[July 24, 2015] The study of the Torah and the Bible sheds light on the city of Gomorrah that received the divine judgment by God when it was consumed by “fire and brimstone” because “their sin is very grievous.”1 Operation Gomorrah, named for the Biblical story, was the World War II Allied codename for the firebombing of Hamburg, Germany. It was the most destructive bombing of Germany during the entire war, killing more than 40,000 people.
“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.” – William Tecumseh Sherman
The beginning of the firebombing of the city began on July 24, 1943 and lasted for eight days. The purpose of the massive bombing of Hamburg was in part retribution for the bombing of London by German aircraft.2 Hamburg was a major industrial hub, its second largest city, and largest seaport city and thus also important to the German war machine’s ability to wage warfare.
The study of the psychology of war tells us that for a nation-state to surrender, it must have the motivation and the stronger the signal to that nation-state, the better. Thus, the destruction of the city was designed to send a powerful message to both the German people and to the Nazi regime that the Allied effort had the will and resources to utterly destroy – not so much Germany’s ability to wage war – but to destroy its people and culture as well.
More than any other singular event during the war, Operation Gomorrah nearly succeeded in bringing about the end of the war. So severe was the bombing that Nazi official Joseph Goebbels believed that after the events in Hamburg, seeking peace with the Allies should have been the next course of action for Germany to take.3
There are people today, who lecture us from the safety of their living room chair, that the bombing of Hamburg – like Dresden or Hiroshima – was unnecessary and morally wrong. With the distance of time, our view today is colored by trendy ideas and moral certitude. If we are to judge the effect of the bombing, we must do so from the perspective of that day.
Operation Gomorrah succeeded at a great cost. We owe those who died to learn the value of being proactive, strength, and that, indeed, war is hell.
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- The Bible, Genesis 18:20
- Germany’s Luftwaffe spent much of 1940’s latter half bombing London in an effort to drive her people to despair and the country out of the war. One evening, as the bombs fell, British Air Marshal Arthur Harris supposedly turned to the man standing next to him and said, “The Germans are sowing the wind.”
- http://totallyhistory.com/bombing-of-hamburg/
[Note] There is a controversy over the number killed in Hamburg during the raids. I found numbers ranging from 25,000 to over 60,000. Whatever the true toll, the effect of the bombing was devastating both materially and in human costs.