Blitz

See also: Blitz (homonymy)

The Blitz (German term meaning “flash”) is the name given to the countryside of Bombardement of the the United Kingdom within the framework of the battles air, mainly London but also Coventry, by the Luftwaffe, German aviation, of September 7th 1940 at May 16th 1941.

14.621 civilians were killed and 20.292 wounded according to official figures. Meadows of 3,75 million British evacuated London and the main cities.

Principal bombardments

The attack of the industrial production centres including of the civil populations within a framework of strategic destruction will be taken again by the Allies on a quite higher scale.

In July 1940, after the end of the battle of France, whereas most of Europe east under German occupation, Hitler proposed to the British a peace of compromise with Germany and proposes new negotiations. Churchill refused, while knowing that the United Kingdom would be the next target one of the invader. The German Army and Luftwaffe had made only one mouthful of Poland before turning its attention on north and the west. The campaign conducted by the British in Norway had ended shamefully, while their Force expeditionary had wiped a cuisante demolished in France. Hitler thus decides to invade the United Kingdom, but it knows that to be done it must have the supremacy of the sky and thus destroy Royal Air Force. There was on a side the marshal of the Air, to sir Hugh Dowding, ordering the hunters (Fighter Command) of the RAF, and other Hermann Gœring, who directs Luftwaffe, the German aviation of combat, the Kesselring marshals and Sperrle, who ordered 2nd and 3rd air fleet. The British engaged 55 will squadrons of Fighter Command, that is to say 850 hunters (Spitfire and Hurricane), i.e. 3.080 pilots. The Germans had 1.000 hunters, of 1.200 bombers (Junker, Dornier and Heinkel), of 280 bombers in piqué (Stukas), and of 375 fighter-bombers (Focke-Wolf and Messerschmitt), that is to say 10.000 men of crew for what was the first battle of the history entirely delivered in the airs and which was held from July 10th to October 31st, 1940. August 13rd, 1940, the great German offensive, which was to be decisive (the code name of the operation was Adlertag, the Day of the eagle), was launched in the afternoon. Lutwaffe, ordered by Goering, carried out 1.000 exits of hunting and 485 exits of bombardment.

Lutwaffe lost 45 bombers and hunters, while the British had lost only 13 hunters. The 14, the time which was degraded (it were already bad the 13), obliged the Germans to engage only one the third of the fleets of Kesselring and Sperrle which had been used the day before. The 15, the 5th fleet of the Stumpff general, who was stationed in Denmark and in Norway, helped the other fleets; it engaged all its hunters and half of its bombers, is on the whole 1.000 apparatuses. The RAF had to push back during this day 5 successive attacks. 75 German apparatuses were destroyed and 35 British hunters were cut down. The 16 and the 17 attacks continued, but did not have any result. From the 18 to the 23, the operations last being suspended because of the bad weather. In 10 days a hundred British apparatuses had been destroyed, against 100 hunters and 400 bombers for the Germans. Moreover the latter had to give up the use of too vulnerable Stukas, and Me-110, too slow.

The 24, Goering launched its second offensive. This time the raids were concentrated on the take-off runways, the hangars, the radar tracking stations, the control centers air, and the aircraft factories Britanniques. During 14 days, i.e. until September 6th, the RAF carried out on average more than 700 daily exits, while being placed constantly in state of alert. The British lost 295 hunters and 171 others were seriously damaged, while Lutwaffe had lost 530 apparatuses. At the beginning of September, the RAF started to miss pilots and apparatuses.

But as of on September 7th, Hitler ordered a change of objectives. it inaugurates a new tactic consisting in systematically bombarding the British cities in the hope to kill the moral enemy. It is the “Blitz”, which initially strikes the popular quarters of East End of London. The most violent raid strikes Coventry in the night from November 14th to 15th. German propaganda invents for the occasion the neologism “coventryser” to express the idea of a total destruction. Blitz will continue until May 1941, which allowed the RAF, considering the concentration of the objectives on the big cities, to remake a health.

Of September 15th and until May 10th, 1941, to escape British defense, the German bombers intervene systematically of night, by waves from 150 to 200 apparatuses each time. The bombardments make a total of 50.000 dead in the civilians. In front of the incapacity to overcome unfavourable hunting, Hitler recognizes its failure and gives up as of on October 12th its project of invasion it turns over its weapons against Europeans of the East and the Soviets.

It is thus the bravery and the determination of all the pilots British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, American, French, Belgian and of good of other nationalities, in addition to the error of Hitler to concentrate the attacks on the cities which made it possible to prevent the invasion of the United Kingdom. Moreover, the allied pilots could count on the advantage of fighting on their territory. If they were to be parachuted, they were in a few hours again operational while a German pilot was lost. The network of radars disseminated on all the coast also played a determining role, preventing in time the escadrilles interception and while directing them efficiently.

From July to October, 415 British pilots will lose the life in this decisive confrontation. The Prime Minister will express as of on August 20th the recognition of the British in their connection: “Never in the history of the wars a so great number of men had as much with if small number”.

See too

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