The Blitz

The Blitz

Blitz, the German word for 'lightning', was applied by the British

press to the tempest of heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out

over Britain in 1940 and 1941. This concentrated direct bombing of

industrial targets and civilian centres began on 7 September 1940,

with heavy raids on London.

The scale of the attack rapidly escalated. In that month alone, the

German Air Force dropped 5,300 tons of high explosives on the capital

in just 24 nights. In their efforts to 'soften up' the British

population and to destroy morale before the planned invasion, German

planes extended their targets to include the major coastal ports and

centres of production and supply.

The infamous raid of November 14 1940 on Coventry brought a still

worse twist to the campaign. 500 German bombers dropped 500 tons of

explosives and nearly 900 incendiary bombs on the city in ten hours of

unrelenting bombardment, a tactic later emulated on an even greater

scale by the RAF in their attacks on German cities.

The British population had been warned in September 1939 that air

attacks on cities were likely and civil defence preparations had been

started some time before, both on a national and a local level. Simple

corrugated steel Anderson shelters, covered over by earth, were dug

into gardens up and down the country. Larger civic shelters built of

brick and concrete were erected in British towns and a blackout was

rigorously enforced after darkness.

The night raids became so frequent that they were practically

continuous. Many people, who were tired of repeatedly interrupting

their sleep to go back and forth to the street shelters, virtua...

... middle of paper ...

...o Catholics as well as to Protestants.

The British government created the post of secretary of state for

Northern Ireland, with a seat in the British Cabinet, and a team of

British junior ministers took over direction of Northern Ireland’s

governmental departments. From then until the early 1990s Northern

Ireland’s legislation passed through the British Parliament by orders

in council (ordinances technically issued directly from the British

monarch in consultation with members of the Cabinet) rather than as

fully debated legislation. In 1983 the number of Northern Irish

representatives in the British Parliament increased from 12 to 17, and

in 1997 to 18. In a 1973 referendum largely boycotted by Roman

Catholics, the voters of Northern Ireland chose to retain ties with

Britain rather than join the Republic of Ireland.