Bombing of KZ Auschwitz query

[wm]

What had been done earlier in the Aarhus raid?

Waleed

At the request of the Danish Underground Gestapo archives (located between two hospitals) in the city of Aarhus, was bombed and largely destroyed with minimal collateral damage.

[Topspeed]

Such things were done earlier (for example the Aarhus Air Raid).
The place shown above was 500 meters from the gas chambers so it was quite safe there.
And the people in the photo were dead already anyway.

How about a Mosquito raid ?

It had 2 100 km range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito

Well France wasn't fully liberated until the armistice.

Haquenau-Katovice.png (162.35 KiB) Viewed 613 times

Less than 1000 km in between.

[Waleed Y. Majeed]

The Aarhus raid included detailed plans of area, buildings, where to hit etc. Also the time of attack between interrogations when most prisoners would have been transported to a prison miles away. Remember the route too. Across the north sea and low altitude across (only some) 170-200 km of enemy land.

Waleed

[Waleed Y. Majeed]

The Amiens prison raid would be a better comparison.
And considering what the germans did after the attack I would think the outcome of an Auschwitz raid would have been disastrous for the inmates, either during or after the raid.

Waleed

[Topspeed]

What had been done earlier in the Aarhus raid?

Waleed

At the request of the Danish Underground Gestapo archives (located between two hospitals) in the city of Aarhus, was bombed and largely destroyed with minimal collateral damage.

I had no idea that Denmark...had an underground Gestapo too.

Anyway from France to Auschwitz would have been under 900 km.

[wm]

You don't understand! Initially, it was above ground but after the bombing, it became underground.

I don't think the Mosquitos were ever deployed so close to the frontline, they mostly operated from Britain.
But heavy bombers would be entirely sufficient as there wasn't any anti-aircraft defence around the camp.
The Poles (from 1586 Polish Special Duties Flight) regularly conducted low-level missions all over occupied Poland from Italy.

[Topspeed]

Big bombers only did carpet bombing....very seldom small targets...Lancasters occasionally.

[wm]

The Amiens prison raid would be a better comparison.
And considering what the germans did after the attack I would think the outcome of an Auschwitz raid would have been disastrous for the inmates, either during or after the raid.

It wouldn't be about freeing the prisoners and anyway, nobody would even try to escape using the bombing as a cover.
Unprepared escape from Auschwitz wasn't possible, it was surrendered by tens of miles of hostile territory, heavily urbanized, and devoid of forests.

[wm]

Big bombers only did carpet bombing....very seldom small targets...Lancasters occasionally.

[Topspeed]

Big bombers only did carpet bombing....very seldom small targets...Lancasters occasionally.

1943.jpeg

Do you have any idea what casualties were in Ploesti operation ?

[wm]

In Auschwitz 12,000 were killed per day.
And it was an undefended target.

[Topspeed]

In Auschwitz 12,000 were killed per day.
And it was an undefended target.

You just mentioned they had a me-109 base near by.

[Topspeed]

Strafing mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Pister

That was two weeks before the end of the war, a random fighter-bomber or fighter attack against the German railway infrastructure.
Of course attacks against trains happened all the time.

But not against death trains (that would be absurd) or against death/concentration camps with the goal of helping the prisoners.

Auschwitz was over 1000 kilometres from the nearest base (the Foggia Airfield Complex) and was protected by the nearby Night Fighter School. Its instructors and pilots would have a field day with low flying American bombers trying to find their targets.

What fighters did those have ?

[rcocean]

what specifically should we have been bombing at Kz auschwitz? and when? Specifically. Or is the thread about throwing out vague "Suggestions" so people can imagine we could have "done something"? And the allies were somehow in the wrong.

[rcocean]

Maybe we need more pictures.