History Coursework Assignment One
Britain in the Age of Total War
Question One: Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germans in 1940-41?
The Luftwaffe failed to quell the ever resilient R.A.F. in the Battle of Britain, 1940. Then a combination of underestimation of British forces remaining and outrage at a daring raid on Industrial Berlin by the R.A.F. led to Hitler change to a tactic of bombing major British cities, especially London by night. This became known as the Blitz. The raids lasted throughout September, October and November 1940 and restarted in the spring of 1941 until eventually they stopped in summer 1941. But what were his objectives for the new Blitz tactics?
The first is to crush the morale of the British people. A great believer in terror tactics, it is doubtful whether Hitler ever truly wished to invade Britain with Operation 'Sealion' as many of his generals were against the idea, and the preparation involved would have been huge and highly complicated. Instead many believe he wished to force the British government to surrender by destroying their citizens' morale and crushing their will to fight. He wished to make them beg their own government to accept defeat. Spurred on by the success of the German air raids in the Spanish Civil War, which destroyed the city of Guernica, Hitler felt the war against Britain could be won without the German army setting foot on British soil.
Britain in the Age of Total War
Question One: Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germans in 1940-41?
The Luftwaffe failed to quell the ever resilient R.A.F. in the Battle of Britain, 1940. Then a combination of underestimation of British forces remaining and outrage at a daring raid on Industrial Berlin by the R.A.F. led to Hitler change to a tactic of bombing major British cities, especially London by night. This became known as the Blitz. The raids lasted throughout September, October and November 1940 and restarted in the spring of 1941 until eventually they stopped in summer 1941. But what were his objectives for the new Blitz tactics?
The first is to crush the morale of the British people. A great believer in terror tactics, it is doubtful whether Hitler ever truly wished to invade Britain with Operation 'Sealion' as many of his generals were against the idea, and the preparation involved would have been huge and highly complicated. Instead many believe he wished to force the British government to surrender by destroying their citizens' morale and crushing their will to fight. He wished to make them beg their own government to accept defeat. Spurred on by the success of the German air raids in the Spanish Civil War, which destroyed the city of Guernica, Hitler felt the war against Britain could be won without the German army setting foot on British soil.
