Transcript No Slide Title

The first air-raids of the Second World War
had already taken place by the end of August
1940. The Blitz got much worse by 7th
September when 950 German aircraft
attacked London.
This was the start of 57 nights of nonstop bombings.
Even though daylight attacks continued,
Germans lost many more aircraft and crew
than Britain did.
Despite Germany losing many aircraft and crew, they still managed to
conduct large numbers of raids against places such as London,
Coventry, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth and Liverpool.
On 29th December, much
of London was destroyed
by a huge raid. Bad
weather postponed any
further attacks until March.
From March until May
there were very heavy
bombings which ended
with a detrimental attack
on London.
Most German aircraft were taken to the east to invade
Russia. Due to this, the Blitz ended on 16th May.
By the end
of the Blitz,
about 30,
000
civilians
had been
killed and a
further 50,
000 were
injured.
People reacted differently to the effects of the Blitz. Children and
adults had differing views about the events of the second world war.
This is an extract from Denis Gardner who was almost 14 when the Blitz started.
During an air raid earlier, a stick of bombs had hit this area and houses were blown down. Dust
was everywhere. Gas mains in the streets were on fire. Fire engines were everywhere and hoses across the
streets.
Air raid wardens tried to rescue those in the bombed-out houses, ambulances had sirens at full
blast, police and air raid wardens kept people away from certain areas which were liable to collapse or had
an unexploded bomb under them, and dust filled the air. The scenes of destruction, fires and mayhem were
both frightening and exciting. That night they came back and bombed the East End of London, the dock
area.
From Peckham we could see the huge red glow in the sky as the dockland areas with all their
stockpiles of sugar, wines, rum, timber and other perishable goods burnt.
Peckham is only a few seconds flying time from the East End of London, so any pilot who was a split
second off his target or was picked up by the searchlights (and lots were), just dropped their bombs to
lighten the aircraft, in order to escape.
The fires in dockland burnt for days. From this day on London was bombed for 74 consecutive
nights, (and sometimes during the day as well,) except for a couple of nights when the weather was too bad
for air raids.
This meant going down our shelter each night and staying there, except for trips to the toilet
during the quiet periods. We also had a couple who lived next door who used to come into our shelter, so
there were six of us trying to sleep in this small area, and then next morning go to work, if it was still there.
This is another real-life story from Shirley Hughes, now 74, who was evacuated during the war.
She was 11 at the time and had to become like a mother to her 8 month old sister, Pat.
"When we were evacuated, I was 11 years old. I had to be a mother to my sister as my mum was not
around anymore. It was frightening and we didn't know what to expect. We were sent to Western Favell,
Northamptonshire, where two doctors looked after us. They had three girls and they were very unkind to us. They
were jealous of us and particularly my sister who got a lot of attention as she was so young.
Can you imagine not seeing your family for six years, not take your favourite toys, and staying with a
strange family?
I was so happy to go home, but when we got back to London the war carried on. I remember we had to
wash very quickly in a tin-tub in front of the fire.
When the air-raid warning went off it was like a nightmare running to the air raid shelter - absolutely terrifying.”
This is an extract from a story from Margaret Hofman
My war started when I was about three months old. My Dad had
been called up into the army and my mother had been living in a
small apartment in East London. The German planes had already
been flying over London and dropping bombs, mainly at night. After
one raid, my mother took me in the pram, to post a letter to my Dad
to tell him that we were all right. While she was away,an undetected
land mine exploded and the apartment was just brick dust so she
returned to her father's house in the dock area of London.
This was an unfortunate move because the next thing the
Germans bombed was the dock, they bombed it by day and night
until even the water burned with the contents of the warehouses
tumbling into the water.
“The bombs usually came in sticks of about five or
six. And you’d hear one, and that’d go off. And you’d
hear the next one land-that’d be a bit nearer. And the
next one would be over the top, the other side of you.
And you’d think ‘Thank God for that.’
”
That story was from Renée Bore, who was just 10 years old
during the Blitz on London.
Herr Engelbrecht was 12 years old when the war started
and 16 when he started fighting. He was one of the many
people who had a first-hand experience of a bomb. On 3rd
September 1943, a bomb hit 30 meters away from where
Herr Engelbrecht was standing. A piece of shrapnel
severely injured his leg and sadly, killed his friend.
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