·S4 E67
Episode 67 - After the Firestorm: Bomb Disposal in Wartime Hamburg, with Thomas Rost
Episode Description
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After the Firestorm – Bomb Disposal in Wartime Hamburg
With Thomas Rost
Never Mind the Dambusters – Series 4
Content Note
This episode includes discussion of forced labour, concentration camp inmates, and civilian casualties. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode, Jane Gulliford Lowes turns to a largely hidden chapter of the bombing war: bomb disposal in Hamburg during and after the Second World War.
While the Battle of Hamburg in mid-1943 — known to the Allies as Operation Gomorrah — is often remembered for the scale of destruction and the firestorm that engulfed the city, far less attention is paid to what followed. Long after the raids ended, unexploded bombs continued to pose a deadly threat, demanding dangerous and morally complex work on the ground.
Joining Jane is Thomas Rost, a German historian and returning guest on the podcast, whose research examines bomb disposal in Hamburg and the career of Walter Merz, a central figure in this story.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How Germany prepared for bomb disposal before the war
- Who was responsible for clearing unexploded ordnance
- The roles of organisations such as the Reichsluftschutzbund, Luftwaffe, Luftschutzpolizei, and Sicherheits- und Hilfsdienst
- How bomb disposal functioned once the bombing war intensified
- The use of forced labourers and prisoners for dangerous clearance work
- Walter Merz’s background and rise as a bomb disposal specialist
- Bomb disposal during and after the Gomorrah raids on Hamburg
- The SS’s use of concentration camp inmates for unexploded bomb clearance
- Why bomb disposal continued long after 1945
- The 1957 Hamburg-Harburg detonation and renewed public attention
- Merz’s later life, public profile, and memorial work
- Whether unexploded bombs remain a threat in Hamburg today
Newsreel of the Harburg Incident: The Harburg incident starts at minute 1:42
https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/video/31072/721973
A 25 minute feature in German:
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