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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. [81], British air doctrine, since Hugh Trenchard had commanded the Royal Flying Corps (19151917), stressed offence as the best means of defence,[82] which became known as the cult of the offensive. [71], According to Anna Freud and Edward Glover, London civilians surprisingly did not suffer from widespread shell shock, unlike the soldiers in the Dunkirk evacuation. 4546. [161] Still, while heavily damaged, British ports continued to support war industry and supplies from North America continued to pass through them while the Royal Navy continued to operate in Plymouth, Southampton, and Portsmouth. The maps help to contextualize the staggering statistics from the Blitz: in London alone, there were 57 consecutive nights of bombing. He roused them, ensured they took oxygen and Dextro-Energen amphetamine tablets, then completed the mission. 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'.. 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. By September 1940, the large-scale German air raids which had been expected twelve months earlier finally arrived. [168] The Boulton Paul Defiant, despite its poor performance during daylight engagements, was a much better night fighter. The day's fighting cost Kesselring and Luftflotte 2 (Air Fleet 2) 24 aircraft, including 13 Bf 109s. [45] This method condemned the offensive over Britain to failure before it began. [131] Whitehall's disquiet at the failures of the RAF led to the replacement of Dowding (who was already due for retirement) with Sholto Douglas on 25 November. [159] Operations against London up until May 1941 could also have a severe impact on morale. In mid-September 1940, about 150,000 people a night slept in the Underground, although by winter and spring the numbers declined to 100,000 or less. [169], Improved aircraft designs were in the offing with the Bristol Beaufighter, then under development. The Blitz The heavy and frequent bombing attacks on London and other cities was known as the 'Blitz'. The reverse would apply only if the meacon were closer. Children pull crackers under paper decorations while jubilant adults smile . [35], While Gring was optimistic the Luftwaffe could prevail, Hitler was not. Democracies, where public opinion was allowed, were thought particularly vulnerable. It was to be some months before an effective night-fighter force would be ready, and anti-aircraft defences only became adequate after the Blitz was over, so ruses were created to lure German bombers away from their targets. The primary target of NAZI Germany was to destroy the civilian center and industries on London. [62], Communal shelters never housed more than one seventh of Greater London residents. Rumours that Jews were inflating prices, were responsible for the Black Market, were the first to panic under attack (even the cause of the panic) and secured the best shelters via underhanded methods, were also widespread. [58][59], The most important existing communal shelters were the London Underground stations. On occasion, only one-third of German bombs hit their targets. From 1940 to 1941, the most successful night-fighter was the Boulton Paul Defiant; its four squadrons shot down more enemy aircraft than any other type. [7][8] Notable attacks included a large daylight attack against London on 15 September, a large raid on December 29 1940 against London resulting in a firestorm known as the Second Great Fire of London. Civilians left for more remote areas of the country. Reflections made by factory skylights were created by placing lights under angled wooden panels. Operating over home territory, British aircrew could fly again if they survived being shot down. The Blitz (shortened from German 'Blitzkrieg', "lightning war") was the period of sustained strategic bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. 'Blitz' is an abbreviation of the German word 'blitzkrieg', meaning 'lightning war'. It hoped to destroy morale by destroying the enemy's factories and public utilities as well as its food stocks (by attacking shipping). People left shelters when told instead of refusing to leave, although many housewives reportedly enjoyed the break from housework. Port cities were also attacked to try to disrupt trade and sea communications. Within four months, 88 percent of evacuated mothers, 86 percent of small children, and 43 percent of schoolchildren had been returned home. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 12:33. They concluded bombers should strike a single target each night and use more incendiaries because they had a greater impact on production than high explosives. [89][90], Knickebein was in general use but the X-Gert (X apparatus) was reserved for specially trained pathfinder crews. From July until September 1940 the Luftwaffe attacked Fighter Command to gain air superiority as a prelude to invasion. 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. Only a few weeks after the British victory in the Battle of. The AFS had 138,000 personnel by July 1939. First, the difficulty in estimating the impact of bombing upon war production was becoming apparent, and second, the conclusion British morale was unlikely to break led the OKL to adopt the naval option. Gring's lack of co-operation was detrimental to the one air strategy with potentially decisive strategic effect on Britain. On 15 October, the bombers returned and about 900 fires were started by the mix of 376 tons (382t) of high explosive and 10 tons of incendiaries dropped. Much of the city centre was destroyed. TikTok said in a blog post in June that it will route all data from U.S. users to servers controlled by Oracle, the Silicon Valley company it chose as its U.S. tech partner in 2020 in an effort to . [156] Westminster Abbey and the Law Courts were damaged, while the Chamber of the House of Commons was destroyed. [149] The indifference displayed by the OKL to Directive 23 was perhaps best demonstrated in operational directives which diluted its effect. The difference this made to the effectiveness of air defences is questionable. The system worked on 6677MHz, a higher frequency than Knickebein. [156], The Luftwaffe could still inflict much damage and after the German conquest of Western Europe, the air and submarine offensive against British sea communications became much more dangerous than the German offensive during the First World War. The official history volume British War Production (Postan, 1952) noted that the greatest effect on output of warlike stores was on the supply of components and dispersal of production rather than complete equipment. Another poll found an 88% approval rating for Churchill in July. An interactive map showing the location of bombs dropped on London during World War II has been created. They have usually been treated as distinct campaigns, but they are linked by the fact that the German Air Force conducted a continuous eleven-month offensive against Britain from July 1940 to June 1941. [135] In particular, the West Midlands were targeted. [113] In the case of Battersea power station, an unused extension was hit and destroyed during November but the station was not put out of action during the night attacks. By the height of the Blitz, they were becoming more successful. Children in the East End of London, made homeless by the Blitz From this point, there were air raids every day for two months. In March 1941, two raids on Plymouth and London dehoused 148,000 people. [108], Kesselring, commanding Luftflotte 2, was ordered to send 50 sorties per night against London and attack eastern harbours in daylight. Seeschlange would be carried out by Fliegerkorps X (10th Air Corps) which concentrated on mining operations against shipping. [145] The shift from precision bombing to area attack is indicated in the tactical methods and weapons dropped. [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. Its aircraftDornier Do 17, Junkers Ju 88, and Heinkel He 111swere capable of carrying out strategic missions[41] but were incapable of doing greater damage because of their small bomb-loads. [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. [70] Pub visits increased in number (beer was never rationed), and 13,000 attended cricket at Lord's. 4 June 1940 18 June 1940 22 June 1940 1 July 1940 . Birmingham and Coventry were subject to 450 long tons (457t) of bombs between them in the last 10 days of October. Summerfield, Penny and Peniston-Bird, Corina. [11][162] Plymouth in particular, because of its vulnerable position on the south coast and close proximity to German air bases, was subjected to the heaviest attacks. [145], In 1941, the Luftwaffe shifted strategy again. Blitzkrieg - the lightning war - was the name given to the devastating German bombing attacks to which the United Kingdom was subjected from September 1940 until May 1941. X- and Y-Gert beams were placed over false targets and switched only at the last minute. [34] It has also been argued that it was doubtful the Luftwaffe could have won air superiority before the "weather window" began to deteriorate in October. Night after night, from September 1940 until May 1941, German bombers attacked British cities, ports and industrial areas. Soon a beam was traced to Derby (which had been mentioned in Luftwaffe transmissions). . Nearly 350 German bombers (escorted by over 600 fighters) dropped explosives on East London, targeting the docks in particular. The shortage of bombers caused OKL to improvise. 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). 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. [93] In general, German bombers were likely to get through to their targets without too much difficulty. The Luftwaffe had dropped 16,331 long tons (16,593t) of bombs. The tactic was expanded into Feuerleitung (Blaze Control) with the creation of Brandbombenfelder (Incendiary Fields) to mark targets. Over 2,000 AAA shells were fired, destroying two Ju 88s. The Blitz was a huge bombing campaign of London and other English cities carried about by the German airforce from September 1940 to May 1941. [13] In April 1941, when the targets were British ports, rifle production fell by 25 percent, filled-shell production by 4.6 percent and in small-arms production 4.5 percent. Ground-based radar was limited, and airborne radar and RAF night fighters were generally ineffective. 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. There is much that Londoners can look back on with pride, remarkably little about which they need to feel ashamed. Loge had cost the Luftwaffe 41 aircraft; 14 bombers, 16 Messerschmitt Bf 109s, seven Messerschmitt Bf 110s and four reconnaissance aircraft. 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. The clock mechanism was co-ordinated with the distances of the intersecting beams from the target so the target was directly below when the bombs were released. The main damage was inflicted on the commercial and domestic areas. Other targets would be considered if the primary ones could not be attacked because of weather conditions. Added to the tension of the mission which exhausted and drained crews, tiredness caught up with and killed many. 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. [b] The British had anticipated the change in strategy and dispersed its production facilities, making them less vulnerable to a concentrated attack. But even in May, 67 percent of the sorties were visual cat's-eye missions. It showed the extent to which Hitler mistook Allied strategy for one of morale breaking instead of one of economic warfare, with the collapse of morale as a bonus. The government did not build them for large populations before the war because of cost, time to build and fears that their safety would cause occupants to refuse to leave to return to work or that anti-war sentiment would develop in large congregations of civilians. Before the war, the Chamberlain government stated that night defence from air attack should not take up much of the national effort. [145] Captured German aircrews also indicated the homes of industrial workers were deliberately targeted. [127] By the second month of the Blitz the defences were not performing well. [72] The psychoanalysts were correct, and the special network of psychiatric clinics opened to receive mental casualties of the attacks closed due to lack of need. [109] Special units, such as KGr 100, became the Beleuchtergruppe (Firelighter Group), which used incendiaries and high explosives to mark the target area. 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. Some 107,400 gross tons (109,100t) of shipping was damaged in the Thames Estuary and 1,600 civilians were casualties. [25] In 1940 and 1941, Gring's refusal to co-operate with the Kriegsmarine denied the entire Wehrmacht military forces of the Reich the chance to strangle British sea communications, which might have had a strategic or decisive effect in the war against the British Empire. But the Blitz started in earnest on the afternoon of 7 September when the German Luftwaffe filled the skies in the first major daytime raid on London. Summerfield and Peniston-Bird 2007, p. 4. An unknown number of bombs fell on these diversionary ("Starfish") targets. Beginning. People referred to raids as if they were weather, stating that a day was "very blitzy". In the Myth of the Blitz, Calder exposed some of the counter-evidences of anti-social and divisive behaviours. The Battle of Britain [93] The use of diversionary techniques such as fires had to be made carefully. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). Smaller raids are not included in the tonnages. 8200 tons (8,330t) of bombs were dropped that month, about 10 percent in daylight, over 5400 tons (5,490t) on London during the night. "Pathfinders" from 12 Kampfgruppe 100 (Bomb Group 100 or KGr100) led 437 bombers from KG 1, KG 3, KG26, KG 27, KG55 and Lehrgeschwader 1 (1st Training Wing, or LG1) which dropped 350 long tons (356t) of high explosive, 50 long tons (50.8t) of incendiaries, and 127 parachute mines. [48] Based on experience with German strategic bombing during World War I against the United Kingdom, the British government estimated that 50 casualtieswith about one-third killedwould result for every tonne of bombs dropped on London. Bombsite rubble from Birmingham was used to make runways on US Air Force bases in Kent and Essex in southeast England. [184][185] This imagery of people in the Blitz was embedded via being in film, radio, newspapers and magazines. Air attacks continued sporadically, then in 1944 an entirely new threat arrived in the form . An estimated 43,000 people lost their lives. World War 2 Timeline - 1940. by Ben Johnson. Mackay2002, pp. On 15 September, on a date known as Battle of Britain Day, a large-scale raid was launched in daylight, but suffered significant loss for no lasting gain. At the beginning of the war in 1939, London was the largest city in the world, with 8.2 million inhabitants. [42], Although it had equipment capable of doing serious damage, the Luftwaffe had an unclear strategy and poor intelligence. [141][failed verification] Altogether, 130 German bombers destroyed the historical centre of London. To support the operations of the army formations, independent of railways, i.e., armoured forces and motorised forces, by impeding the enemy's advance and participating directly in ground operations. [93], For industrial areas, fires and lighting were simulated. Although the stress of the war resulted in many anxiety attacks, eating disorders, fatigue, weeping, miscarriages, and other physical and mental ailments, society did not collapse. 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". Sewer, rail, docklands, and electric installations were damaged. [179] Though militarily ineffective, the Blitz cost around 41,000 lives, may have injured another 139,000 people and did enormous damage to British infrastructure and housing stock. Although the weather was poor, heavy raids took place that afternoon on the London suburbs and the airfield at Farnborough. 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. [5][6] Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Gring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. [5] Large air battles broke out, lasting for most of the day. 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. However, meteorological conditions over Britain were not favourable for flying and prevented an escalation in air operations. The effectiveness of British countermeasures against Knickebein caused the Luftwaffe to prefer fire light instead for target marking and navigation. Whitechapel suffered greatly during this period. The populace of the port of Hull became "trekkers", people who made a mass exodus from cities before, during and after attacks. Reception committees were completely unprepared for the condition of some of the children. If a vigilant bomber crew could spot the fighter first, they had a decent chance of evading it. This is a Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II covering Britain 1939-45.Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II covering Britain 1939-45. The fake fires could only begin when the bombing started over an adjacent target and its effects were brought under control. Each setback caused more civilians to volunteer to become unpaid Local Defence Volunteers. He recognised the right of the public to seize tube stations and authorised plans to improve their condition and expand them by tunnelling. He fell asleep at the controls of his Ju 88 and woke up to discover the entire crew asleep. 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. [78], During the Blitz, The Scout Association guided fire engines to where they were most needed and became known as the "Blitz Scouts". Destroying RAF Fighter Command would allow the Germans to gain control of the skies over the invasion area. What he saw as the mythserene national unitybecame "historical truth". The estimate of tonnes of bombs an enemy could drop per day grew as aircraft technology advanced, from 75 in 1922, to 150 in 1934, to 644 in 1937. 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. [40] The Luftwaffe's decision in the interwar period to concentrate on medium bombers can be attributed to several reasons: Hitler did not intend or foresee a war with Britain in 1939, the OKL believed a medium bomber could carry out strategic missions just as well as a heavy bomber force, and Germany did not possess the resources or technical ability to produce four-engined bombers before the war. On 17 January around 100 bombers dropped a high concentration of incendiaries, some 32,000 in all. But the great bulk of the traffic went on, and Londonersthough they glanced apprehensively each morning at the list of closed stretches of line displayed at their local station, or made strange detours round back streets in the busesstill got to work. "Civilian morale during the Second World War: Responses to air raids re-examined.". [146] Eventually, he convinced Hitler of the need to attack British port facilities. [24], Hitler was much more attracted to the political aspects of bombing. [120], British night air defences were in a poor state. Ironically, the Blitz was the result of an . Red lamps were used to simulate blast furnaces and locomotive fireboxes. Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. Moreover, the OKL could not settle on an appropriate strategy. [2], The British began to assess the impact of the Blitz in August 1941 and the RAF Air Staff used the German experience to improve Bomber Command's offensives. The name "Blitz" comes from the word "blitzkrieg" which meant "lightning war". Plymouth was attacked five times before the end of the month while Belfast, Hull, and Cardiff were hit. [15] It was thought that "the bomber will always get through" and could not be resisted, particularly at night. Most residents found that such divisions continued within the shelters and many arguments and fights occurred over noise, space and other matters. The first German attack on London actually occurred by accident. By September 1940, London had already experienced German bombing. [145] Use of incendiaries, which were inherently inaccurate, indicated much less care was taken to avoid civilian property close to industrial sites.

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