The Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 1944)
SWISS CHARGE BOMBING BY YANKS
Planes kill 30 in neutral city, dispatches say
Liberators attack Southwest Germany
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
London, England –
U.S. Liberators attacked Southwest Germany today and Swiss dispatches said U.S. planes dropped bombs on Schaffhausen, in North Switzerland, near the German frontier, killing at least 30 persons.
A Swiss communiqué said about 30 U.S. bombers flew over the cantons of Schaffhausen, of which the city is the capital, and neighboring Thurgau. Bombs dropped on Schaffhausen started several fires, the communiqué said. Supplementary Swiss advices reported seven columns of smoke rising over the city and a number of buildings destroyed or damaged.
Crews to be questioned
U.S. Army Air Force officials said any official statement or unofficial reaction would have to await interrogation of crewmen out today and a detailed study of reports. They indicated any such reports would probably be delayed for some hours.
The U.S. 8th Air Force sent a relatively small formation of Liberators escorted by Mustang and Thunderbolt fighters against Southwest Germany to usher in a new month of the aerial campaign against the Luftwaffe and other enemy war potentials.
Reports from Schaffhausen through Zürich said the bombardment extended over the entire Swiss city.
Station reported destroyed
A station was destroyed and the assistant station master and seven other persons killed, the Swiss advices said. They also reported three factories badly hit, a theater on fire and an asylum for the aged hit.
Schaffhausen is 23 miles north of Zürich and five miles from the German border. It has a population of more than 15,000.
The Swiss communiqué said:
On April 1, American bombers in formations of 30 flew over the cantons of Schaffhausen and [adjacent] Thurgau beginning at 10:30 a.m. [5:30 a.m. EWT].
About 11:00 a.m., bombs were dropped on the city of Schaffhausen. According to reports so far received, several fires were started in the station district and the city. Further details later.
Identified as Yanks
While the communiqué said only that the bombs fell on Schaffhausen after U.S. planes began flying over, other Swiss dispatches identified the bombers as of U.S. nationality.
Soon after the Swiss communiqué was issued, the German DNB News Agency broadcast it, saying the bombers were American and that all Schaffhausen rail traffic was discontinued temporarily.
Planes circle city
Accounts from Schaffhausen by way of Zürich said the bombers circled over the city for some time, dropped a number of red flares and then opened the bombardment which shook houses like an earthquake.
A spectator said a number of houses in his area, including a cloth factory, was still afire when the report was sent. He said he saw a number of dead and wounded persons carried into a house.
Nearly 200 Liberators rode out difficult weather and heavy anti-aircraft fire, including Nazi rocket parachute bombs, to blast the Reich.
Bomb through clouds
Some Liberator groups bombed visually through holes in the clouds and saw their targets covered by big fires and black smoke. Others used special navigational devices and bombed through the obscuring clouds.
The German Air Force made only a halfhearted attempt to intercept, and the bulk of the attacks was concentrated in brief passes at a single group of Liberators.
Mosquito attack
A mid-morning Berlin broadcast said bomber formations were over and approaching Southwest Germany. Only a half-hour earlier, the same station said strong formations were approaching southern Germany. Some may have come from Italian bases.
A number of enemy raiders were also over North and Northwest Germany, Berlin said.
British Mosquito bombers rounded out the Allies’ March offensive last night with small-scale attacks on western Germany without loss. Though the month thus ended on a comparatively minor note, U.S. and British heavy bombers during March probably dropped nearly 50,000 tons of explosives – a new record – on Germany and occupied Europe.