A tragedy : bombs on Mortsel

On April 5, 1943, the USAAF VIII Air Force organised a daylight attack on Mortsel. The target was the Erla factories whicj were used by the Germans for the repair of their aircraft. It was a typical “bombing raid”, that went completely wrong due to misjudgement. In less than 8 minutes, 936 residents of Mortsel were killed, including 109 children under the age of 15. More than 1600 injured, 600 seriously...

The Minerva factories located in Mortsel are used by the Germans to repair their Messerschmitt Me.109 fighter aircraft, which had been damaged during their missions. From then on the factory went through life as ERLA VII Werke. Tuning of the engines and calibrating the compasses was done at the airport and Fort III. In 1943, Erla employed about 3,000 people. As a result, they escaped compulsory labour in Germany.

The importance of Erla to the German war effort did not go unnoticed by the Allies. On the morning of April 5, 1943, 104 four-engined bombers were readied and loaded with 283 tons of bombs. At around 1.15 pm, the aircraft climbed to their rendezvous point at 25.000 feet.

Relentless attacks by German fighters ensured that 21 bombers never reached their target. Due to difficulties in approaching the target, only 33 bombs would end up within a radius of 300m of the factory. They mainly hit the centre of Mortsel. However, bomb craters were found up to 1,800 m from the target. Only 4 bombs hit the Erla installations, killing 229 workers, while 78 others went missing.

The fire that followed the bombing destroyed the Erla factory.

What should have been a beautiful spring day ended in tragedy for many.

On April 9, after a symbolic worship service in the Antwerp cathedral, the victims were buried.

Mortsel could start the reconstruction...