In the following days, the animals were either rounded up or shot. The most valuable beasts were put on to a train to be transported to safety in Bavaria. They never made it. While their train was in sidings in the east of the city it was caught in the next air raid, and the animals perished. 14
The city’s spiritual institutions did not fare well either. In destroying the city’s churches, the RAF had succeeded where Hitler had failed. Christuskirche on Holstenplatz was a wreck, as was St George’s church to the east of the Alster. 15The huge Gothic Nikolaikirche was so badly damaged that Hamburgers to this day swear that it was the main aiming point of the British attack. The claim is without basis: the RAF Pathfinders were told simply to mark the area between the Alster and the river Elbe, and could not possibly have made out the spire of the church from 20,000 feet in the dark. But the church was, and is, such a potent symbol for the city that it was easy to imagine that the RAF would use it as their main target. In July 1943 many such rumours were born; indeed, the vicar of Michaeliskirche in the west of the city claimed after the bombings that hischurch was ‘undoubtedly the main target of the enemy attack’. 16The area around it was so badly damaged that he could not help but take the raid personally. In fact the ‘Michel’, as the church is affectionately known, was the only major church in Hamburg to survive the war intact.
Rumours flew round the shocked and anxious city. People claimed that Churchill had given Hitler an ultimatum: capitulate, or Hamburg will be bombed into oblivion. 17Others said that Turkey had declared war on the Axis powers, or that Romania and Hungary were looking to make peace with the Allies. 18In the absence of any proper newspapers it was difficult to know what was fact and what was merely speculation. 19The real news that Mussolini had resigned was scarcely more extraordinary than the stories. With such large parts of their city in tatters it was easy for Hamburgers to believe that the entire Reich was falling apart.
Some of the most potent rumours concerned the RAF’s foil-paper strips of which intact bundles had landed all over the city. Nobody had the slightest idea what they might be. Children gathered them up enthusiastically, just as they collected shrapnel splinters, but adults were more wary. When Martha Bührich was waiting for a tram on Monday afternoon she saw that ‘The ground was covered with silver strips which the aeroplanes had dropped. A woman from the bank explained that a professor had said we should not touch them, as they had been covered with typhoid bacillus. I told her that I had picked up countless strips on Sunday morning, and that she should not spread such rubbish.’ 20Fredy Borck, who was eleven at the time, remembers being told not to play with them because they were poisonous. 21In the end the Hamburger Zeitungused precious space on its single sheet for an article entitled ‘The Paper Strips are Harmless’. 22The following day it was entreating people not to believe those who claimed that the RAF had dropped threatening leaflets, or that the water supply had been poisoned. 23That the city’s only functioning newspaper had been driven to print such articles is a measure of how panic-stricken the people of Hamburg had become.
* * *
To prevent things getting further out of hand, the city’s gauleiter, Karl Kaufmann, declared a ‘State of Major Catastrophe’ early on Sunday morning, and a previously prepared disaster plan came into effect. Police battalions were called in from surrounding areas to prevent civil unrest, and signs across Hamburg stated that looting would be punishable with death. The worst-affected areas were cordoned off to stop people getting too close to the fires that were still alight and to prevent looters helping themselves to the piles of personal belongings that now lined the streets. While the appearance of the SS on the streets caused widespread resentment among Hamburg’s distraught civilians, there is no doubt that it did much to ensure the smooth running of the disaster plan. 24
Next came the clearance of the hospitals to make way for the casualties. At first, everyone with a non-serious condition was told to go home – although when the night-raids began again even the serious cases were evacuated in ambulance trains. In the meantime, most people were treated at one of the seventy-two air-raid-shelter clinics that dotted the city. Dr Wilhelm Küper worked at one of these first-aid posts, and was surprised that, in general, people looked after themselves remarkably well: ‘The vast majority of the dressings were so professionally applied – evidently the fruit of many training courses – that one could leave them as they were, if their usage was not for some of the more serious wounds. 25
With the bursting of the water mains, and the requisition of all emergency supplies by the fire service, the supply of drinking water became an immediate problem. People who had been hidden in shelters for long periods needed water urgently, yet they were frightened to take it from the reservoirs in case they were arrested. 26Emergency pumps and hydrants were made available around Hamburg, the city’s many private wells were brought into use, and specially commissioned lorries brought clean water to various locations. 27
Emergency rations of food and cigarettes had been issued, and were handed out across the city. For those who had lost houses and apartments financial help was available, and a special ration of clothes and shoes to tide them over until more permanent replacements could be arranged. 28In the meantime, arrangements were made to evacuate those who had lost everything. By the evening of Tuesday, 27 July, 47,000 homeless people had been sent out to Schleswig-Holstein by train. 29
Despite the seemingly gloomy picture that the city presented, Hamburg’s disaster plan was working well. In some of the lightly affected areas a measure of normality had already been restored, and work on returning the gas and water mains to service was well under way. Had they been able to continue, the city authorities would probably have been able to put Hamburg back in order within a matter of weeks.
They were not allowed that luxury. Even as they were working, RAF Bomber Command was preparing to make another, even bigger strike on the city.
15. Concentrated Bombing
The guiding principle of bombing actions should be this: the objective must be destroyed completely in one attack, making further attack on the same target unnecessary.
Douhet 1
The British had sent maximum-effort attacks to Hamburg on Saturday night, and to Essen on Sunday night. To mount a third that Monday would have been too much to ask of the exhausted crews, so the follow-up raid on Hamburg was postponed for twenty-four hours. With Monday evening to themselves, the airmen were free to do whatever they pleased, but there was little enthusiasm for carousing. Most took the opportunity to rest, and went to bed early to catch up on sleep.
The people of Hamburg were not so lucky. After three raids in as many days they were understandably jumpy, and most people had abandoned their apartments for an uncomfortable night in one of the city’s many shelters. For those who had dared to stay at home the slightest warning would have them out of their beds, running for cover. The British knew from experience that sleep deprivation could be almost as damaging to the economy as bombardment, so that night the RAF sent six Mosquito aircraft over the city on a nuisance raid. The damage their few bombs caused was minuscule compared with what had gone before, but it was enough to keep the whole city awake. 2It had the added effect of distracting the rescue workers and fire-fighters from their efforts. Much of Altona was still on fire from the raid two nights ago, and the approaching Mosquito pilots could see the glow from twenty miles away. 3