The Battle of Hamburg, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, was a campaign of air raids beginning 24 July 1943 and lasting for 8 days and 7 nights. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials. For more details, click here and here.
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
In Russia, Soviet forces on July 23, 1943, continue their advance into the Orel salient. The German armies have now withdrawn to the lines held near Kursk at the start of “Operation Citadel.” In Sicily, American troops take Marsala, on the island’s western tip.
“Operation Gomorrah,” an Allied bombing campaign over Germany, begins on July 24. In the first air raid, 746 RAF bombers drop 2,300 tons of bombs on Hamburg in 48 minutes. This tonnage is as much as the Germans dropped in the five heaviest raids on London. Fires from the raid are visible for 200 miles and burn for three days. This is the first operational use of “Window” (radar-jamming foil strips — also known as “chaff” — dropped by aircraft). In Italy, a ten-hour meeting of the Fascist Grand Council passes a motion, 19 votes to 7, asking that King Victor Emmanuel III take command of all Italian armed forces, replacing Benito Mussolini in that role. In Scandinavia, a battle-damaged USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress crash-lands in Sweden. Its 10-man crew becomes the first of nearly 1,000 American and other Allied airmen to be granted refuge in neutral Sweden during World War II.
On July 25, Benito Mussolini is arrested by order of Italian King Victor Emmanuel III; Marshal Pietro Badoglio, a hero of “The Great War,” becomes prime minister. Badoglio introduces martial law and incorporates the Fascist militia into Italy’s regular armed forces. Caught by surprise by the Italian moves (having just met with il Duce six days earlier and gotten no hint of Mussolini’s weakening position), Hitler orders German divisions rushed south into Italy to disarm their former allies. In Sicily, Allied forces face stiff resistance as they approach Messina, on the island’s northeast corner.
Newly appointed Italian Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio excludes all Fascists from his cabinet and on July 26 dissolves the Fascist Party. In Berlin, the German High Command orders a number of Waffen-SS (Armed-SS) divisions to be transferred from Russia to Italy, but only the 1st SS Panzer Division is actually redeployed. In Washington, D.C., a federal grand jury indicts eight expatriate Americans, including the poet Ezra Pound, on charges of treason for making pro-Fascist broadcasts from Axis countries.
On July 27, the Badoglio government transfers Mussolini — now a prisoner —from Rome to the Island of Ponza, one of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 20 miles offshore and roughly midway between Rome and Naples. The German High Command quickly develops a three-pronged strategy regarding Italy. The Germans will: liberate Mussolini; occupy Rome and the rest of Italy; and capture the Italian fleet. In Sicily, heavy fighting continues. German Gen. Albert Kesselring — Commander-in-Chief, South — orders preparations for the evacuation of the island.
A second air raid on Hamburg, Germany, by 722 RAF bombers on July 28 results in nine square miles of the city being set ablaze. The resulting firestorm generates winds of 150 miles per hour at temperatures to 800ºF and kills 44,600 civilians. President Roosevelt announces the end of coffee rationing in the U.S. The limitation was in effect for about eight months, primarily due to the torpedoing by German submarines of vessels carrying coffee from Brazil.
As a result of the recent Allied bombings, the German government on July 29 orders the mass evacuation of civilians from Hamburg. Over one million people begin leaving the city. In the United Kingdom, the government announces that all women under 50 years of age must register for war work.
