16 Wilhelm Johnen, Duel Under the Stars(London, 1957), pp. 62–3.

17 UK National Archives, AIR 27/492. See also Middlebrook, Battle of Hamburg, p. 131.

18 See Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg, On the Other Side, trans. and ed. Ruth Evans (London, 1979), p. 61.

19 Colin Harrison interview. His bomb-aimer used to do this.

20 Middlebrook, Battle of Hamburg, p. 84. Middlebrook does not reveal his source for this information, but his numbers are backed up by a German website, www.lostplaces.de/flakhamburg, which has a map displaying the positions of each of the flak batteries in and around Hamburg (last viewed 1 December 2004).

21 Leonard Cooper, interview with the author, 19 November 2004.

22 Ted Edwards, interview with the author, 12 November 2004.

23 Leonard Bradfield, interview with the author, 20 October 2004.

24 Leonard Bradfield, who was also interviewed by Kevin Wilson, is quoted here from Wilson’s book, Bomber Boys(London, 2005), p. 248.

25 A Wellington, piloted by George Ashplant of 166 Squadron, was shot down over Hamburg, and Flight Sergeant A. G. Ashley’s 460 Squadron Lancaster was also shot down by flak near Cuxhaven. See W. R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses, vol. 4 (1943), (Hersham, 2004), pp. 239–40.

26 Email to the author, 22 June 2004. See also Mel Rolfe, Gunning for the Enemy:Wallace McIntosh, DFC and Bar, DFM(London, 2003), p. 65.

27 See Interim Report on the Attack on Hamburg, 24/25 July 1943, UK National Archives, AIR 14/3012.

28 Leonard Bradfield, interview.

29 Trevor Timperley, pilot in 156 Squadron (PFF), interview with the author, 17 November 2004.

30 75 Sqn Operational Record Book, UK National Archives, AIR 27/646.

31 Operation Summary, ‘Royal Air Force Operations Record Book: Appendices’, UK National Archives, AIR 24/257.

32 Bomber Command Intelligence Narrative of Operations No 649, ‘Royal Air Force Operations Record Book: Appendices’, UK National Archives, AIR 24/257.

33 See Gordon Musgrove, Operation Gomorrah(London, 1981), p. 37.

34 Grzeskowiak went missing nine days later on another Hamburg raid. It was his second operation. See UK National Archives, AIR 27/1672.

35 Wallace McIntosh quoted in Rolfe, Gunning for the Enemy, p. 65.

10    The Devastation Begins

1 Text from propaganda leaflet dropped on Germany in 1943, with the caption ‘Das war Hamburg’, courtesy of Lishman Easby, 100 Squadron, RAF.

2 For rumours about the Ruhr, see Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg, On the Other Side(London, 1979), p. 65; for rumours about exploding fountain pens see Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries, trans. and ed. Louis P. Lochner (London, 1948), 20 May 1943, pp. 304–5.

3 While it was illegal in Germany to tune in to the BBC many people in Hamburg no longer trusted Nazi propaganda, and preferred foreign broadcasts to their own. See, for example, Earl R. Beck, Under the Bombs: The German Home Front 1942–5(Lexington, 1986), p. 37; Hiltgunt Zassenhaus, in Volker Hage (ed.), Hamburg 1943: Literarische Zeugnisse Zum Feuersturm(Frunkfurt am Main, 2003), p. 167; Wiebke Stammers interview, IWM Sound Archive 9089/07.

4 See, for example, ‘Die Festung Europa hat kein Dach’, leaflet dropped on northern Germany late July 1943, sent to the author by Lishman Easby, 100 Squadron RAF. While it appears that these leaflets were not dropped directly on Hamburg until the attacks, there were widespread rumours that the RAF had dropped leaflets specifically mentioning the coming devastation of Hamburg. See Wolff-Mönckeberg, On the Other Side, p. 65; and Ilse Grassmann, Ausgebombt:Ein Hausfrauen-Kriegstagebuch von Ilse Grassmann(Hamburg, 2003), 25–26 June 1943, pp. 9–10.

5 Wolff-Mönckeberg, On the Other Side, p. 66. For the country-wide drop in morale, see also Goebbels, Diaries, 22 May 1943, p. 307.

6 Wolff-Mönckeberg, On the Other Side, p. 65. This rumour is uncannily similar to the arguments given by Sir Henry Tizard for not bombing Hamburg – see the end of chapter 7.

7 It was not until after the attacks that Kaufmann was finally able to announce to Goebbels that Hamburg’s anglophile attitude was a thing of the past. See Joseph Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, ed. Elke Fröhlich (München, 1993), 12 August 1943.

8 See Charles H. V. Ebert, ‘The Meteorological Factor in the Hamburg Fire Storm’, in Weatherwise, vol.16, no. 2 (April 1963), pp. 70–75. The gentle breeze described was instrumental in bringing about the eventual firestorm on the night of 27/28 July.

9 Volker Böge and Jutta Deide-Lüchow, Eimsbüttler Jugend im Krieg(Hamburg, 2000), p. 21; Ludwig Faupel’s diary, FZH 292–8, A–F.

10 See ‘Frau W.’ in Monika Sigmund et al. (eds), ‘ Man versuchte längs zu kommen, und man lebt ja noch…’ (Hamburg, 1996), p. 29.

11 Hamburg Police Report, p. 1, UK National Archives AIR 20/7287; Hans Brunswig, Feuersturm über Hamburg(Stuttgart, 2003), p. 187.

12 Wanda Chantler (née Wanziunia Cieniewska-Radziwill), interview with the author, 5 July 2004.

13 Hannah Kelson interview, IWM Sound Archive 15550/5. Tonight, fortunately for her, she was on holiday in a village just outside Hamburg, so missed the full force of the raid, although the noise and commotion were still enough to rouse her from her bed.

14 Martha Bührick, quoted in Renate Hauschild-Thiessen, Unternehmen Gomorrha(Hamburg, 1993), p. 25.

15 See, for example, Hanni Paulsen’s description of a bunker, in Martin Middlebrook, The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), pp. 149–50.

16 Hans Erich Nossack, Der Untergang(Hamburg, 1981), p. 17.

17 Ibid., p. 19.

18 Ibid., p. 13.

19 Broadcast according to Georg Ahrens’s nephew, Hans Ahrens, quoted in Renate Hauschild-Thiessen, Die Hamburger Katastrophe vom Sommer 1943 in Augenzeugenberichten(Hamburg, 1993), p. 18.

20 Interview with Frau M., St Pauli Archiv, 26 February 1993.

21 Letter to the Hamburger Abendblatt, 1 August 2003.

22 Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries, trans. and ed. Louis P. Lochner (London, 1948), pp. 215 and 224.

23 Rudolf Schurig, quoted in Rudolf Wolter, Erinnerung an Gomorrha(Hamburg, 2003), p. 122.

24 Ibid., p. 122.

25 Johann Ingw. Johannsen, typescript account, c/o Marga Ramcke, Ottensen Geschichtswerkstatt.

26 Hiltgunt Zassenhaus, ‘Feuer vom Himmel’, in Hage (ed.), Hamburg 1943(Frankfurt am Main, 2003), pp. 156–7.

27 Henni Klank, ‘Operation Gomorrha’, http://www.seniorennethamburg.de/zeitzeugen/vergessen/klank1.htm (last viewed 1 September 2005).

28 Hiltgunt Zassenhaus, in Hage, Hamburg 1943, p. 157.

29 Ibid.

30 Paul Elingshausen, typescript account, FZH 292–8, A–F.

31 Wanda Chantler interview.

32 ‘Klöntreff “Eimsbüttel im Feuersturm”’, unpublished transcript of local-history group conversation, Galerie Morgenland/Geschichtwerkstatt, p. 4.

33 Liselotte Gerke, interview with the author, 6 April 2005.

34 Hamburg Police Report, p. 15, UK National Archives, AIR 20/7287. Later estimates put the death toll for this raid much higher, but it is almost impossible to say with any accuracy how many people died in any one particular raid during this intense period of attack.

35 Brunswig, Feuersturm, pp. 162, 167 and 175.

36 Erwin Garvens, in Hauschild-Thiessen, Die Hamburger Katastrophe, p. 33.

37 Paul Elingshausen, FZH 292–8, A–F.

38 Hamburg Police Report, p. 15.

39 Ibid.

40 See Wolten, Erinnerung, p. 125.

41 History of Luftgaukommando XI by General Flieger Wolff, Bundes archiv, RL 19/424. See Martin Middlebrook, The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), pp. 154 and 168.