Ostend in May 1940

More photographs of the southeast corner:

 

The photographer of the pictures below was standing on the ruins of the houses in the southeast corner. The Town Hall is still largely intact, so the photographs must have been taken between May 21st and May 27th. In the second picture we see the northwest corner of the square. The citizens are cleaning up the debris:

 

In the northeast corner of the square we find the city library. The library had already been damaged during the earlier air raids, but on May 27th it was hit by an incendiary bomb:

 

We came from the Kapellestraat, we crossed the Wapenplein and we are entering the Kapucijnenstraat now. More bomb damage:






Another picture from the Kapucijnenstraat, close to the sea front:

 

Another side street of the Wapenplein is the Vlaanderenstraat (the Vlaanderenstraat being the extention of the Kapellestraat). More bomb damage:

 

When Ostend (and the rest of Belgium) had fallen into German hands, Ostend was again a target, this time for British air raids. In the same neighbourhood I found another bomb-damaged building, but this time the RAF was responsible for the damage. During the night of September 22nd 1940, a British bomb hit the Royal Theatre in the Van Iseghemlaan. The German Wehrmacht opened the theatre again, in November 1941.

 

We are very close to the sea front now. Just like Malo les Bains, Ostend also had a big Casino and a Kursaal, with big posh hotels close by.

The “Albert I Promenade” (sea front) and the Ostend casino:



The big hotels along the Albert I Promenade. From left to right: Hotel Continental (twin round towers), Hotel Ocean, Hotel de la Plage (twin square towers), Hotel Beau Rivage, Hotel Splendid (two smaller square towers):

 

Bombs had hit these hotels during earlier air raids. It was nevertheless decided to make a hospital inside the Hotel de la Plage, for the wounded Belgian soldiers. And although this was clearly marked on the roof of this hotel, German aircraft bombed it again on May 24th. Many wounded soldiers and doctors were killed…

The Hotel Splendid and Hotel Beau Rivage (Locarno Wine” sign) just before the war:



After the initial damage:





And after the damage of the May 24th air raid:

 

Bombs also hit some smaller hotels further down the sea front:

 

It looks as if the casino was hardly damaged by the bombs.

 

But in 1942, the Germans started to build their Atlantic Wall defence system. The casino was emptied, and everything was thrown on the beach:

 

The casino was demolished, and replaced by a German bunker:

 

And here’s a last bomb damage postcard that I found, taken in the Leffingestraat (actually quite a distance from all the other places that we’ve seen):

 

These are some other well known pictures of Ostend in May 1940:

The story goes like this: the lightship "Wandelaar" was taken away from her anchorage place (Lat: 51°21.933'N, Long: 2°59.020'E) on April 23rd 1940, and brought to Ostend. On May 17th, she was towed away to France as a safety precaution. During this operation the towing cable broke and the ship stranded on the beach of Mariakerke (just west of Ostend). The Germans pulled the Wandelaar back into the sea and had her repaired. The ship was renamed “Zephyr”. Zephyr was equipped with armament and put back in her original position. She was hit during an air raid in February 1941 and sank.





Jan