War damage (in numbers)

The report Defensie- en oorlogsschade in kaart gebracht (1939-1945) (‘An inventory of the defence and war damage (1939-1945)' by Elisabeth van Blankenstein, written on behalf of the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg (2006), provides an extensive and detailed overview. In Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (‘The Kingdom of the Netherlands During the Second World War’), vol. 10b, Loe de Jong writes about the war damage to farms, houses, company premises, churches, and bridges.

By the end of the war, 14,000 farms across the country had been completely destroyed or heavily damaged, as had more than 25,000 other industrial buildings, over 1,500 schools, over 900 churches, over 250 hospitals and 120,000 homes, almost 90,000 of which were damaged beyond repair. A further 390,000 homes had sustained slight damage. More than 900 road bridges, large and small, had been destroyed, almost all by the German Wehrmacht. Only nine of the 50 main road bridges were spared. In addition, a total of more than 180 railway bridges had been destroyed. Only three of the main railway bridges survived. (Source: L. de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (‘The Kingdom of the Netherlands During the Second World War’), vol. 10b (The Hague 1982), pp. 1442-1443.)