No, Erich. 00Actually the British were very 'nice' with Cologne. Beside they destroyed the city in some 95% and killed some 40.000 people, the Cologne cathedral was left untouched on porpouse. They did not want to harm this very important historical building.
Believe it or not, I think it was by God's grace it wasn't touched and man's luck. There is no possible way that 4 engine bombers, whether RAF or US with their radar systems could pin-point with such accuracy not to miss the target and have everything else around it destroyed. In this case also it must be given credit to the German people and the sound building technique's of these mighty stone mason's long ago ! E
Even the hardest cynic has to admit that these things can be strange. Like the famous photo of St Paul's surrounded by the flames of the City of London. A large bomb actually penetrated beneath the cathedral but failed to explode....
I KNEW without even opening the link that it HAD to be the famous Patton wizzes in the Rhine foto. BTW--this is the edited pic.
Considering the fact that today's state of the art air forces still sometimes drop smart bombs on their own troops, I think it is clear that any particular building which survived World War 2 bombings unscathed was simply the beneficiary of a great deal of luck.
I also knew it was going to be THAT picture, Kai! It's great! I am going to write an article for a magazine and tell that funny anechdote! And I am surely not going to swin in the Rhine ever again!