Название: The Bombing of London 1940-41: The Blitz and its impact on the capital
Автор: John Conen
Издательство: ‎Matador
Год: 2023
Страниц: 430
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf, epub, mobi
Размер: 10.2 MB

This is the story of the London Blitz of 1940-41 and is a combination of social and military history of this time. The title emphasises bombing over blitz as the word 'Blitz' has now taken on a much more general meaning associated with Britain's wartime spirit. This book describes how the Blitz progressed from the daylight attacks of the summer of 1940 through to the major raids of the spring of 1941, and looks at exactly what happened in the metropolis in those years. During the course of these attacks thousands of bombs fell on London, many triggering an ‘incident, a bland word that on hundreds of occasions effectively resulted in a disaster which in peacetime would have made national headlines.

A chronology of the London Blitz forms the centrepiece of this account, exploring the progress of the aerial attack, what happened in each raid, the human cost and material destruction, the buildings destroyed or damaged and the people killed and injured. These major bombing incidents and bomb-related events have remained little-known since the War. The Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour and the London Gazette – sources of which only limited use has been previously made – are used to investigate these events. The damage to London’s buildings has also seldom been fully explored.

Unlike the Little Blitz of 1944, the Blitz of 1940-41 was not planned as a single campaign by the Luftwaffe and not only comprised several distinct phases but involved a number of target locations. These the British official historian in Front Line classified as ‘the Onslaught on London’, and under ‘the Ordeal of the Provinces’, ‘the attack on the Arms Towns’, ‘the attack on the Ports’, ‘the Countryman’s Blitz’, and ‘Seaside Tip-and-Run’. But the German leadership let alone the Luftwaffe would not have recognised this breakdown.

The significance of the Blitz, which affects all the perceptions of it, is that it was a military attack against a civilian population. Therefore, the Blitz became an experience rather than a battle for the British civilian. The civilian had a passive role, with some limited military input into defence in the form of anti-aircraft fire and night fighters. Neither AA fire nor night fighters, nor the barrage balloons, had much effect on the attacking bombers during the London Blitz, although the official line was that they did (this was the case but not in night-time raids), and civilians also set great store by them.

The book covers all the major losses suffered during the war, what happened to the damaged buildings after it and how that destruction has influenced today’s townscape. It will help readers appreciate what happened in the capital in the grim years 1940-41, and celebrate and recognise those Londoners who endured it.