How the Americans bombed Prague and what it has to do with the Dancing House.

The Dancing House, also known as Ginger and Fred, is Prague’s most famous modern building. Instagram is full of photos of tourists taking pictures with the Dancing House – and I’m sure few of them know that the Dancing House exists as a result of the bombing of Prague in February 1945.

It was February 14th, the end of the war. People in Prague had already experienced many alarms. The announcement of approaching planes only meant that the sirens sounded, people went to the bomb shelters, waited for other sirens to sound, and returned home. Soon most people in Prague ignored the alarms. That’s also why this bombing had so many victims.

Prague was attacked by 62 American B-17 bombers. The bombs fell on the city for only three minutes. There were 152 tons of them. The bombs fell mainly on Vinohrady and around Charles Square. 701 people were killed and 1,184 were injured. 2500 houses were damaged, 88 of them very badly. 68 houses were completely destroyed.

This was all due to fog and poor navigation. Over two thousand Allied aircraft flew out of Nuthampstead, England, that morning on their way to targets in Germany. Among the cities to be bombed was Dresden. But because it was foggy and overcast, the navigators made a fatal mistake, which was also helped by the fact that Prague, with its river profile, resembles Dresden.