Okla-homey
4/23/2007, 07:21 AM
April 23, 1942 : Germans begin "Baedeker Raids" on England
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/12108/2001891457860480476_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001891457860480476)
This book, a popular pre-war German published tourist guide provided the list of targets during the "Baedeker Raids." The book also contained detailed maps the Luftwaffe used to locate important cultural targets like ancient cathedrals in English cities. The maps were quite accurate because they had been produced utilizing pre-war aerial photographs shot by civil German aircraft with the permission of the British government. Permission was given because the project was thought to encourage tourists from continental Europe.
Sixty-five years ago, on this day in 1942, in retaliation for the British raid on Lubeck, German bombers strike Exeter and later Bath, Norwick, York, and other "medieval-city centres." Almost 1,000 English civilians are killed in the bombing attacks nicknamed "Baedeker Raids."
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/15086/2001867217458008669_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001867217458008669)
Heinkel 111. A workhorse of the Luftwaffe bombing campaign against Britain
http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/12026/2001882783515662477_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001882783515662477)
Junkers 88. The other workhorse German bomber
It all started late in the previous month. On March 28 of that year, 234 British bombers struck the German port of Lubeck, an industrial town of only "moderate importance."
The attack was ordered (according to Sir Arthur Harris, head of British Bomber Command) as more of a morale booster for British flyers than anything else, but the destruction wreaked on Lubeck was significant: Two thousand buildings were totaled, 312 German civilians were killed, and 15,000 Germans were left homeless.
As an act of reprisal, the Germans attacked English "cathedral" cities of great historical significance. The 15th-century Guildhall, in York, as an example, was destroyed. The Germans called their air attacks "Baedeker Raids," named for the German publishing company famous for guidebooks popular with tourists.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/14852/2001844541332039365_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001844541332039365)
The medieval cathedral at Exeter still stands as a bombed out shell
The Luftwaffe vowed to bomb every building in Britain that the Baedeker guide had awarded "three stars." IOW if the city was a popular tourist destination, Hitler ordered it smoked.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/14180/2005122491467297229_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005122491467297229)
RAF Mosquito equipped with air-to-air radar and a bajillion candlepower headlight in the nose. The Brits tried hard to defend their cities from the nighttime bomber attacks. They thought "Turbinlite" might be the answer. This ill-conceived scheme was still in operation during the "Baedeker Raids". It involved radar equipped aircraft like this model which would find the attacking German bombers and then illuminate them with powerful sealed beam lights. The non-radar equipped RAF fighters were then supposed to shoot down the german bomber as it was bathed in the million candlepower searchlight. Not surprisingly, the scheme didn't work.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/13337/2001800265966730426_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001800265966730426)
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/12108/2001891457860480476_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001891457860480476)
This book, a popular pre-war German published tourist guide provided the list of targets during the "Baedeker Raids." The book also contained detailed maps the Luftwaffe used to locate important cultural targets like ancient cathedrals in English cities. The maps were quite accurate because they had been produced utilizing pre-war aerial photographs shot by civil German aircraft with the permission of the British government. Permission was given because the project was thought to encourage tourists from continental Europe.
Sixty-five years ago, on this day in 1942, in retaliation for the British raid on Lubeck, German bombers strike Exeter and later Bath, Norwick, York, and other "medieval-city centres." Almost 1,000 English civilians are killed in the bombing attacks nicknamed "Baedeker Raids."
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/15086/2001867217458008669_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001867217458008669)
Heinkel 111. A workhorse of the Luftwaffe bombing campaign against Britain
http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/12026/2001882783515662477_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001882783515662477)
Junkers 88. The other workhorse German bomber
It all started late in the previous month. On March 28 of that year, 234 British bombers struck the German port of Lubeck, an industrial town of only "moderate importance."
The attack was ordered (according to Sir Arthur Harris, head of British Bomber Command) as more of a morale booster for British flyers than anything else, but the destruction wreaked on Lubeck was significant: Two thousand buildings were totaled, 312 German civilians were killed, and 15,000 Germans were left homeless.
As an act of reprisal, the Germans attacked English "cathedral" cities of great historical significance. The 15th-century Guildhall, in York, as an example, was destroyed. The Germans called their air attacks "Baedeker Raids," named for the German publishing company famous for guidebooks popular with tourists.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/14852/2001844541332039365_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001844541332039365)
The medieval cathedral at Exeter still stands as a bombed out shell
The Luftwaffe vowed to bomb every building in Britain that the Baedeker guide had awarded "three stars." IOW if the city was a popular tourist destination, Hitler ordered it smoked.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/14180/2005122491467297229_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005122491467297229)
RAF Mosquito equipped with air-to-air radar and a bajillion candlepower headlight in the nose. The Brits tried hard to defend their cities from the nighttime bomber attacks. They thought "Turbinlite" might be the answer. This ill-conceived scheme was still in operation during the "Baedeker Raids". It involved radar equipped aircraft like this model which would find the attacking German bombers and then illuminate them with powerful sealed beam lights. The non-radar equipped RAF fighters were then supposed to shoot down the german bomber as it was bathed in the million candlepower searchlight. Not surprisingly, the scheme didn't work.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/13337/2001800265966730426_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001800265966730426)