WWII | The Bombing of Rotterdam | May 14th, 1940
On the afternoon of May 14th, 1940, beleaguered citizens in the Dutch city of Rotterdam looked skyward as they heard the approaching drone of German bombers; through the thick, noxious smoke drifting upward from burning buildings, they could just make out the massed formations of Heinkel HE-111’s, the infamous black balkenkreuz insignia stark against their white undercarriages.
1940-05-14 12:00:00 - The Netherlands
For the next quarter of an hour, over a thousand high explosive bombs would smash the Dutch into submission, murdering over 700 civilians and devastating an entire city, callously shattering its short-lived defiance in the face of Nazi tyranny.
When the dust had settled, questions arose about how this atrocity - which German field commanders claimed was accidental - happened? Worse, were the theories that it was a deliberate act intended to force Dutch capitulation...
00:00 - Introduction
01:28 - Fall Gelb
04:40 - Ein Wolf im Schafspelz...
06:44 - Deliberate Act, or Tragic Accident?
10:56 - My God, This is a Catastrophe!
12:51 - A City in Ruins