Winston Churchill and the Blitz

Post date: Jan 14, 2018 11:22:31 AM

(4th of June 1940. House of Commons) - After the Dunkirk evacuation, Churchill calms the nation’s euphoria and stiffens its resolve.

...Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; “we shall never surrender...

(For more on Churchill, read his Biography.)

Brief info:

*On June 22, 1940, the defeated French signed an armistice with Germany. Britain now stood alone against the power of Germany’s military forces, which had conquered most of Western Europe in less than two months. 

Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallied his people and outmaneuvered the politicians who wanted to negotiate with Hitler. 

Britain’s success in continuing the war would depend on the RAF Fighter Command’s ability to thwart the Luftwaffe’s efforts to gain air superiority. This would be the first all-air battle in history.  

London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights.  Over a period of 267 days, almost 37 weeks, London was attacked 71 times. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 40,000 civilians were killed. 

MORE Details: 

The Blitz, (from the German word "Blitzkrieg" meaning "lightning war") was the name used by the British press to describe these heavy air raids. 

The bombings however did not achieve their intended goals of demoralizing the British into surrender or significantly damaging their war economy.No psychiatric crisis occurred because of the Blitz even during the period of greatest bombing in September 1940. An American witness wrote "By every test and measure I am able to apply, these people are staunch to the bone and won't quit …The British are stronger and in a better position than they were at its beginning".

People referred to raids as if they were weather, stating that a day was "very blitzy”.

In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force, despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population.

Destroying nearly half of the cities of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, etc. All major artistic and economic hubs. Britain’s decisive victory saved the country from a ground invasion and possible occupation by German forces while proving that air power alone could be used to win a major battle.

The most important existing communal shelters were the London Underground stations.

Even though Britain had operated strategies to save works of art in the best way possible by hiding important pieces in disused underground stations, or to be taken to the countryside like most of the children, it suffered incredible losses in terms of art, architecture and lives. The British civilian population during WWII was mobilized in a way never seen before or since, living in a heavily regulated society and coming under sustained attack from the enemy.

The evacuation of around three million people to rural locations beyond the reach of German air attacks deeply affected the nation. This was the first time an official evacuation had ever been deemed necessary and the experience of mass evacuation - the biggest and most concentrated movement of people in British history - remains uppermost in the minds of those who lived through the war. The majority of people who were evacuated were children.  For that reason, the operation was code named Pied Piper**, named after the rather menacing German folk character.

The first day of the evacuation was portrayed in the national press as a great success and an example of the people's optimism, strength and commitment to the war effort.

**The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the of a medieval legend from the town of Hameln in Lower Saxony, Germany.  The Pied Piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magical flute.