The Luftwaffe's Blitz

The Luftwaffe's Blitz
Author: Chris Goss
Publisher: Crecy Publishing
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Due to the failure of the day campaign during what has become known as the Battle of Britain, on 7 September 1940, the Luftwaffe commenced bombing London and major cities, predominantly by night. What became known as the Blitz continued until 10 May 1941 with many towns and cities across the country being attacked and London being attacked 57 nights in succession. 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. The Blitz failed to break the morale of the British people and any thoughts of a German invasion were cancelled with German attention quickly being transferred to the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the intensity of the attacks against mainland Britain lessened considerably. Much has been written about the Blitz from a British perspective but The Luftwaffe's Blitz tells the story from the viewpoint of the German aircrew involved, many of whom were shot down and taken prisoner. Using over 30 first hand accounts and previously unpublished photos, The Luftwaffe's Blitz details the Luftwaffe's assault against the United Kingdom in 1941, covering the major attacks and those that occurred during the remaining months of that year. Integrated with accounts from the aircrew of RAF's embryonic night fighter force as they fought against the Luftwaffe night after night in very difficult and sometimes primitive circumstances, this book provides a new perspective on the Blitz from the attacker's point of view. Book jacket.

Battle of Britain 1940

Battle of Britain 1940
Author: Douglas C. Dildy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2018-01-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472820592

In August 1940, the Luftwaffe began an operation to destroy or neutralize RAF Fighter Command, and enable Hitler to invade Britain that autumn. It was a new type of air warfare: the first ever offensive counter-air campaign against an integrated air defence system. Powerful, combat-proven and previously all-conquering, the German air force had the means to win the Battle of Britain. Yet it did not. This book is an original, rigorous campaign study of the Luftwaffe's Operation Adlerangriff, researched in Germany's World War II archives and using the most accurate data available. Doug Dildy explains the capabilities of both sides, sets the campaign in context, and argues persuasively that it was the Luftwaffe's own mistakes and failures that led to its defeat, and kept alive the Allies' chance to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany.

The Blitz Companion

The Blitz Companion
Author: Mark Clapson
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1911534491

The Blitz Companion offers a unique overview of a century of aerial warfare, its impact on cities and the people who lived in them. It tells the story of aerial warfare from the earliest bombing raids and in World War 1 through to the London Blitz and Allied bombings of Europe and Japan. These are compared with more recent American air campaigns over Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, the NATO bombings during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, and subsequent bombings in the aftermath of 9/11. Beginning with the premonitions and predictions of air warfare and its terrible consequences, the book focuses on air raids precautions, evacuation and preparations for total war, and resilience, both of citizens and of cities. The legacies of air raids, from reconstruction to commemoration, are also discussed. While a key theme of the book is the futility of many air campaigns, care is taken to situate them in their historical context. The Blitz Companion also includes a guide to documentary and visual resources for students and general readers. Uniquely accessible, comparative and broad in scope this book draws key conclusions about civilian experience in the twentieth century and what these might mean for military engagement and civil reconstruction processes once conflicts have been resolved.

The Little Blitz

The Little Blitz
Author: John Conen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2014
Genre: London (England)
ISBN: 9781781553084

The Little Blitz on London in the early part of 1944 is briefly mentioned in most accounts of the aerial war against the UK during the Second World War but is seldom deemed worthy of more than a few lines. The Little Blitz is the name applied to the air raids on Britain which were the manifestation of the Luftwaffe's Operation Steinbock, planned in the last few months of 1943 and put into effect from the middle of January 1944. The raids, planned as revenge for the destructive RAF raids on Berlin, were mainly targeted London, and after nearly three years of respite from air raids, the Little Blitz was an unwelcome surprise for residents of the Capital. The offensive was largely ineffective but some of the raids caused significant casualties and damage, and some alarm amongst the population and the authorities. This is the first account of the Little Blitz to explore these bombings in detail and assess their impact on London. This book describes the raids, making use of some vivid personal accounts, to give a gripping picture of the effect that these little-known events had on a complacent city.

The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe Blitz

The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe Blitz
Author: Philip Kaplan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2013-08-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473829658

This new collection of archive imagery from Philip Kaplan offers a gripping, graphic view of the routine repeated each day and night, from the summer of 1940 through to the following spring, by the German bomber crews bringing their deadly cargoes to Britain. Through mainly German archival photos, it profiles airmen on their French bases and in the skies over England; the aircraft they flew, fought and sometimes died in; their leaders; their targets and results; the R.A.F pilots and aircraft that stood in opposition to the German forces, and the losses experienced on both sides. The images, from the Bundesarchiv and other German and British photographic sources, vividly convey a real sense of events as they played out, as do the compelling first-hand accounts from a host of participants on both sides, eyewitnesses to one of the most brutal sustained bombardments of the Second World War.

The Blitz

The Blitz
Author: Juliet Gardiner
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2011-03-01
Genre: London (England)
ISBN: 9780007386611

September 1940 marked the beginning of Nazi Germany's sustained attack on civilian Britain. Lasting eight months long, the Blitz was the form of warfare that had been predicted throughout the 1930s, that everyone had expected since Neville Chamberlain's declaration that Britain was at war with Germany. The ferocity of the Luftwaffe attacks, combined with images of the City of London burning are widely considered to be iconic snapshots of Second World War history. Though compared with other great moments of that war -- D-Day, Dunkirk, V E Day -- the Blitz remains curiously unexamined. Apart from fragmentary accounts and local records, there is little in the way of a comprehensive account of the Blitz experience that so many British civilians went through -- as well as the social, political and cultural implications of the bombardment. Designed to break the morale of the British population, the nightly bombings certainly did devastate. But, as Juliet Gardiner shows in this hugely important book, they also served to galvanise the nation; from those eight months of terrifying Nazi onslaught, a new determination amongst people and politicians steadily emerged. Revealing, original and beautifully written, THE BLITZ is a much-needed exploration of one of the most important moments in Second World War history.

The First Day of the Blitz

The First Day of the Blitz
Author: Peter Stansky
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780300125566

On September 7, 1940, the Blitz began. The bombing of London, by over one thousand planes on that night alone, was recognised at the time as being a direct measure to break the country's resistance. This book tells of the impact that this terror from the skies had on British people and the course of war.

The Battle for Britain

The Battle for Britain
Author: John Clarke
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2023-05-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1529227704

This book addresses the social, political and economic turbulence in which the UK is embroiled. Drawing on Cultural Studies, it explores proliferating crises and conflicts, from the multiplying varieties of social dissent through the stagnation of rentier capitalism to the looming climate catastrophe. Examining arguments about Brexit, class and ‘race’, and the changing character of the state, the book is underpinned by a transnational and relational conception of the UK. It traces the entangled dynamics of time and space that have shaped the current conjuncture. Questioning whether increasingly anti-democratic and authoritarian strategies can provide a resolution to these troubles, it explores how the accumulating crises and conflicts have produced a deepening ‘crisis of authority’ that forms the terrain of the Battle for Britain.

Bretons and Britons

Bretons and Britons
Author: Barry Cunliffe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2021-06-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192592475

What is it about Brittany that makes it such a favourite destination for the British? To answer this question, Bretons and Britons explores the long history of the Bretons, from the time of the first farmers around 5400 BC to the present, and the very close relationship they have had with their British neighbours throughout this time. More than simply a history of a people, Bretons and Britons is also the author's homage to a country and a people he has come to admire over decades of engagement. Underlying the story throughout is the tale of the Bretons' fierce struggle to maintain their distinctive identity. As a peninsula people living on a westerly excrescence of Europe they were surrounded on three sides by the sea, which gave them some protection from outside interference, but their landward border was constantly threatened - not only by succeeding waves of Romans, Franks, and Vikings, but also by the growing power of the French state. It was the sea that gave the Bretons strength and helped them in their struggle for independence. They shared in the culture of Atlantic-facing Europe, and from the eighteenth century, when a fascination for the Celts was beginning to sweep Europe, they were able to present themselves as the direct successors of the ancient Celts along with the Cornish, Welsh, Scots, and Irish. This gave them a new strength and a new pride. It is this spirit that is still very much alive today.

Why the Allies Won

Why the Allies Won
Author: R. J. Overy
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 454
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780393316193

"Overy has written a masterpiece of analytical history, posing and answering one of the great questions of the century."--Sunday Times (London)