When bombs rained from the sky

#239

My Dear Friend of Democracy, 

Today, a little story of a little train I took almost three years ago.

The train commutes between the pier and the only town on the little island of Wangerooge, Germany.

The island of only 8 square kilometres is one of the 32 Frisian Islands in the North Sea, located close to the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark coasts. Only 1200 people live on Wangerooge, but the train service has everything that makes a railway enthusiast's heart beat faster (have a look here).

But this letter is not (only) for railway enthusiasts.

The three-kilometre-long route makes a few detours on the way to the village station, passing deep craters dating back to the last days of the Second World War, almost 80 years ago.

In these days, as Allied troops approached the mainland, the Wangerooge was declared a fortress. On 25 April 1945, the island was attacked by 482 British, Canadian and French bombers, targeting the large-calibre anti-ship guns. In about fifteen minutes, over 6,000 explosive bombs were dropped in three waves of attacks. Around 300 people (soldiers, civilians, forced labourers) were killed, and a landscape of craters was left behind.

✊ Today, the craters are ponds, a habitat for a diverse animal world. But still, they remind us of a time when Germany was a dictatorship. Perhaps the most terrible dictatorship that has ever existed. How fortunate that these days are gone. What a blessing if those days will never come back.

See you in Europe, 

Johannes 

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📸 Wangerooge, Germany / 31 January 2022