What is meant by the term 'The Blitz'.

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Amy Gilmour 11SC

Blitz Coursework Assignment

  1. 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’s plan was to break morale by people being forced to watch their homes being destroyed and their loved ones killed. He believed that this would dampen spirits and break morale to such an extent that the people would force the government to come to terms with him. However the excuse Hitler used to justify the Blitz was that he was bombing military targets. The Blitz also attempted to destroy industry, with London docks being bombed often and the Luftwaffe also tried to hit railway lines, junctions, power stations and gas-holders, but the bombing was felt worst of all by the working class near city centres. The Blitz also affected the life of children with many of them being uprooted and evacuated to the countryside, some with their mothers, some without. Around 1,500,000 people were evacuated at the start of the Blitz, which had a massive effect on people’s lives and many lifestyles being completely turned around. Children from the city were often very skinny and undernourished and when they were evacuated often had much more food, and much healthier food to keep them strong. Some would go home looking completely different to how they looked when they went. Those that stayed in the cities were bothered by ARP wardens checking for air raid precautions, the wardens were often accused of interfering. Along with household precautions there were also air raid shelters, but many people didn’t have them and went into tube stations during raids. The raids affected everybody’s lives, as at anytime during the night they could have to get up and find somewhere to hide, this was difficult and unpleasant. However, some people still remained unprotected and in the second big wave of attacks in January 1941, 25,000 people were killed.

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All the deaths of the Blitz were hugely devastating, as was the rest of the damage caused. This was partly because the Blitz came as a surprise after the phoney war had led people to believe there would be no actual fighting. When the Blitz did start it caused real panic as it came with no warning. This all caused a devastating effect, however the government was not prepared to admit to the huge effects it had and used censorship to try and maintain morale and keep people in support of the war.

At the end of 1940 ...

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