Pilot apologizes for bombing Bath

Kyt · Mar 28, 2008

Bomber pilot to say sorry for role in Bath Blitz - Telegraph

A highly decorated Luftwaffe pilot is to return to the city he bombed during the Second World War to make a public apology.

Willi Schludecker, 87, who flew a Dornier 217E-4, took part in raids that killed 400 and destroyed more than 19,000 buildings in Bath in April 1942. He will visit the annual remembrance service for victims of the Bath Blitz next month.

Mr Schludecker, a widower from Cologne, said: "The war was madness. I realise now what I did and will come back to say sorry.

"I was afraid the British would be very angry but I find that now they are very gentle."

His apology will follow a minute's silence for the victims of the raid and a roll call of the children who died.

Mr Schludecker was just 21 when he flew three missions over Bath that were part of the "Baedeker" raids in which targets were chosen from the influential travel guide published by Baedeker. He flew 120 flights in the war and was shot down nine times. He was twice awarded the Iron Cross.

Mr Schludecker, who apologised to the people of York last year, said: "We were told what to do and we did it, just like the young British pilots."
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Kyt · Mar 28, 2008

Bristol Past : Fishponds Local History Society

Kyt · Apr 23, 2008

BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Luftwaffe pilot sorry for bombing

A former German Luftwaffe pilot has arrived in Bath to apologise for bombing the city during World War II.

Willi Schludecker, 87, flew more than 120 sorties - the average for a pilot was seven - including the raids in the so-called Baedeker Blitz of April 1942.

He will make the apology during Bath's annual remembrance service on Friday.

After being flown in by his interpreter-pilot at Colerne Airfield, the ex-pilot paid his respects at the graves of locals killed in the raids.

He also visited bomb damage in the city, at the Old Labour Exchange.

The Baedeker raids were in revenge for the bombing of Rostock by the Allies, and possibly because Hitler thought Churchill was in Bath at the time.

The Nazi leader is thought to have picked cultural centres deliberately - including York and Canterbury - from the popular Baedeker guide books of the day.

Chris Kilminster, 61, who lost his grandparents during the attacks on the city, said: "This has taken honour and courage on Willi's part.

"I hope he goes back remembering that we are friends now and I thank him for coming."

Mr Schludecker, who flew a Dornier 217E-4, was twice awarded the Iron Cross. He will issue his apology through an interpreter.

Speaking through the interpreter he told BBC News: "I did not realise fully what we had done.

"I never expected such a reception. I am coming to say sorry. Thanks for the welcome."

His speech will follow a minute's silence for the victims and a roll call of the names of all the children who perished.

The raids claimed more than 400 lives in Bath and 19,000 buildings were partly destroyed. The city had a population of 68,000 at the time.

John Cameron, who was 11 at the time of the raids, said: "There are no hard feelings at all. He is a very brave guy. I think he will be received well."
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 23, 2008

Shot down nine times? Bloody hell. There's a man whose story should be told.

Kyt · Aug 7, 2008

BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Sorry Luftwaffe man's plane crash

Adrian Roberts · Aug 7, 2008

Ex-Luftwaffe pilot crashes near city he once bombed - Telegraph

Schludecker's luck holds! This Telegraph article makes it clear that his friend Chris Kilminster - who had never flown before - had lost relatives in the raid on Bath.

Kyt · Aug 8, 2008

It is an odd coincidence, but I am glad to see that they are both ok. I suppose if they can become friends then the rest of us cannot hold any ill will against him

Kyt · Sep 23, 2008

Chris Kilminster joins Willi Schludecker in maiden flight

After the first flight of his 61-year life ended in a dramatic crash landing, Chris Kilminster could be forgiven for being nervous about taking to the skies again.

But Mr Kilminster, from Twerton, managed to keep his butterflies under control as he flew over his home city with a German Second World War pilot who has been transformed from former foe to firm friend.

Mr Kilminster organised a high profile and moving ceremony earlier this year in which onetime Luftwaffe airman Willi Schludecker publicly apologised for bombing the city in the Bath Blitz.

At the time, 88-year-old Herr Schludecker promised a flight over Bath to Mr Kilminster, who lost relatives in the sustained bombings in which hundreds of Bath people were killed.

Their first attempt last month ended in the drama of a forced landing at Marshfield, with Mr Kilminster's first-ever flight all over in a matter of minutes.
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At the weekend, he and Herr Schludecker had a more successful trip, with the same pilot, Richard Flohr-Swann at the controls.

Their 43-minute flight from Thruxton in Hampshire saw them circle Bath at a height of around 1,000ft in a Cessna light aircraft.

Mr Kilminster said the experience had been "gorgeous".

And he fared better than his son, who also went up in the plane at the weekend and had to use the on-board sickbag.

The service at the Memorial Gardens at Oldfield Park in May was attended by 200 people, who witnessed a poignant apology from Herr Schludecker for his part in the Baedecker Raids of 1942.

A plaque put up to mark the event was vandalised but this week, a more sturdy version paid for by an anonymous German man living in Bath has now been put up in its place.

Mr Kilminster said Herr Schludecker had fallen in love with the city he had wreaked such devastation on during the war.

He said he felt he had begun a healing process for scores of local people.

"I did it for the citizens of Bath. I have done it to heal lots of wounds and lots of pain.

"My own pain has been healed by Willi's attitude and his remorse."
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Kyt · Sep 29, 2008

Bid to replace vandalised blitz memorial

A memorial set up to mark a historic apology by a German pilot for the Bath Blitz has been vandalised – less than a fortnight after being unveiled.

But now another German may have saved the day with an offer of £200 to replace a commemorative plaque in a city memorial garden.

The new plaque had been paid for out of Blitz memorial organiser Chris Kilminster's own pocket as a permanent reminder of Willi Schludecker's emotional visit to the city in April.

It was officially placed in its setting at the memorial garden at Third Avenue in Oldfield Park last month and Mr Kilminster, 61, has been checking on it every day since.

But last week, he was horrified to find the plaque had been ripped out of its protective coating, shattered and spat at.
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And just beside the bench's spot in the gardens, were smashed bottles and human excrement, proof that drunken youths have been congregating at the memorial.

Mr Kilminster said: "I'm so angry and disgusted that someone would do this.

"It's only been there two weeks and they've smashed the front off.

"It's such a hugely destructive thing to do to someone's property."

The new plaque had been put up alongside a separate monument commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the Bath Blitz, when more than 300 people died and more than 19,000 buildings were damaged.

Mr Kilminster had been about to remove the plaque from its setting and seek to have it displayed at Haycombe Cemetery, where Herr Schludecker visited the graves of those killed in the Blitz, or at Bath Abbey.

But the anonymous benefactor who read about the damage on the Chronicle's website www.thisisbath.co.uk says he will pay for a new plaque to be put up on a stone plinth in the gardens.

Mr Kilminster said: "We're not going to be beaten on this. They can't get away with it."

In April veteran Herr Schludecker, 88, made his first return to Bath since he dropped bombs on it 66 years ago during the Baedeker Raids of April 1942, attending a memorial service for the victims and issuing a public apology.
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liverpool annie · Oct 3, 2008

Kyt said: ↑

Bid to replace vandalised blitz memorial
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Heres an article from a year ago ... interesting !

RAF - News By Date

MikeTheMachine · Sep 19, 2011

Even as a resident of Bath, I sometimes forget the extent to which the city was bombed, and it is only when you see a building that is relatively unscathed (but not completely) that one remembers that it really was a major target for the Luftwaffe. I for one think that it is very brave of the man to admit what he did, and to come forward and genuinely apologise, rather than try to lie low.

sniper · Sep 22, 2011

I have a question on this. Why should this guy of come forward to apoligise for what he did? I don't see any of the Allied airmen coming forward and apoligising to the German people for the bombing of the German cities especially the city of Dresden which suffered a lot more than the city of Bath.

Sniper

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