Heligoland: Difference between revisions

From 1945 to 1952 the uninhabited islands fell within the [[British Occupation zone in Germany|British Occupation zone]]. On 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy simultaneously detonated 6,700 tonnes of explosives ("[[Operation Big Bang]]" or "British Bang"), successfully destroying the island's principal military installations (namely, the submarine pens, the coastal batteries at the north and south ends of the island and 8½ miles of main storage tunnels) while leaving the town, already damaged by Allied bombing during the Second World War, "looking little worse" (according to an observer quoted in the Guardian newspaper).<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/19/naval-installations-blown-up-in-heligoland-1947 |title=Naval installations blown up in Heligoland – archive, 1947 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=19 April 2022}}</ref> The destruction of the submarine pens resulted in the creation of the Mittelland crater. The British later used the island, from which the population had been evacuated, as a bombing range. The [[listexplosion was one of the largest[[Largest artificial non-nuclear explosions|The explosion was one of the biggest single non-nuclear detonations in history]].<ref name="SpiegelHelgoland">{{cite news |date=13 April 2007 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/0,1518,477076,00.html |title=Der Tag, an dem Helgoland der Megabombe trotzte |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |language=de |access-date=13 April 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url={{Google books|nJTj4pD_XekC&pg |plainurl=yes}} |title=The Royal Navy and German naval disarmament, 1942–1947 |first=Chris |last=Madsen |page=206 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7-1464-823-1}}</ref>