Cologne Cathedral still standing after Allied bombings Cologne Germany 1944 is a photograph by David Lee Guss which was uploaded on September 2nd, 2016.
Cologne Cathedral still standing after Allied bombings Cologne Germany 1944
The cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World War II. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The... more
Title
Cologne Cathedral still standing after Allied bombings Cologne Germany 1944
Artist
David Lee Guss
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Photograph - Photography
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"The cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World War II. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed. It has been claimed that in June 1945 American troops used the cathedral as a rifle range.
The attacking pilots used the cathedral as a reference to their location, but this would not have been so important in the last days when the Allies had complete air superiority. Many in the military wanted to respect the buildings due to their cultural significance. Lower level bombers were more accurate in hitting their targets, but high level bombers were notoriously inaccurate. The pilots were lucky if even a fraction of their bombs landed over their real targets. Targeting a cathedral, even one this large, was simply very difficult with the technology of the day. A pilot said: 'It took 108 B-17 bombers, crewed by 1,080 airmen, dropping 648 bombs to guarantee a 96 per cent chance of getting just two hits inside a 400 by 500 feet area (35-40 meters square)'. "
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September 2nd, 2016
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