The Blitz Flashcards
What where the three main phases of the Blitz ?
The Blitz ending 11 May 1941
The little Blitz from 21 January to late May 1944
The V1 and V2 rocket attacks from mid-June
What was the first day of the Blitz called and where did it target?( east end)
‘Black Sunday’ on 7 September 1940 and it targeted the East end with the focus was on
- Target: east end
- st Katharine docks
- Woolwich Arsenal containing artillery and ammo factories
- The Victoria and Albert docks
What where the three types of bombs used?( what they where and how the worked)
Brandbombe
-1kg bombs designed to be dropped in large amounts over buildings and houses, broke through roofs then started fires that where hard to put out
- ARP wardens covered them with sand but Germans out small bombs in them making them more dangerous
Flamenbombe
-filled with oil and set with a detonator to go off upon impact, terrifying but often failed to explode
Sprengbrandbombe C 59
-50kg bomb case filled with smaller bombs designed to exploded and start as many fires as possible
What happened on the night of the 7th of September 1940?(west London)
- Battersea power station gets hit
- targeted west London
- 350 bombers and 600 fighter escorts dropped 330 tones of explosives
- the incendiaries bombs that got dropped where very damaging and the ARP wardens where at their limits
How dangerous was it to be a firefighter in the Blitz ?
Very dangerous
They faced challenges such as
- collapsing buildings and massive fires
What where some pieces of equipment used to combat the fires ?
Sandbags, buckets, portable ladders and hand pumps
Why was the 29 December raid important ?( city of London)
- targeted the city of London
- firefighter struggled due to water shortages- bombs damaged the water supplies and Thames was at low ebb
Why did the new German tactics of bombing threaten important buildings ?
The new German tactic was waves of incendiaries on a limited area
This threatened buildings such as St Paul’s cathedral and the Bank of England
What did the 29 December become know as ?
The second great fire of London
St Paul’s cathedral was famously guarded by fire watchers who put out any fires on it
Many churches burned down aswell
When did the first blitz end ?
11 May 1941
What happened on 11 May 1941?
Germans launch the wars most destructive raid
- 1936 people killed, 1792 injured
- the Germans then switched their attention to Russia and left the UK alone
- 20,000 people and been killed in the 1st Blitz and 1,150,000 houses destroyed
