Hellstorm Page #2

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of enemy aircraft began raining down tons

upon tons of high explosives on the very

heart of Hamburg. Schools, churches, hospitals,

homes, ancient art and architecture, all were blown

to bits. The onslaught increased in fury with each

succeeding wave of bombers, building minute

by minute into a fiery, devastating crescendo

And then, the planes suddenly disappeared. The

skies were clear again, and all above was silent.

When the stunned survivors reemerged

from their cellars later that night,

they saw that their once beautiful

city was now a smoldering ruin.

The following day, as firefighters from

throughout northern Germany battled the blaze,

Allied bombers suddenly appeared over Hamburg

again. As planned, the Americans surprised not only

the emergency workers, but columns of

fleeing refugees as well. Thousands perished.

The next night, RAF bombers returned. In

addition to the normal payload of high explosives,

the British sent down tons of

phosphorous bombs to accelerate the fires.

The resulting conflagration ignited a "fire storm."

Hurricane-force winds created by the intense heat

uprooted trees, ripped roofs from buildings and

sucked screaming victims into the raging inferno.

Some who escaped the 150 mph (241 kph) winds

in the streets became mired in melting asphalt

and quickly burst into flames. Those who

had thrown themselves into the citys canals

died of thermal radiation, then, as they

floated on the waters surface, they too ignited.

In the center of the fire-storm, temperatures

reached 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (816 C).

When the great mass of flames joined,

they rose into a column three miles high.

The attacks against Hamburg

continued unabated for another week.

Soon, there was nothing left to destroy.

Appropriately dubbed by the Allies as "Operation

Gomorrah," the raids had been a cold and calculated

attempt to scorch Hamburg and its

people, from the face of the earth.

The plan succeeded. With thirteen square miles

of total destruction, with 750,000 homeless,

with an estimated 60 to 100,000

dead, mostly women and children,

Hamburg, for all intents and

purposes, had ceased to exist.

It was now clear to all that the Allied air war

against Germany had become a war ofmassacre and terror.

The pattern was repeated

time and again across Germany.

All German cities suffered the same. After first

blasting a town to splinters, the Allied bombers quickly

returned in the hope of catching survivors

and rescuers in the open and igniting with

fire bombs all that remained. When the roaring

bombers released their lethal cargo, a veritable

rain of fire descended upon a targeted town.

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