Oxford/Heidelberg agreement?

[Larso]

My girlfriend today said she'd heard that an agreement had been struck early in the war that the Germans wouldn't bomb Oxford and that in turn Heidleburg wouldn't be attacked - given both areas were so beautiful. Now I've never heard of this (nothing came up on a search either) and it surely wouldn't have survived six years of total war but I was curious as to whether anyone else has heard of this?

[phylo_roadking]

I would severely doubt it - for the Morris Motors works at Cowley would have been far too tempting a target!

[redcoat]

but I was curious as to whether anyone else has heard of this?

I have, but this story is a WW2 myth, it has no basis in fact.

[Larso]

I thought so. My girlfriend is a bit of an activist and tends to move in circles that love cynical conspiracy stories like this.

[phylo_roadking]

Purely technically speaking - a agreement wouldn't even NEED to be struck. The Hague Conventions provide for the protection of sites of national cultural significance and heritage from the damage caused by warfare...though of course any war crimes trials wiuld be entirely retrospective LOL. The ONLY occasion that such a separate agreement would have to be made is if one or both nations weren't actually signatories of the Hague Conventions - but in the case of Britain and Germany...both were, so there was no need for such an arrangement.

[cathyrishman]

I also heard this story from my mother who lived in Oxford as a young woman with her parents during WW2.