Mosquitoes over Aarhus

On 7 October 1944, the Gestapo arrested Ruth Phillipsen, a courier for the Jutland resistance leadership. Vagn Bennike, the resistance chief in Jutland, considered an assault on the Gestapo headquarters in Aarhus but judged it impracticable. He asked his contacts in London to have the university dormitories destroyed by air attack. The Gestapo’s files there contained records on the resistance; the danger was not abstract. In the preceding months, arrests and informers had badly damaged resistance groups across the peninsula.

The headquarters occupied student residence halls at Aarhus University. The Gestapo had turned them into offices, interrogation rooms and archives. The buildings stood near civilian hospitals, making a low-level bombing run especially exacting. After reconnaissance on 26 October, the RAF set the raid for 31 October. The plan called for four waves: the first two would use regular bombs to open the buildings, and the last two incendiaries to burn the archives. The bombs were set to explode after an eleven-second delay, giving the aircraft time to clear the target.

Twenty-four Mosquito fighter-bombers of 140 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force, flew with a Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft from the RAF Film Production Unit. Mustangs of 315 (Polish) Squadron provided the escort. Four Mustangs had broken tail wheels, so only eight flew. The crews received the target details at their final briefing on the morning of the attack.

The force reached Aarhus late in the morning. At 11:41, the first bombs exploded. The second wave followed four minutes later; the remaining waves attacked with incendiaries. Anti-aircraft fire from the German light cruiser Nürnberg damaged a Mosquito in the fourth wave. Another Mosquito escorted it across the Kattegat, and the damaged aircraft reached Sweden, where its crew destroyed it before Swedish authorities apprehended them.

Halls 4 and 5 were left in ruins and burning. The strike destroyed the Gestapo archives on the Danish resistance. Three Danish prisoners had been held in the buildings during interrogations. The third died in the raid; Phillipsen and resistance leader Harald Sandbæk escaped in the confusion. The university’s main building also suffered serious damage, and people elsewhere on the campus were killed or injured. The target was reached, but the raid did not spare the surrounding university.