At first the German targets were inevitable, radar stations, fighter command, and RAF bases were all being attacked and bombed. The British sent up fighter planes to shoe off these attacks, most notable of these planes were the spitfire and the hurricane. This was the Battle of Britain.
At the beginning of the battle, Britain was more then capable to the challenge of the Luftwaffe. More enemy aircraft were going down then their own. However, after several weeks, the tide turned. The RAF were running low on pilots, and some pilots that did go up, only had 10 hours flying experience. This did not look good for Britain.
Germany, quite naturally, were happy, they thought the RAF were beaten. They had a plan, Operation Sealion. This was the invasion of Britain that would take place soon, or so they thought. They didn’t realise that Britain’s exhausted RAF were not blown out of the water. They thought the RAF were defeated, and hence, changed their plans to bomb London. This, though, gave the RAF a chance to recuperate and live to fight another day. It was a tactical mistake by the Germans. We know the German’s believed this through the words of Field Marshall Herman Goering on September 3rd 1940. He said,
“We are now on the brink of victory. An assault and an invasion of England is now more promising then ever before.”
Clearly, Goering thought that the RAF was beaten; he goes on to say,
“the RAF is now down to less than a hundred fighter aircraft”.
The change in tactics for the Germans did not, completely originate from the suspicion that the RAF was gone. Hitler and his senior military staff believed that Psychological Warfare and Economic Warfare would be more effective for their course.
With Psychological Warfare they wanted to affect Britain’s morale, make them surrender, and achieve a quick end to the war.
From source 3 a modern historian writes,
“He was now firm in his beliefs that by concentrating on an all out bombing campaign on the British capital would bring Britain to its knees, and that the bombing should continue until Britain submits under the strain”. This supports what I have said.
With Economic Warfare they wanted to disrupt and destroy Britain’s industry, largely so that Britain can stop making weapons and tools that prevent Germany’s plans.
From source 4, Field Marshall Kesselring, says, in 1957,
“The underlying purpose was to slow down the British armament production and begin a full scale economic war.”
This supports my ideas that the Germans partly started the bombing on major British Cities for Economic Warfare.
Hitler though is argued to have wanted revenge. The RAF had bombed Berlin in august 1940 and Hitler addressed a rally with this to say,
“If they send over a hundred bombers to our cities…then we shall send a thousand planes to bomb theirs. And if they think that they can destroy our cities…then we shall erase theirs from the face of the earth.”
Although, bomber command did state that during the bombing of Berlin heavy cloud covered the capital, only two German people were injured and no deaths.
I believe that Germany’s reasons for bombing our cities were not for revenge. I think that Hitler’s address to the rally after the attack on Berlin was an attempt to raise morale levels amongst the Germans. Only two people were injured according to bomber command. Bomber command would have no reason to say that, and two people injured could not surely be enough to enrage Hitler enough to say that Britain’s cities would be erased from the face of this earth.
I strongly believe however, that a tactical mistake played a huge part of this change in tactics. If the German’s and their Luftwaffe did carry on as before, the likelihood is that the RAF would have indeed been beaten.
For Psychological and Economic Warfare, I believe these were good reasons for bombing our cities, but not good enough for changing tactics altogether.
