When the Americans bombed a Swiss town

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The Americans immediately apologised for the bombing and paid compensation to the city of Schaffhausen. However, the compensation was controversial in the US Congress as some representatives complained that Switzerland was benefiting a second time from a war where they didn't shed any blood. (Milou Steiner/RDB) Rdb/milou Steiner

On Saturday, April 1, 1944, the sky was blue, the vision was clear, and there was a light wind. Many people ran into the streets and looked at the sky to count the number of airplanes instead of going into air-raid shelters. (Milou Steiner/RDB) Rdb/milou Steiner

On April 1, 1944, the city of Schaffhausen became the target of air raids by the Americans because of misguided navigation. After bombers dropped 371 incendiary and high-explosive bombs on the city on the border with Germany, numerous major fires broke out. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

Firefighters and air-raid troops in action. There was only one ambulance available for the injured. Most of the injured were carried to the hospital. A private individual transported an injured person in his Fiat Topolino. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

Only the chimney remains in this house in the industrial district in Schaffhausen after the bombing. The air-raid left behind a "horrible mess" according to an air-raid commander. There were people whose heads had been blown off and whose spine was sticking out of their collar. This made him unbelievably angry at the pilots. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

Residents of the community of Feuerthalen rescue their belongings from the fire. After 371 bombs were dropped, numerous fires broke out. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

Civil protection had to clear the area with shovels and pickaxes. Photo taken on April 4, 1944. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

In April 1944, air-raid soldiers cleared rubble from the damaged Schaffhausen train station concourse. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

Emil Busenhart in the Schaffhausen cantonal hospital on April 4, 1944. He was seriously injured by glass fragments. Many of the 400 injured were seriously injured. The first patient arriving at the hospital was a boy who had his leg blown off by an explosive bomb. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

On April 4, 1944, smoke was still rising from the ruins of the tower of the Catholic Church community centre that had burned. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

The victims of the bomb attack were buried on April 4 in a mass funeral in a forest cemetery. Strangely, a few months later an emissary of the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt who laid a wreath at the graves of victims of the Schaffhausen bombing witnessed American planes dropping bombs on Stein am Rhein, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, and Rafz. (Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter / Keystone) Keystone / Walter Scheiwiller, Milou Steiner, Eugen Suter

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During the Second World War the Allies repeatedly bombed Switzerland by mistake. Exactly 75 years ago the most serious accidental bombing occurred: the US Air Force dropped 400 incendiary and high-explosive bombs on Schaffhausen, devastating the northern Swiss border town.

Kai Reusser / swissinfo.ch

On April 1, 1944, a US bomber squadron took off from Britain with the aim of attacking the German city of Ludwigshafen. But despite clear skiesExternal link the pilots got lost because new radar technology failed. They mistakenly launched 371 bombs over Schaffhausen, believing it was the German city.

Between 47 and 60 people died (depending on estimates) and hundreds were injured. Nearly 500 people were left homeless and around 1,000 lost their jobs because factories were destroyed. The city was in ruins.

Especially tragic was that the people of Schaffhausen were used to Allied planes flying over Switzerland and, as a result, didn’t take cover in air-raid shelters. Instead, they went out into the streets and looked up at the sky.

The people painted Swiss cross on the roofs of houses in the hopes that it would protect them from bombings. Photopress-Archiv

For a long time a rumour circulated in Switzerland that the Allies had wanted to punish the country because a factory in SchaffhausenExternal link supplied Nazi Germany with industrial goods. But today historical research agrees that it was an accident. The US government paid Schaffhausen compensation during the war.

Deadly ignorance

To prevent any future mistakes, people painted big Swiss crosses on their roofs. But the Americans did not always recognise the symbol, as the bombing of the town of Stein am Rhein revealed. The commander of the bomber later wrote in his report that he had seen red squares with white crosses on the roofs of houses in the German town of Ebingen (in reality Stein am Rhein).

“What are they?” he asked in the report. No one knows how many American pilots did not know what the Swiss flag looked like.

During the Second World War the Allies mistakenly dropped bombs on Swiss soil about 70 times. The bombs hit Zurich, Basel, Schaffhausen, Stein am Rhein and small towns in various cantons.

Adapted from German by Jessica Davis Plüss

Jessica Davis Plüss