The German Blitz
Where and when did the Blitz start?
At 4:56pm on 7 September 1940, the air raid sirens wailed as the luftwaffe (the German Air Force), launched a massive attack on London. Around 350 bombers flew across the English Channel from France and dropped 300 tonnes of bombs on the docks and streets of London.
Other places that were affected?
Other important military and industrial centres, such as Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea, Liverpool, Manchester, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Nottingham, Brighton, Eastbourne, Sunderland, and Southhampton, suffered heavy air raids and high numbers of casualties. Bootle and Hull were the most badly damaged cities city after London. Birmingham and Coventry were targeted because of the Spitfire and tank factories based in Birmingham and the many munitions factories in Coventry.
Who did it affect and where did they go?
Around 827,000 Schoolchildren and their teachers were evacuated, 524,000 Mothers with children under five and some pregnant women and disabled people. They were evacuated by trains and via the road to smaller towns in the countryside. Some children went to stay with relatives but most were sent to live with complete strangers.
Where did people go during the air raids?
As the night raids became so frequent, many people who were tired of repeatedly interrupting their sleep to go back and forth to the shelters, virtually took up residence in a shelter. There was different types of air raid shelters, there was the anderson shelter which were small corrugated iron shelters half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top to protect them from bomb blasts. Another type of shelter was the morrison shelter, it was made specifically for people without gardens, it was made from heavy steel and could also be used as a table, people sheltered underneath it during a raid. On September 21, 1940 the London Underground started to be used as an air raid shelter. On the busiest night in 1940, 177,000 people slept on platforms. In other parts of Britain caves where used to shelter in.
When did the blitz stop?
The Blitz ended in mid-may 1941 due to German Planes being sent to the east of Europe to prepare for the invasion of Russia.
