A topic that is probably not talked about that much. On the 18th and 19th of April 1945, the RAF launched devastating air raids against Helgoland. This small island in the North sea had no real tactical importance. There was an airfield on the smaller island {only able to take around a dozen or so Messerschmitt BF109T's}, and a U-boat pen on the main island, which could hold three subs. In fact, the pens were used more often than not to shelter E-boats and sometimes Sprengbootes. The island had various coastal gun and flak emplacements. There was a civilian population of around 1,900. The war in Europe had move far beyond the reaches of Helgoland, yet on the 18th April, 969 aircraft - 617 Lancasters, 332 Halifaxes and 20 Mosquitos attacked the naval base, the airfield and the town on this small island. The bombing was accurate and the target areas were turned almost into crater-pitted moonscapes. This attack took place between 12.25 and 1.55 pm. 3 Halifaxes were lost. The second attack was carried out the next day between 5.08 and 5.36 pm by 36 Lancasters of 9 and 617 Squadrons, which attacked coastal battery positions at Heligoland with Tallboy bombs. All targets were hit and no aircraft were lost. On the island, there were over 100 killed, mostly military personnel. Most of the civilians had taken refuge in the tunnels and caves around the island. The infrastructure of the island was ruined so much that the fortress commanding officer requested the evacuation of the civilian population. This took place during the nights of 19th and 21st April 1945. I suppose that the question has to be asked, why such a heavy attack on such as small, somewhat unimportant target? The war in Europe was coming to a close, plain for all to see. 18 days after the attack Germany surrendered! Was this a case of wanting to get rid of surplus munitions before the war ended? Remember how in the First World War, in the hours leading up to the agreed cease fire time, Allied artillery bombardments actually increased in intensity! it? To me it just seems a very senseless, and over the top attack. I was wondering what other people think about? I have found some images to do with Helgoland and the raid. Also, I am going to ask the same question on another forum that I am on, just in case you see the same post elsewhere! First photo shows the U-Boat pen in the lower left, and the town in the center. The second shows how "compact" the airfield is on Dune Island.
An old thread on the subject. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/postwar/13972-heligoland-explosion-british-bang.html Some up to date information on chemical munitions dumped after the war. Poisonous gas munitions to remain off Helgoland - The Local Regards Tom
Hi Tom, I did put "Helgoland" in to "search forum", but it did not kick up the thread which you have shown. Apologies! :icon_sadangel: I put in the German spelling of the name, the link which you give is the British spelling. I have just noticed ! Do you think that the raid was really needed? I looked into the subject when he told me abour the "Big Bang", or "British Bang" as it is sometimes referred to. He was in Royston, England, {I think it was} when the explosion to place, and he, along with everyone else, said that they could feel the "thud" and a distant rumble sound of the blast. I hope these photo have not been posted on here before! Sorry to have double posted a subject.
It is an interesting subject, but if I recall correctly there was a thought of the Island being used as a Northern redoubt. The island was riddled with caves and stocked with massive ammounts of assorted weaponry and munitions. Perhaps this was one reason for the raid. I doubt if we will ever get to know the real reasons. Good pictures. Regards Tom
One possible reason was that with the potentially imminent collapse (at that time) of the Third Reich it was thought that Hitler and others may try to escape by U boat. To prevent that happening, the U boat pens, subs etc would need to be destroyed and the RAF had found that after a devastating raid any surviving structures were more vulnerable to an early follow up raid before the defenders had time to regroup. I dare say RAF crews were possibly happy to unload a lot of bombs on a place which had probably contributed to the shooting down of many bombers and torpedo boat attacks on shipping throughout the War. Even so I think there were only just over 100 casualties due to so many caves. As you say, the "Big Bang" explosion was probably the biggest until Buncefield.
Interdiction of the submarine facilities on Heligoland weren't the ONLY operations carried out to remove any chance of a "Northern Redoubt". In the last week of the war the RAF used the Heavy Bomber Force en masse to mine the Skaggerak and Kattegat, and on the night of 6th/7th of May used the Mosquitoes of the FNSF to attack Kiel....though with the German Surrender those last raids, the last mounted by Bomber Command during the war, were recalled in the air. The British were worried that the Flensburg government would decampt some way to the large German garrison in Norway; although the Russians HAD invaded NORTHERN Norway - the geographical obstacles that cut Northern Norway off from the rest of the country were eventually going to preclude a Soviet advance south, leaving the vast bulk of the German forces there intact and cohesive The British IMMEDIATELY on the Surrender rushed an SAS force under Paddy Blair Mayne to norway, where along with Roy Farran of Crete and Winged Dagger fame they began blowing up stockpiled German weapons and munitions....causing quite a rift IIRC between the British and the Norwegians, who wanted to take possession of the German arms for themselves! Mayne and Farran organised the demolition of every German Pz.IV in Norway, and a lot of their artillery, and were called off with only a few StuGs and PzIIIs and a handfull of PaK44s remaining! These Pz.IIIs were subsequently used by the Norwegians for many years, before being concreted in as coastal emplacements... But they really wanted the PzIVs!
But there's something slightly more interesting underlaying the 18th April raids... EARLIER in the month the British had been expecting the island to be handed over to them PEACEFULLY! According to Heligoland Past and Present by Alex Ritsema, a group of islanders under an Erich Friedrichs managed to contact the Allies at the start of the month and said they would hoist a white flag over the island and invite the Allies in. However, very early on the morning of the 18th the Gestapo rounded up Friedrich's group, with him and six others being shot in Cuxhaven three days later. It might be worth checking at Kew, but it's very possible the raids of the midday of the 18th were EITHER 1/ arranged at VERY short notice.... 2/ had been pre-arranged in case Friedrich's coup didn't come off or in case the military defenders of the island simply locked their gates in the face of Friedrich's group.
It's also worth remembering that Berlin had designated Heligoland a Festung on the 7th of April; given the trouble that other Channel Festungen had caused the Allies, I can fully understand them wanting to exploit Heligoland's island nature and simply squash any potential opposition with one blow
The RAF lost three aircraft on 18 April raid to Heligoland. 408 Squadron Halifax VII NP776 EQ-R. Seven crew lost. 420 Squadron Halifax III NP946 PT-L. Seven crew lost. 640 Squadron Halifax VI RG564 C8-P. Seven crew lost. All were tasked to bomb the naval base on the island
It might be interesting to known to what degreee the British attitude had been modified by the 8th March "Granville Raid" out of the Channel Islands :wink: Obviously they couldn't exactly plaster the Channel Islands in retaliation - but it's likely to have modified their attitudes when it came to dealing with an offshore Festung with no embedded British civilian population....
To put something on the plate. The war in Europe was coming to and end however there were plans for the Allied bombing squadrons to be transferred to the Pacific to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Could there have been a certain amount of practice here for island bombing or pinpoint bombing in preparation? Just a thought!
I dpubt it....inasmuch as the "pinpointing" units involved I.E. 617 Sqn, had been doing it for several years now, and had had a LOT of practice over Europe AND in daylight for months now What we see at work is more likely the Allies' numerical superiority at work unoppsed By this stage in the war the British for instance could send almost ANY level of force it desired against a specific target...look at the forementioned Heavy Bomber massed mining op at the start of May, for example...we didn't NEED to send piddling forces in a long, slow "campaign" against Heligoland, we could apply overwhelming force in one single application - so we did. Compare this raid with the year-long sending of much smaller forces ....but at the time a higher PERCENTAGE overall of Bomber Command's strength...aginst Brest when Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were there several years before.
However, there IS one other factor that might have come into play.... By March we were well into the German's propaganda campaign on the Werwolves. Combat reports often reported truckloads of "Werwolves" accompanying regular Wehrmacht units in combat as the Allies pushed farther into Germany What was being seen was far more likely - almost certainly! - plain ol' Volksturm, but a bit like "all German tanks were Tigers"....! How much of a signal to Germany's civilian population did Heligoland put out about continuing their categorical support for the Nazis, to the point of supporting/joining any "stay-behind" guerilla army???
I dpubt it....inasmuch as the "pinpointing" units involved I.E. 617 Sqn, had been doing it for several years now, and had had a LOT of practice over Europe AND in daylight for months now Possibly could have worded it better. I know they were good at it yet maybe they wanted to keep them at the high level and not let them wind down. They needed to continue providing them with targets until such time as they were packed off to the Pacific.
my grandfather was on the helgoland raid 18/4./45 (lancs) mid upper gunner with the 166 squadron thanks very much for the info
Stansgrandson, Hello and welcome to the forum. The island is now a tourist magnet with day trips from the German Mainland. The island is duty free, hence the high volume of visitors, who spend on average only 4 hours on the island! Regard Tom
