Hamburg after an air raid.

I have unearthed these two post card size photographs that show Hamburg after an air raid. They are odd in that I wouldn't have imagined that the Nazi propaganda machine would have allowed these to be published. One has: Foto Hugo Schmidt, Hamburg 36, Konigstr. 14-16, Ruf 34 88 80 printed on the back.

The first appears to show a department store on fire whilst the second shows civilians getting buckets of water from a broken water main.

 

Germany did not seem to have much of a censorship thing going in some ways, I have seen German pics of German dead and wounded, German AFV's wrecked, German combat graveyards. Strange.

 

Looking at the statistics re the bombing of Hamburg and the increased capabilities of RAF Bomber Command in just a few years we find that......

During 1940, RAF Bomber Command visited Hamburg on 69 occasions. 619 aircraft attacked the target which consisted of Naval, Industry, Transport and Oil. 500 tons of HE along with 50 tons of incendiaries were dropped. (I have no figures re aircraft losses)

During 1943, RAF Bomber Command visited Hamburg on 19 occasions. 3969 aircraft were dispatched with 3265 attacking the target. 5076 tons of HE along with 5235 tons of incendiaries were dropped. 118 aircraft were missing or lost.

During 1945 RAF Bomber Command visited Hamburg on 18 occasions. 1582 aircraft were dispatched with 1536 attacking the target.
5707 tons of HE along with 29 tons of incendiaries were dropped. 22 aircraft were missing or lost.

Issued by the following.........

 

I have seen many photgraphs of the effect of the raids on German cities by Allied Air Forces.The fact that they were published in the German controlled media and made available to the foreign media was to portray the Allied Air Forces as Terror Flyers,a policy of Goebbel's propaganda machine.Additionally the photographs was intended to show the collective spirit of the civilial populationof of the targetted cities to the rest of the population that "they could take it "The Britsh for their part,as regards civilian morale had similar propaganda.

I would think that the photographs are related to the three disasterous raids inflicted on Hamburg under Operation Gomorrah during July 1943 commencing on the night of July 24/25 when the ECM tool,Windows was first used by the RAF.Enormous returns were generated by Window such that the Luftwaffe nighter fighter defence system was overwhelmed and proved to be largely ineffective..aircraft losses were 1.5%.Up to Gomorrah,Hamburg had been visited by Bomber Command 98 times with disappointing results...Gomorrah changed that.

The raid produced a firestorm due to the intensity of the fires...oxygen was drawn into the fire creating an oxygen deficiency to which some of the deaths of the victims were attributed to.

 

As my father was posted there at the end of hostilities he saw the devastation and I have read horrific accounts of the effect of the firestorms. I suppose that by the time of the final bombings, the Reich was in dire straits and Hitler needed to strengthen the resolve of the people to fight on against 'barbaric' Allies who killed civilians. He also encouraged talk about the powerful secret weapon that was being developed to devastate Britain and cause them to surrender.

As regards British censorship - the London Blitz appears to have been well reported but some eg. Clydebank was suppressed and only known about nationally after the war. I have no idea how the likes of Liverpool and Chester were handled or why censorship applied in some cases..

 

I assume the reduction in incendiaries was due to an assumption there wasn't much left to burn?

And from Di's link - did the RAF ever launch a raid that the Beeb hasn't considered 'controversial'?