Tuesday 7 September 2010

''We Shall Go Out and Bomb Every Building in Britain Marked with Three Stars in the Baedeker Guide"

All that remains of St. Benedict's church, Norwich. It was destroyed during attacks on Norwich on 27th and 29th April, 1942. These raids were part of the so-called Baedeker Blitz - attacks on strategically unimportant, but culturally significant, cities of Britain, and subsequently the morale of the English population. They were termed 'Baedeker' raids due to the Luftwaffe's supposed targeting of cities given the rating of '3 stars' in the German travel publication Baedeker's Great Britain. (The quote used for the title of this entry is attributed to German propagandist Baron Gustav Braun von Stumm).

The nearby church of St Bartholemew was destroyed the same night. Over 250 people were killed in the 1942 raids on Norwich.











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