Schmoll, Peter Regensburg. Die Katastrophe vom 17. August 1943

The greatest catastrophe ever to strike Regensburg in its modern history took place on 17 August 1943. Within 22 minutes, 402 people were killed in a heavy air raid on that day. Among the dead were numerous apprentices from the Messerschmitt factory in Prüfening. This book on the 75th anniversary (17 August 2018), is intended to remember and commemorate the victims of this air raid.

A bloodbath that could actually have been prevented, indeed should have been prevented. However, the factory management of Messerschmitt GmbH Regensburg was unable to draw any conclusions from the air raid on the Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke four days earlier, although all details were known to the factory management. In Regensburg, the approximately 4,500 employees were not allowed to leave the factory premises in the midday hours of 17 August 1943, when the air-raid sirens sounded, and were thus more or less defenceless against the bombs then falling. The author succeeded in obtaining a large number of previously unpublished photos, documents and reports from that fateful day, which formed the basis for this book.