Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 1 April 1944
- The astounded Swiss began to fear that the Americans were putting pressure on them because of the Swiss economic cooperation with Nazi Germany.
On this day 50 American B-24 Liberator heavy bombers dropped bombs at the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
This led to 40 fatalities, numerous injuries, and large property damage. The shocked Swiss government demanded an explanation from the United States.
The official explanation claimed that the incident occurred accidentally, because one group of bombers, due to bad weather, broke away from the main fleet and switched targets.
It is surprising, however, that the original target, which the Americans were supposed to bomb, was Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, 235 kilometers north from Schaffhausen!
Because of this and other incidents, the Swiss began to fear that the Americans were putting pressure on them because of the Swiss economic cooperation with Nazi Germany.
There was a significant number of similar incidents during the war, so that Allied bombs also fell on Basel, Zurich, and Geneva.
