Baedeker Blitz - The Raids

The Raids

The Baedeker raids were conducted by the German Luftwaffe Luftflotte 3 in two periods between April and June 1942. They targeted strategically relatively unimportant but picturesque cities in England. The cities were reputedly selected from the German Baedeker Tourist Guide to Britain, meeting the criterion of having been awarded three stars (for their historical significance), hence the English name for the raids. Baron Gustav Braun von Stumm, a German propagandist is reported to have said on 24 April 1942 following the first attack, "We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide."

The cities attacked were:

• First period
  • Exeter (23 and 24 April; 3 May)
  • Bath (25 and 26 April)
  • Norwich (27 and 29 April)
  • York (29 April)

• Second period, following the bombing of Cologne
  • Canterbury (May 31; 2 June and 6 June)

Across all the raids on these five cities a total of 1,637 civilians were killed and 1,760 injured, and over 50,000 houses were destroyed. Some noted buildings were destroyed or damaged, including York's Guildhall and the Bath Assembly Rooms, but on the whole most escaped — the cathedrals of Norwich, Exeter and Canterbury included. The German bombers suffered heavy losses for minimal damage inflicted, and the Axis' need for reinforcements in North Africa and Russian Front meant further operations were restricted to hit-and-run raids on coastal towns by a few Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers. Deal, Kent was one of these towns and was hit hard, with over 30 civilian dead, including many women and children, most of whom are buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, Deal, Kent.

Several other raids are sometimes included under the Baedeker title, although only a few aircraft were involved in each, and damage was not extensive. These raids were all on East Anglian locations. Among the British firefighters assigned to the scene in Bath was Harry Patch, who in the 2000s became the last surviving British veteran from the First World War.

• Bury St Edmunds
• Cambridge
• Lowestoft
• Great Yarmouth
• Ipswich