Bombing Raids on Cologne
Cologne in the air war
Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany and the first bombing raid took place on 13 May 1940, with a total of three bombs falling in Bayenthal, the Rheinauhafen and the Südbrücke. This was the beginning of a devastating bombing strategy that would hit Cologne a total of 262 times until the last attack on 2 May 1945...
In 1939, around 768,000 people lived in Cologne. When the American forces invaded on 7 March 1945, just under 40,000 were still in the Cologne city area, of which around 30,000 were in Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine. Around 20,000 Cologne residents paid for the air war with their lives, and the number of casualties was many times higher.
Irreplaceable art treasures were destroyed, numerous churches, museums, libraries and over 27,000 residential buildings were destroyed, and over 110,000 homes had a degree of destruction of 60-100% at the end of the war. The total amount of debris, in a loosened up form, amounts to around 30 million cubic metres.
Countless documentaries and books have been written about the bombing of Cologne. Contemporary photographers such as Walter Dick, Hermann Claasen and Hugo Schmölz have captured the destruction of the city in several illustrated books.
In addition to some photos from my private collection, which show the destruction of Cologne during the Second World War, I would like to take a closer look at a very special attack. The attack from 03 to 04 July 1943...I ask for a little patience.
The photo above was taken at the end of 1950. A few houses have already been rebuilt, but the large plots of rubble still predominate.
The rubble processing plant of the WASSERMANN company can be seen roughly in the centre of the left-hand edge of the photo in front of the facades of a rubble site. It was located at the corner of Waisenhausgasse and Perlengraben.
Here, the rubble was delivered and crushed using lorries pulled by small steam locomotives. Metal and wood were sorted out and the crushed earthenware was reused. The rubble chippings were mixed with cement and processed into new building blocks, popularly known as ‘Gallop stones’.
In the background of the photo you can see that the Hochenzollern Bridge is already spanning the Rhine again.
Special source:
Manfred Weichert. ‘Die Trümmeraufbereitungsanlage der Firma Friedrich Wassermann’ Rubble clearance and rubble utilisation during the reconstruction of Cologne after 1945
published in: ‘Third Reich and post-war period 1933-1945’ Werner Schäfke, City of Cologne 1993
inks:
This rubble model is used to visualise the amount of rubble piled up to form the cone of Cologne Cathedral.
Source:
Rubble model by Manfred Weichert for Cologne City Museum.
Photo by W.F. Meier /RBA, published in ‘Das neue Köln 1945-1995’ /Cologne City Museum
Private archive Luftkriegsarchiv Cologne
View over the destroyed old town with the cathedral in the background.
Source:
Photo Schmölz, Cologne City Archive Repro BAL 10886/6
Private archive Luftkriegsarchiv Cologne
Top left: Top right:
the Filzengraben the Große Witschgasse
Source:
Private archive Luftkriegsarchiv Cologne
This aerial photograph from 1942 shows the destruction in the harbour district. At the bottom of the picture, on the left-hand island, you can see the partially destroyed harbour buildings. The Chocolate Museum stands here today. The swing bridge can be seen opposite the bevelled quay wall.
The heavy destruction in the residential areas along the harbour, Am Rothgerberbach and parts of the Blaubach are also clearly visible. Further up you can see the water tower on the right, now a top-class hotel.
Source:
Photo of Luftgaubildstelle VI, inv. no. 35/60, City of Cologne BAL 10886/5 Repro
Private archive Luftkriegsarchiv Köln
The bombing raid on Cologne on 4 July 1943
One of many bombing raids on Cologne is the heavy attack on the night of 4 July 1943 on the districts of Deutz, Kalk, Poll and Mülheim on the right bank of the Rhine. The districts of Bayenthal, Marienburg and Zollstock on the left bank of the Rhine were also affected.
Bomber Command sent 653 bombers over the city on the Rhine. The attack began at 00:40 and took place in several waves. After the all-clear was given at 02:47, the scene was one of horror: 49 aerial mines, 814 high-explosive bombs of various sizes and almost 130,000 incendiary and phosphorus bombs had reduced entire streets to rubble. 2,200 houses were completely destroyed, as were several cinemas, churches, hospitals and railway facilities.
At least 588 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured, some of them seriously.
One of those affected was my grandmother and her daughter, my mother. They lived in Cologne-Kalk at Steinmetzstrasse 12.
at the beginning of the war, an explosive bomb had fallen in the gardens behind the houses. The next morning, countless onlookers turned up to see the damage. To my grandmother's great horror, bomb splinters had felled her beloved fruit tree in the garden and knocked down the garden fence. The damage to the house was minor, a few window panes had been broken and a few roof tiles had been displaced by the blast wave. Fortunately, no one was injured in the bombing.
The photo below shows the back of the house at Steinmetzstr. 12 in Cologne Kalk. My grandmother is in the doorway, my grandfather can be seen dimly in the upper window.
Source: Private archive of the Cologne Air War Archive
On the night of 4 July 1943, Steinmetzstrasse was razed to the ground. My grandmother and my mother were buried in the cellar of their house and were only rescued unharmed after more than 24 hours. They still had what they were wearing on their bodies, all their belongings were destroyed within a few minutes and lay under the rubble. As incendiary bombs had also fallen into the rubble of the house, days later they found nothing that was still usable in the masses of rubble apart from a few plates.
The War Damage Office issued the two women with a so-called ‘air raid damage pass’, which allowed them to re-register at another location. However, this identity card was also used to obtain basic necessities, such as two pairs of street shoes.
Pictured below are the front and back of my mother's air raid pass
Source:
Private archive Luftkriegsarchiv Köln