The Blitz

cheets64

cheets64

cheets64

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On this day 70 years ago, the Nazis opened up hell on earth on our families.

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The Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941,[1] during the Second World War. The Blitz hit many towns and cities across the country, but it began with the bombing of London for 76 consecutive nights.[5] By the end of May 1941, over 43,000 civilians, half of them in London, had been killed by bombing and more than a million houses destroyed or damaged in London alone.[6][7]

London was not the only city to suffer Luftwaffe bombing during the Blitz. Other important military and industrial centres, such as Aberdeen, Barrow-in-Furness, Belfast, Bootle, Birkenhead, Wallasey, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Clydebank, Coventry, Exeter, Glasgow, Greenock, Sheffield, Swansea, Liverpool ,[8] Hull (Hull was the most heavily bombed city after London with 85% of its buildings being destroyed or affected), Manchester, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Nottingham, Brighton, Eastbourne, Sunderland, and Southampton, suffered heavy air raids and high numbers of casualties. Birmingham and Coventry were very badly affected with the Spitfire and Tank plant being based in Birmingham and many other munitions factories in Coventry. Coventry was almost totally destroyed.

Smaller bombing raids were made on Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Exeter, and Bath. Oxford was not bombed because Adolf Hitler wanted it to be his capital[9]; Blackpool also escaped heavy bomb damage as Hitler wanted to use it for his entertainment.[10][11] Hitler's aim was to destroy British civilian and government morale.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz

Epic how we Brits got through it, imagine now with all the selfish people we have in society and the immigrants that don't give a monkeys and the millions of benefit thief's, if it happened today I think we would have never of had the spirit to get up and fight the fires and rebuild and just do the day to day things we take for granted while your place of work is bombed to bits or your mate around the street houses was blown to bits with him inside.

I am proud of everyone that survived it and got through it, RIP to all those that died.
 
Despite being a british born indian chap, I know very little about the overall figures until today. I've spent most of my breaks reading about it on the BBC and dread to think what it was like back then.

One survivor iirc said that the "sky was on fire" as London was set ablaze. I just can't picture such a scenario without pondering how on earth the survivors pulled together to fight back. Morale must have been awful, and yet this midget country fought for all it's worth.

Thank you.
 
Looking back with rose tinted glasses it looks horrific but at the time it was just the way it was.

My grandparents all lived in London at the time and when i questioned them about it neither of them talked about mass death or firestorms. The world was a smaller more isolated place there was no 24/7 coverage and media hype, they just got on with it. It was completely out of their control. Society was more rigid. I know the crims had a riot tho robbing all the bomb damaged shops.

One of my nans favourite stories was about the time she was coming back from work and a raid had just begun. There was an AA gun emplacement in the park/square that she cut across, they started firing and she threw herself onto the floor in shock... she used to crack up telling that story... weird lady my nan :O
 
Efour2 said:
Looking back with rose tinted glasses it looks horrific but at the time it was just the way it was.

My grandparents all lived in London at the time and when i questioned them about it neither of them talked about mass death or firestorms. The world was a smaller more isolated place there was no 24/7 coverage and media hype, they just got on with it. It was completely out of their control. Society was more rigid. I know the crims had a riot tho robbing all the bomb damaged shops.

One of my nans favourite stories was about the time she was coming back from work and a raid had just begun. There was an AA gun emplacement in the park/square that she cut across, they started firing and she threw herself onto the floor in shock... she used to crack up telling that story... weird lady my nan :O
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From stories I read, people were starving, not feeding a drug habit or building bling bling, big difference, of course you will get some trying to make money but say you have not eaten for a day and you see a bombed out deli, is it wrong of you to take some meat or bread?
 
The bombing of civilian towns was started by the Nazi Condor Legion in the Spanish civil war of the 1930's
And so it seems that through WW2 bombing civilians war fair game.
Also we must remember that the bombing of civilians by the Luftwaffe allowed the RAF to rebuilt it’s air sites, repairs fighter, and quickly train more pilots.
If the Germans had kept up the bombing of air fields there would have been no RAF to stop the looming invasion.
So it seems those poor people who died in 1939 allowed the RAF to save the GB from the Nazis.
Plus should not all service men & women get some decent treatment for serving in the forces when they come back or leave the forces. Some of the stories in the press of the lack of support for them is disgraceful.
 
I think it's beyond our comprehension, how pretty much the whole world was embroiled in war, to a greater or lesser extent.

But it's also testament to the human spirit that people got on with life, accepting the risks, hardships and sacrifices that King and Country required to carry on the fight. They have my utmost respect.
 
cheets64 said:
From stories I read, people were starving, not feeding a drug habit or building bling bling, big difference, of course you will get some trying to make money but say you have not eaten for a day and you see a bombed out deli, is it wrong of you to take some meat or bread?
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lol mate she lived in London not Outer Mongolia, Whilst the bombing was ferocious it wasn't completely devastating compared to more industrial Northern towns. Plenty of people were killed or injured but the infrastructure held and people made do and carried on.

Ive only seen/read one story about a father that "borrowed" some food from a bombed out butcher shop, the owner caught him in the act and they both shook hands and got on with it. That's the Blitz spirit. That's what made our grandparents get through it.

Im talkign about the spivs and the proper criminals that would dress up as air raid wardens get hold of a truck, drive upto a bombed out department store and say they are here on official business help me load up my truck ! haha that is professional looting 1940s style :O

I can only imagine the black sense of humour that would have been around, so so dark :)
 
Plymouth city centre was pretty much leveled, I read someplace that it had the highest bomb density of the UK cities that were bombed.

My grandad had a couple funny things happen to him. He was a shipwright in the dockyard so was in a protected profession and despite tring to join the RAF was told he had to stay, he manned some of the rocket batteries though and one night he decided to have a snooze under some of the rocket launchers and slept through an air raid when the sirens went off and the rockets were launched, he slept through it :D
The other thing was that he was sleeping at home early one morning when there was another air raid and a BIG bomb landed a few streets away throwing a kerbstone through the sky, the roof and his bedroom ceiling, he slept through that too. Notice a pattern? :)
 
We had a good bash at opening up hell as well - Hamburg and Dresden in particular :( Truly unimaginable times.
 
Jono said:
Yep, RIP to all...

We bombed the Germans way more than they bombed us.
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Dont forget that the Germans were the ones that started it, the German Public vote the Party in and the German public supported what was going on. so sod it, I think the German deserved ever last bit of pain and death they got.
 
War is an awful thing but I imagine awful decisions have to be made and that is why I cannot level criticism at Sir Arthur Harris for his tactics of multi-wave bombing of German cities and infrastructure despite the appalling loss of life.

In the end, it got the job done.
 
territt said:
Dont forget that the Germans were the ones that started it, the German Public vote the Party in and the German public supported what was going on. so sod it, I think the German deserved ever last bit of pain and death they got.
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I won't agree or disagree, it's not my place. But I believe one should never speak ill of the dead.

RIP all.
 
territt said:
Dont forget that the Germans were the ones that started it, the German Public vote the Party in and the German public supported what was going on. so sod it, I think the German deserved ever last bit of pain and death they got.
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Do we all deserve to die because our government has been starting illegal wars? We voted them in, and unless you've been protesting on the streets every day, you've supported them with your indifference. It's very easy to condemn a whole people.... that's what started ww2 in the first place.
 
jimbob27 said:
Do we all deserve to die because our government has been starting illegal wars? We voted them in, and unless you've been protesting on the streets every day, you've supported them with your indifference. It's very easy to condemn a whole people.... that's what started ww2 in the first place.
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For a start the Wars wernt Illegal, and second I did support them both, but this thread isnt about them so Im not going to go into my views on that to much.
 
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