Return: Willi Schludecker will make amends with Bath in a service next month
Posted on 03/27/2008 1:10:00 PM PDT by yankeedame
Last updated at 18:02pm on 27th March 2008
A decorated German Luftwaffe pilot is to return to the city he bombed during World War Two to make a public apology.
Bomber pilot Willi Schludecker demolished dozens of Georgian buildings in Bath, Somerset, in April 1942 in his Dornier 217E-4.
Now 87 years-old and in failing health, his dying wish is to make amends with the city which lost 400 residents in the raid.
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Return: Willi Schludecker will make amends with Bath in a service next month
He will visit the annual remembrance service for victims of the Bath Blitz next month and issue his apology through an interpreter.
Widower Herr Schludecker, who lives in Cologne, said: "The war was madness. I realise now what I did and will come back to say sorry.
"I was afraid the British would be very angry but I find that now they are very gentle."
Chris Kilminster, who lost several relatives in the raid and now organises the memorial service, said it was a tough decision to allow Herr Schludecker to participate.
"It took me a while to come to terms with the idea," he said. "But it is the man's dying wish."
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Blitz: Targets were reputedly chosen because they had been awarded three stars
in an influential travel guide
Herr Schludecker was just 21 when he took part in a series of three raids on Bath between April 25 and 27, 1942. The raids claimed over 400 lives and destroyed more than 19,000 buildings in the Georgian city of Bath, which had a population of 68,000 at the time.
Around 30 of the victims, including a two-month-old baby, died in a public shelter which was hit by a bomb. The three Bath attacks were part of the 'Baedeker raids' which also saw Exeter, Norwich, York and Canterbury bombed in the spring and early summer of 1942.
The raids were in response to the Royal Air Force's demolition of the German city of Lubeck in March of that year.
Decorated veteran: Herr Schludecker took part
in three raids on the city in 1942
Lubeck, a medieval port with many wooden buildings, was a relatively unimportant target but was attacked to trial the RAF's new incendiary bombs.
The targets in Britain were reputedly chosen because they had been awarded three stars in the influential travel guide published by Baedeker.
Herr Schludecker flew 120 flights over Russia, England and the Balkans during the war when the average life expectancy of a German pilot was just seven raids. He survived being shot down nine times.
His extraordinary courage made him one of Germany's most decorated veterans, twice being awarded the Iron Cross.
Herr Schludecker's last mission was in July 1942 when he was so badly injured that he spent six months recuperating in hospital and never flew again.
He recently contacted Mr Kilminster to ask if he could take part in the memorial service.
His apology will follow a minute's silence for the victims of the raid and a roll call of the names of the children who perished.
Mr Kilminster, whose great-grandparents were killed in the shelter, said: "He hasn't been back to Bath since he flew over it in 1942.
"I felt I owed it to other people affected by the blitz to let them hear what he has to say."
Herr Schludecker - who apologised to the people of York last year - said: "The war was a long time ago. We were told what to do and we did it, just like the young British pilots.
"We were more like opponents than enemies but it is just such a great pity that so many people had to die."
The service will take place at 7pm on April 25 in Bath's Memorial Gardens.
Bath: Herr Schludecker will see the highlights that still give the city a special place in modern
tourist guides
Hardly one of Germany’s most decorated pilots. He’s wearing the IC 2d and 1st. No German Cross, no Knight’s Cross. Not even close.
Wasn’t Bath a known target, through Enigma, but Churchhill stopped any opposing forces from challenging the Luftwaffe raid?
He didn’t want the Germans to know they had cracked the code and being prepared to defend Bath would have tipped the Germans off so he sacrificied the city.
Anybody remember this?
Churchhill=Churchill
I'm impressed... and a little jealous.
The Brits knew most of what was coming but dared not give a tip they knew about it... You’re correct.
I was in Bath about 20 years ago. Somebody mentioned the bombing, and I asked about targets. They said the Admiralty was located there.
They did the same thing in North Africa. Some convoys were allowed to get through.
I think Coventry is the classic example of a raid that could have been challenged but was not. Perhaps Bath was in the same situation, but I had not heard of it.
Huh? Pretty darn good record in my book-even though he was on the wrong side
Not even closeHerr Schludecker flew 120 flights over Russia, England and the Balkans during the war when the average life expectancy of a German pilot was just seven raids. He survived being shot down nine times.
His extraordinary courage made him one of Germany's most decorated veterans, twice being awarded the Iron Cross.
You may be right ... I was thinking Coventry.
I’m assuming this thread will attract its share of history buffs. Can anyone recommend a good (i.e. relatively neutral) book covering the Blitz, and one about Dresden? I’m slowly trying to fill the inevitable gaps of a public school edumacation. I grew up hearing stories about my Nan’s house losing its roof to the German bombs, and always wanted to learn more about how people got through those times.
Check out Erich Hartmann, Gunther Rall, and especially Hans-Ullrich Rudel, the only person awarded the Knight’s Cross in Gold with Swords, Oakleaves and Diamonds [flew Ju 87s].
ping
It was your tone. Kinda minimizing what he did during the war.
Pilots on both sides were just doing what they were ordered to do.....Me thinks Schludecker is just looking for one last glorious moment in the spotlight.
Thanks - Stoat. Will ping out to the list after I get home.
Those flying pencils sorta sucked, IIRC.
Not a very elegant looking aircraft.
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