Bombing of Hanau in World War II

Hanau, Germany, the birthplace of the Grimm Brothers, had a long and vibrant heritage. It was bombed by British bombers (277 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of Nos 1 and 8 Groups) on 19 March 1945 during World War II, a few days before it was taken by the US Army. 85% of the city was destroyed. Hanau lost its old monuments, and the medieval section of the city was levelled. The ancient castle, arsenal, city theater and the birthhouse of the Grimm brothers were destroyed. Only half of the Walloon church still stands today. Hanau became a major garrison town in the late 19th century and was (and is) an important junction on the German railway system.

References

Hans-Günter Stahl: Der Luftkrieg über dem Raum Hanau 1939-1945 = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 48. Hanau 2015.
Richard Schaffer-Hartmann: Die Nacht, als Hanau unterging 19. März 1945. Deutsche Städte im Bombenkrieg. Verlag: Wartberg 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1471-3.
James Stern: Die unsichtbaren Trümmer. Eine Reise im besetzten Deutschland 1945. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-8218-0749-0.
Jörg Friedrich: Der Brand. Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940–1945. Propyläen, München 2002, 11. Auflage, ISBN 3-549-07165-5.

World War II city bombing

Area bombardment Aerial bombing of cities Firestorm Strategic bombing V-weapons

Acre Akita Aomori Augsburg Baedeker Barrow-in-Furness Bath Bangkok Belfast Belgrade Berlin Birmingham Braunschweig Bremen Breslau Brighton Bristol Bucharest Caen Cardiff Chongqing Clydebank Cologne Coventry Darmstadt Darwin Dietzenbach Dresden Dublin Duisburg Essen Foggia Frampol Frankfurt Frascati Freiburg Gibraltar Greenock Győr Haifa Hamamatsu Hamburg Hanau Heilbronn Helsinki Hildesheim Hiratsuka Hiroshima Hull Innsbruck Jaffa Kassel Kobe Kōfu Königsberg Kure Leeds Leipzig Leningrad Liverpool London Lübeck Malta Manchester Mandalay Mannheim Manila Milan Minsk Nagaoka Nagasaki Nagoya Naha Nanjing Naples Nexø Nijmegen Nottingham Numazu Okazaki Osaka Pearl Harbor Pforzheim Ploiești Plymouth Podgorica Prague Rabaul Allied Rangoon Rome Rønne Rotterdam Schaffhausen Schwäbisch Hall Sendai Shanghai Sheffield Shizuoka Allied Singapore Axis Singapore Sofia Southampton Split Stalingrad Stuttgart Swansea Taipei Tallinn Tel Aviv Tokyo Toyohashi Toyokawa Treviso Ulm Utsunomiya Vienna Warsaw Wesel Wieluń Wilhelmshaven Wuppertal Würzburg Yawata Zadar Zagreb

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.