Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg

The word 'Blitz' itself is a shortened form of the German word

'Blitzkrieg' meaning lightening war, it means a heavy bombing attack

from the air. It is often used to describe the German air raids on

London in 1940, but many other cities were also blitzed. It was widely

believed that Britain would be heavily bombed immediately after the

war was declared and huge amounts of deaths and injuries were expected

with mass burials planned and 1,250,000 cardboard coffins were

produced. However these figures were completely inaccurate as they

were based on when the Luftwaffe had bombed during the Spanish Civil

War, and during this time had virtually no opposition. During The

Blitz London was most badly affected with 13,000 killed in 1940 and

10,000 killed throughout the rest of Britain, so there were heavy

losses.

The Blitz came about after Hitler decided to change tactics after the

battle of Britain when losses during the daylight attacks were too

high for Germany. The Blitz began when the Germans began to bomb

London and other cities by night and continued through the end of 1940

starting again in the springtime of 1941. The Blitz went much wider

than just bombing London; it ranged across many other cities too, such

as Coventry. Coventry was heavily bombed in November 1940, destroying

the city centre and killing around 500 people. Belfast was also

heavily bombed in the 'Belfast Blitz' in April 1941 killing nearly

1000 people. The damage caused by the bombing was extremely severe to

all the buildings and land, but mainly to morale, which was Hitler's

main aim. This also affected people's feelings towards the war.

Hitler'...

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...lot of things changed as women were forced to leave

old jobs in clothing and food and were conscripted to factories making

machines and helping to make things such as airplanes. Women were

considered generally smaller and more flexible so were good at

riveting and other jobs like this. Housewives were also forced to work

and in 1947 18% of married women were working compared to the 10% in

the 1930s. The government helped towards this by providing childcare.

Bevin's boys and retired workers also helped in the workplace, as they

couldn't fight in the war.

After the war things had changed with many women still working,

however there was still no equal pay for women. This was fought for by

trade unionists and was supported by Bevin to give them more say and

also to try to stop strikes. Women's expectations had changed.