Bombing of the Bezuidenhout

Motorized Nazi artillery launched 1,027 V-2 rockets at London from The Hague – 79 failed at launch, 600 reached London (Backfire V-2 shown on Meillerwagen).

Date	3 March 1945
Location	The Hague 52°05′02″N 4°20′17″E / 52.084°N 4.338°E / 52.084; 4.338Coordinates: 52°05′02″N 4°20′17″E / 52.084°N 4.338°E / 52.084; 4.338
Result	All bombs missed the 1.5 miles x 0.5 miles forest target (Haagse Bos) by more than 500 yards ("incorrect allowance for the wind"/"map-reading error") and hit the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood instead.

Belligerents

Second Tactical Air Force
-No. 137 Wing
-No. 139 Wing

902nd Artillery Regiment z.V. (Motorized)

Commanders and leaders

Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham

Strength

56 Boston & Mitchell bombers

Casualties and losses

Bezuidenhout civilian casualties (collateral damage):

511 killed, 344 injured,
20,000 dehoused

Bezuidenhout civilian casualties (collateral damage):

The bombing of the Bezuidenhout took place on 3 March 1945, when the Royal Air Force accidentally bombed the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in the Dutch city of The Hague. At the time, the neighbourhood was more densely populated than usual with evacuees from The Hague and Wassenaar; tens of thousands were left homeless and had to be quartered in the Eastern and Central Netherlands.

The British bomber crews had intended to bomb the Haagse Bos ("Forest of the Hague") district where the Germans had installed V-2 launching facilities that had been used to attack English cities. However the pilots were issued with the wrong coordinates so the navigational instruments of the bombers had been set incorrectly, and combined with fog and clouds obscured their vision, the bombs were instead dropped on the Bezuidenhout residential neighbourhood.

On the morning of March 3, 1945 [medium bomber|medium]] and light bombers of the North American B-25 Mitchell and Douglas Boston types from No. 137 and No. 139 wings of the Second Tactical Air Force took off from Melsbroek near Brussels and Vitry in Northern France. Between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning the bombers dropped 67 tonnes of high explosive bombs on the Bezuidenhout, wreaking widespread destruction.

Due to insufficient fire engines and firemen (as many of them had been either called up for forced labour in German industry or had gone into hiding to prevent being signed up) the resulting fire was largely unchecked, killing 511 people, including eight firemen.

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