concentrated than the RAF was usually able to manage at this stage of the war. In just over half an hour it is estimated that 550–600 bomb loads fell into an area measuring only 2 miles by 1 mile and this gradually spread the fire eastwards. The firestorm lasted for about three hours, consuming approximately 16,000 multi-storyed apartment buildings and killing an estimated 40,000 people, most of them by carbon monoxide poisoning when all the air was drawn out of their basement shelters. Fearing further raids, two-thirds of Hamburg's population, approximately 1,200,000 people, fled the city in the aftermath.
nuisance raid 4 Mosquitoes.
Large raid 777 aircraft guided in by pathfinders marking using H2S. The plan was to bomb the untouched northern suburbs. But a mistake in mapping led to the bombing of an area just north of the area devastated by the firestorm three nights before. The residential areas of Wandsbek and Barmbek districts and parts of the Uhlenhorst and Winterhude were severely damaged and widespread fires but no firestorm. Twenty-eight aircraft 3.6% of the force was lost.
740 aircraft dispatched on a raid to Hamburg but bad weather stopped all but a few bombers reaching Hamburg; many bombed secondary targets instead. 30 aircraft, 4.1% of the force was lost.
nuisance raid 6 Mosquitoes.
Hamburg and other cities raided by a total of 26 Mosquitoes.
diversionary raid 15 Mosquitoes attacked Hamburg.
nuisance raid 20 Mosquitoes.
35 Mosquitoes.
diversionary raid 16 Mosquitoes.
26 Mosquitoes.
oil refineries Mission 421: B-17s bombed Hamburg-Ebano, Hamburg-Eurotank, Hamburg-Ossag, and Hamburg-Schindler. a Battle of the Ruhr mission
oil refineries Mission 425: B-17s bombed oil refineries at Hamburg/Deut.Petr.AG, Harburg/Ebano,Hamburg/Eurotank, Hamburg/Rhenania-Ossag, Harburg/Rhenania, Hamburg/Schliemanns, and Hamburg/Schindler.
diversionary raid 29 Mosquitoes.
diversionary raid 26 Mosquitoes.
diversionary raid 30 Mosquitoes.
307 aircraft. The raid was not a success, the bombing was scattered and German sources estimated that only 120 bombers landed their load on the city. 22 aircraft were lost mainly to night fighters.
oil refineriesMission 514: 181 B-17s bombed Hamburg refineries.
oil refineries Mission 524: Hamburg oil refineries bombed at Hamburg/Deutsche, Hamburg/, Hamburg/Rhenania, Hamburg/Rhenania-Ossag, Hamburg/Schlieman, and Hamburg/Schulau. Rhenania-Ossag was a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell.
diversionary nuisance raid 13 Mosquitoes.
diversionary nuisance raid Hamburg was one of five cities bombed by a total of 53 Mosquitoes.
nuisance raid 32 Mosquitoes.
diversionary nuisance raid 6 Mosquitoes.
46 Mosquitoes.
oil refinery Mission 667: 121 of 406 dispatched B-24s bombed the Harburg/Rhenania oil refinery.
52 Mosquitoes.
oil refineries Mission 688: 455 B-17s dispatched to hit the Harburg and Rhenania oil refineries at Hamburg. 297 B-17s dispatched to hit the primary hit secondaries, Harburg and Rhenania oil refineries at Hamburg; cloud cover limited accuracy, devastation of Harburg city
oil refineries Mission 693: 357 B-24s are dispatched to hit the Harburg oil refinery and Rhenania oil refinery at Hamburg, 28 bomb Hamburg targets of opportunity.
oil refinery Mission 700: 257 B-17s are dispatched to hit the Harburg oil plant at Hamburg, 186 of 193 B-17s hit the Rhenania oil plant at Hamburg.
ordnance depots US Ninth Air Force: send 160 B-26s and A-20s to attack ammunition, ordnance, and supply depots in Hamburg.
oil refineries Mission 704: 291 B-17s are dispatched to hit the Harburg and Rhenania oil refineries at Hamburg.
oil refineries 237 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitoes of No 5 Group are dispatched to hit the Rhenania-Ossag oil refinery Harburg, which had been attacked several times by American day bombers.
oil refineries Mission 720: 366 B-24s are sent to hit the Dpag and Rhenania oil plants at Hamburg.
diversionary raid 53 Mosquitoes.
28 Mosquitoes.
nuisance raid 7 Mosquitoes hit Hamburg-Wandsbek and -Barmbek at 3 am.
Blohm & Voss Mission 772: 526 B-17s are dispatched to hit oil industry targets at Hamburg, the Wilhelmsburg refinery at Harburg, the Grassbrook refinery at Hamburg and the industrial area at Hamburg.
diversionary nuisance raid 9 Mosquitoes.
Blohm & Voss The 384 BG bombed the Hamburg submarine yards.
oil refineries Mission 845: 362 B-17s are sent to hit the Albrecht 278 and Harburg 70 oil refineries at Hamburg.
oil refinery Mission 865: 120 of 126 B-24s hit the Harburg oil refinery at Hamburg without loss.
Blohm & Voss 312 aircraft, including those of the No. 466 Squadron RAAF, bombed Blohm & Voss to destroy the type XXI U-boats.
Blohm & Voss The No. 466 Squadron RAAF bombed Blohm & Voss.
oil refinery Mission 881: 469 of 485 B-17s bomb the Wilhelmsburg oil refinery at Hamburg; one other hits a target of opportunity; one B-17 is lost and 41 damaged; 3 airmen are wounded and 10 are missing in action.
shipyards, docs and oil installations Mission 898: 451 bombers and 355 fighters are dispatched to bomb the shipyard and dock area at Hamburg and an oil refinery. All the targets were bombed including the Blohm & Voss U-boat yard.
oil refinery 159 aircraft put the refinery out of action for the rest of the war.
oil depotMission 918: 530 B-17s are sent to bomb 2 U-boat yards oil depot at Hamburg. 64 bomb the yards and 169 the depot. 263 bomb the port area at Hamburg and one bombs Bremen. Bombing is both visual and using H2X radar.
raid by 43 Mosquitoes.
Blohm & Voss 469 aircraft to destroy the Type XXI U-boats under construction. Cloud cover prevented serious damage to the target, but there was considerable damage to houses, factories, energy supplies and communications over a wide area of southern Hamburg. 11 aircraft lost mainly to German day fighters.
nuisance raid 1 Mosquito.
U-boat yard A DISNEY mission: 22 of 24 B-17s bomb the Finkenwarder U-boat yard at Hamburg without loss.
shipyard 440 aircraft—partial cloud caused the raid to become dispersed. There was some damage to the yards but it was not clear whether the damage was American or British or both.
oil storage 57 Lancasters of No. 5 Group RAF attacked oil-storage tanks and U-boat shelters. Both attacks were successful. 2 Lancasters were lost from the raid on the oil tanks.
diversionary raid 24 Mosquitoes.
diversionary raid 87 Mosquitoes.