Aarhus Air Raid

Operation Carthage

Damaged barracks near Aarhus University residence halls, bombed on 31 October 1944

Date	31 October 1944
Location	Aarhus, Denmark
Result	British victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Germany

Strength

24 bombers
1 reconnaissance air craft

Various anti-aircraft defences
1 light cruiser

Casualties and losses

1 aircraft destroyed
1 aircrew interned

Gestapo offices destroyed
German barracks heavily damaged
39 German agents and officers killed
20 German soldiers killed

~10 Danish civilians killed
1+ Danish civilian wounded
1 Danish prisoner killed

The Aarhus Air Raid took place on 31 October 1944, when 25 Mosquitoes from 140 Wing Royal Air Force (RAF) of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, bombed the Gestapo headquarters at the University of Aarhus. After the Second World War, the RAF called the mission the most successful of its kind during the war.

During the Second World War, Aarhus was occupied by German forces, which established their headquarters for the Jutland area in the eastern parts of the University of Aarhus, placing their main offices and archives in the buildings usually reserved for student dormitories. In Aarhus, the Gestapo was headed by Eugen Schwitzgebel; the Sicherheitsdienst, led by Obersturmbannführer Lonechun and the Abwehr, commanded by Oberstleutnant Lutze, were also based there. The 577th Volksgrenadier Division was based in Aarhus during the raid. On 25 August 1944 the unit was established and by September its draftees were transferred to the 47th Infantry Division and the last members left Aarhus on 10 November to fight later on the Western Front.

The summer and fall of 1944 was a difficult time for the resistance in Jutland. On 13 December 1943 the British paratrooper Jakob Jensen was caught by the Gestapo in Aarhus. During interrogation he supplied information about the networks of supply groups in Jutland which resulted in many groups being destroyed and 145 people being arrested, including the Hvidsten Group on March 11, 1944. These events effectively crippled the resistance movement throughout the peninsula as supplies dried up. In Aarhus the resistance groups faced another problem as Grethe Bartram from communist and resistance circles in Aarhus was hired as an informant by the Gestapo in March/April 1944. Bartram in total informed on some 50 resistance members leading to many groups in and around the city being dismantled by German authorities, including the Samsing Group in June 1944.

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Wikipedia