Bombing of Stuttgart in World War II
The city was repeatedly attacked over the next four and one-half years by both the RAF and the 8th Air Force as it had significant industrial capacity (including the Daimler and Porsche automotive factories) and several military bases, and was also a center of rail transportation in southwestern Germany.
Nicknamed the "German Coventry," Stuttgart was an important rail hub and a center of industry, home to the Bosch, Daimler-Benz, and the SKF ball bearings factories.
However, actually reaching these targets was difficult because of their great distance from Britain and because of Württemberg's topography of hills and valleys, which befouled the accuracy of British bomb crews.
[10] Preparations to protect Stuttgart's citizens from British air raids, though they were downplayed, were made in September 1939 with the establishment of twenty first aid stations.
The 31 May 1940 issue of the local Nazi Party newspaper NS-Kurier [de] boasted that the Reichsluftschutzbund had taken advantage of Stuttgart's "natural physical conditions," and that no civilian fatalities were expected.
As a result, Stuttgart was deemed safe enough to receive evacuees from cities already heavily damaged by British bombings such as Hamburg, Essen, and Düsseldorf.
[14] The Pragstattel Flakturm stands just north of central Stuttgart along a busy highway, decorated with signage,[15] and the bullet-shaped Winkel Towers built around the city also remain.
[citation needed] On the night of 4–5 May 1942, Stuttgart endured its first large-scale attack, as 121 RAF bombers conducted a strategic bombing of the city to destroy the Bosch factory, which produced components for the Luftwaffe.
[17] Another raid was launched on the night of 6–7 May containing 97 aircraft, but the crews again couldn't identify Stuttgart and instead attacked the Lauffen decoy, which may have led the flotilla to Heilbronn, 20 miles (32 km) away, where seven civilians were killed and more than 150 buildings were destroyed.
The southern districts of the city, namely Rohr, in Vaihingen, Plieningen, and Möhringen were heavily bombed; 88 houses were destroyed and another 334 severely damaged, and 28 people were killed and another 71 injured.
[22] That October, the RAF changed gears and sent a force of 343 Lancasters for a nighttime attack with the 101st Squadron equipped with the "Airborne Cigar" jamming device and supplemented with several diversionary flights, all together ensuring that only four Luftwaffe night fighters made their way to Stuttgart by the end of the raid.
A further 31 deaths and 156 injuries were sustained the next month on 26 November 1943,[24] as a diversionary force of 178 bombers conducted a scattered raid on Stuttgart to draw night fighters away from Berlin for a cost of six Halifaxes lost to the Luftwaffe.
[25] On the morning of 6 September 1943, 388 B-17 Flying Fortresses gathered over southern England and the English Channel, bound for Stuttgart to destroy its industrial sector, where American intelligence in 1943 estimated 90% of Germany's magnetos and fuel injection nozzles were being produced.
[26] A fifth of this flotilla aborted because of the weather or mechanical failure, leaving the remainder of the formation to carry on into France,[27] where it began splitting into different diversionary flights to draw away the staffeln from Jagdgeschwader 2.
[29] As the bombers flew over Cambrai, a number of Luftwaffe fighters attacked the formation and exchanged blows with its escorting P-47 Thunderbolts before ceasing their action at 8:44 AM.
[30] After a short period of calm,[31] Luftwaffe fighter aircraft of every make and unit (even some Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers) descended upon the force,[32] inflicting high casualties for some losses.
[34] Unfortunately for the Americans, the Stratus clouds covering the city that day were impossible for the men operating their respective Norden bombsights to spot through,[35] forcing the various bomber groups, under the command of Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, to circle over the city three times with their bomb bay doors open, slowly using up fuel and being subjected to the German anti-aircraft guns.
[40] On 3 November 1943, Arthur Harris listed Stuttgart among 19 cities he claimed had been "seriously damaged" in a report of Bomber Command's activities to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
[41] The most devastating year of the war for Stuttgart opened with a massive British attack against the city on 21 February 1944 by 598 bombers, losing only seven Lancasters and a single Halifax to German action thanks to two diversionary flights over the North Sea and to Munich two hours prior.
[48] Lack of cloud cover left the bomber stream exposed to elements of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2,[49] who intercepted and shot down 39 Lancasters – 19% of the force total.
