Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Das War Hamburg [That Was Hamburg]
- Title:
- Das War Hamburg [That Was Hamburg]
- Alternate Title:
- That Was Hamburg
- Collection:
- Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Date:
- 1943
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2245.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_2245_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- World War II
Unusual Graphics/Text
- Measurement:
- 17 x 50 on sheet 22 x 50 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This is a leaflet dropped on Germany by the RAF following a devastating series of air attacks on Hamburg In July 1943. Over a period of four days, the bombers used a combination of incendiary and high explosive bombs to devastate the city, killing some 30,000 people. The leaflet is entitled “This Was Hamburg,” and illustrates “part of an aerial view of the attacks of the RAF. The red-bordered image section is reproduced overleaf in enlargement.”
The leaflet includes a paraphrase from Churchill’s famous ("You do your worst and we will do our best") speech of July 1941: "We will bomb Germany in ever larger scale, month after month, year after year, until the Nazi regime has been eradicated either by us, or - better yet – until the German people themselves put an end to it.”
The verso shows a close up of the section highlighted on the front of the leaflet. At the left, the destruction is described: “The buildings are either completely destroyed or burned so that nothing but empty walls remain, with light through their windows drawing white dots in the shadows of the facades.” On the right is the RAF logic of certain German defeat:
“The fronts come closer.
The nights are longer.
The strength of the RAF is growing day by day.
The Luftwaffe is helpless.
The German cities are defenseless.
Each industrial town is threatened by the fate of Hamburg.
Every night further advances the pointer of destruction.
It is only a matter of time.
The war is lost.
Hitler can only prolong it even more.
He fights to gain time -
Time for the destruction of Germany.”
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.
