Baedeker Blitz

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The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids were a series of Vergeltungsangriffe (retaliatory raids) German bombing raids on English cities in response to the bombing of the erstwhile Hanseatic League city of Lübeck during World War II.

1 Background
2 The raids
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Background

It was claimed that Lübeck was being used to supply the Russian Front. There is some doubt this was the sole reason and the historic centre of Lübeck seems to have been targeted simply because it was a very densely built-up area with a lot of buildings of wooden construction, and hence would be easily damaged. Damage to the historic city was very severe with the cathedral and the main churches being destroyed.

[edit] The raids

The Baedeker raids were conducted by the German Luftwaffe Luftflotte 3 in two periods between April and June 1942. They targeted relatively unimportant strategically but picturesque cities in England. The cities were reputedly selected from the German Baedeker Tourist Guide to Britain, meeting the criterion of having been awarded three stars, hence the English name for the raids. Baron Gustav Braun von Sturm, a German propagandist is reported to have said on 24 April 1942 following the first attack, "We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide."

The cities attacked were:

First period
- Exeter (April 23 and 24; May 3)
- Bath (April 25 and April 26)
- Norwich (April 27 and April 29)
- York (April 28)

Second period, following the bombing of Cologne
- Canterbury (May 31; June 2 and June 6)

Across all the raids on these five cities a total of 1,637 civilians were killed and 1,760 injured, and over 50,000 houses were destroyed. Some noted buildings were destroyed but on the whole most escaped — the cathedrals of Norwich and Canterbury included. The German bombers suffered heavy losses for minimal damage inflicted, and the Axis' need for reinforcements in North Africa and Russian Front meant further operations were restricted to hit-and-run raids on coastal towns by a few Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers.

Several other raids are sometimes included under the Baedeker title, although only a few aircraft were involved in each and damage was not extensive. These raids were all on East Anglian locations.