Operation Seebad

seabath

'Seebad' was the German alternative designation for the 'Küste' bombing of Warsaw within the 'Weiss' (i) campaign (13 September 1939).

The Luftwaffe opened the German attack on Warsaw during 1 September as the level bombers of four Kampfgeschwadern overflew the city and achieved comparatively little as a result of low cloud cover and the Polish resistance by the PZL P.11 fighters of the Pursuit Brigade, which shot down 16 German aircraft for the loss of 10 of their own. However, heavy losses among the Polish fighter units meant that by 6 September the air defence of Warsaw was in the hands of the 40-mm and 75-mm (2.95-in) anti-aircraft guns of the Warsaw Defence Command.

As the German ground forces neared Warsaw on 8 September, a force of 140 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers attacked the portions of the city on the eastern bank of the Vistula river and other bombers bombed the Polish army positions in the western suburbs.

On 13 September another German attack using level bombers and dive-bombers caused the widespread eruption of devastating fires, and continued Polish resistance was followed by further bombing attacks as well as propaganda leaflet drops.