When we study history, we typically view events in chronological order, and lump things into vague categories of this happened, then this happened, and then this happened, and in our minds we don't always grasp how something went down. The time period between the fall of France and the Battle of Britain is quite short. To recap some of last week's timeline and add on today's topics, I had this one the board:
1940
- 10 May: Churchill becomes Prime Minister
- 26 May- 4 June: Dunkirk evacuation
- 18 June: Churchill's Dunkirk speech, "I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin."
- 20 June: evacuation of the Channel Islands; 25,000-- mostly children-- leave the islands of Guernsey and Jersey for England; check out the book and miniseries The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- 10 July- 31 October: Battle of Britain
- 25 August: RAF (Royal Air Force) bombs Berlin, enraging Hitler
- 7 September- May 1941: The Blitz
This timeline, other than showing how fast events were taking place, is a bit confusing towards the end. For the British, they view the Battle of Britain and the Blitz as two separate events even thought they occur during the same time periods. For the Germans, they view it as one event that spans form July 1940 to June 1941. The more I read up on this the more questions I had. It makes sense to say that when the first bombs dropped until they stopped would make the most sense. From what I have read, the Battle of Britain was the overall coastal battle and the Blitz was the direct bombing of London and other nearby cities. Either way, the primary objective of the attacks on Britain by Germany was to get Britain to negotiate a peace settlement, somewhat like the Treaty of Versailles in reverse where Germany could call the shots. However, Britain refused to capitulate, leading to eight months of day and night raids across England.
Known as Operation Sealion, Germany began with small scale bombing along the coast of southern England. Called störangriffe, these were nuisance raids, bombing convoy ships and small airfields. Later, on 13 August, this changed to Adlerangriff-- Eagle Attack-- and was a large force attack on RAF airfields and radar stations. These radar stations proved vital in Britain's defense. At this time, work was underway on the Enigma coding machines. For further study on this, see The Imitation Game, a movie about Alan Turing and these machines, and The Bletchley Circle, a television series on the women who worked with coding.
The London Blitz, footage of the burning, ruins, and devastation.
The Battle of Britain was the first battle solely fought in the air. In eight months of bombing throughout Britain, 18,000 tons of explosives were dropped, claiming 40,000 civilian lives.
"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few," said Winston Churchill in a speech in September 1940 in regards to the defense put up by the RAF. A squadron of Polish air force fled Poland with the invasion and conquest of the Germans where they joined the RAF. Having lost everything in their home country, they continued the fight for another. Polish Fly Boys in the Battle of Britain were adamant and heroic in their retaliation with the RAF. As history goes, the war eventually ended, but the Polish pilots were not given their dues considering their sacrifices for a country was not home. The Cold War came to Poland, and the pilots were eschewed as Britain sought to distance itself from the Soviets. RAF pilot remembers WW2 betrayal as movie Huricane honors Polish heroes
For more reading on The Blitz, check out the book The Longest Night: The Bombing of London on May 10, 1941 by Gavin Mortimer.
This became an iconic photograph for Londoners. Even amidst the destruction and smoke, the dome of St. Paul's cathedral brought hope.
Here are some layered photos of today and the rubble of the Blitz.
London's Biggest Blitz is newsreel coverage of the bombing of London, describing the bombings while talking up the hope and indomitable spirit of Londoners. "We'll give it to them back!" was the cry and retaliation was guaranteed. History is a shady business. The victors left glossing over what they did to be victors, the losers left to their shame, constantly reminded of their evilness. It's a reality of war. What is war? It's the oneupmanship of one group over another until one group loses as many resources, and men, and morale than the other group. It's only been in recent decades where the history of the second world war has begun to include how the Allies gained victory. In the link above the thought is clear: What Germans did to London, Britain and the Allies would see done to Germany.
In this second newsreel from August 1943, the bombing of Hamburg, known as Operation Gomorrah, optimistically recounts the raids, reminding those listening/watching that this is the natural course of war; Germany bombed first, we returned the favor. Which the bombing of London was a direct response to the bombing of Berlin by the RAF, if they wanted to play tit for tat. The narrator speaks of the hit to the port and other resources that would no longer benefit the Third Reich. In reality, "despite terrible loss of civilian life, there strange and awful irony: The horrific bombing runs affected Hitler's war machine only marginally. It did more to wound the morale of the German people and its army officers that it did production of munitions, which was back running full speed with a matter of weeks." (link to article) This newsreel is also careful to steer the imagery of the dead to being workers unable to labor for Hitler and his war away from the fact they were civilians, many of them women and children.
In comparison, eight months of the Blitz left 14,286 civilians killed and 20, 325 civilians wounded. For Hamburg, 2, 326 tons of bombs were dropped in forty-three minutes, creating a firestorm that engulfed the city, sucking in those desperate to escape and ripping apart buildings. 42,000 civilians were killed, and 37,000 were wounded. Over one million were displaced, unable to find their once homes in the aftermath as some roads completely disappeared in the rubble and the ferocious heat of the firestorm. Casualties were unrecognizable as the heat shriveled adults to child sized corpses. The raids on Hamburg have been called the most fatal attack of the war on a German city.
The Hamburg Firebombing is a link that discusses the firestorm, the aftermath, and the trauma of those who lived through this.
This is St. Nicholai, or what's left of it. The steeple was used as a landmark for the Allies as they conducted their raids. You can see where the white stones have replaced those that were destroyed in the bombings. "Today, the remains of St. Nikolai serve as a memorial for the victims of war and tyranny from 1933 to 1945. The museum in the vault informs with its permanent exhibition 'Gomorrah 1943-- Hamburg's destruction through aerial warfare' of the destruction of Hamburg during the Second World War, as well as the causes and effects of the air raids." (pamphlet from St. Nikolai)
This memorial is for the prisoners of Neuengamme, a concentration camp on the outskirts of Hamburg. The prisoners here were laborers and were brought in to clear the rubble of the bombings. The plaque, in the stone of the floor of what would have been near the altar of the church, describes the sculpture and the laborers of Neuengamme.
No comments:
Post a Comment