   #copyright

The Blitz

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History Post 1900

   Heinkel He 111 German bomber over the Surrey Docks, Southwark, London
   (German propaganda photomontage)
   Enlarge
   Heinkel He 111 German bomber over the Surrey Docks, Southwark, London
   (German propaganda photomontage)

   The Blitz was the sustained bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi
   Germany between 7 September 1940 and 16 May 1941. It was carried out by
   the Luftwaffe, and hit many towns and cities across the UK, but the
   main attack was concentrated on London. The Blitz inflicted about
   43,000 deaths and destroyed more than a million houses, but failed to
   achieve the Germans' strategic objectives of knocking Britain out of
   the war or rendering it unable to resist an invasion.

   Although the word Blitz is a shortening of the German word blitzkrieg,
   meaning "lightning war," it was not an example of blitzkrieg but was an
   early example of strategic bombing. The literal translation of the
   German word "Blitz" is "lightning."

   In 1944 during the "Little Blitz", aerial attacks resumed with the
   Germans using V1s and V2s .

Prelude

   After the fall of France, the Battle of Britain began in July 1940.
   From July to September, the Luftwaffe frontally attacked Royal Air
   Force Fighter Command to gain air superiority as a prelude to invasion.
   This involved the bombing of fighter airfields to destroy Fighter
   Command's ability to combat an invasion.

   The RAF came much closer to defeat than was publicly admitted at the
   time and had the Luftwaffe persisted, it might have achieved air
   superiority. However, the Germans overestimated the RAF's strength and
   believed that they first needed to destroy strategic installations such
   as aircraft factories and dockyards and thus deny the RAF the
   replacements it required. In late August 1940, before the date normally
   associated with the start of the Blitz, the Luftwaffe attacked
   industrial targets in Birmingham and Liverpool.

   During a raid on Thames Haven, on 24 August 1940, some German aircraft
   strayed over London and dropped bombs in the east and north-east of the
   city, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Islington, Tottenham and Finchley. This
   prompted the British to mount a retaliatory raid on Berlin the next
   night with bombs falling in Kreuzberg and Wedding. Hitler was said to
   be furious and on 5 September issued a directive stating a requirement
   "...for disruptive attacks on the population and air defences of major
   British cities, including London, by day and night". The Luftwaffe
   began day and night attacks of British cities, concentrating on London.
   This relieved pressure on the RAF's airfields.

First phase

   Bombed buildings in London.
   Enlarge
   Bombed buildings in London.

   The first air raids on London were mainly aimed at the Port of London
   in the East End. The damage was severe, with the raid of 7 September
   involving 300 bombers escorted by 600 fighters. Another 180 bombers
   attacked that night. Many of the bombs aimed at the docks fell on
   neighboring residential areas, killing 436 Londoners and injuring
   another 1,600.
   Children of an eastern suburb of London, who have been made homeless by
   the random bombs of the Nazi night raiders, waiting outside the
   wreckage of what was their home. September 1940. (National Archives)
   Enlarge
   Children of an eastern suburb of London, who have been made homeless by
   the random bombs of the Nazi night raiders, waiting outside the
   wreckage of what was their home. September 1940. (National Archives)

   British defences were poor. Few of the defenders' anti-aircraft guns
   had fire-control systems and the underpowered searchlights were usually
   ineffective at altitudes above 12,000 ft (3,600 m). Even the fortified
   Cabinet War Rooms, the secret underground bunker hidden under the
   Treasury to house the government during the war, would have been
   susceptible to a direct hit from enemy bombing (it was never hit). Few
   fighter aircraft were able to operate at night and ground-based radar
   was limited. During the first raid, only 92 guns were available to
   defend London. The city's defenses were rapidly reorganised by General
   Frederick Pile, the Commander-in-Chief of Anti-Aircraft Command and by
   11 September twice as many guns were available and under orders to fire
   at will. The consequent barrage was much more impressive, boosted
   civilian morale and though it had little effect on the raiders there
   was something of a deterrent effect, encouraging crews to drop early,
   since the anti-aircraft fire was visible to the bomber crews.

   During this first phase of the Blitz, an average of 200 bombers
   attacked London every night but one between mid-September and
   mid-November. Most were German but included some Italian aircraft
   operating from Belgium. Birmingham and Bristol were attacked on 15
   October, while the heaviest attack of the war so far — involving 400
   bombers and lasting six hours — hit London. The RAF opposed them with
   41 fighters but only shot down one Heinkel bomber. By mid-November, the
   Germans had dropped more than 13,000 tons of high explosive and more
   than 1 million incendiary bombs for a combat loss of less than 1%
   (although planes were of course being lost in accidents caused by night
   flying and night landing).

Second phase

   From November 1940 to February 1941, the Luftwaffe attacked industrial
   and port cities. Targets included Coventry, Southampton, Birmingham,
   Liverpool, Bristol, Swindon, Plymouth, Cardiff, Manchester, Sheffield,
   Portsmouth, and Avonmouth. During this period, fourteen attacks were
   mounted on ports, nine on industrial targets inland and eight on
   London.

   Probably the most devastating of these raids, in terms of material
   destruction, occurred on the evening of the 29 December in what has
   been dubbed The Second Great Fire of London in which an embattled St
   Paul's Cathedral provided an iconic image of London's resistance.

   British defences were still fairly weak and German losses were
   sustainable — only 75 aircraft during these four months. The German
   High Command became sceptical about the campaign, since the bombing was
   not affecting the RAF and with the RAF intact, an invasion of Britain
   was unfeasible. Preparations were underway for Operation Barbarossa,
   the invasion of the Soviet Union, which (in Hitler's eyes) had more
   priority than reducing Britain.

Third phase

   In February 1941, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder persuaded Hitler to attack
   British ports in support of the Kriegsmarine's Battle of the Atlantic.
   Hitler issued a directive on 6 February ordering the Luftwaffe to
   concentrate its efforts on ports, notably Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol
   and Avonmouth, Swansea, Liverpool, Belfast ( main article: Belfast
   blitz), Clydebank, Hull, Sunderland, and Newcastle. 46 attacks were
   mounted against those cities between 19 February and 12 May, with only
   seven directed against London, Birmingham, Coventry, and Nottingham.

   By this time, the effort was aimed as much against civilians as against
   industrial targets and the raids were intended to provoke terror.
   British defenses were much improved by this time. The Bristol
   Beaufighter, with airborne radar, proved effective against bombers with
   ground-based radar guiding night fighters to their targets. An
   increasing number of anti-aircraft guns and searchlights were
   radar-controlled, improving accuracy. From the start of 1941 the
   Luftwaffe's losses mounted (28 in January, 124 in May). With the
   impending invasion of the Soviet Union requiring the movement of air
   power to the East, the Blitz ended in May 1941.

   One last major attack on London happened on 10 May, where many
   important buildings were destroyed or damaged, among them the British
   Museum, Houses of Parliament and St. James's Palace.

Baedeker Blitz

   The Baedeker Blitz was a series of raids conducted in mid- 1942 as
   reprisals for the RAF bombing of the German city of Lübeck. The
   Baedeker raids targeted historic cities with no military or strategic
   importance such as Bath, Canterbury, Exeter, Norwich and York. Churches
   and other public buildings were often the targets of these raids in an
   attempt to break civilian morale.

   With regard to civil defences, the number of public bomb shelters fell
   far below the required number, forcing the authorities in London to
   make use of about eighty London Underground stations to house about
   177,000 people. In contrast, the Germans made a much more concerted and
   organised effort to shelter their population against the Allied
   strategic bombing campaign later in the war.

   Great improvements were made to air defenses during the Blitz. This
   proved something of a propaganda coup, and much was made of the
   stoicism of the British people, encapsulated in the 1940 propaganda
   film London Can Take It, made by Humphrey Jennings.

   American radio journalist Edward R. Murrow was stationed in London at
   the time of the Blitz and he made live radio broadcasts to the United
   States during the bombings. Live broadcasts from a theatre of war had
   not been heard by radio audiences before and Murrow's London broadcasts
   made him a celebrity. His broadcasts were enormously important in
   prompting the sympathy of the American people for Britain's resistance
   to Nazi aggression.

Little Blitz

     * June 12, 1944: First V-1 Flying Bomb attack on London inaugurates
       the Little Blitz. The British defence against the V-1 was codenamed
       Operation Diver.
     * September 8, 1944: First V-2 Rocket attack on London.
     * September 17, 1944: The Blackout is replaced by a partial
       'dim-out'.

Major sites, structures, and churches damaged or destroyed in the Blitz

     * All Hallows by-the-Tower
     * All Hallows-on-the-Wall
     * Bank tube Station - January 11, 1941
     * Bounds Green Station - October 13, 1940
     * British Museum - May 10, 1941
     * Buckingham Palace
     * Café de Paris - March 8, 1941
     * Central Telegraph Office - December 29, 1940
     * Chelsea Old Church
     * Christ Church, Newgate
     * City Temple
     * Dutch Church
     * Euston station - November 15, 1940
     * Guildhall - December 29, 1940
     * Holland House
     * Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) - May 10, 1941
     * Lambeth Palace - May 10, 1941
     * Lambeth Walk - September 18, 1940
     * London Library
     * Marble Arch Underground Station - September 17, 1940
     * National Portrait Gallery - November 15, 1940
     * Old Bailey - May 10, 1941
     * Paternoster Row - December 29, 1940
     * Portsmouth Guildhall
     * Portsmouth Harbour railway station
     * Shell Mex House - September 15, 1940
     * St. Joseph's RC Primary school- May 10, 1941
     * St Alban Wood Street
     * St Alfege's Church, Greenwich - March 19, 1941
     * St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe
     * St Andrew Holborn
     * St Augustine Watling Street
     * St Bartholomew the Less
     * St Botolph Aldersgate
     * St Clement Danes
     * St Dunstan-in-the-East
     * St George in the East - May 1941
     * St James Garlickhithe
     * St. James's Palace - May 10, 1941
     * St Lawrence Jewry - December 29, 1940
     * St Luke's Church, Liverpool
     * St Mary Abchurch
     * St Mary Aldermanbury
     * St Mary-le-Bow - May 10, 1941
     * St Nicholas Cole Abbey
     * St Olave Hart Street
     * St Paul's Cathedral - December 29, 1940
     * St Vedast alias Foster
     * Temple Church
     * Westminster Abbey - November 15, 1940
     * Westminster Hall - May 10, 1941

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