1972 May 11, 1972 Frankfurt am Main

Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Holger Meins, and Jan-Carl Raspe place three pipe bombs near the entrance the the I.G. Farben building, which houses the headquarters of the US Army Corp. The bombs explode within minutes of each other from 6:59 PM to 7:02 PM. The entrance to the officer’s mess is destroyed. A shard of molten metal flies from the bomb and lodges deeply into the throat of Lt. Colonel Paul Bloomquist. A decorated Vietnam veteran and father of two, Bloomquist bleeds to death at the entrance of the officer’s mess. Damages to the building are estimated to be DM 1,000,000. The Baader-Meinhof Gang, calling themselves the “Petra Schelm Commando,” claims responsibility in a communiqué, which demands the end to the American mining of North Vietnamese harbors.