History of Europe

October 1943:Hanover is in ruins

On the night of October 9, 1943, Hanover experienced the heaviest night of bombing in World War II. 261,000 bombs fall on the city, 1,245 people die. What remains is a rubble field.

by Sven Glagow

At around 3 p.m. on October 8, 1943, the sirens began to wail in Hanover. It has been the 428th air raid alarm in Leinestadt since the beginning of the war. After an hour, calm returns and people go about their business on this warm and sunny autumn day. At this time, the inhabitants of the city had no idea that they were facing the heaviest attacks by Allied bombers that Friday night.

Bombers take off from East England

Between 10:30 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., 504 planes take to the skies in eastern England. An hour after the last bombers have taken off, the air traffic control in the tower of the new town hall in Hanover reports "Approaches from North and Central Holland course east".

The attack appears to be aimed at the capital

A good two weeks earlier, the British and American bombers had faced heavy anti-aircraft fire during their attacks. Now they are first faking an attack on Berlin. While around 120 planes drop their bombs over Bremen, most bombers continue to fly in the direction of the Reich capital. Only when the main formation reaches the Steinhuder Meer do the pilots change direction and set course for Hanover.

Beacons show the bombers their targets

The first machines over the city center are the "scouts" of the 156th British squadron. From an altitude of 19,000 feet, they drop their markers from 1:30 a.m. When the visibility is clear, the crews are able to orientate themselves at the main station and place their white, red and green target markers precisely. What then follows is the largest bomb load that Hanover had to accept in World War II:the fire police recorded 3,000 high-explosive bombs, 28,000 phosphorus bombs and 230,000 incendiary bombs, which completely destroyed almost 4,000 residential buildings that night. 1,245 people are killed in the hail of bombs; a quarter of a million are left homeless.

Hanoverians die in the flaming inferno

The Leineschloss, today the seat of the state parliament, burned down and was still a ruin in 1952.

If the numbers make the enormous dimensions of this attack difficult to understand, a small piece of paper that miraculously survived the conflagration unscathed shows the force with which Hanover was hit on the night of October 8th/9th, 1943:The small weather station in the Kröpcke clock records a temperature rise from below 10 to 34 degrees Celsius between two and four in the morning. A hot wind is blowing through the streets throughout the city center. Everywhere flames hit the night sky. sparks fly. Debris falls from the hit houses.

Carnage bombardment of German cities

28./29. March 1942: Lübeck
23. - April 27, 1942: Rostock
30. May 1942: Cologne
24. July - August 3, 1943: Hamburg
8. - October 9, 1943: Hanover
22. October 1943: Kassel
26. August 1944: Kiel
15. October 1944: Brunswick
3. February 1945: Berlin
13./14. February 1945: Dresden
8. April 1945: Braunschweig

People try to gain distance from the burning buildings, to save themselves to free spaces or to the Maschsee. An eyewitness later reported how fugitives stuck to the softened asphalt and burned. Fallen gables burn their imprints into the pavement. Only in the morning does the heat gradually subside.

Air raid shelters become deadly traps

The rescue work is difficult for the fire protection police. Three of the attacking planes dropped high-explosive bombs with time fuses, the charges of which did not detonate for up to 144 hours after the attack. In addition - according to the report by the operations management - telecommunications equipment was destroyed right at the beginning of the bombing. The water pipe system takes serious damage. The hydrants are out. The wildfires spread quickly in the city center. Many people suffocate in the air-raid shelters because they don't dare go outside for fear of the flames.

Total destruction and only ten days until the next attack

"As a result of the concentric attack and extremely dense carpet shedding, an area of ​​ten square kilometers was completely destroyed," reports the police chief. Due to the heavy bombardment of the city center, "business life, cultural life, official services, the restaurant and accommodation industry in Hanover have almost completely come to a standstill". The city has only a few days to recover from the heaviest attack of the war. Only ten days later, Hanover is again targeted by Allied bombers.