by Mark Hopkins

Created on: January 30, 2011

The 'Blitz' is the word coined by the British to describe the heavy and indiscriminate bombing campaign unleashed upon their cities and civilian population by the Germans between September 1940 and May 1941. In German, the word 'Blitz' means 'lightning', and it was indeed a thunderbolt of destruction which rained down during this period of the war.

The German expectation that the British would give up after the Fall of France in June 1940 failed to materialise. The Germans then made preparations to invade Britain in summer 1940 but were unable to win control of the skies over the English Channel and southern England. The Royal Air Force narrowly out-fought the German Luftwaffe in what came to be known as the Battle of Britain, between July and early September 1940. The Germans then turned to bombing British cities, hoping to destroy the will to resist.

The first German air raids on cities were made against London in broad daylight, on September 7th 1940. The RAF shot down 60 German planes for the loss of 26 of their own. Four hundred Londoners were killed and one thousand six hundred seriously injured, but the German Luftwaffe could not afford to lose so many aircraft and turned to night time bombing instead.

London was defended by batteries of anti-aircraft guns linked to search lights, and radar could detect night flying German planes but British Hurricane and Spitfire fighters could not find them in the dark. Although a strict blackout was in force, a city as big as London was easy to find by simply flying up the River Thames.  For most of the Blitz, London could do little to hit back. Anti-aircraft guns would fire to scare the Germans and boost Londoners' morale but in December, for example, only ten German planes were downed by ground fire and a further four were shot down by aircraft.

London was attacked every night bar one from September 7th to November 14th by an average of 160 German bombers. Frequent raids continued thereafter  and other cities were heavily 'blitzed' too, including Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff, Plymouth, Hull, Newcastle, Nottingham, Coventry, Southampton, Portsmouth, Belfast and Sheffield. During the Blitz, over 43,000 civilians were killed and 140,000 seriously injured. Over a million houses were destroyed or seriously damaged. Both the Prime Minister, Mr Churchill, and the King, George VI, made numerous morale boosting tours of blitzed areas in London and other cities.

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