July 24, 1943: Allies Play God, Begin the Destruction of Hamburg

A Brief History

On July 24, 1943, “Operation Gomorrah” began, the eradication of the City of Hamburg with “brimstone and fire from the heavens.”  Like its Biblical namesake, this operation was the purposeful destruction of a city and its inhabitants without regard for the virtues of any individuals or structures.  The entire place was a target to be razed to the ground, people included.

Digging Deeper

World War II had certainly already had tremendous acts of cruelty and depravity on a large scale by the time the decision to bomb Hamburg was made, but this attack marked a new Allied measure in which it was apparent total war was now the goal of the Allied war effort, without regard to civilians or historic structures.

The confident boasts of airmen on both sides of the conflict about how their air power could win the war on its own merits had been burst like a balloon filled with disappointment and underachievement.  Bomber aircraft that could perform flawlessly in practice were found to be inaccurate and vulnerable in real combat.  Poor European flying weather, fierce attacks from fighters intercepting the unescorted bombers, and walls of anti-aircraft fire (called flak) made precision bombing of military targets impossible without prohibitive losses.

The British RAF responded by changing to night bombing, which of course greatly decreased accuracy in an effort to reduce the loss of bombers.

Targets became “area” targets, and cities themselves were the target instead of specific factories and the like.  The American Air Forces persisted in daylight bombing, providing what protection they could with fighter escorts that could only protect bombers part way to the target.  Bad visibility and interceptors made American bombing inaccurate as well, effectively turning it into area bombing as well.

The initial attack on the evening of the 24th of July included target marking planes and the use of “chaff” anti-radar.  Attacks continued for the next 5 days, creating tremendous destruction to the city and its people.  At least 30,000 people were killed (maybe 40,000) and somewhere between 214,000 and 280,000 buildings were destroyed.  A “Firestorm” developed which caused winds of 150 mph and temperatures of 1470 degrees F, totally burning out over 8 square miles of the city.  A combination of bomb types were dropped, from the regular high explosive bombs to giant “blockbuster bombs” and fire starting incendiary bombs.  This combination of bombs caused ideal conditions for the city to be destroyed while fire and rescue crews were helpless to save people.  About 9000 metric tons of bombs were dropped during Operation Gomorrah, with 3000 Allied bombers participating (though not all at the same time).

If this hellish destruction was not enough, Hamburg was hit another 69 times before the war ended, with a total of 22,780 metric tons of bombs dropped by the RAF alone.  The massive German city and it people were demolished.

Question for students (and subscribers): Did previous German bombing of cities justify Allied destruction of cities and civilians?  Germany seemed rather callous to the fate of civilians throughout the war on both fronts.  If city bombing would shorten the war and ultimately save Allied lives, it is justified? Does that give the Allies the right to ignore the Geneva Convention?  What would you have done?  Please let us know in the comments section below this article.

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Historical Evidence

For more information, please see…

Andres, Erich, Hans Erich Nossack, et al.  The End: Hamburg 1943.  University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Lowe, Keith.  Inferno: The Devastation Of Hamburg 1943.  Penguin UK, 2008.

Lowe, Keith.  Inferno: The Fiery Destruction of Hamburg, 1943.  Scribner, 2007.

The featured image in this article, Hamburg in Ruins Unique Eye Witness Photographs, is photograph C 3918 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums.  This image is in the public domain, because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain, because it is one of the following:

1. It is a photograph taken prior to 1 June 1957; or
2. It was published prior to 1970; or
3. It is an artistic work other than a photograph or engraving (e.g. a painting) which was created prior to 1970.

HMSO has declared that the expiry of Crown Copyrights applies worldwide (ref: HMSO Email Reply)
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See also Copyright and Crown copyright artistic works.