This caused more than 2,000 fires; 1,436 people were killed and 1,792 seriously injured, which affected morale badly. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of . "Bombing of London" and "London Blitz" redirect here. [170] In November and December 1940, the Luftwaffe flew 9,000 sorties against British targets and RAF night fighters claimed only six shot down. [58], Deep shelters provided most protection against a direct hit. Summerfield, Penny and Peniston-Bird, Corina. It was evoked by both the right and left political factions in Britain in 1982, during the Falklands War when it was portrayed in a nostalgic narrative in which the Second World War represented patriotism actively and successfully acting as a defender of democracy. [175], Between 20 June 1940, when the first German air operations began over Britain, and 31 March 1941, OKL recorded the loss of 2,265 aircraft over the British Isles, a quarter of them fighters and one-third bombers. [151], Directive 23 was the only concession made by Gring to the Kriegsmarine over the strategic bombing strategy of the Luftwaffe against Britain. 11 Feb 2020. Hitler believed the Luftwaffe was "the most effective strategic weapon", and in reply to repeated requests from the Kriegsmarine for control over naval aircraft insisted, "We should never have been able to hold our own in this war if we had not had an undivided Luftwaffe. [9] and a large raid on the night of 10-11 May 1941. Destroying RAF Fighter Command would allow the Germans to gain control of the skies over the invasion area. In the last days of the battle, the bombers became lures in an attempt to draw the RAF into combat with German fighters. Much of the city centre was destroyed. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. At around 8.30pm on Sunday 13 October, a high-explosive bomb plunged through the Coronation Avenue flats on Stoke Newington High Street, and exploded directly above a shelter made up of three interconnected basements. These attacks produced some breaks in morale, with civil leaders fleeing the cities before the offensive reached its height. [135] In particular, the West Midlands were targeted. The London Blitz started quietly. [127] By the second month of the Blitz the defences were not performing well. More might have been achieved had OKL exploited the vulnerability of British sea communications. Attacking ports, shipping and imports as well as disrupting rail traffic in the surrounding areas, especially the distribution of coal, an important fuel in all industrial economies of the Second World War, would net a positive result. It could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. [170] On 19 November, John Cunningham of No. [139], Although official German air doctrine did target civilian morale, it did not espouse the attacking of civilians directly. The primary goal of Bomber Command was to destroy the German industrial base (economic warfare) and in doing so reduce morale. [127] Over 10,000 incendiaries were dropped. The name "Blitz" comes from the word "blitzkrieg" which meant "lightning war". Moreover, the OKL could not settle on an appropriate strategy. Ed Murrow reporting on war torn London during the blitz. Throughout 1940, dummy airfields were prepared, good enough to stand up to skilled observation. [38][a], It was decided to focus on bombing Britain's industrial cities, in daylight to begin with. Between September 1940 and May 1941 the German Luftwaffe attacked the city on over 70 separate occasions, with around 1 million homes being destroyed and killing over 20,000 civilians. [194], In one 6-month period, 750,000 tons (762,000t) of bombsite rubble from London were transported by railway on 1,700 freight trains to make runways on Bomber Command airfields in East Anglia. Warehouses, rail lines and houses were destroyed and damaged, but the docks were largely untouched. It was during the Second World War. The shortage of bombers caused OKL to improvise. From 1943 to the end of the war, he [Harris] and other proponents of the area offensive represented it [the bomber offensive] less as an attack on morale than as an assault on the housing, utilities, communications, and other services that supported the war production effort. [61] A single direct hit on a shelter in Stoke Newington on October 1940 killed 160 civilians. London: The Blitz, September 1940-June 1941 Records are incomplete, but between 7 October 1940 and 6 June 1941 almost 28,000 high explosive bombs and over 400 parachute mines were recorded landing on Greater London. The effectiveness of British countermeasures against Knickebein caused the Luftwaffe to prefer fire light instead for target marking and navigation. London was bombed ever day and night, bar one, for 11 weeks. Seven major and eight heavy attacks were flown, but the weather made it difficult to keep up the pressure. [132] On 19 November 1940 the famous RAF night fighter ace John Cunningham shot down a Ju 88 bomber using airborne radar, just as Dowding had predicted. When the Luftwaffe struck at British cities for the first time on 7 September 1940, a number of civic and political leaders were worried by Dowding's apparent lack of reaction to the new crisis. X-Gert received and analysed the pulses, giving the pilot visual and aural directions. [143], Not all of the Luftwaffe effort was made against inland cities. The aerial bombing was now principally aimed at the destruction of industrial targets, but also continued with the objective of breaking the morale of the civilian population. [163] By the end of the air campaign over Britain, only eight percent of the German effort against British ports was made using mines. The OKL had not been informed that Britain was to be considered a potential opponent until early 1938. 4546. The tactic was expanded into Feuerleitung (Blaze Control) with the creation of Brandbombenfelder (Incendiary Fields) to mark targets. In particular, class division was most evident during the Blitz. The exhausted population took three weeks to overcome the effects of an attack. [93] In general, German bombers were likely to get through to their targets without too much difficulty. [173] On 19/20 April 1941, in honour of Hitler's 52nd birthday, 712 bombers hit Plymouth with a record 1,000tons (1,016t) of bombs. Here are the flats today, courtesy of Street View . As the mere threat of it had produced diplomatic results in the 1930s, he expected that the threat of German retaliation would persuade the Allies to adopt a policy of moderation and not to begin a policy of unrestricted bombing. Although bombing attacks unexpectedly did not begin immediately during the Phoney War,[51] civilians were aware of the deadly power of aerial attacks through newsreels of Barcelona, the Bombing of Guernica and the Bombing of Shanghai. On September 7, 1940, 350 German bombers escorted by fighters bombarded London on consecutive successions. Timeline How Allies Broke The Deadlock | First World War EP6 | Timeline Biographer Reveals Audrey Hepburn's . (AUDIO: The Wanderer) Despite being forbidden under the terms of the Treaty of . de Zeng, Henry L., Doug G. Stankey and Eddie J. Creek. [122][123] In July 1940, only 1,200 heavy and 549 light guns were deployed in the whole of Britain. The government up until November 1940, was opposed to the centralised organisation of shelter. Timeline London portal v t e The United Kingdom took part in World War II from 3 September 1939 until 15 August 1945. 10 Group RAF, No. The damage was considerable, and the Germans also used aerial mines. This philosophy proved impractical, as Bomber Command lacked the technology and equipment for mass night operations, since resources were diverted to Fighter Command in the mid-1930s and it took until 1943 to catch up. [149] This strategy had been recognised before the war, but Operation Eagle Attack and the following Battle of Britain had got in the way of striking at Britain's sea communications and diverted German air strength to the campaign against the RAF and its supporting structures. While direct attacks against civilians were ruled out as "terror bombing", the concept of attacking vital war industriesand probable heavy civilian casualties and breakdown of civilian moralewas ruled as acceptable.[18]. [149] The indifference displayed by the OKL to Directive 23 was perhaps best demonstrated in operational directives which diluted its effect. By December, the SC2500 (2,500kg (5,512lb)) "Max" bomb was used. For all the destruction of life and property, the observers sent out by the Ministry of Home Security failed to discover the slightest sign of a break in morale. A building collapsing in Whitechapel during the Blitz. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940 (a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom). On 17 January around 100 bombers dropped a high concentration of incendiaries, some 32,000 in all. [29] The British produced 10,000 aircraft in 1940, in comparison to Germany's 8,000. 348 bombers led by 617 fighters barraged London around 4:00 in the afternoon that day. [13] The strategic impact on industrial cities was varied; most took from 10 to 15 days to recover from heavy raids, although Belfast and Liverpool took longer. Between 1940 and 1941, the Germans attacked Britain by bombing London. By September 1940, the large-scale German air raids which had been expected twelve months earlier finally arrived. This led the British to develop countermeasures, which became known as the Battle of the Beams. Contact Us 0207 608 5516 Call today: 9am - 5.30pm One-third of London's streets were impassable. The Luftwaffe was not pressed into ground support operations because of pressure from the army or because it was led by ex-soldiers, the Luftwaffe favoured a model of joint inter-service operations, rather than independent strategic air campaigns. An average of 200 were able to strike per night. Throughout 193339 none of the 16 Western Air Plans drafted mentioned morale as a target. Night fighters could claim only four bombers for four losses. [139], Probably the most devastating attack occurred on the evening of 29 December, when German aircraft attacked the City of London itself with incendiary and high explosive bombs, causing a firestorm that has been called the Second Great Fire of London. [172], By April and May 1941, the Luftwaffe was still getting through to their targets, taking no more than one- to two-percent losses per mission. The air campaign soon got underway against London and other British cities. So worried were the government over the sudden campaign of leaflets and posters distributed by the Communist Party in Coventry and London, that the police were sent to seize their production facilities. [127] Other sources say 449 bombers and a total of 470 long tons (478t) of bombs were dropped. This led to their agreeing to Hitler's Directive 23, Directions for operations against the British War Economy, which was published on 6 February 1941 and gave aerial interdiction of British imports by sea top priority. Other targets would be considered if the primary ones could not be attacked because of weather conditions. Three cross-beams intersected the beam along which the He 111 was flying. Direction-finding checks also enabled the controller to keep the pilot on course. A summary of Harris' strategic intentions was clear. This became official policy on 7 October. Signals from the station were retransmitted by the bomber's equipment, which allowed the distance the bomber had travelled along the beam to be measured precisely. But their operations were to no avail; the worsening weather and unsustainable attrition in daylight gave the OKL an excuse to switch to night attacks on 7 October. Some 107,400 gross tons (109,100t) of shipping was damaged in the Thames Estuary and 1,600 civilians were casualties. Over the next few days weather was poor and the next main effort would not be made until 15 September 1940. Ports were easier to find and made better targets. [152] Raeder's successorKarl Dnitzwouldon the intervention of Hitlergain control of one unit (KG 40), but Gring would soon regain it. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (Kindle Edition) by. [56] Not only was there evacuation over land, but also by ship. Regional commissioners were given plenipotentiary powers to restore communications and organise the distribution of supplies to keep the war economy moving. [2], The military effectiveness of bombing varied. The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. An American witness wrote "By every test and measure I am able to apply, these people are staunch to the bone and won't quit the British are stronger and in a better position than they were at its beginning". The defences failed to prevent widespread damage but on some occasions did prevent German bombers concentrating on their targets. The Blitz referred to the bombing of most major British cities by the Germans in World War II. History of the Battle of Britain The Blitz - The Hardest Night The Blitz - The Hardest Night 10/11 May 1941, 11:02pm - 05:57am The most devastating raid on London took place on the night of 10/11 May 1941. Poor intelligence about British industry and economic efficiency led to OKL concentrating on tactics rather than strategy. Some people even told government surveyors that they enjoyed air raids if they occurred occasionally, perhaps once a week. Tawny Pipit (1944) While the likes of Welcome Mr. Washington (1944), Great Day (1945) and I Live in Grosvenor Square (1945) extended British hospitality to visiting Americans, Anthony Asquith's The Demi-Paradise (1943) was alone in offering the hand of friendship to our Soviet allies. [154], Even so, the decision by the OKL to support the strategy in Directive 23 was instigated by two considerations, both of which had little to do with wanting to destroy Britain's sea communications in conjunction with the Kriegsmarine. Cardiff was bombed on three nights; Portsmouth centre was devastated by five raids. [22], Two prominent enthusiasts for ground-support operations (direct or indirect) were Hugo Sperrle the commander of Luftflotte 3 (1 February 1939 23 August 1944) and Hans Jeschonnek (Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff from 1 February 1939 19 August 1943). Daniel Todman reveals how Britons rebuilt their lives, and their cities, in the aftermath of the raids Published: December 1, 2017 at 4:27 pm Subs offer But even in May, 67 percent of the sorties were visual cat's-eye missions. To reduce losses further, strategy changed to prefer night raids, giving the bombers greater protection under cover of darkness. The electronic war intensified but the Luftwaffe flew major inland missions only on moonlit nights. [85] Although night air defence was causing greater concern before the war, it was not at the forefront of RAF planning after 1935, when funds were directed into the new ground-based radar day fighter interception system. Committees quickly formed within shelters as informal governments, and organisations such as the British Red Cross and the Salvation Army worked to improve conditions. Roads and railways were blocked and ships could not leave harbour. [107], Luftwaffe policy at this point was primarily to continue progressive attacks on London, chiefly by night attack; second, to interfere with production in the vast industrial arms factories of the West Midlands, again chiefly by night attack; and third to disrupt plants and factories during the day by means of fighter-bombers. Underground officials were ordered to lock station entrances during raids but by the second week of heavy bombing, the government relented and ordered the stations to be opened. Dowding was summoned on 17 October, to explain the poor state of the night defences and the supposed (but ultimately successful) "failure" of his daytime strategy. [98] The fighting in the air was more intense in daylight. [183], A popular image arose of British people in the Second World War: a collection of people locked in national solidarity. [49], In 1937 the Committee on Imperial Defence estimated that an attack of 60 days would result in 600,000 dead and 1.2million wounded. Hull and Glasgow were attacked but 715 long tons (726t) of bombs were spread out all over Britain. [95][96], Initially, the change in strategy caught the RAF off-guard and caused extensive damage and civilian casualties. The property stands alone on a section of riverbank on the Thames, in South East London 's . The mines' ability to destroy entire streets earned them respect in Britain, but several fell unexploded into British hands allowing counter-measures to be developed which damaged the German anti-shipping campaign. By September 1940, London had already experienced German bombing. When Gring decided against continuing Wever's original heavy bomber programme in 1937, the Reichsmarschall's own explanation was that Hitler wanted to know only how many bombers there were, not how many engines each had. The Blitz as it became known in the British press was a sustained aerial attack, sending waves of bombs raining down onto British towns and cities. The government saw the leading role taken by the Communist Party in advocating the building of deep shelters as an attempt to damage civilian morale, especially after the MolotovRibbentrop Pact of August 1939. Ground-based radar was limited, and airborne radar and RAF night fighters were generally ineffective. THIS DAY IN HISTORY September 07 1940 September 07 The Blitz begins as Germany bombs London On September 7, 1940, 300 German bombers raid London, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of. Battle of Britain timeline. [citation needed] This image entered the historiography of the Second World War in the 1980s and 1990s,[dubious discuss] especially after the publication of Angus Calder's book The Myth of the Blitz (1991). To paralyse the enemy armed forces by stopping production in armaments factories. The day's fighting cost Kesselring and Luftflotte 2 (Air Fleet 2) 24 aircraft, including 13 Bf 109s. [171] In the bad weather of February 1941, Fighter Command flew 568 sorties to counter the Luftwaffe which flew 1,644 sorties. The loss of sleep was a particular factor, with many not bothering to attend inconvenient shelters. The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War.The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term Blitzkrieg, the German word meaning 'lightning war'.. [43] The Luftwaffe's strategy became increasingly aimless over the winter of 19401941. On occasion, only one-third of German bombs hit their targets. Jones began a search for German beams; Avro Ansons of the Beam Approach Training Development Unit (BATDU) were flown up and down Britain fitted with a 30MHz receiver. [63] Peak use of the Underground as shelter was 177,000 on 27 September 1940 and a November 1940 census of London, found that about 4% of residents used the Tube and other large shelters, 9% in public surface shelters and 27% in private home shelters, implying that the remaining 60% of the city stayed at home. The heavy fighting in the Battle of Britain had eaten up most of Fighter Command's resources, so there was little investment in night fighting. The programme evacuated 2,664 boys and girls (ages 5 - 15) until its ending in October after the sinking of the SS City of Benares with the loss of 81 children out of 100 on board. [70], Although the intensity of the bombing was not as great as pre-war expectations so an equal comparison is impossible, no psychiatric crisis occurred because of the Blitz even during the period of greatest bombing of September 1940. On 9 April 1941, Luftflotte 2 dropped 150 tons (152t) of high explosives and 50,000 incendiaries from 120 bombers in a five-hour attack. The German Luftwaffe dropped thousands of bombs on London from 1939 to 1945, killing almost 30,000 people. [164], In the north, substantial efforts were made against Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland, which were large ports on the English east coast. When a continuous sound was heard from the second beam the crew knew they were above the target and dropped their bombs. But the Luftwaffe's effort eased in the last 10 attacks as seven Kampfgruppen moved to Austria in preparation for the Balkans Campaign in Yugoslavia and Greece. The number of contacts and combats rose in 1941, from 44 and two in 48 sorties in January 1941, to 204 and 74 in May (643 sorties). The Blitz began on 7 September, 'Black Saturday', when German bombers attacked London, leaving 430 dead and 1,600 injured. More than 40,000civilians were killed by Luftwaffe bombing during the war, almost half of them in the capital, where more than a million houses were destroyed or damaged. Official histories concluded that the mental health of a nation may have improved, while panic was rare. Locating targets in skies obscured by industrial haze meant the target area needed to be illuminated and hit "without regard for the civilian population". [125], Few fighter aircraft were able to operate at night. [116] On 7 November, St Pancras, Kensal and Bricklayers Arms stations were hit and several lines of Southern Rail were cut on 10 November. [93], For industrial areas, fires and lighting were simulated. [119] The Ministry of Home Security reported that although the damage caused was "serious" it was not "crippling" and the quays, basins, railways and equipment remained operational. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. The London Blitz Timeline Nathaniel Zarate Sep 7 1940 September 7, 1940 On Saturday September 7th 1940, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force to bomb London. Hello, I Am Charlie from London - Stephane Husar 2014-07-15 The Demon in the Embers - Julia Edwards 2016-09-02 . The policy of RAF Bomber Command became an attempt to achieve victory through the destruction of civilian will, communications and industry. The debris of St Thomas's Hospital, London, the morning after receiving a direct hit during the Blitz, in front of the Houses of . From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the following 57 days and nights. BBC - WW2 People's War - Timeline Fact File : The Blitz 25 August 1940 to 16 May 1941 Theatre: United Kingdom Area: London and other major cities Players: Britain: RAF Fighter Command under. Dec. 17, 1983: Six people are. 5 Jan. Leslie Hore-Belisha, Britain's Minister of War, is dismissed. OKL did not believe air power alone could be decisive and the Luftwaffe did not adopt an official policy of the deliberate bombing of civilians until 1942. [39] The attacks were focused against western ports in March. London, and cities. The general neglect of the RAF until the late spurt in 1938, left few resources for night air defence and the Government, through the Air Ministry and other civil and military institutions was responsible for policy. [26], The deliberate separation of the Luftwaffe from the rest of the military structure encouraged the emergence of a major "communications gap" between Hitler and the Luftwaffe, which other factors helped to exacerbate. Curiously, while 43 percent of the contacts in May 1941 were by visual sightings, they accounted for 61 percent of the combats. Bombers were noisy, cold, and vibrated badly. No follow-up raids were made, as OKL underestimated the British power of recovery (as Bomber Command would do over Germany from 1943 to 1945). X-Gert receivers were mounted in He 111s, with a radio mast on the fuselage. Only one bomber was lost, to anti-aircraft fire, despite the RAF flying 125-night sorties. [76], Despite the attacks, defeat in Norway and France, and the threat of invasion, overall morale remained high. The difference this made to the effectiveness of air defences is questionable. Below is a table by city of the number of major raids (where at least 100 tons of bombs were dropped) and tonnage of bombs dropped during these major raids. The difficulty of RAF bombers in night navigation and target finding led the British to believe that it would be the same for German bomber crews. [190], The brief success of the Communists also fed into the hands of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). [13], The air offensive against the RAF and British industry failed to have the desired effect. It had no time to gather reliable intelligence on Britain's industries. [174] By the end of May, Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 had been withdrawn, leaving Hugo Sperrle's Luftflotte 3 as a token force to maintain the illusion of strategic bombing. In late 1940, Churchill credited the shelters. [136] The raid against Coventry was particularly devastating, and led to widespread use of the phrase "to coventrate". [24], Hitler was much more attracted to the political aspects of bombing. News reports of the Spanish Civil War, such as the bombing of Barcelona, supported the 50-casualties-per-tonne estimate. In the following month, 22 German bombers were lost with 13 confirmed to have been shot down by night fighters. The British government grew anxious about the delays and disruption of supplies during the month. [70] Pub visits increased in number (beer was never rationed), and 13,000 attended cricket at Lord's. [137] Around 21 factories were seriously damaged in Coventry, and loss of public utilities stopped work at nine others, disrupting industrial output for several months. Thereafter, he would refuse to make available any air units to destroy British dockyards, ports, port facilities, or shipping in dock or at sea, lest Kriegsmarine gain control of more Luftwaffe units. [12], Five nights later, Birmingham was hit by 369 bombers from KG 54, KG26, and KG55. Liverpool and its port became an important destination for convoys heading through the Western Approaches from North America, bringing supplies and materials. (Photo by J. The German bombing of Britain from 1940-45 exacted a terrible price, in lives lost, infrastructure wrecked and nerves shattered. This timeline highlights key moments in the run up to and during the Battle of Britain. 6063, 6768, 75, 7879, 21516. [173] On 10/11 May, London suffered severe damage, but 10 German bombers were downed. Much damage was done. The receipt of the German signal by the receiver was duly passed to the transmitter, the signal to be repeated. [3] OKL instead sought clusters of targets that suited the latest policy (which changed frequently), and disputes within the leadership were about tactics rather than strategy. [5] Large air battles broke out, lasting for most of the day. The 'all clear' was sounded at 05.00 on 8 September - 420 people were killed and over 1600 seriously wounded. Many popular works of fiction during the 1920s and 1930s portrayed aerial bombing, such as H. G. Wells' novel The Shape of Things to Come and its 1936 film adaptation, and others such as The Air War of 1936 and The Poison War. At least 3,363 Luftwaffe aircrew were killed, 2,641 missing and 2,117 wounded. [21], In 1936, Wever was killed in an air crash and the failure to implement his vision for the new Luftwaffe was largely attributable to his successors. People referred to raids as if they were weather, stating that a day was "very blitzy". The Romanov family was the imperial house of the Russian Empire from 1613 until being forced out of power in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. [186] At the time it was seen as a useful propaganda tool for domestic and foreign consumption. People were forced to sleep in air raid shelters, and many people took shelter in underground stations. The Blitz and what was known as 'Black Saturday' was the start in Britain of what Poland and Western Europe had already experienced - total war. [50] Panic during the Munich crisis, such as the migration by 150,000 people to Wales, contributed to fear of social chaos.[54]. The Royal Chapel, inner quadrangle and Palace gates were hit, and several workmen were injured. Many civilians who were unwilling or unable to join the military joined the Home Guard, the Air Raid Precautions service (ARP), the Auxiliary Fire Service and many other civilian organisations.
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