The first air raid on Emden took place on July 13, 1940 and the last on April 25, 1945. The old city was hit 94 times by Allied bombs. On April 1, 1941, British Wellingtons dropped their first Blockbuster bomb (known as “cookies”) in an attack on Emden. They were 8,000 and 12,000 pound high-capacity bombs with very thin casings that allowed them to contain approximately three-quarters of their weight in explosives. The 4,000 pounder contained over 3,000 pounds of explosive filling, while their other regular bombs contained only 50% explosive by weight, the rest being made up of the bomb casing. These bombs were designed for blowing off the buildings roof tiles so that the smaller incendiary bombs could reach the building interiors.
By far, the heaviest bombardment experienced by the civilian inhabitants of the city was on September 5, 1944. The entire city center was levelled and burned in minutes. 63 children in a school cellar died with the first attack. The bombers dropped 1,500 high explosive bombs, 10,000 incendiary bombs and 3,000 phosphorus bombs. The city was 85% destroyed. Numerous air raids on Emden claimed 370 more civilian lives.
