The bomb attack on Dietzenbach 1941 was an air attack of the British Royal Air Force on the then rural village Dietzenbach in Hessen. It is assumed that the involved bombers did not find their actual destination, Frankfurt am Main or Offenbach, and therefore attacked the 3000-inhabitant city of Dietzenbach as an alternative destination.
On the late evening of September 20, 1941, one Saturday, the center of Dietzenbach was attacked by four British bombers. Many villagers had just enjoyed a performance of the "Ahoi" harmonica club in the restaurant "Neuhaus" restaurant and began to go home. When the air raid sounded, this was initially not very serious, since the attack allegedly was either Frankfurt or Offenbach. Then explosive bombs, rod bombs and phosphorus canisters fell on the village and set fire to large parts of the village center within ten minutes.
The volunteer fire brigade of the village was not able to cope with the big fire with their two motor-cars. When the fire brigades came to the aid of the neighboring villages, the available water was not enough. It was only with the arrival of extinguishers from Offenbach at 1:30 am that the fire could be gradually brought under control, and at about 11:00 the next morning the fire was finally extinguished. Two inhabitants were killed, three houses were completely destroyed, 30 others were heavily damaged, and 12 barns were burned with all their contents.
Since neither bombs fell in Frankfurt and Offenbach, but in some smaller cities in the Rhine-Main area, and the Royal Air Force reported attacks on Frankfurt, it was assumed that the aircraft deployed on Frankfurt was their target not finding and then looking for evasion targets. The light show, falling irregularly through the restaurant doors opened by outgoing concert-goers, might have been a target for the British pilots. : List of air raids of the Allies (1939-1945) Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext
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