Rotterdam commemorates Forgotten Bombardment

On Sunday the Forgotten Bombardment was commemorated in Rotterdam at the monument for the victims in the Bospolder-Tussendijken district. The bombing on 31 March 1943 left 426 people from Rotterdam and Schiedam dead, over 400 injured and some 13 thousand homeless, RTV Rijnmond reports.

On 31 March 1943 the Bospolder-Tussendijken in Delfshaven was accidentally attacked by American bombers. The intention was to destroy the Wilton Feijenoord shipyard and machine factory, where the German occupier manufactured torpedo launch tubes for submarines. But due to poor visibility and strong winds, many of the bombs missed their target and ended up hitting the residential area.

This bombing is less engraved in the collective Dutch memory than the destruction of Rotterdam city center on May 14th, 1940. According to the broadcaster, this is likely because the bombing was a mistake made by allies and not a deliberate attack. The bombing of Bospolder-Tussendijken was commemorated for the first time in 2017.