Important generals in the German army disagreed with Hitler about plans for an invasion on Britain by travelling through the channel. The main aims of ‘Operation Sealion’ were to eliminate the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, all Coastal defences and to prevent British submarine action. Instead of this, Hitler turned to his experience of bombing and the thought of how much more catastrophic it would be. The bombing of Guernica, in the Basque Country, Spain, was lead by the Germans, on 10 April, 1937. This attack was during the Spanish Civil War and had been a huge success for Nazi Germany; they destroyed three quarters of the city’s buildings, 1,654 people were killed and 889 wounded. The German “Luftwaffe” made for Britain and in a few months had attacked Bethnal Green, Hackney, Islington, Tottenham and Finchley which made the British want to retaliate. With Hitler furious, on 5 September, he directed disruptive attacks to be made on major British cities, night and day. The morale of Britain was fairly high, but Stanley Baldwin did state that these bombings would be dangerous. He claimed “The bomber will always get through”. He was right.
It was a known fact to the British civilians that this war would affect every man, women and child. However, strength and morale was high; Hitler did not know of the phenomenal amount of spirit the British people had. One vital point the Government had to be aware of was that the British, no matter how much spirit they had, they believed that the protection used was effective and they have total belief in the war effort; after all, this war was a ‘People’s War’ meaning everyone was important in contributing.
The Blitz was mostly intended to breaking the morale of British civilians. So then, why bomb British cities? Industrial areas such as London and Coventry and major ports such as Portsmouth were heavily raided, destroying factories, producing artillery for the war and killing people along with their homes. By doing this, Hitler made sure the morale of the British people sank incredibly. After a hectic 57 nights of raiding in London, the British civilian’s morale had sank even more; Hitler intended this to make a big problem for the government and want people in Britain to give up and even surrender.
To summarise, Hitler hoped to gain control by destroying Britain’s industry and morale; he hope this would make the government give up. By doing this, he could have his way and take over most of Western Europe, so therefore nothing could stop him taking over the East. His plans were clever, but the Blitz spirit the British possessed was higher than he ever imagined.