It was a Sunday morning. Shortly after 10 am, an American bomber squadron approached from the north, mistaking Basel for a Third Reich target. The Army Air Forces dropped about 50 demolition bombs weighing 250 kilos over the Wolf Freight Depot and more than 2000 stick-type incendiary bombs over the Gundeldinger neighborhood. About 100 people were injured ; one boy lost his eye. As if by miracle, no one was fatally injured. Basel had been mistaken for a German city in the course of the final offensive; a few months later the Second World War came to a close. The bombing was a mistake, an insignificant sideshow, a blessing in disguise.
