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One of the benefits of movies is that they allow us to reexamine overlooked moments in history. That’s exactly what The Bombardment does, Netflix’s latest war movie about a raid gone wrong. It’s a film that’s so bleak and disturbing, it begs the question: is this real?
Sadly, in the case of The Bombardment, it is. Here’s what you need to know about the real Operation Carthage.
What Is The Bombardment About?
The Bombardment isn’t a movie for the faint of heart. Directed by Danish filmmaker Ole Borndahl, it follows several Copenhagen residents whose lives are permanently changed when a WWII bombing mission accidentally targets a school full of children. What follows is exactly as bleak and upsetting as you’d think. The movie depicts how this senseless destruction came to happen as well as how these innocent people survived after surviving unimaginable tragedy.
Is The Bombardment Based on a True Story?
Depressingly, yes. This is a chapter of World War II that’s not discussed often, particularly not in the United States. In 1940, Germany occupied Denmark. During this time, the Danish government and King were able to rule until Germany put the country under direct military occupation in 1943. That was the state of Denmark when the bombing happened two years later.
The Danish resistance was supposed to bomb the Gestapo headquarters in Aarhus. It was a plan that saw the resistance align itself with the British. And on some level, it worked. Operation Carthage resulted in the destruction of Gestapo headquarters, the release of 18 prisoners, and the disruption of Nazi activities. But part of the raid was mistakenly aimed at a nearby school.
In the middle of the raid, a de Havilland Mosquito — a type of British aircraft — hit a lamp post. That miscalculation was enough to damage the plane’s wing, causing it to crash into the Jeanne d’Arc School. The horror didn’t stop there. Several other bombers in the second and third waves mistakenly took the school for their target.
This onslaught resulted in the deaths of 125 civilians. Eighteen of those victims were adults, many were nuns, and a staggering 86 of those deaths were children. It’s a truly chilling story that Borndahl captures.
