Hunt to find mystery North Wales student who convinced Allies to save Nazi site from destruction
The hunt is on to find a North Wales academic who convinced Bomber Command not to obliterate a site used by the Nazis during World War II. The as yet unidentified Bangor University student or lecturer was motivated by a visionary and humanitarian goal - to save Europe from starvation after war ended.
He persuaded the Allies to spare a German university to help food production after World War II. The centre was near Stuttgart which was being carpet bombed.
Remarkably the unidentified man - who was either a Bangor University lecturer or student - succeeded and the German university was saved. It was a centre of excellence for crops and livestock and it meant food production could be rolled out for liberated Europe more easily after the Nazi surrender in 1945.
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Now a Bangor University professor and local city councillor are digging into history to unearth the identity of a Bangor student. Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone
Bangor Councillor Mark Roberts said: "What is known is that while the city of Stuttgart was almost totally blitzed by target and carpet bombing by RAF Lancaster, Wellington and Mosquito bombers from 1940 onwards, and later US Air Force Flying Fortresses, the ancient university of Honheneim survived intact.
"And that was down to a single Bangor University student or perhaps a lecturer, who at outbreak of war joined the RAF and became one of the Bomber Command forward targeting officers - but in his case deciding which sites not to hit under any circumstance.
"He had previously been at Bangor’s then prestigious Department of Agriculture and knew of the equally important work in crops-production, livestock breeding, fertilizer and soils and research and development of the Honhenheim university in Stuttgart. He appealed directly to the then Ministry of Food, the War Office and Bomber Command that Honhenheim be saved at all costs from Allied bombing.
"Without Honhenheim’s academic and research work in food production, Europe might well have starved after the war’s end’, he said. And while RAF and US bombers pounded Stuttgart day and night over four years to obliterate the city’s military war factories, railway lines and specifically critical ball-bearing and vehicle production sites, the University itself was ordered to be saved at all costs."
Honhenheim University was so well protected against even accidental hits that in later years of the war the more accurate Mosquito bombers rather than ‘hit-and-miss’ Wellington and Lancasters were used over Stuttgart.
"It just seems incredible to me that the Honhenheim university just a few miles outside the city centre but close to rail marshalling yards and other critical targets like factories making magnetos for the German Luftwaffe and Panzer tanks and Bosche producing military equipment survived and especially as the University to the south of the city was on the narrow ‘fly-out’ corridor for bombers where crews would normally jettison bombs randomly to give them extra height to avoid German anti-aircraft guns and night fighters and escape the area to return home."
Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Christian Dunn, of Bangor’s School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, is now working with Cllr Roberts to delve into history.
He said: "It would be terrific if we could put a name to this enterprising and visionary University student or staff member who recognised the importance of Honhenheim University and saved it from certain destruction.
"Then it will be easier to research the wartime records which will be buried somewhere in official government archives.
"But so many of our students and staff volunteered for military service at outbreak of war that our University records can’t pin-point them to particular Service rolls. But we do know of course that Bangor and Honhenheim were then both world leaders in higher education understanding of agriculture production in all its forms.
"And yes, without research, Europe would have starved. Food rationing in Britain was only finally lifted in 1954 long after the war, but with mass relocation of refugees and transient populations Europe was in even worse state."
Allied bombing in and around Stuttgart was relentless from 1940-1945. From early year average bomber runs of 300 aircraft per night, numbers increased to up to 598 bombers in one night in 1944 when Stuttgart was almost annihiliated. In total, 27,000 tons of high explosives and more than 1.3 million incendiary bombs were dropped. 4,562 Germans were killed and thousands more displaced.
"Wonderfully, Honhenheim remains one of Europe’s finest agricultural and natural resources universities," said Prof Dunn. "Bangor has always been a leading teaching and research institute for environmental and agricultural issues, and lost its Agriculture department status some years ago, but it is marvellous to think we were part of Stuttgart’s survival in this area too.
"What we’d love to do now is to track back for the name of the far-sighted young man who confidently argued his case before the War Office to have a strict ‘no-fly-zone’ radius around the Honhenheim University. He’d deserve an Honorary Doctorate from us, if not a Nobel Peace Prize today!"
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