Baedeker Raid - St George's Street, Canterbury, UK
N 51° 16.645 E 001° 04.967
31U E 366278 N 5682421
The plaque is located on the wall of St George's Tower and was located there to mark the 50th anniversary of the Baedeker Raid in 1942.
Waymark Code: WME5DG
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/06/2012
Views: 4
The square, blue plaque is installed on the wall of St
George's Tower - all that remains of St George's church that stood on this site
until it was heavily damaged by enemy action in 1942.
The plaque reads:
"This plaque was unveiled on June 1st 1992 by the Lord Mayor of Canterbury to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Baedeker Raid on this city on the night
of June 1st 1942 and is placed at the centre of the devastation.
'The darkness has passed away and the true light is already shining' 1 John 28".
The History Learning Site website (visit
link) tells us"
"The Baedeker Raids or Baedeker Bombings took place between April and June
1942. The Baedeker bombing raids on old historic English cities were named after
the Baedeker travel guidebooks that the Germans used to identify their targets,
which were three-starred, i.e. worth visiting, old English cities.
On March 28th 1942, Bomber Command attacked the city of Lűbeck. A great deal of
damage was done to the most historic part of the city known as the ‘Old Town’.
In total, over 1,000 people were killed and the ‘Old Town’, which was primarily
made up of old wooden buildings, was all-but destroyed by incendiary bombs.
Hitler was incensed and ordered retaliatory raids against similar targets.
Just under a month later, on April 23rd, Exeter was the first of these cities to
be attacked. A great deal of the city was damaged and 70 people were killed. On
the following day, Baron Gustav Braun von Sturm stated that:
“'We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in
the Baedeker Guide.'
The task was given to Luftflotte 3.
Exeter was bombed again that evening. Exeter was attacked for the third time on
May 3rd.
Between April 24th and April 29th, Bath (April 25th and 26th), York (April 28th)
and Norwich (April 27th and 29th) were bombed. Following Bomber Command’s ‘1000
Bomber’ raid on Cologne, the Luftwaffe targeted Canterbury, which was bombed on
three occasions with the city suffering major destruction (May 31st, June 2nd
and June 6th).
The attack on Bath resulted in 417 deaths with over 19,000 buildings being
destroyed or damaged.
In total, 1,637 civilians were killed with 1,760 injured. Over 50,000 homes were
destroyed or damaged. Some famous historic buildings were destroyed, such as the
Guildhall in York, but many were not and as such the Luftwaffe failed in its aim
– which was to hit hard cities that were quintessentially ‘English’ –
old-timbered homes in a city dominated by a cathedral. The destruction of
Canterbury Cathedral would have been a blow to British morale – but it was
barely touched by any of the raids.
Luftflotte 3 paid a heavy price after being tasked for these raids. Many of its
bombers were shot down. What the raids also highlighted was how ineffective
these raids were in terms of the impact they had. Morale in the five historic
cities did not break down.
In reality the last attack on Canterbury was the last of the Baedeker raids.
However, a few Luftwaffe fighter aircraft did make hit-and-run attacks on
historic towns on the Kent coast and in East Anglia. These were invariably
small-scale as the aircraft involved could not carry large amounts of bombs. The
worst of these raids was on Deal in Kent when over 30 people were killed."