Society of Friends of the Fleet Air Arm Museum Talk Evening
Gp Capt (retd) David Drew – Operation Carthage, the bombing of Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen.
Operation Carthage was an attack on Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen on 21 March 1945. The target was the ‘Shellhus’, used as Gestapo headquarters in the city centre. It was used for the storage of dossiers and the interrogation and torture of Danish citizens. The Danish Resistance had long asked Britain to conduct a raid against the site. The building was destroyed, 18 prisoners were freed and Nazi anti-resistance activities were disrupted. But the raid unfortunately caused 123 civilian deaths including 87 schoolchildren and 18 adults at a school.
In March 1995, David Drew was invited, along with some 50 others, to Copenhagen to witness the unveiling of a memorial to those killed in the operation. His uncle had been one of the casualties. Over the next two days he had the opportunity to talk to many of the survivors of the bombing raid on the Gestapo headquarters in the city, both aircrew and Danish civilians, including members of the Danish resistance. David will discuss the history behind the raid and some of the characters involved before going on to describe the raid itself, its failures and its successes.
