Has Anyone Tried to Bomb Paris?

[Pips 5]

Just curious if anyone has made the attempt, and succeeded.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

The Germans?

[Duce Lewis 3]

Back in P2 I took a sojourn to Paris once

Found the Seine River and followed it along

Saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, etc

...and yes I flew through it and under it

Great fun I still have screenshots somewhere

[Ryan H 0]

The Germans?

 

 

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hardest I've laughed all day. Thanks man, I needed that!

[Olham 164]

WM: The Germans?

 

Yes, in WW 1 they have bombarded Paris, it seems.

 

In WW2 any German bombardement of Paris was forbidden, as far as I know,

cause Hitler regarded Paris as a metropolis of great culture and history.

 

Why he didn't think the same about London, I don't know.

[Hasse Wind 46]

 

In WW2 any German bombardement of Paris was forbidden, as far as I know,

cause Hitler regarded Paris as a metropolis of great culture and history.

 

Why he didn't think the same about London, I don't know.

 

I think it was Albert Speer who wrote that Hitler was thinking of destroying Paris completely (Speer and Hitler were very close, in fact Speer may have been Adolf's only true friend), but then decided against it, because he was planning to reconstruct Berlin as Germania, the capital of the German Empire and the biggest metropolis in the world. Hitler said there would be no need to destroy Paris then, because it would be completely shadowed by Germania. But in 1944, when Allied troops approached Paris, Hitler finally gave the order to destroy as much of Paris as possible. But Germans didn't have enough time and troops to do that - fortunately. There's some controversy about the German commander of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, and his role in not being able to, or not wanting to, fulfill this order.

 

It's safe to say that Hitler didn't respect anything or anybody that opposed him and his ideology. Human beings, history and culture were meaningless to him, if they didn't serve his rule.

 

In OFF, I've never been to Paris. I've had one bombing mission that took me quite close to it though.

[Olham 164]

Bang goes another lie - and I had been wondering about a touch of respect in that man.

[JimAttrill 24]

As with UncleAl I flew up the Thames in an SE5a an emptied my Vickers at the Houses of Parliament. So perish all politicians

[Duce Lewis 3]

Here's gaie Paris!

[rabu 9]

WM: The Germans?

 

Yes, in WW 1 they have bombarded Paris, it seems.

 

In WW2 any German bombardement of Paris was forbidden, as far as I know,

cause Hitler regarded Paris as a metropolis of great culture and history.

 

Why he didn't think the same about London, I don't know.

 

 

Well.. they had to choose between croissants or crumpets.. an easy choice.

[Wels 2]

Hello,

 

regarding WW2 Hitler did not bomb Paris when the troops invaded France, but he intended to burn it to the ground when the invasion of France by the allies had begun and german troops had to retreat. It is only due to the resistance of one man, the commanding general of Paris Mr. Dietrich von Choltitz, who ignored Hitler's direct order, that Paris was not burned and devastated:

 

"Paris ist in ein Trümmerfeld zu verwandeln, der Kommandierende General hat es bis zum letzten Mann zu verteidigen und geht, wenn nötig, unter den Trümmern unter."

(Roughly translated: Paris has to be turned into an expanse of rubble, the commanding general has to defend it to the last man, and go down with its debris if necessary.)

 

von Choltitz directly defied Hitler's order of august 22nd, 1944, and refused to burn down and defend (!) the city despite of repeated questions from Berlin ("Brennt Paris?"), until the capitulation of august, 25th, 1944. This is often not mentioned, in official ceremonies on the libération de Paris. Choltitz wrote in his memoirs that he had to refuse a barbarian order to destroy "the city of lights", as he called Paris.

Some german troops refusing Choltitz' orders still defended Paris, but it was no comparison to what would have happened, had Hitler's order been followed.

 

 

During WW1 Paris was also "visited" by Zeppelins, in the early war, and bombed. However airship losses were high, and hitting military targets seemed impossible with the navigation and bombing sights of the time. As per direct order from William 2nd being in charge of all things naval in Germany (but only that branch), civilian targets in London also had to be spared by naval airships.

No bombing areas were the complete London East side, homes of Londoners, and locations of royal, cultural or scientific importance and history.

Targets were all military installations, power houses, the british mint, the big banks, but again not the houses of parliament.

 

However William's orders did not include the army airships which were not so reluctant, but to be honest had difficulties to find London at all, let alone small targets in a wide area of homes. It was also soon found out that hitting exact targets was impossible, even if they could be identified from above. After the british blockade and some 750.000 dead civilians in Germany due to the famine, the general staff intended to bring England to its knees, and burn London. However the airships soon proved to be not suited, so incendiary bombs were developed, and the heaver-than-air bombers were intended do this.

However when all was ready to go i 1918, the order to attack London with incendiary bombs was withdrawn in the last second - some say it was again William 2nd, but he was not in any condition to influence the military at this time any more.

 

Greetings,

Catfish

Edited May 15, 2010 by Wels

[shredward 12]

Thankyou Catfish!

Cheers,

shred

[Olham 164]

Thanks for the history lessons, Hasse Wind and Wels.

Next time I'll read about the things I believe to know, before I post them.

[rabu 9]

Interesting post as I had recently started reading a book about the theft of art work by Hitler in WWII.. the largest rip off of art work in history. Hitler's dream was to build the worlds greatest art collection, the Fuhrer Museum, in his home town of Linz, Austria. And yes, he gave explicit orders to level Paris, after they had stolen as much art as possible. He even instructed General Choltitz to cut off the water supply so that, "the ruined city may be prey to epidemics." Choltitz saved Paris.

 

Most of what has been recovered and wasn't destroyed, and is still being recovered today, was almost exclusively through the efforts of the United States under Rosevelts encouragement. An American/British force of Museum directors, curators and art historians known as the "Monument Men" were established to find and restore the stolen and hidden art works.

 

The book is, Rescuing Da Vinci by Robert M. Edsel. It's full of photos from the period and accurate, documented, research. You can learn more here (click).

[Hasse Wind 46]

Like I mentioned, von Choltitz's actions during the liberation of Paris are certainly controversial. In his memoirs he of course paints a very positive picture of himself as the hero and savior of Paris (which one of us would write bad things about himself for posterity?), but the French at least don't see him as such but as a ruthless general among many others who did his best to oppress France. Some historians have also criticized von Choltitz's account of what happened in Paris. Before the Allies came, he certainly didn't act like a great humanist and patron of civilization, but then not many generals did - some were much, much worse.

 

If you were in a high-ranking position under Hitler's rule, it was practically impossible not to get involved in dirty business, because the whole NS-Staat was based on nothing but dirty business. And that makes the few individuals who dared to think, and most importantly, act differently from the majority, that much more great and worthy of respect.

[rabu 9]

HW, good points, and I'm sure he was despised, and rightfully for his occupation there and the way the people were treated, but something must have moved him enough to disobey direct orders from Hitler to level Paris. I can only think, like he stated, that he was moved by the "City of Lights" enough to save it; and it's fortunate that some other, less sensitive, General wasn't giving orders. Look what they did to Italy on their retreat, Paris might have looked the same... very, very lucky.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Yes, one can only imagine what would have happened if a truly fanatic Nazi general had been in command. Even if such a fanatic didn't have all the necessary resources (and Germans didn't when Paris was liberated), he would certainly have done his best to destroy everything.

[Olham 164]

My godness - so I was lucky to find it intact, when I visited Paris in the 70s and 80s.

 

By the way - I read, that Carl Holler from Jasta 6 was excluded from the Staffel, after

celebrating with a French pilot they had shot down. Humour and cool lifestyle are still

pretty rare in Germany, I'm afraid.