July 27 Is Anniversary Of "Operation Gomorrah"

[december]

July 27 is the anniversary of the obliteration bombing of Hamburg, Germany by the Allied Air Forces during World War II. With the military code name "Operation Gomorrah," the campaign to destroy Hamburg was part of the strategy to lay waste German cities, including those with no military value, such as refugee-packed Dresden. Eventually eighty million incendiary bombs were dropped on Germany in the extended campaign.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/images/hamburg1.jpg

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)


http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs/churchill.jpg


The Battle of Hamburg codenamed Operation Gomorrah was a series of air raids conducted by the RAF on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials.

The operation was originally formulated by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with help from Air Chief Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris (who famously said of the Germans "They have sowed the wind and so shall they reap the whirlwind") and was actually a joint effort between the RAF Bomber Command, the RCAF, and the USAAF (specifically 8th Air Force Bomber Command), who combined to create an "around-the-clock" bombing mission spanning 8 days and 7 nights — the Americans conducting the daylight raids with the British following after nightfall. Harris signed the order for the operation "Bomber Command Order No. 173" on May 27th.

The operation was conducted almost two months later. On July 24, at approximately 00:57AM, the first bombing started by the RAF and lasted almost an hour. A second daylight raid by US Army Air Force was conducted at 2:40PM. A third raid was conducted on the morning of the 26th. The night attack of July 26 at 00:20AM was extremely light (due to a severe thunderstorm and high winds over the North Sea during which a considerable number of bombers jettisoned the explosive part of their bomb loads) with only two bomb drops reported. That attack is often not counted when the total number of Operation Gomorrah attacks is given. There was no day raid on the 27th.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Hamburg_after_the_1943_bombing.jpg/796px-Hamburg_after_the_1943_bombing.jpg


Typical bomb damage in Hamburg. This picture was taken sometime in 1944 or 45.

On the night of July 27, shortly before midnight, 739 aircraft attacked Hamburg.

A number of factors combined to give the enormous destruction that followed; the unusually dry and warm weather, the concentration of the bombing in one area and that the city's firefighters were unable to reach the initial fires — the high explosive "Cookies" used in the early part of the raid had prevented them getting into the center of the city from the periphery where they were working on the results of the 24th. The bombings culminated in the spawning of the so-called "Feuersturm" (firestorm). Quite literally a tornado of fire, this phenomenon created a huge outdoor blast furnace, containing winds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph) and reaching temperatures of 800°C (1,500°F).

It caused asphalt on the streets to burst into flame, cooked people to death in air-raid shelters, sucked pedestrians off the sidewalks like leaves into a vacuum cleaner and incinerated some eight square miles (21 km²) of the city. Most of the casualties (40,000) caused by Operation Gomorrah happened on this single night.

On the night of July 29, Hamburg was again attacked by over 700 aircraft. The last raid of Operation Gomorrah was conducted on August 3.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/images/ezine/hamburg_w250.jpg

[december]

The Holocaust from the Greek holókauston from olon "completely" and kauston "burnt".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_german_destruction/img/4.jpg

The aftermath of bombing in the northern city of Hamburg in July 1943.

The charred bodies of victims lay in the streets.

Four fire-bombing raids were carried out on the city during July. An estimated 50,000 people died.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_german_destruction/html/4.stm

http://www.destination360.com/europe/germany/images/s/germany-hamburg.jpg

[synergy777]

27/7/2007 = 27/7/27 ?

[december]

The Battle of Hamburg codenamed Operation Gomorrah was a series of air raids conducted by the RAF on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials.

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,279842,00.jpg

Hamburg 1943.

[december]

I think the British people ought to build a memorial in honor of victims of the Hamburg bombings of 1943.

http://www.codoh.com/graphics/ar_hamcrowd.JPEG

[december]

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)


http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs/churchill.jpg

Dresden 1945

http://www.praktica-collector.de/images/Dresden_1945.jpg

[december]

I think the British people ought to show their love and build a memorial in London in honor of victims of the Hamburg bombings of 1943.

http://www.codoh.com/graphics/ar_hamcrowd.JPEG

[december]

Gedenkfeiern zum 60.Jahrestag des Feuersturm über Hamburg 1943

Bürgermeister Ole von Beust betont Versöhnungswillen der Völker

Zum 60. Jahrestag des Beginns der verheerenden Bombenangriffe auf die Hansestadt am 24. Juli 1943 hat Bürgermeister Ole von Beust den Versöhnungswillen der Völker in Europa betont. "Im 21. Jahrhundert leben wir in Freundschaft und Frieden mit unseren Nachbarn auf dem europäischen Kontinent. Wir Deutschen sind dankbar für ihren Willen zur Versöhnung", sagte von Beust bei der offiziellen Gedenkveranstaltung im Hamburger Rathaus.


Gleichzeitig erinnerte von Beust, dass Deutschland den Zweiten Weltkrieg entfesselt habe, der Städte wie Rotterdam, Warschau und London zerstörte. "Es waren Deutsche, die Angst und Schrecken und Vernichtung über Europa brachten", sagte von Beust. Während der nationalsozialistischen Diktatur fanden mehr als 55 Millionen Menschen in deutschem Namen den Tod. Das Gedenken an den Feuersturm begreife er daher als Chance, um "für die Zukunft einen vorbehaltlosen Blick auf jedes Unrecht, das in der Welt geschieht, zu richten".

http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/nachrichten/2003/juli/gomorrah-deichtorhallen,property=banner.jpg


Der britische Botschafter Sir Peter Torry rief bei der Gedenkveranstaltung im Großen Festsaal des Hamburger Rathauses ebenfalls dazu aus, beim Aufbau eines vereinten Europas die schwierige Vergangenheit nicht zu verdrängen, sondern sie auch bei kommenden Generationen wach zu halten. Auf diese Weise könnten die schrecklichen Ereignisse, die Hamburg vor 60 Jahren erschütterten, in den Köpfen der Menschen bleiben, um so eine Wiederholung unmöglich zu machen.


Die schreckliche Katastrophe war deshalb so dramatisch, da das Verhältnis zwischen der Hansestadt und Großbritannien traditionell immer "besonders eng" war. Am 24. Juli 1943 hatte die britische Luftwaffe die "Operation Gomorrha" gestartet. Bei tagelangen Bombenangriffen, an denen sich auch die Amerikaner beteiligten, wurden ganze Stadtteile in Schutt und Asche gelegt. Dabei wurden rund 40 000 Hamburger durch die Bombenexplosionen, die eine verheerende Feuerbrunst auslösten, getötet.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/images/1943/thumbs/pc95-91-c.jpg

Mehr als 120.000 Menschen erlitten zum Teil schwere Verletzungen. Über eine Millionen Menschen waren auf der Flucht und konnten außer ihrem Leben nichts retten, so der britische Botschafter.


Hamburgs Bürgerschaftspräsidenten Dorothee Stapelfeldt erinnerte daran, dass "in vier Nacht- und zwei Tagesangriffen die Alliierten Luftstreitkräfte weite Teile Hamburgs zunächst in eine Feuerhölle, dann in eine glühende Trümmerlandschaft verwandelten". Als Verweis auf die Geschichte im Alten Testament, in der zwei Städte am Toten Meer durch Feuer und Schwefelregen vernichtet wurden, seien diese Angriffe "Unternehmen Gomorrah" genannt worden. Es sei nicht möglich das Grauen dieser Tage in Worte zu fassen. Doch das immense Leid, welches die Nationalsozialisten über die Völker Europas gebracht haben, dürfe nie in Vergessenheit geraten, sagte Stapelfeldt.


Nach der Eröffnung der Ausstellung auf der Rathausdiele "1943 - Hamburg vor 60 Jahren" legten Torry, von Beust und Stapelfeldt zum Gedenken an die Opfer des Kriegs Kränze auf dem Ohlsdorfer Friedhof nieder. Die Ausstellung zum Gedenken an die Zerstörung der Hansestadt zeigt den Schrecken aus dem Blickwinkel Betroffener mit einer Vielzahl privater Fotografien.


Am Nachmittag eröffnete Bürgermeister von Beust die Ausstellung "Operation Gomorrah" in den Deichtorhallen. Die Ausstellung wird veranstaltet vom Landesbildarchiv in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Denkmalschutzamt der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg unter Mitwirkung von Prof. F. C. Gundlach und Prof. Ingo von Münch. Etwa 140 Bilder der Fotografen Erich Andres, Willi Beutler, Hans Brunswig, Hugo Schmidt-Luchs und anderer zeigen das Leid der Bevölkerung und das Ausmaß der Verwüstung. Bauliche Zeitzeugen sind die bis heute erhaltenen Bunkeranlagen, die über das gesamte Stadtgebiet verteilt sind. In einem speziellen Teil der Ausstellung behandelt das Denkmalschutzamt das Thema "Bunker in Hamburg". Im Rahmen der Ausstellung wird der dokumentarische Film des damaligen Feuerwehrhauptmanns und späteren Oberbranddirektors Hans Brunswig über den Feuersturm gezeigt. Die Ausstellung steht unter der Schirmherrschaft des Ersten Bürgermeisters der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, Ole von Beust.

http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/nachrichten/2003/juli/2003-07-24-red-feuersturm-bericht.html

http://www.studyabroadinternational.com/Germany/Hamburg/image/hamburg1.jpg

[december]

24-25 Jul 1943 - During the first of four large-scale attacks on Hamburg, Bomber Command aircraft make first use of Window (a forerunner of chaff) - strips of tinfoil dropped from aircraft to confuse enemy radar installations. After a second raid 3 days later on residential areas, an intense firestorm results in some 40,000 deaths and 1.2 million people fleeing the city.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/t_images/hamburg.jpg

http://www.raf.mod.uk/images/raf.gif

http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/line1943.html

[december]

24-25 Jul 1943 - During the first of four large-scale attacks on Hamburg, Bomber Command aircraft make first use of Window (a forerunner of chaff) - strips of tinfoil dropped from aircraft to confuse enemy radar installations. After a second raid 3 days later on residential areas, an intense firestorm results in some 40,000 deaths and 1.2 million people fleeing the city.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/t_images/hamburg.jpg


Hamburg in Old Postcards

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/sitebuilder/images/hamburgstpauli-938x575.jpg

[hagbard_celine]

I think the British people ought to show their love and build a memorial in London in honor of victims of the Hamburg bombings of 1943.

http://www.codoh.com/graphics/ar_hamcrowd.JPEG

I agree.

We're taught a lot about the horrors of the Blitz at school and by our elderly relatives who witnessed it, but it's often forgotten that we carried out the same attacks against Germany, and we did far more damage. It made me sick to see the Queen Mother honouring the grave of Bomber Harris.

It's a symtom of the topsy-turvy values of this world in that we still think of those people as heroes. Men who refused to commit these crimes were called cowards!

At school I was taught about Leonard Cheshire. This was a bloke who prayed for war! He also witnessed the early A-bomb tests and was "impressed" with their destructive power.

[december]

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)


http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs/churchill.jpg

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/images/hamburg_a_.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Hamburg_after_the_1943_bombing.jpg/796px-Hamburg_after_the_1943_bombing.jpg


Typical bomb damage in Hamburg. This picture was taken sometime in 1944 or 45.

On the night of July 27, shortly before midnight, 739 aircraft attacked Hamburg.

[ashyr]

Well i'd like to point out a few synchornicities...

The first ever nuclear bomb was named Trinity, for no reason anyone could recall...

777 is symbolic in biblical terms for the holy trinity.

We might be looking at a 3rd world war which may be nuclear WW3 with nuclear Trinity...

Ok i's not perfect but it's something to think about.


you may be onto something there man.

looks ritualistic

[ashyr]

thats an amazing site. how far back does it go?

[challand]

I almost feel like crying after reading this thread... fucking war.

[december]

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/images/hamburg.jpg

[december]

Center of Dresden after bombing by U.S. and British planes on 13-14 February 1945.

http://www.internationalist.org/dresden1945www.jpg

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t058/T058788A.jpg

[december]

For those of you unfamiliar with or have forgotten your Bible studies, Gomorrah was a city that was destroyed by fire and brimstone.

[december]

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)

Eventually eighty million incendiary bombs were dropped on Germany.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/images/hamburg1.jpg

[december]

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)

Churchill memorial gates unveiled

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Winston_Churchill.jpg/300px-Winston_Churchill.jpg

Baroness Thatcher views the Churchill memorial gates.
A new memorial to commemorate the 130th anniversary of Winston Churchill's birth has been unveiled at St Paul's Cathedral, central London.
The monument takes the form of steel gates opening on to a crypt.

The Duke of Kent led the dedication on Tuesday, attended by Sir Edward Heath, Baroness Thatcher, Conservative leader Michael Howard and Churchill's family.

Lady Mary Soames, Churchill's last surviving child, said the gates are a "fitting memorial to my father".

She described them as a "triumph of design" and a "great tribute to British craftsmen".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4053171.stm

[them]

Aug 23/24 1940 - First German air raids on Central London.

Aug 25/26 1940 - First British air raid on Berlin.

May 10/11 1941 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg in retaliation.

I have a book, somewhere, and I'm sure it states that the Allies bombed Dresden so that Chuikovs advancing army could see first hand what long range area bombing could do to a city. Dreseden was a city full of art. Admittedly some of it looted http://xs317.xs.to/xs317/07305/unsure.gif

[december]

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)

THE CITY OF DRESDEN IN 1945

http://www.fuer-deutschland.net/S-1/gif__02--3__DRESDEN-s_LEICHEN_TRUMMER__gross.jpg

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2596656/2/istockphoto_2596656_big_ben_with_winston_churchill _monument.jpg



Welcome to the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library in the United States at Westminster College. The Memorial is located on the college campus in Fulton, Missouri, the site of Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech. The Memorial was founded in 1969 to honor the life and legacy of one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century. It is housed within the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, a 12th century church from the middle of London, redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren in 1677, that was relocated to Fulton. The undercroft of this beautiful and historic Wren church is a museum filled with a priceless treasury of artifacts and information relating to the life and times of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill himself was intrigued by the imaginative idea of a restored Wren church in America's heartland. He wrote, "It may symbolize in the eyes of the English-speaking peoples the ideals of Anglo-American association on which rest, now as before, so many of our hopes for peace and the future of mankind."

The museum tells the story of a hero who led the free world's fight for freedom, from his privileged youth as the son of a British aristocrat to the darkest days of war. This museum provides a chronicle of the life and times of one of the world's most memorable political leaders and serves as a venue for special artistic and historical exhibits, as well as a variety of social and cultural events. The Churchill Memorial is part of the fabric of everyday life on the campus of Westminster College. Students attend church services here, use the extensive resources of the Memorial's library for research, and serve as tour guides. Many marriages take place in the Christopher Wren church, a light-filled sanctuary where the poet John Milton was married and where Shakespeare may have worshipped. Most of all, the Memorial symbolizes the philosophy upon which the college was founded in 1851. Westminster's reputation for academic excellence begins with the belief that "a freed mind is the chief object of education," an idea vigorously applauded by Sir Winston Churchill.

Other world leaders who have followed in Churchill's footsteps and journeyed here to speak at the Memorial include: Presidents Reagan, Ford, and Bush; British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Polish President Lech Walesa; and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev who, fittingly, gave a speech announcing the end of the Cold War and marking the fall of what Churchill had named, "The Iron Curtain."


I very much hope you enjoy your visit!

Dr. Rob Havers Executive Director

http://www.churchillmemorial.org/aboutus/welcome.html

[them]

http://xs217.xs.to/xs217/07306/Mahnmal_Hamburger_Strasse_Hamburg_Germany.jpg (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article2148193.ece)

The cause of the terrific damage lies in the firestorms. The alternative dropping of blockbusters, HEs & incendiaries made fire fighting impossible, small fires united into conflagrations in the shortest time & these in turn led to the fire-storms. To comprehend these fire-storms, which go beyond all human imagination, one can only analyse them from a physical meteorological angle. Through the unison of a number of fires, the air gets so hot, so on account of its decreasing specific weight, receives a terrific momentum, which in its turn causes other surrounding air to be sucked towards the centre. By that suction combined with the enormous difference in temperature (600-1000 degrees c) tempests are caused which go beyond their meteorological counterparts (20-30 D c). In the built up area the suction could not follow its shortest course, but the overheated air stormed through the streets with immense force, taking along not only sparks but burning timber & roof beams, so spreading the fire further & further, developing in a short time into a fire typhoon such as was never before witnessed, against which every human resistance was quite useless.

The first heavy attack on Hamburg in August 1943 made an extraordinary impression. We were of the opinion that a rapid repetition of this type of attack upon another six German towns would inevitably cripple the will to sustain armament manufacture & war production. It was I who first verbally reported to the Fuhrer at that time that a continuation of these attacks might bring about a rapid end to the war.Reichminister Albert Speer, Minister for Armaments, 1945

[december]

http://xs217.xs.to/xs217/07306/Mahnmal_Hamburger_Strasse_Hamburg_Germany.jpg (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article2148193.ece)

[/CENTER]

It is so small. It doen't even look like a memorial...

[december]

Remember what Winston Churchill said - "This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 145)


http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs/churchill.jpg

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/images/hamburg_a_.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Hamburg_after_the_1943_bombing.jpg/796px-Hamburg_after_the_1943_bombing.jpg


Typical bomb damage in Hamburg. This picture was taken sometime in 1944 or 45.

On the night of July 27, shortly before midnight, 739 aircraft attacked Hamburg.

[december]

The Battle of Hamburg codenamed Operation Gomorrah was a series of air raids conducted by the RAF on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials.

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,279842,00.jpg

Hamburg 1943.