Bombardment of Mortsel, 5 April 1943
Bombardment of Mortsel
The American bombardment of Mortsel took place on 5 April, 1943. It was the heaviest bombardment in the Benelux during World War II with 936 people killed.
History[edit]
Aerial attack[edit]
The target of the attack was the former Minerva car factory. The Resistance had reported that the German company ERLA repaired Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 planes on that site. The bombardment was executed on 5 April 1943 by 83 bombers from the 1st and 2nd Bomb Divisions of the 8th US Air Force in England. The formation of 1BD consisted of 16 B-17 planes of the 91st Bomb Group (91BG), 17 of the 303BG and 16 of the 305BG. The 2nd Bomb Division consisted of 11 B-24 planes of 44BG and seven of 93BG. The bombers were accompanied from England to Ghent by Spitfires from RAF 403 and 616 Squadron, which had to return to base from Ghent because their flying reach was too short. The bombers continued to their target without escort.
They were immediately attacked by German Messerschmitt Bf 109 from the Jagdgeschwader 26 (JG26), which had taken off from aerodromes in Wevelgem and Moorsele. An aerial dogfight took place from Ghent to Antwerp in which one B-17 was downed over Wilrijk. Five German planes were destroyed. The US bombers were hindered during their bombing run and had to line up to drop their pay load. As a result their bombs dropped over a wide area. 599 1,000-pounders were dropped by the B-17s of 1BW and 216 500-pounders by the B-24s of 2BW, altogether 245.5 tons. Only four of them hit the ERLA factory.
The Messerschmitts of JG26 were relieved over Antwerp by planes stationed at Deurne Airport to protect the Port of Antwerp. Another three B-17s crashed in Kalmthout, Zandvliet en Disteloord. On their return over the Netherlands the bombers were escorted from the coast onwards by RAF 331 and 332 Squadrons. 13 American airmen did not survive the mission. Also, one Spitfire pilot and one German Focke-Wulf pilot were killed.
Due to German interference of the Allied raid, the bombing was very inaccurate: most bombs fell on residential areas around the ERLA factory, which caused the death of 936 people, of which 209 children. 1,342 people were wounded and the material damage was enormous: 1,259 homes were heavily damaged.
Radio London reported on the evening of 5 April that the attack had yielded excellent results. The German press agency wrote on 6 April that full hits in housing areas caused fire and destruction, and inflicted bloody losses on the civilian population.
On the diplomatic front, the Belgian embassy in Washington sent a protest to the US Government for the inaccuracies of the bombardment causing unnecessary deaths among Belgian civilians.
Myth[edit]
There was a persistent myth that a US plane produced a ring of smoke in which the bombers should drop their payload. This ring drifted away due to wind and caused the bombs to be dropped in the wrong target zone. This was never the case because it was not customarily done during bombing raids. The bomber planes had Norden-gunsights, special precision instruments to guide bombs. One aeroplane was shot down which caused a smoking trail. The air crew had difficulty guiding their bombs because of the constant manoeuvring of the planes to evade German attack.[1]
Victims[edit]
Even though only a handful of bombs hit the ERLA factory they caused a major fire. Dangerous goods such as aluminium en rubber caught fire and caused suffocating smoke. 307 employees of the German factory were killed, many of them disfigured beyond recognition. Among them was one Dutchman and six Germans. In the nearby photographic materials factory Gevaert 43 were killed when one bomb hit a dark room in which many young women were working.
Four schools were destroyed by the bombing. St-Lutgardis schoolgirls were crushed to death under the rubble. 61 pupils and 4 teaching nuns were killed. St-Vincentius school, sited across the road, was destroyed too, with 103 pupils and 3 teachers killed. Almost none of the first, fifth and sixth year students survived. Nearby was also a private school, Les Abeilles, where two pupils seeking refuge in the main entrance were hit by a bomb. One pupil of St-Aloïsius school was killed while trying to escape. At the fourth school, municipal boys school Guido Gezelle, 23 students were crushed or suffocated in the dust. In total, 209 children under the age of 15 lost their lives during the bombardment.
The municipality of Mortsel mourned 384 dead but also neighbouring communes suffered many losses: 272 from Antwerp, 53 from Edegem, 34 from Kontich, 28 from Wilrijk, 22 from Lier, 18 from Hove and 14 from Hoboken. Between two and seven victims were from Boechout, Lint, Schoten, Merksem, Mechelen, Nijlen, Berlaar, Boom, Kessel, Wijnegem, Hemiksem, Brasschaat, Herentals, Niel, Ranst and Booischot.
Aid[edit]
First aid was largely improvised. Only hours after the fire brigade, police and the German occupation authorities could gain control of the situation. Aid organization Winterhulp started a soup kitchen. Lorries, mostly driven by Germans, served as ambulances. Aid was difficult to distribute due to the rubble and downed power lines on the roads. Many buildings were teetering and collapsed later. One rescuer was killed.
No War Cross[edit]
Because the incident was labeled as friendly fire Mortsel was denied a War Cross. Only in 1961 was the municipality awarded recognition.
Historical Research[edit]
In 2008, the city of Mortsel organized a project De Laatste Getuigen (The Last Witnesses), in which about 200 high school students interviewed survivors, most of them children pr young people. The city assisted in tracking down survivors, and the research was coordinated by historian Pieter Serrien.[2] and published afterwards.
In 2018, on the 75th remembrance anniversary, Serrien created an online list of victims, information and sites. A website of remembrance for each of the 936 victims was set up to support the civic participation project on the town's central square where 936 boxes were displayed.[3]
Film[edit]
The incident was the inspiration of a 1950 Hollywood film Twelve O'Clock High with Gregory Peck.
Publications[edit]
(All in Dutch)
- Debruyne, Charles, Het gebeurde in Mortsel, uitgeverij Het Streekboek, Nieuwkerken-Waas, 1995.
- Dillen, Jean, Erlawerk VII Antwerpen-Mortsel 1940-44", uitgeverij De Krijger, Erpe, 1993.
- Rely, Achille, Bommen op Mortsel. Mission N°50. Luchtaanval op de ERLA-fabrieken 5 april 1943, Standaard Uitgeverij, Antwerpen, 1988.
- Rely, Achille, Geen Oorlogskruis voor Mortsel, uitgeverij MIM, Antwerpen/Deurne, 1993.
- Serrien, Pieter, Tranen over Mortsel, Standaard Uitgeverij, Antwerpen, 2008.
- Serrien, Pieter, Tranen over Mortsel, Manteau, Antwerpen, 2013.
- Serrien, Pieter, Tranen over Mortsel, Davidsfonds, Antwerpen, 2018.
This page is an extensive translation of the original Wikipedia page[4]
The Bombardment of Mortsel, 5 April 1943[edit]
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