Bombing of Freiburg on 10 May 1940

They had taken off at 14:27 from Landsberg-Lech Air Base, to bomb the French city of Dijon, or the alternative target Dole–Jura Airport, as part of the Battle of France.

Although they were not able to determine their exact position, they were convinced of being on the other side of the Rhine and, in spite of the landmarks they saw, the town beneath them was thought to perhaps be Colmar, which is at a distance of only 35 kilometres (22 mi).

506 on 15 May 1940 at the end of a longer contribution of the "brutal and ruthless air raid on an unfortified German city".

"[3] In a speech at the enterprise Borsig-Werke on 10 December 1940 Adolf Hitler accused the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to have started with "terrorist" attacks against the civilian population with the bombing of Freiburg.

On that occasion shells fell on the southern Loretto mountain, Merzhausen, Günterstal, and the area around the airport as well as on the premises of the company Rhodia and the gasworks.

[7] The German historians Anton Hoch, Wolfram Wette and Gerd R. Ueberschär contributed significantly to the clarification of the events on 10 May 1940.

[8] On the Hilda playground in Freiburg's suburb Stühlinger next to which[9] 20 children were killed,[10] a memorial stone refers to the incident.