2 See the descriptions of Sir Arthur Harris’s ‘morning prayers’ in Max Hastings, Bomber Command(London, 1979), pp. 247–9; for the specific meeting that morning, see Martin Middlebrook, The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), pp. 97–8; and Gordon Musgrove, Operation Gomorrah(London, 1981), p. 1.
3 Bomber Command Intelligence Narrative of Operations No. 649, UK National Archives, AIR 24/257.
4 D Form, 24/25 July 1943, UK National Archives, AIR 24/257.
5 Report on German Flak Towers, Flak Disarmament Branch, Air Division BAFO (December 1946), UK National Archives, AIR 55/158.
6 See David Irving, The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe(Boston, 1973), pp. 213–14.
9 The First Strike
1 John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, ed. C. Vaughan (London, 1913), IV, ii, 254–5.
2 Quoted by Kevin Wilson, Bomber Boys(London, 2005), p. 245.
3 The average age of British bomber crews in 1944 was twenty-three, which means that those entering training were still twenty-one (an oft-quoted figure: see, for example, http://www.specialforces.co.uk/airgunners2.htm). In the event, many crew members were much younger. Colin Harrison of 467 Squadron was a perfect example: he joined up at eighteen, and was still only twenty when he was flying over Hamburg. ‘One minute I was a schoolboy wearing a cap, next minute they called me a man and put me in an aeroplane, next minute I’m a flight sergeant.’ Interview with the author, 8 December 2004.
4 Bill McCrea, interview with the author, 8 December 2003; as a pilot with 57 Squadron, he took part in all four Hamburg raids in July and August 1943. See also his book A Chequer-Board of Nights(Preston, 2003), pp. 77–85.
5 This speech was exactly the same in briefings across the country. The advent of Window was considered such an important innovation that each intelligence officer was given an identical document that they were told to read out verbatim at briefing. See UK National Archives, AIR 24/257.
6 Colin Harrison, pilot in 467 Squadron, interview with the author, 8 December 2004.
7 Bill McCrea, interview with the author, 8 December 2004.
8 Letter to the author, 1 December 2004. Kenneth Hills’s first operation with 9 Squadron was on the next Hamburg raid, on the night of 27 July 1943.
9 Quoted in Max Hastings, Bomber Command(London, 1979), p. 161.
10 While this job was usually allocated to the flight engineer, in some crews it would be the bomb-aimer or wireless operator.
11 See Martin Middlebrook, The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), p. 126.
12 Ibid., p. 120.
13 For exact times of all air-raid alarms, see the Hamburg Police Report, UK National Archives, AIR 20/7287, p. 13.
14 The German 2nd Fighter Division ( Jagddivision) had fighters stationed at Stade, Vechta, Wittmundhafen, Schleswig, Westerland, Wunstorf, Lüneburg, Grove, Kastrup, Aalborg, Jever, Husum, Oldenburg, Heligoland and Nordholz.
15 See Adolf Galland, The First and the Last, trans. Mervyn Savill (London, 1955), p. 209; Hastings, Bomber Command, p. 234; and Neillands, The Bomber War(London, 2001), p. 147.
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.