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Cynicism can take bitter revenge.

"The US newspapers boast of their unsuccessful daytime attacks on Berlin," dictated Joseph Goebbels on March 7, 1944 to his secretary.

The NSDAP Gauleiter got upset because the Foreign Office denied any serious effects on the Reich capital: "The more the Americans and British are convinced that their air raids will completely destroy Berlin, the better for us."

In fact, the attack by around 600 four-engine machines the day before around noon resulted in comparatively few victims, with 86 dead, 57 wounded and 2,245 bombed out.

Many bombs hit vacant areas and free streets, in the Zehlendorf district the effect of up to 18 explosive bombs per 100 square meters largely fizzled out because the houses were relatively far apart.

But it was the first major attack by the US Army Air Forces on Berlin and the first significant daytime attack.

American newspapers, the “New York Times” and the “Chicago Tribune”, for example, reported excitedly, whose articles also reached the knowledge of the Ministry of Propaganda via radio stations.

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The US military, however, kept the loss of around eleven percent of the attacking bombers a secret.

Because that was twice as much as was considered acceptable.

"Of very little importance"

The media reports on the operation were based on information from the aircraft crews who had returned home and were far exaggerated.

In reality, the first major US air strike did not come close to the more recent attacks by the RAF, which hit Berlin again and again since the end of November 1943 and often killed several hundred, sometimes even several thousand people.

Goebbels, however, quite a propagandist, instinctively concentrated on something else: "The Americans brag so much that they will certainly get on the nerves of the English, especially the Royal Air Force pilots."

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In this constellation he apparently saw the opportunity to drive a wedge between the Allies: "They pretend that the previous British attacks had meant nothing at all and that Berlin had now been seriously bombed for the first time." "The attack on Berlin is of secondary importance." But that did not stay that way.

The first major US air attack was the 181st air raid in the Reich capital since September 1, 1939 and at least the 18th since the beginning of the year.

But nobody could have imagined that something completely new would begin on March 6, 1944: air raids around the clock.

Around 25,000 aerial warfare deaths

In the 14 months that the Third Reich should still have as many air raids on Berlin as in the entire period since 1939. Together with the more than a hundred public air warnings and short alarms, the final battle for Berlin only passed a few more days when the sirens did not wail - and if it remained quiet, it was mostly because of bad weather.

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During the attacks from March 6, 1944, more and more streets in the city center and the outskirts sank to rubble and ashes.

Three quarters of the approximately 25,000 air war casualties in Berlin died during this time.

With every attack, the American and British pilots gained experience in the destruction of a large city from the air, while the people on the ground could only escape helplessly into completely inadequate air-raid shelters and the far too few massive concrete bunkers.

Even if the initial attack was hardly a success from a purely statistical point of view, the psychological situation turned out to be completely different. In addition to the pinpricks of British high-speed bombers that were previously possible at any time, the Berliners now had to reckon with major attacks in daylight - that also cost nerves.

By March 20, 1944, three heavy attacks followed, each with several hundred US aircraft.

Now the Berliners were able to follow exactly how the destruction came over them, because although the “flying fortresses” of the B-17 type and the “Liberators” B-24 flew higher than their British comrades at night, they could be seen because of the contrails in the Clearly see ice-cold air.

When the clouds broke up, the brightly painted machines looked unreal in the sky.

“Big silver birds in the sun,” noted 13-year-old Renate Holtz: “They made their way undisturbed.

Hardly any resistance, just the white spots of the flak bullets. ”The 32-year-old mother of two Eva Schliep had a similar impression:“ Huge groups of enemy bombers approached, they looked like flocks of silver birds in the blue sky. ”

The sky shimmered like silver fish

The 13-year-old Manfred Woge was curious: "As children we didn't have the feeling for danger," he wrote in retrospect.

During the first day of the raids, he and his friends were still on the street and watched the spectacle that was being presented to them: "The sky shimmered like silver fish."

On the third day of the series of attacks, Hans-Georg von Studnitz noted: “American alarms are usually given at 1 p.m.” As a member of the Foreign Office, he was particularly annoyed by one side effect: “Since the alarms fall around noon and after When the hotel dining room remains closed, you usually go back to the office 'uneaten'. "

Studnitz had it comparatively well: During daytime attacks, he usually slipped into the bunker of the Hotel “Adlon” under Pariser Platz.

Although he was safer than three quarters of all Berliners, he complained: "The stay is anything but pleasant, the air is bad, the crowd is great."

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With the danger of heavy daytime attacks, there was increased concern that the capital of the Reich might be completely paralyzed.

In most hospitals, operations were only carried out in special operating bunkers, as a patient under anesthesia and with an open body could not be moved from a sterile room to a bunker.

Because the same applied to women giving birth, maternity wards were set up in several bunkers.

In the Humboldthain flak tower, the midwives handed the children born there a reminder sheet: "You made your first cry in the Humboldthain gun turret, in a difficult but great time." .

This article was first published in 2014.