The London Blitz

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In September of 1940 through May of 1941 there was a strategic bombing attack

that was lead by the Germans targeted towards London and other cities located in

England, this was known as The Blitz. The Germans aimed the bombs mostly at

populated cities, dock yards, and factories.

The bombing on London began on September 7, 1940 and lasted for 57

consecutive nights. During these nights of bombing people took shelter in warehouse

basements, and in underground subway stations with no privacy and poor sanitation

facilities.

British radar, detected the huge formation, the Observer Corps started to count the

mass of German bombers in the sky, then came a warning call, "One hundred plus

bandits approaching..." Fighter Command could do nothing but scramble all twenty two

squadrons around London and they vectored towards Thames Haven and Tilbury.

"......all we could see was row upon row of German raiders heading for London. I have never seen so many aircraft in the air all at the same time.....The escorting fighters saw us at once and came down like a ton of bricks, when the squadron split up and the sky became a seething cauldron of aeroplanes, swooping and swerving in and out of the vapour trails and tracer smoke. A Hurricane on fire spun out of control ahead of me while above to my right, a 110 flashed across my vision and disappeared into the fog of the battle before I could draw a bead on it.
Everyone was shouting at once and the earphones became filled with a meaningless cacophony of jumbled noises. Everything became a maelstrom of jumbled impression - a Dornier spinning wildly with part of its port mainplane missing; black streaks of tracer ahead, when I put my arm up to shield my face; taking a breather when the haze absorbed me for a moment....." 1

The main reason for all of this bombing was to break up the morale of the British

people so Hit...

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The Blitz left devastating results such as leaving 375,000 Londoners homeless.

According to the Duxford’s library The Blitz was separated into three different phases.

The casualties for the first part which was August, 1940 to May 10, 1941 were: 18,629

men; 16,201 women; and 5,028 children were killed along with 695 unidentified charred

bodies. Aside from the deaths there were 51,000 seriously injured and 88,000 slightly

injured.

By the end of the 1950’s most of the war damage that happened during The Blitz

in London was repaired. After the war London’s landscape was very much changed

during the reconstruction, it changed the London skyline, they also added high-rise

offices and also adding apartment buildings. This bombing changed the lives of many

people, The Blitz was a very dramatic time for London sometimes it may seem that it all

happened for the better or even for the worse, but everything happens for a reason.

Eventually the reconstruction helped London prepare for the years that were coming by

building skylines and such.

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