The

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

World War II bombings were a set of Allied strategic bombing attacks which took place from February 1942 to March 1945. In a single deadliest raid on 22–23 October 1943, 150,000 inhabitants were bombed-out, at least 6,000 people died, the vast majority of the city center was destroyed, and the fire of the most severe air raid burned for seven days. The

US First Army First Army is the oldest and longest-established field army of the United States Army. It served as a theater army, having seen service in both World War I and World War II, and supplied the US army with soldiers and equipment during the Kor ...

captured Kassel on 3 April 1945, where only 50,000 inhabitants remained, versus 236,000 in 1939.

Targets

As well as being the capital of the provinces of

Hesse-Nassau The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944. Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the ...

and

Kurhessen The Electorate of Hesse (german: Kurfürstentum Hessen), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was a landgraviate whose prince was given the right to elect the Emperor by Napoleon. When the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, its pri ...

, Kassel had some important targets: * Fieseler aircraft plant *

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting v ...

& Sohn facilities, maker of the

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a German heavy tank of World War II that operated beginning in 1942 in Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. It gave the German Army its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted ...

and King Tiger heavy tanks * The Henschel & Sohn firm's

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

plant * engine plant * motor transport plant * railway works * Military HQs at Wehrkreis IX, and Bereich Hauptsitz Kassel * Central Germany HQ, highway & railway construction * Regional Supreme Court

Bombing raids

References

Sources

* Werner Dettmar: ''Die Zerstörung Kassels im Oktober 1943.'' Hesse, Fuldabrück 1983, * Gebhard Aders: ''Bombenkrieg/Strategien der Zerstörung.'' licoverlag 2004

External links

RAF bombing of Kassel (October 1943)

USAAF bombing of Kassel (September 1944)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kassel 20th century in Kassel World War II strategic bombing of Germany Firebombings Germany–United Kingdom military relations Germany–United States military relations 1940s in Hesse

Targets

Bombing raids

See also

References

Sources

External links