Short History Of... - The Blitz

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

From September 1940, Germany’s Luftwaffe subjected Britain to an intense bombing campaign lasting more than eight months. Around 43,000 civilians were killed, with many more injured or made homeless. But what led to the onslaught, and why could it not be stopped? How effective was Hitler’s campaign in achieving his aims? And how did the people of Britain react to this massive disruption to their daily lives and to the ever-present threat of death?  This is a Short History of the Blitz. Written by David Jackson. With thanks to Joshua Levine, historian and author of several books including The Secret History of the Blitz. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is Saturday, September the 7th, 1940, just a few days after the first anniversary of Britain's declaration of war against Germany. Behind the counter of a London department store, a teenage shop assistant glances at her wristwatch. She's relieved to see that the shop will be closing soon. It's been a long day, and she's anxious to get home and prepare for a night out dancing at the Hammersmith Palais. long day and she's anxious to get home and prepare for a night out dancing at the Hammersmith Palais. She looks up to see one of her favorite customers approaching, holding an expensive crystal vase. As the assistant wraps the item, the customer talks about her son, a Spitfire pilot holding back the Nazis on the south coast. The girl has heard about him before, but it's reassuring to know that brave men like him are keeping the shores safe.

The customer hands over the money and leaves with a wave. With the shoppers thinning out, the assistant gets started on emptying the till of coins and banknotes to start cashing up. But then she stops what she's doing. The plaintive whine of the air raid siren has started up outside. Straight afterwards, there's an announcement over the tannoy everyone must make their way down to the safety of the basement the shop assistant sighs there have been several false alarms and the timing couldn't be worse she locks up the cash register and directs the remaining customers towards the stairs on the ground floor she notices the doorman

at the main entrance is standing just outside, his head tilted back as he stares upwards. She goes over. Has he not heard the announcement? But then she becomes aware of another noise. A steady, low drone. Stepping outside, she follows his gaze. The early evening sky is filled with a dark swarm of aircraft, their engines thrumming

as they sail over the city. There are too many of them to count, mostly advancing in formation but with smaller planes chasing to the rat-a-tat of machine gun fire. Somewhere at ground level nearby, heavy guns begin to fire shells into the sky. She stands at the doorman's side, transfixed, until a deep, distant explosion breaks the spell. One massive blast a little way off, then another. It grows into a bombardment until the noise becomes a steady roll of thunder that vibrates the ground beneath them. The shop assistant grabs the doorman's arm and pulls him inside. Together, they run across the empty shop floor, pull open the heavy door,

and take the steps to the basement. Dozens of staff and customers huddle at the bottom of the steps, anxiously looking up, blind to what is happening to the city above just a few miles away. And as the shop assistant finds a place to sit and wait it out, the only thing she can think about is the Spitfire pilot her customer was telling her about. The poor fella doesn't have a hope in hell of stopping that lot. The first aerial attack on the docklands of London's East End in September 1940 signalled the start of an intense bombing campaign against Britain. Lasting more than eight months, it resulted in about 43,000 civilian deaths, almost half of Britain's total for the whole of the Second World War.

Many more were injured or lost their homes. The bombardment came to be known as the Blitz. It was a period in Britain's history that gave rise to countless stories illustrating the strength of community and the human spirit in a time of extreme crisis. But what led to the onslaught? And why could it not be stopped? How effective was Hitler's campaign in achieving his aims? And how did the people of Britain react to this massive disruption to their daily lives and to the ever-present threat of death?

I'm John Hopkins, and this is a short history of the Blitz. history of the Blitz. As far back as the early days of the First World War, the people of Great Britain have lived with the fear of aerial bombardment. As that conflict begins in 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm, a grandson of Queen Victoria, initially banned the dropping of bombs on British soil for fear of hitting members of his extended family living in London. But soon he's overruled. Over the course of the Great War, over a hundred bombing raids are carried out by zeppelins at first and then planes, causing over a thousand deaths.

But though that war ends, the deadly capability of weapons progresses. In 1932, conservative politician Stanley Baldwin makes a speech about the future of warfare. Arguing against unilateral disarmament, he tells Parliament that, the bomber will always get through. Strategists come to believe that victory in any future conflict will fall to whichever side makes the first attacks by air. In 1939, it is predicted that war with Germany will lead to a quarter of a million British deaths and injuries in the first week alone. Historian and broadcaster Joshua Levine is the author of several books, including The Secret History of the Blitz. So between the wars, there was this idea built up that the next war would begin with this enormous sort of cataclysmic knockout blow. And the Airborne in 1938 were predicting that

literally millions of people would be killed in the bombing in the first months of the war. And the idea was that civilization would be almost knocked out very quickly. So people were very scared of this. As Hitler's forces begin to spread across Europe, a new word enters the English lexicon, blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war. It refers to the German strategy of rapidly overwhelming the enemy by aerial, artillery, and mechanized armor attack, before moving in to occupy the vulnerable territory with infantry. mechanized armor attack, before moving in to occupy the vulnerable territory with infantry. Cinema newsreels featuring Stuka dive bombers only add to the rising dread. Small, single-engined aircraft, the Stukas roll 180 degrees when almost over their targets,

then dive at near-vertical angles. Air sirens, mounted in their gear legs, give them their signature scream, triggered on their high-speed descent, and intended to terrify their victims in the seconds before their bombs are released. It is an abbreviation of this word, Blitzkrieg, that will later be coined for the bombing of Britain. Following Hitler's invasion of Poland, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany on September 3, 1939, a mere 22 minutes after this announcement, the first air raid sound. It is a false alarm, but it is a sign of how jittery the country is. In fact, there will be no significant bombing or indeed military engagement of any kind during the next eight months or so.

It is during this so-called phony war that Britain ramps up its preparations against aerial attack. There are mass evacuations from major cities, especially of children. Blackouts are enforced at night, with wardens issuing penalties where light is seen escaping from houses. Huge hydrogen-filled balloons, ironically often bomb-shaped themselves, are floated above cities and key installations. Tethered to the ground by steel cables, these barrage balloons make it hazardous for low-flying enemy aircraft to approach. Community bomb shelters are built. A program of distribution of shelters to houses is instigated.

In May 1940, Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. When it turns its attention to France, the British send troops to help, but they're pushed right back. In May, a decision is taken to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches of Dunkirk. Despite relentless fire from German artillery and aircraft, the operation saves an impressive number of personnel, but huge amounts of equipment are left behind. Worse, the British Expeditionary Force has suffered over 66,000 casualties, while the Royal Air Force loses about half its planes and another 1,500 men. Now Britain stands alone, waiting anxiously to see what Hitler will do next. I think it's fair to say that after the Battle of France and British evacuation from

France, Hitler was expecting the British to approach him with peace terms. And in the meantime, he was pressing ahead with his plans for invasion. And I don't think he really wanted to have to invade. But before he could invade, he had to win control of the air over the channel so his invasion fleet wouldn't be attacked by the Royal Air Force. Because even though the channel is not large, it was a very difficult stretch of water to successfully cross. Hermann Goering, head of the German Air Force or Luftwaffe, is confident that the threat from the RAF can be eliminated within a few days.

Hitler gives him the go-ahead, but it doesn't prove as simple as Göring hoped. Launching surprise attacks on unprepared countries is one thing. Going up against a highly trained air force is a different matter entirely. Along Britain's coastline, there is a chain of radar stations. This efficient, highly organized system sends radar and visual information to centralized control rooms. From there, incoming enemy craft are tracked, and fighters are sent out to intercept them. The system means that British aircraft can wait to be scrambled where necessary, rather than patrolling the skies, saving fuel and avoiding tiring out their crew. The RAF have the home advantage, with less distance to cover than the enemy, and refueling is much simpler.

And unlike the Luftwaffe, if RAF pilots need to parachute out from stricken planes, they can do so over friendly territory. If RAF pilots need to parachute out from stricken plains, they can do so over friendly territory. The Luftwaffe begins by attacking naval convoys in the English Channel. But it's not just to destroy the ships. They also want to lure the RAF into battle. They then attack airfields, radar stations, and other strategic targets, mostly along the south coast. During the blazing hot summer of 1940, German and British aircraft fight for control of the skies. What becomes known as the Battle of Britain does not go well for the Luftwaffe. By August 26, they have lost 602 bombers and fighters, heavy losses compared to the RAF's 259 fighters.

But now, the tide begins to turn in Germany's favor. At the end of the first week of September, the supply of RAF fighters and pilots is running precariously low. On Saturday, September 7, 1940, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force pushes markers across a map in an operations room. Around her, colleagues and supervisors watch the unfolding picture in horror. The markers indicate the locations of approaching enemy aircraft. But this time, there are more of them than ever before. This particular formation is 20 miles wide and occupies 800 square miles of sky.

The urgent messages go out. The RAF pilots of the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters are quickly scrambled and take to the air. As the two sides close in and battle commences, the young woman listens to the updates coming in over her headset and mirrors it on the chart. Though the RAF boys will do everything they can, preventing this vast German cloud of bombers from rolling across England's coast and destroying its defenses is almost impossible. But then something happens that stuns everyone in the room. The swarm of aircraft changes course,

as if uninterested in the usual targets. The woman continues to plot its course, but by now its destination has dawned on everyone. The bombers are heading directly for London. The German Air Force hadn't yet won control of the skies, so the invasion couldn't go ahead. I mean, they were doing pretty well, but the invasion couldn't yet won control of the skies. So the invasion couldn't go ahead. I mean, they were doing pretty well, but the invasion couldn't yet go ahead. So Hitler moved in a different direction. He ordered the bombing of London, and he hoped that this would draw the rest of the British fighters that had been fighting the Battle of Britain up into the air, where they could be destroyed. But it meant something else as well. London was hugely

important in Hitler's eyes. It contained the center of Britain's trading power and the docks. It was a seat of British government. Parliament was here. Finance was here. London contained huge numbers of people whose morale and will to resist would be very heavily affected by heavy bombing. And he thought that these people might well rise up against the government. So, in a sense, Hitler was hedging his bets. The September 7th assault consists of two huge waves. In the early evening, 600 bombers and 400 fighters attack London's East End. Many of the bombers get through,

and by nightfall the sky is glowing red from the blazing docklands. The fires are still burning that night when the second wave of 200 bombers arrives. The blitz has begun. Over 650 people are killed on that day, of which almost a quarter are children. Rescue workers and firefighters work non-stop to do what they can against the devastation. But this is only the beginning. London will come under bombardment for 56 out of the next 57 days. Desperate for shelter, many civilians stay at home, hiding in cellars, under tables, or below staircases. Others abandon their homes for public shelters, constructed from brick and concrete

by the local authorities. Some families are fortunate enough to possess their own outdoor shelters. There were these Anderson shelters. They were for people who had gardens, and they were corrugated iron, and they were curved, and you had to dig down three feet and you put them in there, you'd set them up, you'd cover them in earth and then they would have sort of shelves inside where people could sleep. They were free to people who didn't have much money. Others had to pay for them. Actually, they were pretty safe. And now what does safe mean during the bits? A direct hit, that would be the end. But they survived bombs falling very close by. They were surprisingly tough.

What people didn't like about them was that the conditions in them, over a long, wet winter, they were cold, they were wet. They were not pleasant to live in. One of the most intense raids, starting on September the 15th, causes damage to the rail network, but it is repaired within three days. A follow-up wave fails miserably, and the Luftwaffe loses almost one-fifth of its bombers on that day to Allied defenses. Convinced that Goering's early optimism was misplaced, Hitler suspends the invasion plans. But still, the bombing continues,

as Hitler holds out hope that the British will eventually sue for peace to end the onslaught. For Londoners, the need for shelter becomes ever more pressing. One possible solution is to head deep below ground, but it's an idea the government is not so keen on. The government had been very much in favor of a policy of dispersal. The idea being that if people sheltered basically separately in their own sort of family units, society would be much more likely to continue as normal and the country would cope better. There were practical worries actually, as well as others, that people might be killed en masse by a direct hit. So if a bomb did get through to a deep shelter, huge numbers of people would be killed.

There were worries that people would fall prey to a mass epidemic, either of disease or of fear. There was a belief that people would succumb to a shelter mentality, where they become kind of uncivilized, selfish troglodytes, underground underground dwellers who would set up their own sort of anti-social communities below ground who then wouldn't want to come back up to the danger of the ground or or the the complication of the ground level and they would simply set up shop down there become underground dwellers and society would cease to function become underground dwellers and society would cease to function. But many Londoners refuse to be dissuaded.

They take matters into their own hands and set their sights on the London Underground Railway, or Tube. Although notices are posted in newspapers not to use the Tube for shelter, there's little that can practically be done to prevent it. For one thing, it is impossible to distinguish genuine travellers from those who buy a ticket and simply remain down there. On the 8th of September 1940, at the entrance to London's Liverpool Street Underground Station, a crowd is building. Terrified by the new wave of bombing, these people plead to be allowed to seek refuge in the station The police do their best to hold them back

And behind them, the station doors have been locked and barriers of barbed wire put in place But the crowd becomes desperate Surging forward, they rip down the barricades and force open the doors And soon, a tidal wave of people is pouring into the underground. Following incidents of public disorder at Liverpool Street and other stations, the government finally relents. Now, long queues form outside the stations each evening. By mid-September, 150,000 people are sleeping in the tunnels every night. The larger and better equipped shelters have stoves, bathrooms, canteens, and even concerts,

films, plays, and library books. For most, though, it is not a pleasant experience. People are crammed next to each other on staircases and platforms, while commuters exiting trains clamber over them. There is no privacy or washing facilities, and with only chemical toilets available, the smell is nauseating. The bombing raids gradually shift

from daytime to nighttime raids, and this becomes official German policy on October 7. Few of the RAF aircraft can operate effectively at night, and the ground-based spotlights and anti-aircraft, or AK-AK guns, are largely ineffective after dark. But it's not all plain sailing for the Germans. Their intelligence about the locations of British assets is extremely poor. For guidance, they have relied on a system in which two radio signals are transmitted from widely separated locations, the beams crisscrossing over the intended target.

The German bombers navigate by following the path of one of the beams until they detect the other signal, at which point they know they're in position to drop their payload. To counteract this, the British send out dummy signals to fool the bombers and misdirect them. Combined with the near total blackout below, it means the German pilots are flying virtually blind. Low on fuel after the crossing from the continent, the bombers have only a short time in which to aim and release their shells. It is an imprecise science at best. Although Hitler has stopped short of authorizing attacks on civilians rather than strategic targets, the net result for those below feels nothing short of indiscriminate bombing.

After a long day, a young woman in London's East End drops into an armchair next to her father's. Her mother sets a cup of tea beside her, then starts checking for gaps in the blackout curtains. The young woman struggles to get comfortable. Her baby is due any day now. She wishes her husband were here at her side instead of wherever the army has sent him. Though they've been coming for weeks, the air raid siren makes her jump when it starts up. Even the baby kicks. But her mother just sighs, already bustling out of the room to get the bags they keep

packed by the front door. The young woman hauls herself up and shrugs on her threadbare coat. She turns to her father to ask him if he's coming, but she already knows the answer. In no rush, he strikes a match, lights his pipe, and tells her that he'll go to his grave before Hitler manages to turf him out of his own home, bombs or no bombs. The two women leave the house and head towards the tube station. As they get closer, the pavements fill up. Everyone is heading in the same direction. With her mother's arm linked in her own, the woman scans the skies,

wondering whether this will be another false alarm. They reach the station and negotiate their way down staircases and along passageways. It's already so busy that it's difficult not to stand on people. There are the elderly, the sick, the young, even babies in arms. So many people, it's hard to find a spot to sit. But then a red-haired lady with a large family sees the young woman's bump and calls to her. She orders her own children to shift over and allow her to sit down. The young woman hates it down here.

It's gloomy, smelly and cramped. And though most people are friendly enough, some are just irritating. One man a few feet away starts playing a harmonica, while just further along someone else strums a completely different song on a ukulele. But any music is better than the dull thump of the first bomb. It is a collective gasp, and everyone instinctively looks up. It's close, and getting closer. A sudden cramp makes the young woman bend double over her pregnant belly. Then another bomb lands.

This one so loud, it could have been directly overhead. Everything shakes, while dust and bits of plaster rain down on them. The lights flicker out for a full minute. When they come back on, the woman is gripped by another pain. There's no doubt about it now. The baby is coming. As the bombs continue to pound the world overhead, other women come to her aid. Some hold up blankets and coats to shield her from view, while the red-haired lady, an ex-midwife, gets to work.

The birth is thankfully quick and straightforward, and when the baby boy utters his first cry, he is greeted with a round of applause. Exhausted, the new mother leans back, her baby in her arms. When the all-clear finally sounds after dawn, the two women leave their shelter along with the new addition to the family. But as they emerge into the daylight, their excitement about introducing him to his granddad is replaced by horror. It's as if the city has rearranged itself overnight. Where there had been buildings, now there is just wreckage and smoke. The roads themselves are crumpled, strewn with glass. And when they finally reach their street, the young woman holds her baby even closer.

Her house has been blown to smithereens, and with it, her father. In the mornings after the raids, people emerge from their shelters and do their best to resume lives that are as close to normal as they can manage. They climb their way across rubble-strewn streets on the way to work, or hop on buses that take circuitous routes to avoid bomb craters or collapsed buildings

or still raging fires. There is destruction everywhere and frequent reminders of death. And yet there remains in the population a stoicism, a stiff upper lip, coupled with touches of the famed British sarcastic humour. A sign outside a shop that has had all its windows blown out declares that it is more open than usual. A house with no door has a sign that reads, Don't bother to knock.

A barbershop asks, Close shave, sir? Try our high-explosive haircuts. There are so many examples. Just one that springs to mind is a man who's bombed, and they bombed the house, they also bombed the garden and the chicken coop. And he said that he came back and all these chickens were running around

and they didn't have a feather on. Their feathers had been blown off. And he said, for a while we had chicken dinners and we didn't even have to pluck them. That's the kind of attitude that was all over the place. Of course, the humor is merely a way of trying to cope with loss and the heightened stress of living in a war zone. By mid-November of 1940, 11,500 tons of high explosives have been dropped on Britain, and over one million incendiary devices designed to cause fires.

Throughout September and October, 13,000 people have been killed and 20,000 injured. But many of those who have escaped physical injury experience loss of a different kind. There's a story I found that I think really puts this into perspective. A woman, ordinary woman, Ida Rodway, she and her husband had been living in East London. Their house had been bombed and East London. Their house had been bombed and unlivable. The husband was getting on. He was now getting quite senile. So, you know, really depended on her and they had nowhere to go. So they went to stay with Ida Rodway's sister in Hackney. They didn't have any money. They only had the clothes they stood up in. Her husband was now completely helpless. He didn't even know where he was. So they were sleeping on the floor of her sister's small house. And she went to the kitchen to get her husband his morning cup of tea.

And she had a kind of change of heart, change of thought while she was in there. And she came back and instead of giving him his cup of tea, she slitted through and she killed him. Ida Rodway immediately finds a policeman and hands herself in. She pleads insanity, so instead of being hanged for murder, she's committed to the Broadmoor High Security Psychiatric Hospital, where she'll die shortly after the end of the war. Her tragic story is just one of countless numbers, with destitution becoming a serious problem. One in every six Londoners is made homeless at some point during

the onslaught. The bombs have no respect of wealth or position, and when Buckingham Palace is damaged in the Blitz, the feeling that everyone is in this together is cemented. Several workmen are injured, but King George VI and his family, including the future Queen Elizabeth, stay at home, in solidarity with the people of the capital. They visit the worst stricken areas of London, as does the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It increases their popularity, but also drives home the message to the government that drastic and practical remedies are needed for those less fortunate. So what the government did was to appoint a man called Henry Willink to be the special commissioner for the homeless in London, this is.

And he brought in all these measures. So there'd be one place where people could go for all their necessities to be known as an administrative center. Repairs to housing would be dealt with very quickly. So men engaged in repairs who were due for their call up to the army, they would have that suspended, their call up suspended. New homes were going to be made available as quickly as possible. Local authorities were given extra staff

to make sure that this was put into place. Social workers were brought in to deal with every case of distress. Citizens and vice-principals had already been around for a few years, but this was the point where they came into their own because they were also set up in all sorts of different places. So the government, when it had to, reacted quickly. Being hit by a bomb is not the only danger at this time. During the blackouts, no light is allowed to leak from houses or other buildings.

Across Britain, street lamps are switched off, and car headlights are covered except for narrow slits. Even striking a match is illegal. This near total absence of light leads to many more accidents, especially on the roads. There is also a substantial increase in crime, with many more arrests taking place than in previous years. In part, this reflects the influx of new laws, like those related to breaches of blackout regulations. But in some cases, people fail to realize they are committing crimes. Taking an item found half buried in rubble can be classed as looting. Use of a radio transmitter

can be viewed as signaling the enemy. Even owning a peregrine falcon can lead to prosecution because of the danger it poses to pigeons that may be carrying important messages. And then there are those who know exactly what wrongs they're committing. With the police under severe pressure and most of the population hiding from the bombs, opportunities for career criminals abound. In the back of the stolen lorry sits a young man who goes by the name of Spider. It's late, sits a young man who goes by the name of Spider. It's late, the city is pitch black, and his nerves are frayed. He doesn't much like being parked out here, near London Bridge,

in full view of any passing police officers. Not far off, bombs are falling on other parts of the city. Behind the wheel of the lorry, one of Spider's accomplices is strategically dressed in an old air raid warden uniform, just to be on the safe side. He jokes that air raids are the best ally crooks like them could have. They light cigarettes and watch the building. Then, at 2am, right on time, the two security guards emerge. The gang wait until they're out of sight. Then they leap into action. One of them uses their duplicate

keys to unlock the gates. Then, once they've crossed the courtyard, Spider jammies open a ground floor window and is quickly inside. He runs through to unbolt the front doors to let the others in, and together they head to the main office. Sitting in the corner, just as they'd hoped, is the safe, but it's huge and extremely heavy. It takes all their efforts for the four thieves to manhandle it to the front entrance. They're almost out of the building when the bomb strikes. Spider feels himself being tossed through the air like a ragdoll. When he lands back outside, it takes several

moments for his ears to stop ringing. Dust filling his eyes, nose, and mouth, he checks himself over, amazed to find nothing is broken. Somehow, the others are all alive and largely unhurt. But as the smoke starts to clear, Spider sees that the lorry is now an overturned wreck, as the smoke starts to clear, Spider sees that the lorry is now an overturned wreck, and the warehouse gates have been blown clean off. With no transport for the safe, the gang has no choice but to make a run for it. But on the street, Spider suddenly halts. Across the road, a row of terraced houses is burning fiercely, and in one of the upper windows stands a small girl waving frantically down at him. Though the others keep running, Spider sprints across the street, dodging hunks of rubble as he goes.

Then, without hesitation, he scales up a drainpipe until he reaches the girl. Clinging on with one hand, he smashes open the window and drags her out. But getting back down to ground level with a child in his arms and with the fire's intense heat rising to meet him is much more of a challenge. Now, around the corner, comes a fire engine. It pulls up, and after some shouting beneath him, a ladder appears to his side. Taking care to hold the girl tightly, he finds the rungs and carries the girl carefully down, before passing her into the first pair of open arms he sees. Those arms belong to a police constable. Abandoned by his gang, his panic mounts as the officer praises him for his bravery,

and when he is asked for his name and address, Spider decides it's time to leave. He takes one last glance at the safe, still standing in the doorway of the warehouse, before he disappears into the night. As with Spider, the chaos of the Blitz causes many to behave in ways they might not in more normal circumstances. The chaos of the Blitz causes many to behave in ways they might not in more normal circumstances. The intensity had repercussions in all kinds of different directions. And another thing which I think is really interesting is that in terms of sexuality, I think Britain became much more permissive at this time. In fact, to the point where when I was writing about it, I started to call this the first sexual revolution because I think it really was a sexual revolution. I found one woman wrote in her diary, I'm going to sleep with Rupert. Rupert was her boyfriend tonight because we might be dead tomorrow. I mean, you couldn't put it more bluntly and viscerally.

What becomes clear, even to Hitler, is that the people of Britain are refusing to become completely demoralized. Instead, they alter their behavior to make the best of a horrific situation. And so, in November 1940, Hitler changes his strategy again, switching the focus of the airborne attacks away from London. Now it is time for other British cities to experience the Blitz. By November, I think Hitler realized that Britain wasn't about to concede defeat. He hadn't brought about his idea of causing the people to sue for peace. So his strategy changed, and he was already thinking in terms of invading the Soviet Union.

So by widening the targets in Britain to the major industrial cities, he would shatter Britain's economy. So he would shatter Britain's economy so that when he was able, he defeated Russia, able to return his attention to Britain, the country wouldn't offer much resistance. Coventry, in the Midlands area of England, is especially badly hit on November the 14th. On this particular night, the British failed to disrupt the German radio navigation signals and an initial wave of bombers dropped marker flares onto the city that can be seen from 150 miles away. Guided by this, the main follow-up force of over 400 bombers then wreaks utter havoc. While high explosives demolish the buildings, incendiaries create fires so hot that they

melt brick and suck the air out of underground shelters, suffocating the people inside. Although the RAF flies 125 sorties, only one bomber is brought down, and even then it's thanks to ground-based AK-AK guns. The next morning, Coventry's stunned survivors emerge into an apocalyptic landscape of rubble and twisted steel. The 14th-century Gothic cathedral is now just a smoking hulk. More than 500 people have lost their lives, and twice that number are injured. Thousands of homes have been destroyed, along with many of the city's factories. The German High Command is so pleased with what it has achieved here that it coins a new verb, to coventrate, meaning to destroy a city by intense bombing.

Other cities targeted from November onwards include Birmingham, Liverpool, Hull, Swansea, Portsmouth and Bristol. London has not been forgotten, though. On December 29, it's subjected to another massive slew of incendiary bombs, causing over 1,500 fires across the city. Damage to the pipelines means that firemen run out of water and have to watch their city burn. The capital has seen nothing like it since the Great Fire of 1666. Across Britain, attempts are made to confuse the enemy through the creation of mock airfields

and the use of lighting to look like industrial areas. With the help of companies such as Pinewood Film Studios, full-scale models of key installations are built, such as the replica of Garston Docks in Liverpool. Fires are even lit deliberately to simulate the effects of previous attacks. But still, as Stanley Baldwin predicted, the bombers get through. The devastation continues to the point where many city dwellers are forced to find respite far from home. Another thing that people started to do, quite instinctively, was to leave the towns and cities at night. was to leave the towns and cities at night and basically start sleeping in the countryside, sleeping under hedges and sleeping outside.

Sometimes you had hundreds of thousands of people just leaving the cities. Now, the government viewed this as cowardice, very against it, in the same way as deep shelters, very, very against it. Now, I wouldn't want to sleep in a ditch in the countryside and then come back and work in my factory the next day. But these people did it. So far from being cowardice, I think it's a sign of immense toughness and resilience and the fact people were willing to get on because they did. They came back into the cities during the day and they worked

and they got on with their lives and they were functioning and useful members of society, which I find absolutely amazing. In February of 1941, Hitler issues Directive 23, ordering the Luftwaffe to concentrate its attacks on shipping and on major ports. To hamper British efforts to stop them, the Germans aim their navigational beams at false targets that they have no intention of hitting, switching to the true objectives only at the last possible moment. Luftwaffe pilots also maintain radio silence until after their bombs have been dropped. It all spells disaster for key ports such as Liverpool. Other than London, it is the only city to receive a continuous week of bombing. London, it is the only city to receive a continuous week of bombing.

It's the early hours of May the 6th, 1941, in the heart of Liverpool. An exhausted member of the Auxiliary Fire Service staggers across a pile of rubble that used to be the front of a house in the Georgian Quarter. Though bombs are detonating across his beloved city, he barely registers them. Because right now, he's carrying a young child who has just died in his arms. As the fire engine races past, its bells jangling, a stricken woman runs towards him. The child's mother, he realizes. He hands the lifeless body across to her, and she drops to her knees, cradling him. He drags the respirator from his face to mutter some futile words of condolence and heads back to his vehicle to hitch up the pump trailer. He was a cab driver before the wretched war started and considered too old to enlist in

the army once it did. So he signed up for the AFS immediately. He was given a helmet, a uniform, a respirator, an axe, a pair of rubber boots, and three weeks' training, and then he was sent out onto the streets. One of his colleagues now runs up to him. Another call has just come in, St Luke's Church. The former cabbie urges his crew into the car and climbs in behind the wheel.

He is at the church within just a few minutes. Flames twist from inside the building, blackening the stonework and licking at the bell tower that rises over 130 feet tall. The official fire bobbies are already on the scene, hosing water at such high pressure it could kill a man. The volunteer crewmen start to hook up their own pump, but it's obvious it's a lost cause.

The interior of the old church is blazing like a furnace now there is a huge crash as a section of the church roof collapses a minute later a series of explosions shower the firefighters in colorful shards as the stained glass windows buckle and erupt and then over the noise there is something unexpected the church bells are ringing but the sound is discordant chaotic the volunteer realizes that it's not someone trapped inside, but the fire itself making them ring. Then there's another almighty cacophony so loud it almost floors him. Loosed from their frames, the bells fall through the belfry and crash onto the stone floor.

The old church has sounded its own death knell. Shortly after the May Blitz is inflicted on Liverpool, Hitler lands one more blow on London. The capital suffers its worst night-time attack with more than 3,000 people killed or injured and the House of Commons is badly damaged. But this will be the final major assault on the capital. The RAF's nighttime fighting capabilities have improved, with many more German planes being brought down. For Hitler, British morale has not been

sufficiently broken, and it is impossible to assess the impact of the bombing on the country's economy and fighting ability. His mind now firmly on Russia, Hitler reassigns most of the Luftwaffe to the east. The Blitz is over. Overall, Germany's bombing raids on Britain kill something like 43,000 civilians and destroy or damage about 2 million homes, 60% of them in London. But the numbers never reach those feared at the outbreak of war. The casualties of the Blitz are also dwarfed by the devastation wreaked by Allied bombs against Germany later in the conflict. Close to 40,000 civilians are killed when the British and US practically destroy Hamburg in 1943.

Another 25,000 are killed in Dresden. Japan also suffers greatly at the hands of the Allies. A single night's firebombing of Tokyo in March of 1945 results in 100,000 deaths and over 1 million made homeless. Saturation bombing of this kind also takes place in later wars, notably in Korea and Vietnam. But if strategic bombing is adopted by so many, why do many historians regard Hitler's conduct of the Blitz as a major blunder? A partial answer is that, at the beginning of September 1940, the Luftwaffe was having greater success in inflicting serious damage on the RAF. the Luftwaffe was having greater success in inflicting serious damage on the RAF. Devastating as it was to the people of London, the decision to switch the attack to the capital gave the RAF a much-needed respite,

allowing it time to effect repairs and rest its pilots. The commander-in-chief of Fighter Command at the time described the unexpected change in strategy as a miracle. Had Germany continued to focus its efforts on the aerodromes, course of the war on Britain might have had a very different outcome. Perhaps, just as importantly, Hitler overestimated the effects of his campaign on the psychology of the civilian population. The Blitz was the first use of strategic bombing on this scale, and Hitler had no idea how much effort it would take to destroy a major city, let alone conquer a whole nation.

Despite their suffering, morale remained high among the people of Britain. If anything, the bombing strengthened their resolve to endure. Blitz Spirit, I think Blitz Spirit was absolutely real. I found this woman who illustrated this to me, a woman called Joan Varley. She told me the story that in London in 1940, she'd been a student. She was about 17, 18. And she'd been traveling on the top deck of a number 11 bus. And she said that she had been up there on the top deck at the back smoking and there was a stranger man at the front only two up there and they'd heard a bomb coming down the driver had obviously heard as well so he veered off away from his route and the bombs could be heard landing

exploding elsewhere and the driver got back on his route but in the meantime while the bomb had been coming down the stranger the man had got up from the front and walked all the way back, sat next to Joan, held her hand. And then when the bomb had exploded elsewhere, he'd got up again and walked back and sat back and they never exchanged a word or even looked at each other again. Now, if that isn't instinctive blitz spirit, people literally being brought together by the circumstances, then tell me what it is. Next time on Short History Of, we'll bring you a short history of the crown jewels. to me what's so fascinating about them is that they are the expression of thousands of years of history and of tradition but also of change and the fact that we still have a coronation ceremony that would have been utterly recognizable to william the conqueror in the same spaces the same group of items following the same rubric is amazing. And the fact that that's still with us

and we're not living in the Middle Ages, we are in the 21st century, is a kind of amazing monument really to how change and continuity and tradition and adaptation can all coexist. That's next time on Short History Of.