On this day in Dutch history
On the 22nd of February 1944, the city of Nijmegen was bombed by American bombers. It’s one of the biggest bombings in the Netherlands during World War II. At least 800 people died. Most likely this figure is higher, as those who had gone into hiding weren’t officially counted.
According to the Allies, the bombing of Nijmegen wasn’t planned. They were on their way to Gotha in Germany, where the factory of Messerschmitt planes was. The group of Allies planes lost each other due to various reasons (weather, bad radio reception, German counter-attacks). Some continued to Gotha and others decided to head back to Britain.
When those planes flew back, the pilots most likely decided they would bomb another German city on their way back, and the pilots probably mistook Nijmegen for Kleve, a German city that is close to the Dutch border and Nijmegen.
The German occupiers tried to spin this in their favour by announcing that the Dutch government in London had given permission for Nijmegen to be bombed. Despite these attempts, the people of Nijmegen welcomed the Allies when they liberated the city from the Germans.
There is no official explanation as to why Nijmegen got bombed. Some historians and researchers think that the bombing wasn’t a mistake, as there were reports of low-flying planes, and in the following weeks, civilian targets in Belgium and France got bombed as well to prepare for D-Day.
Even in the last decade, historians and researchers in Nijmegen are still studying the cause of the bombing.
(Above: A photograph of Nijmegen with the Waalbridge in thebackground in September 1944)
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