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The cities and the capital were bombed until the following morning, leaving more than 430 dead and over 1600 people badly injured. Before getting into detail, an overview of the area around St. Paul's Cathedral will help set the scene. 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. [94], On 9 September the OKL appeared to be backing two strategies. 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. The Communist Party made political capital out of these difficulties. Included are activities that The failure to prepare adequate night air defences was undeniable but it was not the responsibility of the AOC Fighter Command to dictate the disposal of resources. The London Blitz, 1940 - EyeWitness to History A further attack on the Clyde, this time at Greenock, took place on 6 and 7 May. Many of the latter were abandoned in 1940 as unsafe. [160], On 13 March, the upper Clyde port of Clydebank near Glasgow was bombed (Clydebank Blitz). 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. Daylight bombing was abandoned after October 1940 as the Luftwaffe experienced unsustainable losses. [151], Directive 23 was the only concession made by Gring to the Kriegsmarine over the strategic bombing strategy of the Luftwaffe against Britain. The Luftwaffe lost 18 percent of the bombers sent on the operations that day and failed to gain air superiority. London Blitz Timeline by Nathaniel Zarate - prezi.com The bombings left parts of London in ruins, and when the war ended in 1945 much of the city had to be rebuilt. [156], German air supremacy at night was also now under threat. Most residents found that such divisions continued within the shelters and many arguments and fights occurred over noise, space and other matters. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. The Blitz refers to the strategic bombing campaign conducted by the Germans against London and other cities in England from September of 1940 through May of 1941, targeting populated areas, factories and dock yards. [161] Another raid was carried out on 11/12 May 1941. The government up until November 1940, was opposed to the centralised organisation of shelter. He told OKL in 1939 that ruthless employment of the Luftwaffe against the heart of the British will to resist would follow when the moment was right. Port cities were also attacked to try to disrupt trade and sea communications. There was also minor ethnic antagonism between the small Black, Indian and Jewish communities, but despite this these tensions quietly and quickly subsided. Nevertheless, its official opposition to attacks on civilians became an increasingly moot point when large-scale raids were conducted in November and December 1940. 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. [109], These decisions, apparently taken at the Luftflotte or Fliegerkorps level, meant attacks on individual targets were gradually replaced by what was, for all intents and purposes, an unrestricted area attack or Terrorangriff (Terror Attack). [28], The Luftwaffe's poor intelligence meant that their aircraft were not always able to locate their targets, and thus attacks on factories and airfields failed to achieve the desired results. Less than 100 incidents reported by the London Fire Brigade up to 5pm on September 7, 1940. [90][91], Y-Gert was an automatic beam-tracking system and the most complex of the three devices, which was operated through autopilot. Morrison warned that he could not counter the Communist unrest unless provision of shelters were made. Industry, seats of government and communications could be destroyed, depriving an opponent of the means to make war. Regional commissioners were given plenipotentiary powers to restore communications and organise the distribution of supplies to keep the war economy moving. Why TikTok is being banned on gov't phones in US and beyond Yet when compared with Luftwaffe daylight operations, there was a sharp decline in German losses to one percent. The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: London During the Blitz London during the Blitz A view of Big Ben through barbed wire entanglement. London Blitz: Bomb Sight interactive map created - BBC News Throughout 1940, dummy airfields were prepared, good enough to stand up to skilled observation. The Metropolitan-Vickers works in Manchester was hit by 12 long tons (12.2t) of bombs. [127] Other sources say 449 bombers and a total of 470 long tons (478t) of bombs were dropped. Two heavy (50 long tons (51t) of bombs) attacks were also flown. A summary of Harris' strategic intentions was clear. By the end of 1941, the WVS had one million members. BBC - The Blitz: Oxford Street's store wars - BBC News 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. 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. [115] The bombing disrupted rail traffic through London without destroying any of the crossings. [52], Based in part on the experience of German bombing in the First World War, politicians feared mass psychological trauma from aerial attacks and the collapse of civil society. [88] Bomber crews already had some experience with the Lorenz beam, a commercial blind-landing aid for night or bad weather landings. Explore the London Blitz during 7th October 1940 to 6th June 1941 Aggregate Bomb Census Information Powered by Leaflet CartoDB - Map data OpenStreetMap.org contributors The National Archives give no warranty to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of the information provided. [116] On 7 November, St Pancras, Kensal and Bricklayers Arms stations were hit and several lines of Southern Rail were cut on 10 November. 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. 1 March 1935 3 June 1936) championed strategic bombing and the building of suitable aircraft, although he emphasised the importance of aviation in operational and tactical terms. This led the British to develop countermeasures, which became known as the Battle of the Beams. London was then bombed for 57 consecutive nights, and often during daytime too. [163] By the end of the air campaign over Britain, only eight percent of the German effort against British ports was made using mines. [36] Other historians argue that the outcome of the air battle was irrelevant; the massive numerical superiority of British naval forces and the inherent weakness of the Kriegsmarine would have made the projected German invasion, Unternehmen Seelwe (Operation Sea Lion), a disaster with or without German air superiority. Dowding had introduced the concept of airborne radar and encouraged its usage. By the end of November, 1,100 bombers were available for night raids. "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. [90][91], In June 1940, a German prisoner of war was overheard boasting that the British would never find the Knickebein, even though it was under their noses. Little tonnage was dropped on Fighter Command airfields; Bomber Command airfields were hit instead. Still, in February 1941, there remained only seven squadrons with 87 pilots, under half the required strength. [31], The circumstances affected the Germans more than the British. July 20, 1982: Two IRA bombs explode in central London less than two hours apart. [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. Curiously, while 43 percent of the contacts in May 1941 were by visual sightings, they accounted for 61 percent of the combats. Much of the city centre was destroyed. The German bombers would fly along either beam until they picked up the signal from the other beam. 'Blitz' is an abbreviation of the German word 'blitzkrieg', meaning 'lightning war'. If the German bomber flew closer to its own beam than the meacon then the former signal would come through the stronger on the direction finder. How Thousands of Civilians Were Killed by British Shells in the London The Cruel Cost Of The Blitz: How Did Britons Rebuild Their Lives [61] A single direct hit on a shelter in Stoke Newington on October 1940 killed 160 civilians. 5 Jan. Leslie Hore-Belisha, Britain's Minister of War, is dismissed. London alone had 1,589 assembly points and although most children boarded evacuation trains at their local stations, trains ran out of the capital's main stations every nine minutes for nine hours. [5][6] Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Gring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. In the following month, 22 German bombers were lost with 13 confirmed to have been shot down by night fighters. The Blitz | Blitz London | Battle of Britain WW2 | RAF Museum [127] In November 1940, 6,000 sorties and 23 major attacks (more than 100 tons [102t] of bombs dropped) were flown. The lightning attack was infamously called "Black Saturday". dodged bombs to make her way across London from her aunts house to dance class. [35][104][105], On 14 October, the heaviest night attack to date saw 380 German bombers from Luftflotte 3 hit London. London's Royal Docks History - Official Timeline The London Blitz The Blitz is the term used to describe the German bombing campaign that took place from September 7, 1940, through May 11, 1941. On 17 September he postponed Operation Sea Lion (as it turned out, indefinitely) rather than gamble Germany's newly gained military prestige on a risky cross-Channel operation, particularly in the face of a sceptical Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. 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. [86], Hugh Dowding, Air Officer Commanding Fighter Command, defeated the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, but preparing day fighter defences left little for night air defence. A Raid From Above [150] The OKL had always regarded the interdiction of sea communications of less importance than bombing land-based aircraft industries. 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. 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. The bombing also helped to support the U-boat blockade by sinking some 58,000 long tons (58,900t) of shipping and damaging 450,000 long tons (457,000t) more. It believed it could greatly affect the balance of power on the battlefield by disrupting production and damaging civilian morale. [b] The British had anticipated the change in strategy and dispersed its production facilities, making them less vulnerable to a concentrated attack. [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. [145] Use of incendiaries, which were inherently inaccurate, indicated much less care was taken to avoid civilian property close to industrial sites. 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. [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. Who . [149], From the German point of view, March 1941 saw an improvement. [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. 7 September 1940 In the run up to 7 September, the night the Blitz began, the Luftwaffe had targeted RAF airfields and radar stations for destruction in preparation for the German invasion of the. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). Over several months, the 20,000 shells spent per raider shot down in September 1940, was reduced to 4,087 in January 1941 and to 2,963 shells in February 1941. On the night of 22/23 July 1940, Flying Officer Cyril Ashfield (pilot), Pilot Officer Geoffrey Morris (air observer) and Flight Sergeant Reginald Leyland (Air Intercept radar operator) of the Fighter Interception Unit became the first pilot and crew to intercept and destroy an enemy aircraft using onboard radar to guide them to a visual interception, when their AI night fighter brought down a Do 17 off Sussex. [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. [16], The Luftwaffe took a cautious view of strategic bombing but the OKL did not oppose the strategic bombardment of industries or cities. Minister of Home Security Herbert Morrison was also worried morale was breaking, noting the defeatism expressed by civilians. [168] The Blenheim had only a small speed advantage to overtake a German bomber in a stern-chase. 604 Squadron RAF shot down a bomber flying an AI-equipped Beaufighter, the first air victory for the airborne radar. 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. [103] The air battle was later commemorated by Battle of Britain Day. Morale was not mentioned until the ninth wartime directive on 21 September 1940. Using historical paintings, a timeline, and a simple map, children can discover why the re started, how it spread, and the damage it caused. It could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. The bombing effort was diluted by attacks against several sets of industries instead of constant pressure on the most vital. London Blitz bomb web map a hit-and-miss affair The - The Register 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. [173] On 10/11 May, London suffered severe damage, but 10 German bombers were downed. Many houses and commercial centres were heavily damaged, the electrical supply was knocked out, and five oil tanks and two magazines exploded. London History: A Look at The London Underground During - Londontopia Eventually, it would become a success. [47], London had nine million peoplea fifth of the British populationliving in an area of 750 square miles (1,940 square kilometres), which was difficult to defend because of its size. Summerfield and Peniston-Bird 2007, p. 4. [57] The programme favoured backyard Anderson shelters and small brick surface shelters. [80] The WVS organised the evacuation of children, established centres for those displaced by bombing and operated canteens, salvage and recycling schemes. Too early and the chances of success receded; too late and the real conflagration at the target would exceed the diversionary fires. 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. The blasts at Hyde Park and Regents Park kill 11 people and injure 50 others. BLITZ DIGITAL MEDIA LTD - Company Credit Reports, Company Accounts