Bombing of Pforzheim in World War II
During the latter stages of World War II, Pforzheim, a town in southwestern Germany, was bombed several times.
The largest raid, one of the most devastating area bombardments of the war, was carried out by the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the evening of February 23, 1945.
[1] The RAF also carried out several nighttime nuisance raids on Pforzheim and other towns with de Havilland Mosquito light bombers.
[1] A report compiled for RAF Bomber Command dated 28 June 1944, stated that Pforzheim was "one of the centres of the German jewellery and watch making trade and is therefore likely to have become of considerable importance to the production of precision instruments [of use in the war effort]."
[2][page needed] In November 1944, Pforzheim was placed for the first time on a target list of the Allied Forces, but with the lowest priority of category five.
[3][4][page needed] The large raid that almost destroyed the inner city district occurred on the evening of February 23, 1945.
Despite severe damage to his plane he remained over the target directing the raid and died when his Lancaster crashed near Valenciennes on the return flight.
The town center suffered immediate destruction and a firestorm broke out, reaching its most devastating phase about 10 minutes from the start of the raid.
The smoke over the town rose to about 3,000 meters, and the returning bomber crews could still see the glare of the fire up to 160 km away.
Eleven of them were shot down by Luftwaffe fighters stationed at Großsachsenheim (now Sachsenheim), and another was assumed to have been accidentally hit by "friendly" bombs.
The post-war British Bombing Survey Unit estimated that 83 per cent of the town's built-up area was destroyed, "probably the greatest proportion in one raid during the war".
According to the State Statistics Bureau (Statistisches Landesamt), in the Market Square area (Marktplatzviertel) in 1939 there were 4,112 registered inhabitants, in 1945 none.
The rubble from the destruction was heaped into a large, high mound on the outskirts of the town and covered with soil and vegetation.
