Book Assesment of Jörg Friedrich's "The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945"
Book Assesment of Jörg Friedrich's "The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945"
By Nathan Peter-Grzeszczak Buhr
In his book The Fire: The Bombing of Germany 1940-1045 Jörg Friedrich lays out in detail the bombing campaigns waged by the American, British, and Germans during the second world war. There were many different bomb technologies used during the war with varying degrees of success. In the beginning of the conflict most of the bombs were designed to deliver an explosion, which is typical of what most people think the purpose of bombing is. The British Air Ministry, starting in 1943 began to engineer bombs, which were designed to ignite fires in cities and suburbs. The Air Ministry worked with the fire department to gain understanding of how fire could be used to destroy large sections of German cities. Studies were conducted of the architecture of the German buildings to see how they would react to certain fuels. Common household items were taken into consideration as they provided potential kindling for the fire. The technique that was developed involved a preliminary round of explosive bombs, such as the 4,000 pound blockbuster to break up structures and make it possible for a fire to spread easily, followed by incendiary bombs which would light the blaze. This technique of using wide spread fire in urban environments was found to cause more damage than just the use of explosives. The British, however were not the first to use fire as a weapon to destroy cities. In the bombing raids of Warsaw 1939 and Rotterdam in 1940 the German Luftwaffe made use of the same technique of explosives followed by incendiary bombs.
The use of military force against civilian populations during the bombing campaigns was a theme of The Fire. In May of 1940, when Churchill took office he and the British cabinet changed the official government policy of not targeting civilians in order to allow attacks on factory and supply lines which traditionally were not attacked. In an ironic twist of fate a British woman who was living abroad in Mönchengladbach was among the first casualties in the city bombing. Both sides of the conflict embraced the concept of “total war” where every blow (military or civilian) to an enemy was seen as an opportunity to be taken as well as a tactical move in attacking the enemy at a weak point instead of head on. “Total war” was one reason that there were civilian losses but non-combatants were also killed by the grossly inaccurate methods that were used in bombing cities. Bombing missions were mostly carried out at night that provided cover for the bombers but also made it challenging for the Master bomber to properly locate and mark the correct target. Master bombers used red and green flares to mark points to attack. The German resistance to the bombing campaigns through the use of aerial shelling, bright searchlights, and fighter planes compounded the process. Once bombing began the fire and smoke made it hard for the bombardier to see markers or even the ground. Friedrich describes the inaccuracy of bombing as “merely a matter of luck whether or not a city could be identified, it was pointless to look for targets within the city. At best the city itself was the target, but still most bombs fell on open land” (Friedrich 2006, 21). When briefed for missions airmen were told that they would be bombing factories, rail lines, military targets and other strategic points but often civilians were present or in the vicinity and unfortunately got caught up in the bombing. This was hard for some airmen to reconcile and many were left disillusioned about their role in killing non-combatants.
German civilians sought refuge from the bombing underground in whatever areas were available. Some bomb shelters were constructed with the purpose of providing cover for the residents in the area but most Germans took to the cellars. The cellars were at times reinforced in order to support the weight of the building if it were to collapse. Walls between cellars were knocked out to provide escape if the original entrance was blocked by fire or debris. Being underground provided more protection than being above ground but those in the cellars were by no means safe from harm. Radiant heat was one danger that Friedrich talks of “just when all instincts were advising you to stay, you had to abandon the escape hole. The stone gradually absorbed the radiant heat, glowed to the core, and turned the cellar into an oven” (Friedrich 2006, 330). Another potential danger to men, women, and children seeking sanctuary in the cellar was poisonous gas from smoldering and/or burning materials. This was a silent and scentless killer because at times the gases could be present without the company of smoke, flame, or heat.
Friedrich shows the great lengths that the Germans went to preserve and protect art, artifacts, and other historic and priceless items from explosions and fire. Friedrich contends “in the haste of flight, with coverings and crashing about on precarious routes, the cultural legacy of a nation made its way underground” (Friedrich 2006, 471). All things of national value were moved to cellars, caves, and mines for protection. Paintings were rolled up, documents put in boxes, stained glass windows removed from cathedrals, and all items were packaged for storage underground. These relics met a new danger underground in the form of moisture, humidity and condensation and some artifacts that had been so thoughtfully cared for still were damaged beyond repair. Some national treasures were too large to dismantle and hide such as statues, castles, cathedrals and other historic buildings. Buildings were fireproofed as best they could be to prevent, if not to slow a blaze from spreading. The fireproofing methods involved covering roofs with sand to absorb the impact of incendiaries as well as covering surfaces with a solution of white lime and saline. Sculptures and monuments were protected by various methods: “the Bamberg Horseman was surrounded at first by a wooden structure filled with sand bags and later replaced by an octagonal brick tower, encased in plaster, and covered with conical block of reinforced concrete” (Friedrich 2006, 465).
Hitler ordered that historic buildings be photographed so if the relic were destroyed some memory of them would be preserved. Friedrich shows that the bombing of Germany not only cost many their lives but also erased many unique and priceless national treasures the loss of which historians to this day grieve. Surprisingly many books survived the fires of the war leading Friedrich to state, “the fire war did not prevail over paper to the extent that paper's flammability might suggest, even though fire eliminated more paper than had ever been destroyed. But paper prevailed in the end. It lasts longer than fire” (Friedrich 2006, 479). With this passage the author offers hope and confidence that human culture and civilization will survive and carry on regardless of the horrible conditions that may occur to challenge it.
In looking at how bombing methods and technology has changed from the World War Two theater to present day it is astonishing to consider the amount of power and control now possessed by current air forces. Bombs and missiles have become many times more accurate with the use of lasers and Global Positioning Satellites. Surely the haphazard practices of bombing at random inflicting civilian casualties would not be acceptable by today's standards. Friedrich states, “had Dresden been bombed with the same results as Baghdad, there would have been no story for me to tell of the intentional mass killing of urban residents. No air force chief of staff today would command the annihilation of 900,000 enemy noncombatants, as Sir Charles Portal did in 1942”(Friedrich 2006, 482). As the technology of war has become more accurate, the blame and responsibility finds its mark easier as well. The days of sending off bombs into the night sky to find whatever mark they may are over and we are now in a new age where bombs are guided precisely to their intended target. But this does not necessarily mean that civilians are safe because as Friedrich shows the label of enemy can be loosely applied in the case of a “total war”.
Friedrich uses his book The Fire to show the absolute horror that the war brought to his country. The spirit, will, history, society and culture of Germany were forever affected by the bombing. Friedrich shows in meticulous detail what it meant to be a part of the world war two experiences from the perspective of the bombardier, the civilian, the fire fighter, as well as others. By giving this wide and varied approach to showing the conflict from angles such as the individual in the chapter titled “I” and the collective in the chapter titled “We”, the reader is brought to a fuller more practical understanding of the mechanics of war and what the war experience was like for those who experienced it. No book, movie, poem, or other work can truly convey the absolutely staggering scope of human suffering that war causes, but that should not stop us from attempting to find meaning and lessons from the experiences of those who have lived through or perished in the bombings of World War Two. Friedrich shows us the immense psychological and physical damage that the bombing caused civilians in Germany so that we may begin to understand the horrors of war.
Jörg Friedrich, The Fire: The Bombing of Germany 1940-1945. New York, Columbia University Press. 2006
