The Blitz, (September 1940–May 1941), nighttime bombing raids against London and other British cities by Nazi Germany during World War II. The raids followed the failure of the German Luftwaffe to defeat Britain’s Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain (July–September 1940). Although the raids caused enormous destruction and heavy civilian casualties—some 43,000 British civilians were killed and another 139,000 were wounded—they had little effect on Britain’s ability to continue in the war and failed in its immediate purpose of dominating the skies in preparation for a German invasion of England.

The daylight attack against London on September 7, 1940, marked the opening phase of the German bomber offensive against Britain, which came to be called the Blitz after the German word “blitzkrieg,” meaning “lightning war.” Daylight attacks soon gave way to night raids, which the British found difficult to counter. The British lacked effective antiaircraft artillery and searchlights, as well as night fighters that could find and shoot down an aircraft in darkness. London was subjected to Luftwaffe attacks for 76 consecutive nights.

“Help for the Needy,” a newsreel about families receiving assistance in Southwark, London, from the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services after their homes were destroyed in the Blitz, 1941.Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library

During November, the offensive spread to the larger provincial cities in Britain. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive; the German force of 509 bombers was guided by the X-Gerät intersecting beam system, and much of the old city center was destroyed, with 380 people killed and 865 injured. Although the casualty figures were very small when compared with later Allied raids on Germany, the bombing of Coventry came to be seen as a symbol of the barbarity of modern warfare.

The BlitzFiremen at work in a bomb-damaged street in London after a Saturday night raid, 1941. New Times Paris Bureau Collection/USIA/NARA

In early 1941, the German navy persuaded Hitler to focus attacks on Britain’s maritime resources. In a series of 46 raids between February and May, ports including Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Swansea, Merseyside, Belfast, Clydeside, Newcastle, and Hull were pounded heavily, although they still managed to function.

Londoners taking refuge from German air raids in an Underground station, c. 1940.New Times Paris Bureau Collection/USIA/NARA

Civil defense measures to protect the British people were far from adequate in the early stages of the battle. The government had not adopted the idea of building large shelters to protect the public from bombardment—as was the case in Germany—preferring to rely on semiprivate initiatives, such as the inadequate Anderson family shelters. It was only with reluctance that the underground railway (subway) system was made available to the people of London as an air-raid shelter, a decision that ultimately saved many thousands of lives. The stoical manner in which the people of Britain—especially in London—endured the Blitz made a deep impression on neutral commentators, and the radio broadcasts of U.S. journalist Ed Murrow helped persuade the U.S. public that Britain was not a beaten nation and would continue the fight against Nazi Germany.

Children sitting outside the bomb-damaged remains of their home in the suburbs of London, 1940.New Times Paris Bureau Collection/USIA/NARA

During the spring of 1941, active British defenses began to improve. The numbers of antiaircraft guns and searchlights were increased, and in key areas they were radar-controlled to improve accuracy. The problem of guiding interceptors to their targets was partially solved by the introduction of heavily armed Bristol Beaufighters fitted with their own radar. These improvements were reflected in monthly German casualty figures, which rose from 28 in January to 124 in May.

London BombingInjuries and destroyed buildings brought on by the bombing on London in the Battle of Britian, ca. 1940s.New Times Paris Bureau Collection/USIA/NARA

The Blitz came to an effective close in May 1941 when Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union. The Luftwaffe did not have sufficient resources to conduct a two-front war, and German aircraft were redeployed to the east. This did not, however, prevent a final, vindictive flurry from the Luftwaffe; on May 10, a raid against central London led to the highest nightly casualty figure of the battle: 1,364 killed and 1,616 seriously wounded.