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:

https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/norddeutsche-geschichte-n/sprengmeister-merz/ndr/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS9lMTE1MzQxZC04ZmJjLTRjYjEtYTMxMC00NjcxNTU0NTgwNGU

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