Movies provide us the chance to revisit historical events that have been passed over, which is one of their advantages. The Bombardment, a recent war film on Netflix about a botched raid, does just that. Is this real? is a question that this picture raises with its depressing and unsettling content.
Sadly, it is in The Bombardment’s situation. What you need to know about the actual Operation Carthage is provided below.
It’s not a movie for the weak of heart, The Bombardment. It follows several Copenhagen citizens whose lives are irrevocably altered when a WWII bombing operation unintentionally attacks a school full of children. The film is directed by Danish director Ole Borndahl. What happens next is just as depressing and sad as you would expect. The film shows how this terrible devastation came about as well as how these innocent people survived after experiencing unspeakable agony.
Unfortunately, yes. There isn’t much discussion of this World War II episode, especially not in the US. Germany occupied Denmark in 1940. Up until 1943, when Germany occupied Denmark militarily, the Danish government and monarch could continue to rule. At the time of the bombing two years later, that was Denmark’s situation.
The Gestapo offices in Aarhus were scheduled to be bombed by the Danish resistance. It was a strategy in which the resistance sided with the British. And it was successful in a way. 18 inmates were freed, the Gestapo headquarters were destroyed, and Nazi activities were halted as a result of Operation Carthage. But a portion of the raid was unintentionally directed at a close-by school.
A British aircraft called a de Havilland Mosquito crashed into a light post in the middle of the raid. The plane’s wing was sufficiently damaged by that oversight for it to crash into the Jeanne d’Arc School. The horror persisted after that. Other bombers in the second and third waves incorrectly thought they were attacking the school.
125 persons perished as a result of this assault. A startling 86 of those victims were children, while 18 of the victims were adults, many of whom were nuns. Borndahl has captured a very terrifying tale.