Rotterdam Blitz

The Rotterdam Blitz refers to the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the German Airforce on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance, and to force the Dutch to surrender.

Prelude

The Germans attacked the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Their initial advance was fast, smashing through border defenses with ease. However, on 14 May, the Dutch (despite lacking tanks, modern equipment or airplanes) halted the advance at the core region of Fortress Holland.

Battle for Rotterdam

The situation in Rotterdam on the morning of 13 May 1940 was stalemate. Dutch garrison forces under Colonel Scharroo held the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas River, which runs through the city, and prevented the Germans from crossing; German forces included airborne forces of General Student and newly arrived ground forces under General Schmidt, based on the 9th "Panzer" Division and the "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler", a motorized "SS" regiment.

A Dutch counterattack led by a Dutch marine regiment had failed to re-capture the Willemsbrug road bridge, the key crossing. A last effort by the Dutch air force to destroy the bridge also failed.

On the Morning of May 14th, Hitler issued his "Weisung" Nr. 11. Concerning the Dutch theatre of operations he says the following:

"The resistance capability of the Dutch army has proved to be stronger than expected. Political as well as military reasons demand that this resistance is broken as soon as possible. It is the task of the army to capture the Fortress Holland by committing enough forces from the south, combined with an attack on the east front. In addition to that the air force must, while weakening the forces that up till now have supported the 6th Army, facilitate the rapid fall of the Fortress Holland."

Gen. Schmidt had planned a combined assault the next day, 14 May, using tanks of the 9th "Panzer" supported by flame throwers and combat engineers. The SS were to make an amphibious crossing of the river upstream and then a flank attack through the Kralingen districtFact|date=September 2008. The attack was to be preceded by artillery bombardment, while Gen. Schmidt had requested the support of the "Luftwaffe" in the form of a "Gruppe" (about 25 aircraft) of Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers.

However, General Student was in overall command and also controlled air operations. Schmidt's request for air support had to go through Student's HQ, and instead of precision bombers, Student requested carpet bombing and replaced the "Stukas" by Heinkel He 111 bombersFact|date=September 2008.

The bombing

Schmidt used the threat of destruction of Rotterdam to attempt to force Colonel Scharroo to surrender the city without a fight. Rotterdam (also the largest industrial target in the Netherlands and of major strategic importance to the Germans) was to be bombed, and if that would not break Dutch resistance, Amsterdam (capital) and The Hague (seat of government) were to follow the same fate. Scharroo refused and stretched out negotiations. The start for the attack had been set for 13:20. Schmidt postponed this to 16:20. However, just as the Dutch negotiator was crossing the Willemsbrug to relay this information, the drone of heavy bombers was heard.

A total of 90 bombers from "Kampfgeschwader" 54 (54th Bomber Regiment) were sent over the city. German forces in the city fired flares to warn the bombers off, but only 33 bombers turned back; the rest proceeded with their attack, dropping low to release 97 tonnes of bombs, mostly in the heart of the city. Some ignited vegetable oil tanks on the dockside, the fires spreading into the city centre. [E.R Hooton, "Luftwaffe at War; Blitzkrieg in the West." London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-85780-272-6] Why the formation had not received the abort mission order sooner remains controversial. The red flare, which the Germans claimed was meant to signal abort but which the most pilots failed to see, is said to have been used by the Germans to show their location in the city to avoid friendly fire rather than avoid the bombing at all; some argue this is backed up by the fact that German troops firing the flare were unaware of the time the bombers would attack, let alone that a ceasefire was in effect. [ L. Elfferich, "Rotterdam werd verraden." Abcoude: Uniepers, 1990] [Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, by dr. L. de Jong.] However, this argument fails to explain why about one-third of the German bombers turned back before the attack.

Result

Although exact numbers are not known, 800 to 900 people were killed and 80,000 made homeless. Around 2.6 square kilometres (1 square mile) of the city was almost levelled. 24,978 homes, 24 churches, 2,320 stores, 775 warehouses and 62 schools were destroyed. ["Van Nul to Nu Deel 3-De vaderlandse geschiedenis van 1815 tot 1940" Page 42, Square 2- by Thom Roep and Co Loerakker ISBN 90 5425 098 4 ]

Germany threatened to bomb other Dutch cities, but started with Rotterdam due to its unrivalled strategic and industrial importance for the Netherlands and the rest of the region. This included Germany's enemies like France, but also Germany itself, since Rotterdam is the gateway to the sea due to its situation on the great European rivers Rhine and Meuse (Maas).The Dutch Army had no means of stopping the bombers (the Dutch Air Force was practically non-existent), and the Dutch government decided to capitulate rather than suffer a repeat of Rotterdam in Amsterdam or The Hague [ L. Elfferich, "Rotterdam werd verraden." Abcoude: Uniepers, 1990] [Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, by dr. L. de Jong.] . In retrospect, this has triggered the remark that the Dutch government used Rotterdam and its inhabitants as a "bargaining chip" [L. Elfferich, "Rotterdam werd verraden." Abcoude: Uniepers, 1990] .

As World War II began in 1939, the president of the United States, then a neutral power, Franklin D. Roosevelt, asked the major belligerents to confine air raids to military targets. [President Franklin D. Roosevelt [http://www.dannen.com/decision/int-law.html#E Appeal against aerial bombardment of civilian populations] , 1 September 1939] The French and the British agreed to abide by the request which included the provision "that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all of their opponents". [Taylor References Chapter "Call Me Meier", Page 105]

The United Kingdom had a policy of bombing only military targets and infrastructure such as ports and railways which were of military importance. While it was acknowledged that bombing of Germany would cause civilian casualties, the British renounced the deliberate bombing of civilian property, outside combat zones, as a military tactic. [A.C. Grayling, "Among the Dead Cities" (Bloomsbury 2006), Page 24.] This policy was abandoned on 15 May 1940, one day after the Rotterdam Blitz, when the RAF was given permission to attack the Ruhr area, including oil plants and other civilian industrial targets which aided the war effort, such as blast furnaces. The first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 15 May - 16 May. [Taylor References Chapter "Call Me Meier", Page 111]

References

*
* Taylor, Frederick; "Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945", NY: HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-000676-5; London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-7078-7.
* Spaight. James M. [http://www.archive.org/details/BombingVindicated"Bombing Vindicated"] G. Bles, 1944. ASIN: B0007IVW7K (Spaight was Principal Assistant Secretary of the Air Ministry (U.K)

Further reading

* [http://www.holland.com/oorlogssporen/gb/index.html?page=http://www.holland.com/oorlogssporen/gb/operations/1940.html Military Operations > 1940: Germans occupy Holland] (official Dutch website)
* [http://mimetype.ir.rotterdam.nl/brandgrens.kmz Google Earth overlay of the area destroyed in the Blitz] ;Pictures
* [http://appl.gemeentearchief.rotterdam.nl/rotterdamtweedewereldoorlog/index.cfm?fuseaction=foto.showframe Pictures of Rotterdam after the Blitz]
* [http://www.ad.nl/blikoprotterdam/ Pictures of the 2007 commemoration]
* [http://www.enterthemothership.com/brandgrens_en More pictures of the 2007 and 2008 commemoration by Mothership art producers]

Footnotes