259 As Citizens We Know the Second World War Was of Epochal
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Kenneth Hewitt: Civil and inner city disasters: the urban, social space of bomb destruction 259 CIVIL AND INNER CITY DISASTERS: THE URBAN, SOCIAL SPACE OF BOMB DESTRUCTION With 4 Figures and 7 Tables KENNETH HEWITT Zusammenfassung: Zerstörung innerstädtischer Lebens- field, geography has conspicuously neglected the role räume durch Bombardierungen of armed violence in its main concerns. That is in spite In diesem Artikel werden die Einwirkungen der Bombar- of a large professional role in wartime intelligence, dierung englischer, deutscher und japanischer Städte im planning and fighting. Yet, it is not difficult to show Zweiten Weltkrieg auf Zivilbevölkerung und Urbane Struk- that the impacts of the world wars were enormous turen untersucht. Vor allem sollen die sozialen Auswirkun- upon modern societies, their settlements, habitats gen der Zerstörung und die Konsequenzen für das Leben and populations. That includes preparations for war, der Stadtbevölkerung aufgezeigt werden. Es zeigte sich, daß die meisten Schäden in den Städten durch einen oder its impact and consequences (BUNGE 1973; HEWITT mehrere außerordentlich zerstörerisch wirkende Angriffe 1979, 1987; PEPPER a. JENKINS 1983; WESTING 1984; verursacht wurden, nämlich solchen, die unkontrollierbare THRIFT a. FORBES 1986, NIETSCHMANN 1987; ASH- Flächenbrände auslösten. Diese „Desaster-Angriffe" be- WORTH 1992; ZELINSKI a. KOSINSKI 1993). stimmten weitgehend das Ausmaß der Zerstörungen und The present paper addresses one aspect of the der Bevölkerungsverluste. Besonders gravierend für Zivil- Second World War, through a comparative view of bevölkerung und Bausubstanz war überall der Verlust civil and urban impacts of city-wrecking from the air, an Wohnraum; die Wohnbevölkerung - hauptsächlich in Britain, Germany and Japan. Of course, the topic Frauen - war am härtesten betroffen. Der größere Teil der Toten waren oft Frauen, Kinder und ältere Menschen. Die itself has a huge literature in air force and general war meisten Opfer zählten nicht nur nicht zur kämpfenden histories, local histories from cities involved and per- Truppe, sondern waren definitiv Zivilpersonen, die sich sonal memoirs. There are some notable studies of civil einzig und allein um Heim und tägliches (Uber-)Leben defence and wartime conditions, and overall damages kümmerten und so weder direkt (Soldat) noch indirekt (in (HARRISSON 1976; HAVENS 1978; HOHN 1991). We der Kriegsproduktion) am Krieg beteiligt waren. Insofern know city-wrecking and civilian morale were objec- litten in allen drei Ländern diejenigen am schlimmsten tives of the most destructive urban attacks (HEWITT unter den Bombardierungen, die nach Status, Vermögen, 1983, 1987; SHERRY 1987). A growing body of litera- Alter, Geschlecht und Beruf am wenigsten Einfluß auf den ture looks at the reconstruction of these cities (DURTH Krieg hatten. Aber gerade sie waren entscheidend für die a. GUTSCHOW 1988; DIEFENDORF 1990; NIPPER a. Aufrechterhaltung des städtischen Lebens. Die auf die NUTZ 1993). Yet, the impact of the raids upon urban innerstädtischen Bezirke konzentrierte Bombardierung vernichtete darüber hinaus die historischen Strukturen der and social geography has been largely neglected. Half Stadt, d. h. das kulturelle Erbe der Urbanen Entwicklung a century later, it is hard to comprehend how drastic und damit grundlegende Elemente des Urbanen Lebens. were the effects now masked by post-war reconstruc- Zerstört wurden die sozialen Strukturen in den alten Wohn- tion. gebieten. In geographischer Terminologie war es der Pro- The argument here is that aerial bombardment zeß und die Erfahrung von „place annihilation". Die töd- revealed and exploited strong social and geographical lichen Angriffe waren in erster Linie eine Katastrophe für differences in the vulnerability of cities. The result die zivile Bevölkerung, für die „Stadt für die Menschen", keineswegs aber für die kriegsunterstützende „produktive was distinctive patterns of loss for civilians and urban Stadt". Der Wiederaufbau nach dem Krieg hat den letz- places, patterns of devastation that had an enormous teren Typ weiter auf Kosten des ersteren gestärkt und aus- role in post-war transformations. Urban 'social gebaut, oft sogar mit dem Bestreben, dessen große Verluste space' - the position or role people and areas have in zu verbergen. the social order and, more literally, in social geo- graphy - substantially decided who and what would be destroyed or survive. Most destruction occurred in night raids by massed 1 Introduction: the social space of vulnerability in war bomber formations, intended to lay down dense carpets of bombs. However, bombs fell more or less As citizens we know the Second World War was of randomly in areas the size of city blocks or districts, epochal significance. As geographers, however, our often whole towns. The probabilities of damage were, work hardly even recognizes its legacy. As a modern therefore, governed largely by the density of buildings 260 Erdkunde Band 48/1994 Table 1: Summary profiles of the impact of air attacks on civil life in the capital cities of Britain, Germany and Japan Auswirkungen der Luftangriffe auf die Hauptstädte Großbritanniens, Deutschlands und Japans London Berlin Tokyo Raids dispatched (>50 aircraft) 360 (71) 241 (73) 89 (25) Civilian Casualties: killed 29,890 18,019 >140,000 injured, severe 50,507 33,230 c. 1 million ? injured, light 88,848 Bombed out and forced evacuation 1.4 million 1.9 million 2.9 million Urban area razed (km2) 5 26 116 Sources: COLLIER 1957; CALDER 1969; O'BRIEN 1957; U.K. IS INISTRY OF HEALTH 1946;DEMPS 1982; MIDDLEBROOK a. EVERITT 1985; CRAVEN a. CATE 1953, vol. 5; USSBS 194 a, 1947E and of people on the ground. Hence, aiming points of the cities of Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow. urban attacks were in the central, most densely built- The geography of property damage in London, up areas, and incendiary bombs the principal muni- especially housing, broadly followed that of tions. Fire was the greatest cause of damage. The casualties.1' Housing losses exceeded 80% of all most congested urban areas were more likely to catch aircraft-caused property losses in most districts, and fire, and contained the inflammable materials to over 95% in six inner city ones. generate great mass fires (BOND 1946). This was not Civilian losses in Berlin were also concentrated in the largest use of the air weapon, nor always its largest inner, more congested areas. Civilian casualties were deployment against targets in cities. Yet the counter- heaviest in Kreuzberg (1,697 killed), Charlottenburg city campaigns against these three countries were (1,621) and Mitte (1,463). Housing demolition and unprecedented in scale and scope, and the major numbers bombed out were even more concentrated in causes of urban devastation and civilian casualties in inner districts (Fig. 2). Mitte, the smallest district, them. had the highest proportion of losses: almost 54% of housing and population, closely followed by Tier- garten and Friedrichshain (HOHN 1991, 134). Mitte 2 The Social Geography of Bomb Destruction and Tiergarten, with many apartment blocks, lost proportionately more individual homes per residen- The primary destructive impacts of the urban tial building destroyed. attacks fell upon residential districts and domestic life. Not all congested areas were equally affected, of Over 90% of air raid deaths were to civilian residents. course. High density Prenzlauer Berg fared better Housing destruction, by numbers of buildings, areal than the less dense Steglitz and Wilmersdorf, due to extent or replacement costs, comprised the greatest the way large attacks approached the city from the property losses (IKLE 1950; CALDER 1969; HAVENS west. Congested sections in the latter districts suffered 1978; HEWITT 1983, 1990, 1993a; HOHN 1991). The heavily. Large, low density districts like Spandau, largest numbers of civilian victims were those bombed Reinickendorf and Zehlendorf suffered least, yet con- out. However, gross casualty and damage statistics, if tained the most important war industries and were most often cited, do not show where and upon whom targets of many industry raids. losses were concentrated. The capital cities, which At Tokyo density of occupancy also determined received the greatest weight and number of raids in death and survival. The waterfront districts, crowded their respective countries, can provide a first, com- around the Sumida River, were estimated to have an parative view (Table 1). average of 40,000 persons per km2, rising to 55,000 in A greater weight of bombs fell on London's outer, some parts (CRAVEN a. CATE 1953). The built-over suburban boroughs, but their dispersed buildings suf- area in Asakusa and Nihombashi wards was 75 and fered least. Some lost barely a dozen homes and 68% respectively - much higher than most inner civilian casualties were measured in single figures. By contrast, 26 inner boroughs had over 400 civilian air " U.K. MINISTRY of HOME SECURITY (MHS) raid deaths (Fig. 1). The tolls in Lambeth (1,470 kill- Public Record Office (PRO) Kew, London, Files, HOME ed) and Wandsworth (1,253), were only exceeded by OFFICE (HO) 191/9 and HO 198/244. Kenneth Hewitt: Civil and inner city disasters: the urban, social space of bomb destruction 261 Fig. 1: Civilian deaths from air attacks of the Second World War on Greater London, shown by county Sources: PRO/HO 191/9; HO 198/244; HO 198/245 Bei Luftangriffen auf den Großraum London im Zweiten Weltkrieg getötete Zivilpersonen nach Counties districts