Friday, April 17, 2015

The Blitz...and Retaliation - 1940

Following the Battle for Britain, Germany continued to bomb England, but in a different manner. In the Battle for Britain, Germany had tried to thwart Britain's ability to fight a war, by targeting airforce and industrial targets. After this failed, Germany attempted a bombing strategy that was psychological and economical. This strategy targeted 9 primary cities, the foremost being London. 18,000 tons of explosives were dropped on London in 1940.

Over the course of the nearly one year period in between September 1940, and May 1941, the Luftwaffe raids killed roughly 40,000 British civilians, and wounded perhaps as many as 140,000 civilians. More than 1,000,000 houses were destroyed in London alone.

However, British morale remained strong. It wasn't long before British returned fire, and began bombing Germany.

On September 1, U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt called for a restraint of bombing civilian targets. Britain and France agreed, but later, Britain would bomb German civilian targets.

Britain's main targets were Luftwaffe bases, aircraft factories, but later in the war she would target civilian areas, also. The strategic bombing of Germany continued until the end of the war, though it failed to ever deliver a fatal below to German morale or economy.

Sources: The Historical Atlas of World War II | Alexander Swanston and Malcolm Swanston, The Blitz | Wikipedia, Strategic Bombing During World War II | Wikipedia

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