Hitler justified the Blitz by claming that the bombers were only hitting military targets, but most of German bombing was at night so they couldn’t really see where they were hitting and was arbitrary.
Hitler wanted to destroy British industry as he saw this as another way to force the British to surrender. In London the docks were attacked regularly which meant the people living in the East End were also badly hit.
The Luftwaffe also tried to hit train lines, junctions, power stations and gasholders. They also hit other industrial cities like Liverpool for the docks, Manchester for the textile industry, Southampton for the docks, Glasgow (Clydeside) for the docks, engineering and manufacturing, Belfast for the docks, Coventry for the aircraft factories, Newcastle for the ship building, steelworks and docks, Cardiff for the docks and steel works and Portsmouth for the Royal Navy docks and main docks.
Docks were hit because of the empires trade and the economic importance of them. The textile industry was hit because everyone needs clothes and soldiers need uniforms.
Other reasons why Britain was bombed was to destroy things which Britain needed to continue fighting the war, also to demonstrate to Britain just how strong Germany was, especially the Luftwaffe so there was no point in continuing to fight all of Britain would eventually be destroyed.
Another reason was to destroy the RAF. The RAF was a huge problem to the Germans during the war partly because it was bombing Germany but also because it stopped German bombers form crossing the channel. If Germany could destroy the RAF Britain was completely vulnerable to attack.
- DESCRIBE THE EFFECTS OF THE BLITZ ON EVERYDAY LIFE.
In 1939 Blitz precautions had begun in 1938 when gas masks had been issued to the public this was because the nervous British government fear an invasion and the use of poison gas.
The British government had written a report saying they thought there would be 700 tons of bombs dropped on British cities every day and 600,000 deaths a year so they printed a million burial forms.
At the beginning of the war the government banned people from sheltering on the underground platforms but they couldn’t stop them buying the halfpence platform ticket and refusing to come up. In the end the government dropped the ban and the underground became a very popular place to shelter. By the end of September there were almost 200,000 people sleeping there every night. The underground was fitted out with bunk beds and even a library service. Some stations closed their toilets so if you wanted to use the toilet you either went to the next station or used a bucket.
If you wanted to stay at home during an air raid you probably had a Morrison shelter. It was like a steel table with wire mesh sides and a mattress underneath. It was supposed to be big enough for two adults and two small children to squeeze under.
One of the nastiest things about air raids was that your house was left unguarded when you went to shelter so anyone could just come in and take anything they wanted.
The British people were especially afraid of dive-bombers so they rigged up huge silver balloons each as big as a house. They were filled with gas and were held down by thick, strong, metal cables. Dive-bombers couldn’t get though these balloons and were ripped apart by the cables if they did.
On Friday the 1st of September 1939 television service was stopped to 2,000 televisions. There was no service again until 1946, that was 7 years without television!
In order to confuse the enemy if an invasion did take place signposts, milestones and certain shop signs were painted over. This didn’t really work, as there was no invasion. As a result a lot of British people got lost. Even names of stations at platforms were removed so if you were travelling to visit someone who lived along way away chances were you’d get lost.
The blackout was a big problem for civilians during the war. The civilians were told that if they showed lights at night the Germans would be able to see where to drop there bombs. They were ordered to cover their windows with heavy blackout material and other rules stated that:
- Street lights were to be masked as to only give a pinpoint of light at the base of each post,
- Traffic lights were to be masked to only give a cross of colour,
- Cars had to drive with a mask over their headlights,
- Torches had to be pointed down at the pavement and the glass was to be covered with two layers of tissue,
- Smoking in the street was banned,
- Railway carriages were blacked out,
- Buses were to be blacked out but this meant dishonest people could pay with foreign coins.
Gas masks may have been a good idea but they caused lots of problems for the civilians who had to wear them.
The gas masks issued were horrible smelly things with a small glass window that quickly steamed up. The bottom of the mask filled up with saliva and sweat and the silly cardboard boxes they were issued in soon fell apart. Schools held gas mask tests to check they were working, the children were sent to an air raid shelter which was then filled with tear gas, this was a nasty way to find out your gas mask had a leak.
Children had a hard time in the Blitz there were special rules made up by the government to give advice to parents: children should:
- Be sent to school at the proper time,
- Be encouraged to “enjoy” their lessons,
- Get long hours of sleep,
- Given plenty to do,
- Not be allowed to get over-excited,
- Understand that “No” means, “No.”
Evacuation was also a reality for most children, as the British expected their cities to be bombed the government decided that children, and pregnant woman or those with young children should be moved to the country. The reason evacuation was introduced was because during the Spanish civil war Britain had seen the news reports on the bombing and thought it would be just the same in Britain.
As soon as war was declared children were sent to their foster homes in the country. There were two ways you could either go along and be picked. This involved standing in a line while the people offering homes picked the ones they wanted, this wasn’t really fair as the polite, tidy little girls went first and scruffy, smelly little boys were wanted by no-one.
Another way to find a home involved being led around the village and being forced on un-suspecting house-owners.
The problem with evacuation is that when the enemy bombers didn’t come as soon as war was declared many evacuees went home to be blitzed. Another problem children had to face after the war was returning to find that both your parents had been killed and there was nowhere for you to go.
On the 2nd of May 1945 evacuation ended everywhere, Hull and London where the last places to have children returned because they were the most dangerous.
Rationing was another challenge for people in Britain. It was brought in by the government to insure everyone got the same amount of food. Everyone was given coupons for everything, clothes as well. But there were problems with it, some people cheated and the people who supplied shops sometimes held back things for there own supply saying they had dropped a bag etc.
Food rationing caused another problem people knew that food coming over by ships could be cut off at any time by the Germans so the governments solution was to get everyone to eat food that could be grown in Britain. Food like potatoes!!! Lord Woolten was the minister for food at the time and he told the British people that if they ate more potatoes and home grown food then less ships were needed to import food, “the battle on the kitchen front cannot be won without help from the kitchen garden.”
The “Black Market,” was a way of buying extra things with money even if you didn’t have any coupons. If you could get away with it things were good but if not you could go to prison.
Clothes began to be rationed in 1941 but by 1942 the rules for making clothes were crazy:
- Men’s suits could only have three pockets,
- Men’s suits could only have three buttons on the front and none on the cuff,
- Fancy belts were banned,
- Trouser legs couldn’t be wider than 48cm at the bottom,
- Elastic waistbands were banned,
- Turn ups were banned,
- High heels were not allowed to be more than 5cm.
Women’s stockings were also very hard to get so if you wanted some you could have them painted on or stained and then have a line painted down the back to look like a seam.
These seem crazy but all these things were important to the war effort and needed for the soldiers. It was hard but it should have made it better that you were helping your country. What was the need to turn ups and lots of buttons there wasn’t any yet still people missed them. This made the war harder.
The good news for women was that with men out fighting they got better jobs, they got to wear trousers and did so with pride, and they had more freedom than ever. However the bad news was they had to wear tighter clothes to save material, pleats were banned and if you wanted a white wedding dress you had to make it out of tablecloths or net curtains.
Everyone always seemed to be tired because the blitz kept them up most of the night and then the next day everyone tried to go about their normal lives.
The British governement tried to keep up morale by publishing pictures of smiling troops and civilians.
There were a few times over the war that are worth special mention because they were so bad for the people of Britain. The winter of 1940-1941 was difficult, as bombing destroyed homes, lives and families. Every major town was attacked and in London 13,000 people died in just one year.
- IN WHAT WAYS DID THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT ATTEMPT TO HIDE THE EFFECTS OF THE BLITZ FROM THE PEOPLE OF BRITAIN?
The government aimed to try and keep morale up so it published stories of bravery and determination, which created the impression that “Britain could take it.” Photographs were published in newspapers of smiling people clearing up after the night before.
Photographs which had anything to do with the war had to be approved before they were allowed to be shown. Photos like the one below of Catford’s Girls School, which showed bodies in sacking, was banned by the sensors. This particular photo was taken after the 20th of January raid on London.
Insert picture of Catford’s school for girls.
Some stories were suppressed by the government altogether. In October 1940, a water main burst at Balham underground station after a bomb hit it. Sixty-four people drowned and this story was not released until after the war, because lots of people sheltered in underground stations and although things like this could happen it was safer in the underground than on the streets or in your house during a raid.
If people had found out what had happened they may well have been mass panic and that was to be avoided if the government could help it.
Photographs of the damage at Balham were never published but they show a bus in a huge hole in the middle of the street.
The government also prevented the publishing of other photographs that might have affected the morale of civilians. Dead bodies were never shown, nor where photo’s of people complaining. Stories and interviews with people who were disheartened or downhearted were never published in newspapers. The government was able to do this because it had complete control over the newspapers and other media areas.
It also controlled the news broadcasts of the BBC, and it made sure all official reports exaggerated the success of the RAF and played down the effects of German action. It also belittled the RAF’s losses and embellished the losses of the Germans.
The government also endeavoured to create the impression that Britain could take the effects of the Blitz for the USA. US newsreels showed the people of Britain getting on with their lives after being bombed.
The government also tried to quash the truth about the effects of bombing during the war as part of a larger attempt to control the news. Censorship was good as it kept the morale of the civilians up but it could also have negative effects. If there was no news in the newspapers people might well listen to the gossip and begin to believe the situation to be worse than it was. So government propaganda fell into two categories:
- Stories and photographs were censored so that the British people were prevented from hearing the worst effects about the bombing,
- At the same time, stories were invented which described British heroism in the face of German attacks.
The government worked hard to emphasise the gallant elements of the Blitz so that the papers were full of men rescuing others of surviving in bombed houses.
