Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germans in 1940-1?

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        Alexey Zverev 11GS

Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germans in 1940-1?

Coventry was bombed it played a pivotal role in World War Two, as a munitions centre and target for German air raids. The city's character, architecture and population remain forever entwined with war events.

In World War One, Coventry became established as a centre for the motor industry, a business which boomed with the war's reliance on transport. By the time war broke out again in 1939, many new factories had been built in and around the city, and a large number of local people were employed in the motor industry; during World War Two these factories built cars, engines, armaments and aeroplanes, all of which contributed to the war effort. This industrial activity made it an obvious target for German air raids; on 14 November 1940, 500 German bombers dropped 500 tons of explosives and nearly 900 incendiary bombs on Coventry in just ten hours. The city was almost destroyed and the bombs claimed many lives.

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Manchester had its own Blitz, which cost many lives and transformed the city’s skyline. Manchester was also a centre of the armaments industry, and wartime lessons would give the city a head start in the new field of computing.

Between July 1940 and June 1941, the Manchester area suffered repeated and widespread bombing: on one night in 1941, bombs fell on Charlton, Hulme, Stretford, Salford and Swinton. For security reasons, the media downplayed the Manchester raids: all damage to Trafford Park, a centre of war production, went unreported.

On the nights of 22 and 23 December 1940 ...

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