On the 7th of September, 1940, a year into World War Two, Germany launched an unprecedented
bombing raid on London.
Until this point German bombers had focussed mainly on military targets.
Now, they turned their attention to civilian ones in an attack that killed 450 and injured
three times that number.
Moreover, this attack marked a drastic change in German tactics.
From this day forward, London would be bombed almost every single night for the next 57
nights, in a sustained campaign of destruction that became known as the Blitz.
In 1940 France surrendered to German invaders.
This left Germany, under the command of dictator Adolf Hitler, to focus its attention on Britain.
Hitler had a strong desire to carry out a full scale invasion of Britain… but there
was one obstacle that stood in his way: Britain’s air force.
The Royal Air Force, or RAF, was formidable.
Though it had far fewer aircraft than the German Luftwaffe, its pilots were highly motivated
to defend their country, and were bolstered by volunteers from around the world.
Britain’s use of the new technology of radar was also much more advanced than Germany’s
– giving them a significant edge when it came to responding to incoming attacks.
On top of this, German attackers had many different objectives: destroying facilities
on the ground, engaging in the air, and targeting and blockading ships in the waters around
Britain.
British fighters, on the other hand, were focussed almost entirely on engaging the German
threat.
This singular purpose, combined with technology like the highly-manoeuvrable Spitfire allowed
Britain’s relatively small force to withstand one German attack after another.
Germany’s superior numbers, however, eventually started to wear down the RAF.
Were it not for a chain of events that took place in August 1940, it’s likely that Germany
would eventually have prevailed.
It was late in August when some German bombers accidentally dropped their payloads on civilian
areas near London.
Up until this point, Germany had aimed mainly for military targets, and so it was a shocking
development that they should appear to target civilians.
In response, on the 25th of August 1940, Britain bombed Berlin – enraging Hitler to the point
that he commanded a change in strategy: German planes would now focus on decimating British
cities, London in particular.
The British government had long feared that Germany would launch a campaign against the
civilian population.
Some preparations had already been made; in 1939, thousands of children had been evacuated
from urban areas to the countryside.
Shelters had also been distributed to city dwellers.
Anderson Shelters were buried in back gardens, while Morrison Shelters could be installed
inside the home.
Blackouts had also been enforced in many urban areas to make it difficult for enemy planes
to locate their targets.
Beyond these preparations, though, life had continued with some semblance of normality.
People went to work as normal, gathered in pubs and cinemas, and went about their daily
business in cities that were, for the most part, intact.
This all changed on the 7th of September 1940 – a day that would later become known as
Black Saturday.
On this day, a massive German raid killed over 450 people, and wounded more than 1,500
in London alone.
Shocking and devastating as it was, Black Saturday was just a taste of what was to come.
After this date, bombing raids continued almost every night.
Population centres such as Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Southampton
were targeted, but London was subjected to by far the most intense bombing campaign of
all.
These raids were devastating.
Whole streets were obliterated.
Churches, schools, cinemas, hospitals and pubs were flattened or consumed by flames.
Air raid sirens rang out every night, sometimes multiple times each night.
Most citizens were, on a daily basis, exposed to death, destruction and scenes of absolute
horror.
They lived their lives ready, at a moment’s notice, to flee to shelters where they would
spend hours huddling cold and afraid as explosions rang out through the city above.
When the all clear finally sounded they would emerge to fight fires, clear rubble, bury
the dead and treat the injured – knowing that, in all likelihood, the same thing would
happen again the next night and the next and the next.
Many famous London landmarks were damaged, but not destroyed.
Buckingham Palace, the Imperial War Museum, the Tower of London, the London Zoo, St Paul’s
Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament were all hit, but survived – in no small part
thanks to the heroic work of firefighters in the city.
While many famous buildings were saved, thousands of ordinary homes and workplaces were not.
The Docklands area of London, home to many working class families, was particularly badly
hit.
The nearby docks were a desirable target, and so attracted many bombs.
This combined with a shortage of space in shelters, and very few resources for rebuilding
bomb damaged areas to make the Docklands one of the places most severely affected.
Despite the unending horror of the blitz, though, life carried on.
People went to work and some pubs, theatres and cinemas remained open.
People were often pictured carrying on with their day to day work, despite the devastation
around them.
There are many examples of people using humour as a way of dealing with the horrific conditions
of the blitz, and pictures from the time appear to document a sense of cheerful endurance.
The attitude that prevailed, at least according to official accounts, was typified by the
now-famous morale-boosting campaigns run by the British government, with slogans like
“Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory,” and “Keep calm
and carry on”.
This “Blitz Spirit” is something that is often fondly remembered, and has become
a point of national pride… but at the same time it represents only some of the story.
Subjected to nightly near-death experiences, many people suffered a range of mental health
problems: night terrors, bedwetting, nervous collapse and psychosis.
Some gave up on seeking shelter when the air raid sirens sounded.
In the blackout-darkened streets, crime was at an all-time high, and there were few resources
to combat it.
Fear and nervous tension were pervasive.
Personal records from the time reflect the fact that almost everyone was terrified and
suffering… but had no choice but to carry on with their lives.
The fact that they did carry on was viewed by the government as evidence of high morale
among civilians, and this was used extensively for propaganda purposes.
In fact, the stress and suffering of the British people was made worse due to the government
not providing adequate shelters.
Anderson shelters were damp and cold, and would provide protection only from shrapnel
and not from an actual bomb blast.
Morrison shelters would protect those inside from collapsing buildings, but not from the
fires or thick choking clouds of dust that often followed.
Some dedicated shelters were built using incorrect materials, resulting in them simply crumbling
when hit, providing little or no protection.
There was great demand for deep underground shelters – similar to those that the government
had constructed for its own personnel.
But the government was reluctant to provide these, fearing that if they were available
to ordinary people, those ordinary people might retreat underground and never leave,
thus hampering the war effort.
As a result, Londoners were initially forbidden from using the tube network for shelter.
Desperate, many Londoners did so anyway by buying tickets and refusing to leave the station
during air raids.
It was only after an escalating series of protests that the government relented, and
allowed ordinary people to shelter in tube stations deep below ground.
These proved popular, and were soon fitted with toilets, beds, medical facilities and
more.
These shelters, of course, were not without their hazards.
Some years later in 1943, 173 people died in a crush at Bethnal Green underground station
– the worst single loss of civilian life during World War Two to take place in the
UK.
As shelters were developed and people adapted to the hellish uncertainty of life under Blitz
conditions, the bombing raids continued up and down the country.
London was hammered night after night, while attacks on other cities were more sporadic,
but were devastating when they came.
On the 14th of November, 1940, the city of Coventry was devastated by a particularly
prolonged raid, which flattened 4,300 homes.
The destruction was so comprehensive that some German leaders would thereafter use the
word coventriert (or “coventried”) as a byword for total destruction.
In May of 1941, after an unimaginable period of near-daily raids, the Blitz came to an
end – called off by Hitler himself.
He now wished to send his forces east to fight the Soviet Union, and could not spare the
air power needed to continue the relentless attack.
Unbeknownst to him, however, the Blitz that he had overseen had already changed the course
of the war – though not in the way he had hoped.
Hitler’s shift in focus from hitting military targets to hitting population centres had
allowed the Royal Air Force a chance to recover, rebuild, and reinforce.
Had the Luftwaffe continued to strike military targets, Britain’s forces would have been
decimated.
As it was, they now stood a fighting chance against the German war machine.
The people of London, Liverpool, Manchester and other British cities who survived the
Blitz survived a living nightmare, sometimes with very little protection or support.
Their suffering, at least, was not for nothing.