Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germansin 1940-1941?

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Mikhael                                HISTORY

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Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germans

in 1940-1941?

        Hitler wanted Britain out of the war. Some say that Hitler originally wanted to negotiate peace, an agreement with Britain; he did not want to anger the United States. Others say that he had always wanted to destroy the UK. When the British refused to settle an agreement with the Nazi leader, he had no alternative but to eliminate Britain.

Hitler had initially focused his attention towards the Royal Air Force in the “Battle of Britain”. He intended to take them out first, before launching operation Sea Lion which was to be a naval and land invasion. He wanted to wipe out the inferior RAF force with his greater number of Luftwaffe quickly and effectively. He sent his Luftwaffe across the Channel to bomb RAF bases and to destroy their small army of aircraft. To his anger and surprise, the RAF put up a much greater fight than he had anticipated. They had developed the radar which let them know when an enemy plane was in close proximity. This also meant that their fighters did not need to roam the skies searching for enemy planes: they could save fuel by remaining on land and only take off when a German was near. Unfortunately for them, the Germans did not posses this futuristic technology, nor were their Luftwaffe as fast, agile and manoeuvrable as the British Spitfires. The RAF was lasting longer than expected whilst the Germans were losing a number of planes. Goering, the commander of the Luftwaffe decided to change his tactic. Rather than attack solely the RAF bases, they would raid residential areas thus increasing their range of targets. He also decided on night time bombing so that his aircraft would be under the cover of night and have less chance of being shot down thus improving the safety of his pilots. Then again night time bombing restricted his targets to major cities. The pilots would not be able to find the remote RAF bases but would see the lights of the city and use them as guidance. Germany started heavily bombing London on the 7th of September and thus the Blitz had begun.

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By bombing London, the Germans hoped to draw the RAF into London. They thought that all their air divisions would come to the rescue of their capital making them a single and easier target to destroy; but mainly to draw them away from the southern coast, as to make it easier for the Luftwaffe to destroy the southern cities. This doesn’t happen and no extra aircraft come to the capital’s rescue. The Londoners felt betrayed but this gave the airforce crucial time to regroup.

There was low morale amongst the German crews. They didn’t feel they were getting any closer ...

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