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The Blitz -
Did it really start by accident ? |
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Churchill
knew of Hitler's instruction, '......that London was not to be bombed...unless
on my sole instruction'. The attack on the August
24th 1940, was this another blunder by the Luftwaffe bombers? Most
reports state that the bombing of London was an accident, and that it was
not a planned raid. The explanation was that the Luftwaffe bomber crews
that were involved, were to bomb the storage oil tanks
at both Rochester and at Thameshaven, but they had
overshot the target area and continued on towards the City of London.
While most of the bombs landed in the dockland area of East and West Ham and
others fell in Edmonton North London and as far west as Esher
and Staines, one of the Heinkels
left his release of bombs far too late , and it was these that landed in
Central London hitting St Giles Church in Cripplegate that was to have
immediate consequences in the days following.
But can
we really accept the fact that it really was an accident? Let us look at some
of the facts that have risen from the night of August 24th-25th 1940.
1. The Luftwaffe always kept detailed accounts and maps showing
the units involved in operations, times, and flight paths. Unfortunately many
of these have gone missing over the years, and included in these maps would
have been one of the bombing raids over south-east England on August 24th-25th
1940. If this was available the truth of what happened that night would
possibly be regarded as fact and not the controversial mystery that it is.
2. It has
always been claimed that one, or two He111 bombers had intended to bomb targets
at Rochester and Thameshaven. Both
on opposite sides of the Thames some fifty miles to the east of London.
Unable to find their target they dropped their bombload
before making the turn to return to base. This then would indicate that the
destruction caused by these bombs would be in an almost straight line from a
point 'A' to a point 'B'. If we look at the map above, we shall see that all
areas marked with a solid circle indicate where the bombs fell on that night. Hardly possible for even two aircraft flying together to scatter
their bombloads that far wide.
3. Now, if
we look at council records, wardens reports to find out damage done or
casualties sustained, we also find another interesting aspect. Those circles in
blue, show where bombs landed on East Ham, West Ham, Stepney, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Leyton, Walthamstow, Edmonton,
Islington and Bloomsbury. All these areas received bomb damage between 2300hrs
on August 24th 1940 and 0130hrs on August 25th 1940. Now if we look at the half
red circles at a flight path flying over Stepney, Bethnal Green, Hackney and Finsbury.
These areas recorded bomb damage between 0300hrs and 0340hrs on August 25th
1940. Clearly this was a separate raid. Then if we look at the green circles at
Esher, Kingston, Twickenham,
Feltham and Staines, areas
that recorded bomb damage between 2350hrs on August 24th and 0030hrs on August
25th 1940. Hardly the same raid as the initial one on London's East End as this
would indicate the German aircraft approaching from the west, nowhere near the
proposed targets of Rochester and Thameshaven.
It is pleasing to
note that Winston S.Ramsey of After the Battle series has picked this up
and published his findings in "The Blitz - Then and Now Volume 1"
Within
twenty four hours of the air raid on 24th August 1940 Bomber Command
was to launch its first attack on the city of Berlin.
This was a
reprisal raid for the sudden attack on London. We wonder now as to whether this
was a good move or not, for the bombing of Berlin only provoked the Luftwaffe
into a series of regular night raids on the British capital. However the start of the Blitz on London was
a reprieve for fighter command and it’s airfields in the southeast, which were
almost at the point of being bombed to destruction.
Had the
Luftwaffe continued to concentrate their attack on the fighter airfields first
before starting the Blitz on London, then Fighter command may well have ceased
to exist as a viable force to help to repel the German bombers.
The Blitz lasted
from September 7th 1940 to 11th May 1941. However the terrible initial onslaught of 57
consecutive nights of Air Raids on London lasting through till November could
not be maintained by the Luftwaffe as Fighter command were able to inflict
enough losses on the German bombers to stop that initial onslaught in November
1940. This then gave Londoners short
periods where they could recover sufficiently to clear up the damage and try
and repair the infrastructure of London as best they could.