Bombing of Würzburg in World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank you for this article SGT John " Mac " McConnell, I did not realize it was so heavily bombed. It seems to me the only reason they bombed it was because they could (The Brits). I only spent two weeks in Germany during an exercise and as soon as I saw the rather blurry picture you had posted, I recognized it a Wurzburg. I went there when I had some free time and I loved touring the castle on the hill. I'd love ot get back there with my wife a I understand she has some distant relatives in Wurzburg. I will post a picture of a momento I bought at the castle later today.

Thanks for sharing. It is sad when war has to come to this kind of destruction and the cost of innocent civilians lives.

When I was stationed in Bamberg, Germany from 1981 to 1984 Würzburg was on the train route to Frankfurt and Wiesbaden that I took many times SGT John " Mac " McConnell. like Bamberg was a medieval center which was considered easy to bomb with the more rudimentary bomb sites and bombs that were available at that time. The US Army Air Corps conducted bombing raids during the day while the RAF conducted them at night. This was a target of opportunity because it was a clear night. This raid was costly to the German population. This was part of the campaign to break the will of the Germans to resist.
As Sherman said during the Us Civil War "War is Hell." The third bombing wave unleashed "300,000 incendiary bombs (582 tons). Within a very short time isolated pockets of fire emerged, and this developed into a single area-wide firestorm with temperatures from 1500-2000 °C. The population had only minimal warning, and fortified bunkers were seldom available. "
In contrast Bamberg which billeted a panzer division was never bombed because the cloud cover never opened up for the bombers. Because of that the medieval city center with Michaelsberg Abbey and the Dom are still in pristine condition. Here is a picture of Michaelsberg Abbey on a clear day.