[15] It was thought that "the bomber will always get through" and could not be resisted, particularly at night. Before the war, the Chamberlain government stated that night defence from air attack should not take up much of the national effort. To reduce losses further, strategy changed to prefer night raids, giving the bombers greater protection under cover of darkness. The lightning attack was infamously called "Black Saturday". At least 3,363 Luftwaffe aircrew were killed, 2,641 missing and 2,117 wounded. [184][185] This imagery of people in the Blitz was embedded via being in film, radio, newspapers and magazines. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. [103] The air battle was later commemorated by Battle of Britain Day. However, resentment of rich self-evacuees or hostile treatment of poor ones were signs of persistence of class resentments although these factors did not appear to threaten social order. The Communist Party made political capital out of these difficulties. This meant that British coastal centres and shipping at sea west of Ireland were the prime targets. [24], Hitler was much more attracted to the political aspects of bombing. Locating targets in skies obscured by industrial haze meant the target area needed to be illuminated and hit "without regard for the civilian population". Of greater potential was the GL (Gunlaying) radar and searchlights with fighter direction from RAF fighter control rooms to begin a GCI system (Ground Control-led Interception) under Group-level control (No. At this time, the Underground lines were mostly owned and run by separate companies, all of which were merged together with . Hitler quickly developed scepticism toward strategic bombing, confirmed by the results of the Blitz. Ultimately, the Russian royal family reached a . The defences failed to prevent widespread damage but on some occasions did prevent German bombers concentrating on their targets. Bungay, Stephen (2000). Explore Docklands at War. In Portsmouth Southsea and Gosport waves of 150 bombers destroyed vast swaths of the city with 40,000 incendiaries. 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. Only a few weeks after the British victory in the Battle of. The first major raid took place on 7 September. [16], The Luftwaffe took a cautious view of strategic bombing but the OKL did not oppose the strategic bombardment of industries or cities. Ex-Army personnel and his successors as Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff, Albert Kesselring (3 June 1936 31 May 1937) and Hans-Jrgen Stumpff (1 June 1937 31 January 1939) are usually blamed for abandoning strategic planning for close air support. All but one railway station line was blocked for several weeks. [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. The considerable rail network distributed to the rest of the country. Many of the latter were abandoned in 1940 as unsafe. Plymouth was attacked five times before the end of the month while Belfast, Hull, and Cardiff were hit. Regional commissioners were given plenipotentiary powers to restore communications and organise the distribution of supplies to keep the war economy moving. In July 1939, Gring arranged a display of the Luftwaffe's most advanced equipment at Rechlin, to give the impression the air force was more prepared for a strategic air war than was actually the case. 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. [156] The Luftwaffe attacks failed to knock out railways or port facilities for long, even in the Port of London, a target of many attacks. The rate of civilian housing loss was averaging 40,000 people per week dehoused in September 1940. Committees quickly formed within shelters as informal governments, and organisations such as the British Red Cross and the Salvation Army worked to improve conditions. Minister of Home Security Herbert Morrison was also worried morale was breaking, noting the defeatism expressed by civilians. 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. 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. [93], The first deliberate air raids on London were mainly aimed at the Port of London, causing severe damage. 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. 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. On 8 May 1941, 57 ships were destroyed, sunk or damaged, amounting to 80,000 long tons (81,300t). [136] The raid against Coventry was particularly devastating, and led to widespread use of the phrase "to coventrate". The Blitz The heavy and frequent bombing attacks on London and other cities was known as the 'Blitz'. In those sites, carbon arc lamps were used to simulate flashes at tram overhead wires. By the end of November, 1,100 bombers were available for night raids. [33] Others argue that the Luftwaffe made little impression on Fighter Command in the last week of August and first week of September and that the shift in strategy was not decisive. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 12:33. [161] Another raid was carried out on 11/12 May 1941. [60], Each day orderly lines of people queued until 4:00pm, when they were allowed to enter the stations. [44] Disputes among OKL staff revolved more around tactics than strategy. The cities and the capital were bombed until the following morning, leaving more than 430 dead and over 1600 people badly injured. [88] Bomber crews already had some experience with the Lorenz beam, a commercial blind-landing aid for night or bad weather landings. The maximum range of Y-Gert was similar to the other systems and it was accurate enough on occasion for specific buildings to be hit. A summary of Harris' strategic intentions was clear. News reports of the Spanish Civil War, such as the bombing of Barcelona, supported the 50-casualties-per-tonne estimate. 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. Ironically, the Blitz was the result of an . [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. In the Myth of the Blitz, Calder exposed some of the counter-evidences of anti-social and divisive behaviours. [116] On 7 November, St Pancras, Kensal and Bricklayers Arms stations were hit and several lines of Southern Rail were cut on 10 November. The tactic was expanded into Feuerleitung (Blaze Control) with the creation of Brandbombenfelder (Incendiary Fields) to mark targets. He was always reluctant to co-operate with Raeder. [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. This was when warfare deliberately included civilian populations. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (Kindle Edition) by. The main damage was inflicted on the commercial and domestic areas. This timeline highlights key moments in the run up to and during the Battle of Britain. 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. [186] At the time it was seen as a useful propaganda tool for domestic and foreign consumption. Many houses and commercial centres were heavily damaged, the electrical supply was knocked out, and five oil tanks and two magazines exploded. 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. 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. [45] This method condemned the offensive over Britain to failure before it began. Still, at Southampton, attacks were so effective morale did give way briefly with civilian authorities leading people en masse out of the city. Morale was not mentioned until the ninth wartime directive on 21 September 1940. [24][182] This led the British to develop countermeasures, which became known as the Battle of the Beams. While wartime bombings affected London in both world wars, it was the Blitz that truly altered the cityscape forever. When this proved impossible, he began to fear that popular feeling would turn against his regime, and he redoubled efforts to mount a similar "terror offensive" against Britain in order to produce a stalemate in which both sides would hesitate to use bombing at all. Timeline London portal v t e The United Kingdom took part in World War II from 3 September 1939 until 15 August 1945. The Luftwaffe attacked the main Atlantic seaport of Liverpool in the Liverpool Blitz. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. 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. Bombers were noisy, cold, and vibrated badly. 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. They believed the Luftwaffe had failed in precision attack and concluded the German example of area attack using incendiaries was the way forward for operations over Germany. An interactive map showing the location of bombs dropped on London during World War II has been created. Around 66,000 houses were destroyed and 77,000 people made homeless ("bombed out"[158]), with 1,900 people killed and 1,450 seriously hurt on one night. This involved the bombing of English Channel convoys, ports, and RAF airfields and supporting industries. 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. 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. [145] Use of incendiaries, which were inherently inaccurate, indicated much less care was taken to avoid civilian property close to industrial sites. [22], Hitler paid less attention to the bombing of opponents than air defence, although he promoted the development of a bomber force in the 1930s and understood it was possible to use bombers for strategic purposes. 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. [126] RAF day fighters were converting to night operations and the interim Bristol Blenheim night fighter conversion of the light bomber was being replaced by the powerful Beaufighter, but this was only available in very small numbers. Hull and Glasgow were attacked but 715 long tons (726t) of bombs were spread out all over Britain. [168] The Blenheim had only a small speed advantage to overtake a German bomber in a stern-chase. This day marks the beginning of the Blitz when an attack on London is launched by the Germans, starting a nine-month long campaign against the city. [47] Up to nine special transmitters directed their signals at the beams in a manner that subtly widened their paths, making it harder for bomber crews to locate targets; confidence in the device was diminished by the time the Luftwaffe was ready to conduct big raids. 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. [176] Total losses could have been as high as 600 bombers, just 1.5 percent of the sorties flown. Summerfield and Peniston-Bird 2007, p. 84. Night fighters could claim only four bombers for four losses. [115] The bombing disrupted rail traffic through London without destroying any of the crossings. (PROSE: Ash, TV: The Empty Child) It lasted from 7 September 1940 to 21 May 1941. [173] On 3/4 May, nine were shot down in one night. 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. Warehouses, rail lines and houses were destroyed and damaged, but the docks were largely untouched. German crews, even if they survived, faced capture. From July until September 1940 the Luftwaffe attacked Fighter Command to gain air superiority as a prelude to invasion. 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. Two heavy (50 long tons (51t) of bombs) attacks were also flown. When a continuous sound was heard from the second beam the crew knew they were above the target and dropped their bombs. 12 Group RAF). [30] The replacement of pilots and aircrew was more difficult. [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. Battle noises were muffled and sleep was easier in the deepest stations, but many people were killed from direct hits on stations. [149] Some 50 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers and Jabos (fighter-bombers) were used, officially classed as Leichte Kampfflugzeuge ("light bombers") and sometimes called Leichte Kesselringe ("Light Kesselrings"). The London Underground rail system was also affected; high explosive bombs damaged the tunnels rendering some unsafe. An unknown number of bombs fell on these diversionary ("Starfish") targets. Summerfield, Penny and Peniston-Bird, Corina. 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. 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). People left shelters when told instead of refusing to leave, although many housewives reportedly enjoyed the break from housework. [50], On the other hand, some historians have recently contended that this revisionism of the "Blitz spirit" narrative may have been an over-correction. Much civil-defence preparation in the form of shelters was left in the hands of local authorities and many areas such as Birmingham, Coventry, Belfast and the East End of London did not have enough shelters. By September 1940, London had already experienced German bombing. 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. [35][104][105], On 14 October, the heaviest night attack to date saw 380 German bombers from Luftflotte 3 hit London. [46], In an operational capacity, limitations in weapons technology and quick British reactions were making it more difficult to achieve strategic effect. [94], On 9 September the OKL appeared to be backing two strategies. The London docks and railways communications had taken a heavy pounding, and much damage had been done to the railway system outside. [40] Late in the afternoon of 7 September 1940, the Germans began Operation London (Unternehmen Loge, Loge being the codename for London) and Operation Sea Snake (Unternehmen Seeschlange), the air offensives against London and other industrial cities. [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. The blasts at Hyde Park and Regents Park kill 11 people and injure 50 others. The German bombers would fly along either beam until they picked up the signal from the other beam. 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. 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. [170] On 19 November, John Cunningham of No. [27], Although not specifically prepared to conduct independent strategic air operations against an opponent, the Luftwaffe was expected to do so over Britain. The RAF and the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) adopted much of this apocalyptic thinking. For one thing, Gring's fear of Hitler led him to falsify or misrepresent what information was available in the direction of an uncritical and over-optimistic interpretation of air strength. [92] The counter-operations were carried out by British Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) units under Wing Commander Edward Addison, No. Only one year earlier, there had only been 6,600 full-time and 13,800 part-time firemen in the entire country. [120], British night air defences were in a poor state. London Blitz took place during the World War 2. Although many civilians had used them for shelter during the First World War, the government in 1939 refused to allow the stations to be used as shelters so as not to interfere with commuter and troop travel and the fears that occupants might refuse to leave. London was then bombed for 57 consecutive nights, and often during daytime too. From the beginning of the National Socialist regime until 1939, there was a debate in German military journals over the role of strategic bombardment, with some contributors arguing along the lines of the British and Americans.