With no sign of the RAF weakening and the Luftflotten suffering many losses, OKL was keen for a change in strategy. 4 June 1940 18 June 1940 22 June 1940 1 July 1940 . Far from displaying the nation's unity in times of war, the scheme backfired, often aggravating class antagonism and bolstering prejudice about the urban poor. Its hope was to destroy its targets and draw the RAF into defending them, allowing the Luftwaffe to destroy their fighters in large numbers, thereby achieving air superiority. On 8 May 1941, 57 ships were destroyed, sunk or damaged, amounting to 80,000 long tons (81,300t). [80], Pre-war dire predictions of mass air-raid neurosis were not borne out. [94], On 9 September the OKL appeared to be backing two strategies. 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. Around 200 people were killed and another 2,000 injured. [31] On 7 September, the Germans shifted away from the destruction of the RAF's supporting structures. Too early and the chances of success receded; too late and the real conflagration at the target would exceed the diversionary fires. The Luftwaffe lost 18 percent of the bombers sent on the operations that day and failed to gain air superiority. Ports were easier to find and made better targets. 11 Group RAF and No. The shortage of bombers caused OKL to improvise. In the following month, 22 German bombers were lost with 13 confirmed to have been shot down by night fighters. Moreover, the OKL could not settle on an appropriate strategy. [151], Directive 23 was the only concession made by Gring to the Kriegsmarine over the strategic bombing strategy of the Luftwaffe against Britain. Hitler quickly developed scepticism toward strategic bombing, confirmed by the results of the Blitz. It expected about 90% of evacuees to stay in private homes, conducted an extensive survey to determine the amount of space available and made detailed preparations for transporting evacuees. To reduce losses further, strategy changed to prefer night raids, giving the bombers greater protection under cover of darkness. More than 13,000 civilians had been killed, and almost 20,000 injured, in September and October alone,[110] but the death toll was much less than expected. The tactic was expanded into Feuerleitung (Blaze Control) with the creation of Brandbombenfelder (Incendiary Fields) to mark targets. The day's fighting cost Kesselring and Luftflotte 2 (Air Fleet 2) 24 aircraft, including 13 Bf 109s. Fighter Command lost 17 fighters and six pilots. 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. 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. Anti-Semitic attitudes became widespread, particularly in London. [38][a], It was decided to focus on bombing Britain's industrial cities, in daylight to begin with. The cities and the capital were bombed until the following morning, leaving more than 430 dead and over 1600 people badly injured. Damage was inflicted on the port installations, but many bombs fell on the city itself. A. Hampton/Topical Press Agency . The first major raid took place on 7 September. It could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. July 20, 1982: Two IRA bombs explode in central London less than two hours apart. Loge continued for 57 nights. Ironically, the Blitz was the result of an . 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. More than 70,000 buildings . 28384; Murray 1983, pp. [116] On 7 November, St Pancras, Kensal and Bricklayers Arms stations were hit and several lines of Southern Rail were cut on 10 November. On September 7, 1940, 350 German bombers escorted by fighters bombarded London on consecutive successions. Harold Macmillan wrote in 1956 that he and others around him "thought of air warfare in 1938 rather as people think of nuclear war today". Instead, he wasted aircraft of Fliegerfhrer Atlantik (Flying Command Atlantic) on bombing mainland Britain instead of attacks against convoys. [140] The first group to use these incendiaries was Kampfgruppe 100 which despatched 10 "pathfinder" He 111s. This caused more than 2,000 fires; 1,436 people were killed and 1,792 seriously injured, which affected morale badly. Morrison warned that he could not counter the Communist unrest unless provision of shelters were made. [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. [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. The difference this made to the effectiveness of air defences is questionable. On 17 April 346 tons (352t) of explosives and 46,000 incendiaries were dropped from 250 bombers led by KG 26. "[25] Such principles made it much harder to integrate the air force into the overall strategy and produced in Gring a jealous and damaging defence of his "empire" while removing Hitler voluntarily from the systematic direction of the Luftwaffe at either the strategic or operational level. [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. Destroying RAF Fighter Command would allow the Germans to gain control of the skies over the invasion area. [53] Winston Churchill told Parliament in 1934, "We must expect that, under the pressure of continuous attack upon London, at least three or four million people would be driven out into the open country around the metropolis". The building of London's Royal Docks introduced a new world of commerce to the capital. [163] By the end of the air campaign over Britain, only eight percent of the German effort against British ports was made using mines. It is argued that persisting with attacks on RAF airfields might have won air superiority for the Luftwaffe. 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. [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. German crews, even if they survived, faced capture. Moreover, bombers had four to five crewmen on board, representing a greater loss of manpower. German intelligence suggested Fighter Command was weakening, and an attack on London would force it into a final battle of annihilation while compelling the British Government to surrender. In January, Swansea was bombed four times, very heavily. Birmingham and Coventry were subject to 450 long tons (457t) of bombs between them in the last 10 days of October. The oil-fed fires were then injected with water from time to time; the flashes produced were similar to those of the German C-250 and C-500 Flammbomben. The AOC Bomber Command, Arthur Harris, who did see German morale as an objective, did not believe that the morale-collapse could occur without the destruction of the German economy. The OKL had not been informed that Britain was to be considered a potential opponent until early 1938. The number of suicides and drunkenness declined, and London recorded only about two cases of "bomb neurosis" per week in the first three months of bombing. This incident was called the 'Blitz'. [117] Attacks against East End docks were effective and many Thames barges were destroyed. [13] British wartime studies concluded that most cities took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely, but some, such as Birmingham, took three months. 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 property stands alone on a section of riverbank on the Thames, in South East London 's . The London docks and railways communications had taken a heavy pounding, and much damage had been done to the railway system outside. Only a few weeks after the British victory in the Battle of. In Portsmouth Southsea and Gosport waves of 150 bombers destroyed vast swaths of the city with 40,000 incendiaries. The debris of St Thomas's Hospital, London, the morning after receiving a direct hit during the Blitz, in front of the Houses of . Summerfield, Penny and Peniston-Bird, Corina. The German Luftwaffe dropped thousands of bombs on London from 1939 to 1945, killing almost 30,000 people. : The Blitz 1940 971941 510 : Blitz The Germans adapted the short-range Lorenz system into Knickebein, a 3033MHz system, which used two Lorenz beams with much stronger signals. [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. Some people even told government surveyors that they enjoyed air raids if they occurred occasionally, perhaps once a week. The Allies did so later when Bomber Command attacked rail communications and the United States Army Air Forces targeted oil, but that would have required an economic-industrial analysis of which the Luftwaffe was incapable. [145], In 1941, the Luftwaffe shifted strategy again. 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. In late 1940, Churchill credited the shelters. 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. 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. [165], The last major attack on London was on 10/11 May 1941, on which the Luftwaffe flew 571 sorties and dropped 787 long tons (800t) of bombs. 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. [167] The Bristol Blenheim F.1 carried four .303in (7.7mm) machine guns which lacked the firepower to easily shoot down a Do 17, Ju 88 or Heinkel He 111. 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. This became official policy on 7 October. The Royal Chapel, inner quadrangle and Palace gates were hit, and several workmen were injured. Much damage was done. The attacks against Birmingham took war industries some three months to recover fully. One-third of London's streets were impassable. 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 building collapsing in Whitechapel during the Blitz. At this time, the Underground lines were mostly owned and run by separate companies, all of which were merged together with . He was always reluctant to co-operate with Raeder. The loss of sleep was a particular factor, with many not bothering to attend inconvenient shelters. 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. [111], Wartime observers perceived the bombing as indiscriminate. 219 Squadron RAF at RAF Kenley). The populace of the port of Hull became "trekkers", people who made a mass exodus from cities before, during and after attacks. [57] The programme favoured backyard Anderson shelters and small brick surface shelters. Seeschlange would be carried out by Fliegerkorps X (10th Air Corps) which concentrated on mining operations against shipping. By September 1940, the large-scale German air raids which had been expected twelve months earlier finally arrived. The Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of night attacks to evade attacks by the RAF, and the Blitz became a night bombing campaign after October 1940. [187] Historians' critical response to this construction focused on what were seen as over-emphasised claims of patriotic nationalism and national unity. The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. Battle noises were muffled and sleep was easier in the deepest stations, but many people were killed from direct hits on stations. Less than 100 incidents reported by the London Fire Brigade up to 5pm on September 7, 1940. Three cross-beams intersected the beam along which the He 111 was flying. Bombing civilians would cause a collapse of morale and a loss of production in the remaining factories. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of .