Five Brothers and a War

Haagse Bos--March 3, 1945

The damage included: • 511 fatalities • 344 wounded • 20,000 people left homeless • 3,250 burned out residences • 3,241 damaged residences • 391 irreparably damaged residences • 290 destroyed businesses • 5 destroyed churches • 9 destroyed schools

RAF spy photo of the Haagse Bos , the area in the bottom half of the photo, and the densely populated Bezoudenhout district on top. Photo shows five V-2 rockets (circled) lined up waiting to be launched. Despite the need for firewood, the area was off-limits to the Dutch, as this was a major launch site. On March 3, 1945, the RAF bombed the residential adjacent residential neighborhood in error—caused by poor visibility and poor navigation (map reading) and miscalculations of the effect of the wind on the falling bombs.

the war

Short video regarding the

bombardment of the Bezuidenhout neighborhood.

(Dutch Narration)

Five Brothers and a War

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