Here is an excerpt from my blog about the Zoo Tower in Berlin. You can find the rest of the article on my blog, Charles McCain "The Zoo Tower was one of the three gigantic flak towers (Flaktürme) constructed to defend Berlin during World War Two. Hitler ordered the construction of these towers after the first (and very small) RAF Bomber Command raid on Berlin on 25/26 August. Only 29 RAF bombers constituted the attack force but this was a grave domestic political embarrassment to Hitler and the Nazis. The Zoo Tower was built close to the Berlin Zoo, hence the name, and is the most famous of the flak towers. It was the first one built and protected the government quarter in Berlin. The tower had formidable armament: four twin mounts of 128mm FlaK on the upper platform. Each barrel could fire 10 to 12 rounds a minute thus each twin mounted battery was rated to fire a maximum of 24 rounds a minute thus four twin mounts could fire as many as 96 rounds a minute. The guns were loaded electrically. The gunners carried the rounds from the ammunition hoist to the mounts and fed them into the automatic loaders. On the lower platforms were varying numbers of 20mm quads and 37mm FlaK batteries."
Here is an excerpt from the second part of my two-part article on The Zoo Tower. Again, you can find the rest of the article on my blog, Charles McCain "The Zoo bunker or air raid shelter was designed to hold 8,000 people although thousands more were crammed into the shelter during heavy raids. In the last week of the war, over 30,000 people were said to have taken refuge in the Zoo Tower. That figure comes from a Luftwaffe physician who was in tower during that time and is quoted in The Flak Towers It is not footnoted so it is impossible to track this down for confirmation. However, the entire building could hold 15,000 or more people as designed so it is possible that 30,000 people did occupy the entire structure, not just the bunker, in the last week of the war. Whatever the exact number, the tower was so jammed that many people were unable to move. Hundreds of people in that mass of humanity died or committed suicide but that wasn't discovered till the crowd finally left the tower because the bodies were being held upright by the crush of people. There was no food, limited water, and the limited sanitation facilities were overwhelmed. People simply evacuated themselves in place."
