Würzburg. March 16, 1945. 9:30PM.
225 Lancaster and 11 Mosquito Pathfinders released 1,127 tons of bombs in 17 minutes. Würzburg, among other places, was selected as a strategic target because it was easy for the RAF bombers to find and destroy. Because of the city’s medieval centre, it was expected to be particularly vulnerable to fire attack. By midnight Würzburg was a blazing inferno with a heat index of 1000 to 2000 degrees Celsius.
89% of the city was destroyed and 5,000 people were killed. 3,700 of the victims were women and children. My mother, tucked away safely in an underground bunker, was one of the survivors. She was five years old. Several days later she emerged from safety to find Würzburg transformed into rubble and ashes. Fifty-three days later WWII ended in Europe.
One minute of silence.
vergangen ~bygone
For me, this week’s chick<8000clicks>chick is about remembering those 3,700 who didn’t survive. I’m in the field of poppies on the left while djbeat is remembering lost letters in Vancouver on the right.
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PS: Vielen Dank to St Jude, daisyfae, Penfold and stinkypaw for their timely comments on Stitch in Time.
years ago, i was at a conference in Würzburg, and found myself singing along with an ancient pianist in a 500 year old wine cellar during the conference dinner. And just now realized that the venue must have housed a few of those survivors…
humans. we just can’t seem to quit this ‘murder for a greater good’ thing that we call war…
Oooh, I’m pretty sure I know the wine cellar. I didn’t realize they do jello shots there.
Even though only 10% of its old world charm remains, Würzburg is still one of my favourite places on this earth.
“The moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land.”
Good to see that Winston Churchill stopped the raids for all the right reasons…
Great quote but remember: don’t mention the war.
DP and I grew up in South London. The whole area was full of the most exciting adventure playgrounds – years later we realized that our favourite ‘hide an seek’ venues were really bomb sites; former churches, houses and shops. All over the world the innocent continue to suffer at the hands of the few mad men.
(You can tell that ‘Elf and Safety’ weren’t such an issue for playing children back then. We were even allowed to play with conkers!)
It’s good to stop and remember, smell the poppies now and then.
Conkers, riding bikes without helmets, pop rocks … ah, those were the days. x
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