| In May 1940 Nazi Germany wanted a fast route to invade France: and used Holland (the Netherlands) and Belgium as their route to enable their 'Blitzkrieg' - Holland didn't surrender fast enough so they decided to bomb Rotterdam - the bombs destroyed the entire centre of the city and a fire blaze finished their 'work' -
upon the thread of this bombardment holland surrendered, but not in time for the bombs to fall (Holland surrendered something like 20 minutes before the first bombs fell on Rotterdam). |
| These were not the only ones that hit Rotterdam - between May 10 and May 14, 1940, also Dutch and British forces bombed the city causing as many deaths as the Nazi German bombs did:
see below. |
| Between May 10-14 at least 20 strategic bombardments were executred on Rotterdam before the 'large' bombardment of the centre of the city. Ten by the Luftwaffe (Germany), five by the Militaire Luchtvaart (ML, Netherlands), and five by the Royal Air Force (RAF, United Kingdom). From these strategic bombardments 900 civilians were killed, the same number as with the 'large' bombardment of May 14. In these days 185 Dutch militairy were killed during the fighting in Rotterdam. During the occupation time (1940-1945) RAF and the United States Army Air Force Rotterdam was bombed 120 times more, from which again another 900 people were killed. |
| |
| List of the bombardments May 10-14, 1940 |
| |
| May 10 |
| 1 |
03h55 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Waalhaven Airport |
| 2 |
04h45 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Waalhaven Airport |
| 3 |
± 06h00 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Anti Aircraft Defence, Pier 7 (went wide, all bombs into Waalhaven) |
| 4 |
± 11h30 |
|
RAF |
Waalhaven Airport |
| 5 |
± 11h50 |
|
ML |
Waalhaven Airport |
| 6 |
± 12h35 |
|
ML |
Waalhaven Airport |
| 7 |
± 14h00 |
|
RAF |
Waalhaven Airport |
| 8 |
± 22h00 |
|
RAF |
Maasbruggen (went wide, onto Noordereiland) |
| 9 |
± 22h30 |
|
RAF |
Waalhaven Airport, Maasbruggen (also Noordblaak and area got hit) |
| May 11 |
| 10 |
10h28 |
|
ML |
Maasbruggen (missed target, Noordereiland hit) |
| 11 |
13h20 |
|
ML |
Maasbruggen (missed target, all bombs into River Maas) |
| 12 |
± 16h00 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Command post Veemarkt, Oostplein, Wijnhaven, Noordblaak |
| May 12 |
| 13 |
± 00h00 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Barracks Westersingel, military quartesr Robert Fruinstraat (also Schietbaanlaan and area got hiy) |
| 14 |
± 11h30 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Station Delftsche Poort, Beursstation, Maasstation, Oostplein barracks
(also the Rotterdam Zoo got hit) |
| 15 |
± 16h00 |
|
ML |
Waalhaven Airport, Feijenoord stadium |
| 16 |
± 17h00 |
|
Luftwaffe |
Lloyd grounds |
| 17 |
± 21h00 |
|
RAF |
Waalhaven Airport |
| May 13 |
| 18 |
± 17h30 |
|
Luftwaffe |
target unknown (city centre hit) |
| May 14 |
| 19 |
± 10h00 |
|
Luftwaffe |
target unknown (city centre hit) |
| 20 |
13h27 |
|
Luftwaffe |
large bombardement (centre, Kralingen, North) |
|
|
