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Britannica Book of the Year: London in 1940
During World War II, London suffered damage on a scale not witnessed there since the Great Fire of 1666. But, as it struggled to maintain the Allied war effort and to repel aerial bombardment, London became a symbol of courage and determination for English-speaking peoples around the globe. The following article “London” was originally printed in the 1941 Britannica Book of the Year (events of 1940). It was written by Lawrence Hawkins Dawson, editor of the guidebook Introductions to London (H.O. Quinn, 1926), the historical atlas The March of Man (Encyclopædia Britannica, Ltd., 1935), and Routledge's Universal Encyclopedia (1934). Dawson also wrote for the 1942 yearbook, describing London in 1941.
London in 1940
Life in London during 1940 fell into two clearly differentiated portions, with mid-August as the dividing point. In the first, “behind-the-lines” conditions prevailed, and in spite of the black-out, the ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the effects of evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. [Air Raid Precautions] officials in full training and of soldiers, and latterly the home guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. The winter had been severe, but the summer was very fine, and in their leisure hours Londoners thronged the parks or dug strenuously in their allotments and gardens. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. In the second period, when the largest and commercially the most important city in the world, with a record of nearly 20 centuries of life unhindered by the foreign invader, was assailed from the air by an enemy armed with all that science and ingenuity could devise, London accepted her “front-line” position with all that that entailed. The A.R.P. services sprang into efficient action, and the civilians, while maintaining the work, business and efficiency of their city, proved that though her walls, her palaces, her churches and her homes might be reduced to rubble, her spirit could never be broken. During the whole period, though disorganization of communications was frequent and sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. No cut was made in necessary expenditure on the social services; and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible—latterly with the help of the royal engineers and the pioneer corps. In that way thousands of business people determined to maintain their regular occupations were enabled to do so with delays of only hours. It was even possible to make a few additions to the Green Belt, but the improvements foreshadowed in the Bressey report of 1938 were perforce postponed. Among other works, the completion of Waterloo bridge with its proposed “roundabout” in the Strand, the development of the south bank of the Thames, the memorials to King George V and to Jellicoe and Beatty, and the University of London buildings were also held up. ...
London had taken early steps to defend herself against attack. In April 1939, two regional commissioners, Sir Ernest Gowers, chairman of the coal commission, and Admiral Sir Edward Evans, had been appointed. In May 1940 they were joined by Captain D. Euan Wallace, M.P., as senior commissioner, and at the end of September two special commissioners were added: H. Willink, K.C., M.P., to supervise the care of the homeless, and Sir Warren Fisher, a former head of the civil service and lately commissioner in Manchester of the northwest area, to co-ordinate and facilitate reconstruction. In October Sir Edward Evans was put in charge of air raid shelters and Dr. Mallon, warden of Toynbee hall, was appointed by the minister of food as adviser on the catering problems connected therewith. A fund for the relief of distress caused by enemy action in London was opened by the lord mayor on Sept. 10. Contributions poured in from every part of the world in such profusion that on Oct. 28 its scope was extended to cover the whole of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. By the middle of December it had reached nearly £1,700,000.
Apart from one or two “alarms” in the early days of the war no sirens wailed in London till June 25, but from Aug. 23, when the “blitz” began, until Dec. 2 there was no 24-hour period without at least one “alert”—as the alarms came to be called—and generally far more, nine having been registered on three separate occasions. In the hundred days, Aug. 23 to Nov. 30, there were 368 alerts, and the nights of Nov. 3 and 28 were the only occasions during this period on which London's peace was unbroken by siren or bomb. After the first week of September, though night bombing on a large scale continued, the large mass attacks by day, which had proved so costly to the enemy, were replaced by smaller parties coming over in successive waves; on occasions forces consisting of as many as 300 to 400 machines would cross the coast by daylight and split into small groups, and a few planes would succeed in penetrating London's outer defences. Air-raid damage was widespread, and the raider was no respecter of persons or places. Hospitals, clubs, churches, museums, residential and shopping streets, hotels, public houses, theatres, schools, ancient monuments, maternity homes, newspaper offices, embassies and the zoo were bombed. While some of the poorer and more crowded suburban areas suffered severely, the mansions of Mayfair, the luxury flats of Kensington and Buckingham palace itself—which was bombed four separate times—fared little better; but such was the determination of the citizens and the high degree of efficiency attained by the A.R.P. and medical services that casualties, though sometimes heavy, at no time approached the estimates that had been made before war broke out and only a fraction of the hospital and ambulance provision that had been made was ever requisitioned.
The following curtailed list identifies some of the better known places in inner London that have been damaged by enemy action. Some are a total loss; others are already under repair with little outward sign of the damage sustained:
Besides Buckingham palace, the chapel of which was wrecked, and Guildhall (the six-centuries old centre of London civic ceremonies and of great architectural beauty), which was destroyed by fire, Kensington palace (the London home of the earl of Athlone, governor general of Canada, and the birthplace of Queen Mary and Queen Victoria), the banqueting hall of Eltham palace (dating from King John's time and long a royal residence), Lambeth palace (the archbishop of Canterbury), and Holland house (famous for its 17th century domestic architecture, its political associations, and its art treasures), suffered, the latter severely. Of the churches, besides St. Paul's cathedral, where at one time were five unexploded bombs in the immediate vicinity and the roof of which was pierced by another that exploded and shattered the high altar to fragments, those damaged were Westminster abbey, St. Margaret's Westminster, Southwark cathedral; fifteen Wren churches (including St. Brides, Fleet St.; St.Lawrence Jewry; St. Magnus the Martyr; St. Mary-at-hill; St. Dunstan in the East; St. Clement (Eastcheap) and St. James's, Piccadilly). St. Giles, Cripplegate, and St. Mary Wolnooth, also in the city, were damaged, while the Dutch church in Austin Friars, dating from the 14th century and covering a larger area than any church in the city of London, St. Paul's alone excepted, was totally destroyed. Islington parish church, the rebuilt Our Lady of Victories (Kensington), the French church by Leicester square, St. Anne's, Soho (famous for its music), All Souls', Langham place, and Christ Church in Westminster Bridge road (whose tower—fortunately saved—commemorates President Lincoln's abolition of slavery), were among a large number of others. Over 20 hospitals were hit, among them the London (many times), St. Thomas's, St. Bartholomew's, and the children's hospital in Great Ormond st., as well as Chelsea hospital, the home for the aged and invalid soldiers, built by Wren. The famous places damaged include the palace of Westminster and Westminster hall, the County hall, the Public Record office, the Law Courts, the Temple and the Inner Temple library; Somerset house, Burlington house, the tower of London, Greenwich observatory, Hogarth's house; the Carlton, Reform, American, Savage, Arts and Orleans clubs; the Royal College of Surgeons, University college and its library, Stationers' hall, the Y.M.C.A. headquarters, Toynbee hall and St. Dunstan's; the American, Spanish, Japanese and Peruvian embassies and the buildings of the Times newspaper, the Associated Press of America, and the National City bank of New York; the centre court at Wimbledon, Wembley stadium, the Ring (Blackfriars); Drury Lane, the Queen's and the Saville theatres; Rotten row, Lambeth walk, the Burlington arcade and Madame Tussaud's. Stores whose names and goods are known all over the world were damaged in Oxford street, Regent street, Piccadilly, Cheapside and elsewhere, and the new police station in Saville row was nearly demolished. According to official figures air-raid casualties in London to the end of October amounted to about 27,200, of which some 11,200 were fatal.
Britannica Book of the Year: London in 1941
The Blitz of 1940 had resulted in a victory of sorts for London—and for all the Allies—against the Axis Powers, but at a high cost. Already, five times as many civilian Londoners had perished as a result of air raids than had died in all of World War I (1914–18), when zeppelins pioneered cross-Channel bombing sorties. What follows is an excerpt from the article “London” from the 1942 Britannica Book of the Year (events of 1941). It was written by Lawrence Hawkins Dawson, editor of the guidebook Introductions to London (H.O. Quinn, 1926), the historical atlas The March of Man (Encyclopædia Britannica, Ltd., 1935), and Routledge's Universal Encyclopedia (1934). Dawson also wrote for the 1941 yearbook, describing London in 1940.
London in 1941
In 1941 it was in the first instead of the second half of the year that London was subjected to fierce enemy air attacks. At the end of 1940 (Dec. 29) a deliberate attempt was made to burn the famous square mile known specially as “the city”—an area notable as being devoid of military objectives; large numbers of buildings were wholly or partially destroyed, including the medieval Guildhall, eight Wren churches, and many of the halls of the ancient livery companies. After this, compulsory fire watching for all business premises was decreed, and the value of this move was made apparent on Jan. 11, when the enemy made a second attempt with a similar object. Although there were many casualties, especially in two hospitals and a street subway, the incendiary bombs were quickly dealt with and fires were comparatively few. On Jan. 29 and the two following days there were again daylight and night attacks on the London area; early in February the salvage corps was increased from 60 to 600 men. After another lull, in a short but heavy raid on Feb. 17, hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties.
Merseyside, Glasgow, Bristol and other parts of the country then experienced heavy raids, and it was not till March 19 that the Luftwaffe returned to London to deliver a large scale attack in which hundreds of houses, shops, and flats, many churches, six hospitals and other public buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. Another respite, broken only by a few “alerts,” followed, till in a widespread series of night raids on April 7 a few bombs fell in the London area, and another hospital was damaged. On April 16 an attack even fiercer and more indiscriminate than those of the previous autumn started at 9 P.M. and continued till 5 in the morning; 500 aircraft were believed to have flown over in continuous waves, and the damage was more widespread than on any previous occasion. Six enemy bombers were brought down—one in Kensington high street. The German claim that 100,000 incendiaries as well as vast quantities of high explosives were dropped was probably not exaggerated. Again material losses were heavy, while among the many people killed were Lord and Lady Stamp and their eldest son, and the earl of Kimberley, formerly known on both sides of the Atlantic as Lord Wodehouse, the international polo player. St. Paul's cathedral suffered severely; the City Temple, St. Andrew's Holborn, and Chelsea old church were among the churches destroyed. Maples' store and Christie's famous auction rooms were among the business premises burnt out. Three nights later (April 19-20) London was again subjected to a seven-hour raid; but, though loss of life was considerable, especially among the firemen and A.R.P. [Air Raid Precautions] workers, mastery of the fire bomb was becoming more assured.
Londoners then enjoyed three weeks of uneasy peace till on May 10–11—a night of full moon—the Luftwaffe made a surprise effort. In a raid during which London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. The house of commons, Westminster abbey and the roof of Westminster hall were severely damaged, the Temple was almost devastated and the British museum also suffered damage. But victory remained with the defense workers and fire-fighters of London, and 33 of the destroyers' planes were destroyed.
Daylight raids over London had already ceased before the end of April, and from May 10 there was a long lull. Except that on July 27–28 a small number of bombers—four of which were brought down—did slight damage in residential areas and caused some civilian casualties, no bomb was dropped or siren heard in London up to mid-October. Full advantage was taken of the respite, especially by the fire-fighting, civil defense and demolition authorities; restaurants, places of amusement and night clubs began to function again, and the promenade concerts at the Albert hall had a record season.
By the end of the second year of war the changes in London were very marked. Large, irregular, and for weeks untidy, open spaces had taken the place of crowded dwellings and prosperous business and shopping thoroughfares; huge watertanks and shelters—surface and underground—were everywhere; 80 of the tube stations, with their tiers of bunks, canteens, first-aid posts and aproned welfare workers had become glorified doss-houses. In the streets well-known statues had been “evacuated”; “British restaurants,” communal kitchens, and mobile canteens were to be seen; many railings disappeared, and uniforms of every kind, including those of the Allied and overseas forces, were more and more noticeable. An important, but not at first sight obvious, change was the passing, under the fire services (emergency provisions) act, 1941, of the London fire brigade from the control of the London county council to that of the home office. Another matter for remark was the speed with which local authorities, bombed hospitals and the public at large accommodated themselves to the new conditions. By the end of June, 43 hospitals had been severely damaged in the metropolitan area, and 30 less seriously. The ratio of destruction of property and of casualties in London, said Henry Willink, the special commissioner for the civil defense region, in June, was eight times as great as in the rest of the country. But in spite of complex problems, the rehousing, reclothing and general “reconditioning” of those rendered homeless was dealt with by London's 95 local authorities more speedily and more successfully after the tragic experiences of April and May than after any of the earlier raids.
It is impossible to name more than a few of the damaged areas and treasures lost in addition to those already mentioned. The many churches and places of worship destroyed or very badly damaged included: St. Mary-le-Bow (of “Bow Bells” fame), St. Bride's, Fleet street (“the journalists' cathedral”), All Hallows, Barking (the Toc H church), Christ church, Newgate street (Wren; famed for its Spital sermon and its connection with the Bluecoat school), St. Mildred's, Bread street (with its Australian memorial), St. Albans, Wood street (Wren), and St. James's Garlickhithe (Wren)—all in the city; also St. Clement Danes (of the “oranges and lemons” rhyme), in the Strand; the Temple church (largely 12th century), St. Alban's, Holborn, St. John the Evangelist, Waterloo road, St. Mary's, Newington, St. Columba's, Pont street, St. Geroge's cathedral (R.C.), Southwark, Spurgeon's tabernacle, the Salvation army headquarters, and the central synagogue in Great Portland street. Non-ecclesiastical memorials demolished included: the Tudor building of the Charterhouse and the house in Charterhouse square that was Catherine Parr's home before she became a queen of Henry VIII; many of the medieval portions of Westminster school, also the deanery, and the 17th century Greycoat hospital, a Westminster charity foundation; the Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn; Dr. Johnson's house off Fleet street, and Neville's court nearby, which had remained almost unchanged since its rebuilding after the great fire of 1666.
Among official and other public buildings: the Law courts, the central criminal court (“the Old Bailey”), the Bankruptcy court, the London sessions house and the Clerkenwell county court; the Guildhall, the county hall and Westminster city hall, the National Central library and the School of Tropical Medicine in Bloomsbury, and the Florence Nightingale International Federation centre in Manchester square; the Royal Empire society, the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and the headquarters of the Independent Labour party, most of them with their large specialized libraries; Broadcasting House, the Queen's hall, with its valuable collection of hundreds of musical instruments, St. George's hall, with the B.B.C. organ; the music museum in Bloomsbury and some galleries of the natural history museum and the science museum in South Kensington.
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Introduction
The Blitz was an intense bombing campaign that Germany launched against Britain in 1940, during World War II . For eight months German airplanes dropped bombs on London , England, and other strategic cities where factories and other important industries were based. The attacks were authorized by Germany’s chancellor, Adolf Hitler , and undertaken by the Luftwaffe, the German air force. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word “blitzkrieg,” meaning “lightning war.”
Battle of Britain
The Blitz began near the end of the Battle of Britain . Since July 1940 the Germans had been conducting relentless air attacks against British ports, airfields, and radar stations. Hitler’s goal was to cripple Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) in preparation for an invasion of England. The RAF mounted a successful defense against the attacks, but it was outnumbered and losing planes and pilots at an unsustainable rate. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Hitler changed his strategy. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. The British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin, Germany. This so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. This was the origin of the Blitz.
The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes first appeared over London. For two hours, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted the city. They dropped high-explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices, which were designed to start fires. Later, guided by the raging fires caused by the first attack, a second group of planes began another assault that lasted until 4:30 the following morning. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. The first day of the Blitz is remembered as Black Saturday.
The initial attack was followed by more daylight raids over the next several days, but the German strategy soon changed. By mid-September the RAF had demonstrated that the Luftwaffe could not control the skies over Britain. British fighters were shooting down German bombers faster than German industry could produce them. To avoid the deadly RAF fighters, the Luftwaffe shifted almost entirely to night raids.
Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. During that period alone, more than one million bombs were dropped on the city. The raids heavily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. This hub of industry and trade was a legitimate military target of the Germans. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in rundown housing. The raids hurt Britain’s war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. Although the attacks also hit the more prosperous western part of the city, the Blitz took an especially big toll on the East End.
The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham . Other targets included Sheffield , Manchester , Coventry , and Southampton. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. A German force of more than 500 bombers destroyed much of the old city center and killed more than 550 people. The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, “to coventrate,” to describe it. In early 1941 the Germans launched another wave of attacks, this time focusing on ports. Raids between February and May pounded Plymouth , Portsmouth , Bristol , Newcastle Upon Tyne , and Hull in England; Swansea in Wales; Belfast in Northern Ireland; and Clydeside in Scotland. London suffered its worst assault of the Blitz at the end of the campaign, during the night of May 10–11, 1941. More than 500 German planes dropped bombs across the city, killing nearly 1,500 people and destroying 11,000 homes.
One in every 10 bombs that fell during the Blitz did not explode immediately. These bombs had a delayed-action fuse, meaning that they could go off at any time after hitting the ground. It was almost impossible to tell which bombs had already exploded and which might still go off, meaning that danger remained even after a raid had ended.
Preparation and Response
The British government had anticipated air attacks on London and other cities, and it predicted catastrophic casualties. Government authorities prepared for the raids on both the national and local levels. On September 1, 1939, the day the war began with Germany’s invasion of Poland, the British national government implemented a massive evacuation plan. Over the course of three days, 1.5 million schoolchildren, women with younger children, elderly, and ill people were moved from cities and towns to rural locations that were believed to be safe. The evacuation, called Operation Pied Piper, was the largest internal migration in British history.
Once the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout to deceive German bombers. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. People put up black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning.
At the beginning of the Blitz, the British lacked effective antiaircraft artillery and searchlights, as well as night fighters that could find and shoot down an aircraft in darkness. As the attacks continued, the British improved their air defenses. They greatly boosted the numbers of antiaircraft guns and searchlights, and in key areas the guns were radar -controlled to improve accuracy. Another defense measure was the installation of barrage balloons—large, oval-shaped inflated balloons with tail fins—in and around major target areas. These balloons prevented low-flying planes from getting close to their targets. The higher the planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. Barrage balloons were anchored to the ground by steel cables strong enough to destroy any aircraft that flew into them.
Before the war began, authorities had planned for shelters to protect Londoners from bombs and to house those left homeless by the attacks. The national government provided funds to local governments, which built public air-raid shelters. Authorities also issued more than 2 million Anderson shelters to households. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. There was even a type of shelter—a Morrison shelter—that people could set up inside their homes. It was an iron cage in which people could take refuge if the house began to collapse.
The number of deaths caused by the Blitz was much lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the government’s dire predictions. Very early in the Blitz, it became clear that the government’s preparations were inadequate. Many of the surface shelters built by local authorities were flimsy and provided little protection from bombs, falling debris, and fire. Plus, there simply was not enough space for everyone who needed shelter.
In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the government’s shelter policy. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged people to take shelter in South Hallsville School. The people were told they would be at the school only as long as it would take to move them to a safer area. The evacuation was delayed, however, possibly because the buses were sent to the wrong location. On September 10, 1940, the school was flattened by a German bomb, and people huddled in the basement were killed or trapped in the rubble. The government announced that 77 people died, but local residents insisted the toll was much higher. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had died in the bombing. It is believed that the wartime government covered up the death toll because of concern over the effect it would have had on public morale.
The South Hallsville School disaster urged Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. Days later a group of East Enders occupied the shelter at the upscale Savoy Hotel. Many others began to take refuge in the city’s underground railway, or Tube, stations, even though this option had been forbidden by the government. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, the government reluctantly came around and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. The use of the Tube system as a shelter saved thousands of lives.
Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East End—Mickey’s Shelter. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. As many as 5,000 people packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark, with people sleeping on bags of trash. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created a committee and established a set of rules. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. The success of Mickey’s Shelter was another factor that urged the government to improve existing “deep shelters” and to create new ones.
The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed—more then two-thirds of the total civilian deaths for the whole war. One of every six Londoners was made homeless at some point during the Blitz. Nevertheless, the campaign proved to be a strategic mistake by the Germans. The attacks contributed little to the main purpose of Germany’s air offensive—to dominate the skies in advance of an invasion of England. By mid-September the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union.
Hitler’s intention during the Blitz had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. Morale indeed suffered amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. The phrase “Business as usual,” written in chalk on boarded-up shop windows, exemplified the British determination to carry on as best they could. (For detailed accounts of the Blitz written during the war years, see London in 1940 ; London in 1941 .)
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The Great Fire of London was a fire that was so big that it burned nearly all of the buildings in London, with the exception of the Tower of London as that was made from stone, and stone doesn't burn up easily.
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29th July 2018
The blitz (which is German for “lightning war”) was a period where the Germans started dropping bombs on large British cities such as London. It lasted from 7th September 1940 to 11th May 1941 and killed 43,000 people over the 8 months it happened. How did the major cities prepare for this?
Air raid shelters
Throughout the major cities, London in particular, there were multiple air-raid shelters. Before there was a bomb attack, an air-raid siren would sound and everyone would stop what they were doing and head to the nearest air-raid shelter, whether that be in their back garden or in the street.
You can hear the air-raid siren sound below:
What were they made from?
Air-raid shelters were made from rugged metal and other materials given to them at the beginning of the war by the Government. They may have had some protection at the top, such as sand bags, which helped protect it if a bomb exploded nearby.
Regardless of whether you were in a city or not, you had to have a gas mask. This was so everyone would be safe in the event of a mustard gas attack.
What is mustard gas?
Mustard gas was a deadly gas used during World War I (but not during World War II.) This gas can cause large blisters on any uncovered skin and in the lungs (if breathed in.) It’s now classified as a chemical weapon.
There was no mustard gas attack in the UK during WW2 because the Nazis knew that Britain would fight back even more should they have used it.
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The Blitz: All we need to know about World War II?
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Relating an event to a Bigger Picture of the Past
The Blitz of 1940 is certainly a significant event in Britain’s past, one which has repeatedly been drawn upon as a symbol of national consciousness. It was a time when most of Europe had been defeated by the Nazi regime in Germany, typically through ‘Blitzkrieg’ – or lightning war methods of attack – whereby heavy bombing from the air was followed by rapid military action on the ground. Britain had declared war on Germany after its invasion of Poland in 1939, following its annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. By the time of the Blitz, Germany had defeated Holland, Belgium, France and Norway.
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BLITZ SCHOOL
Primary school ww2 workshop.
Free WW2 primary lesson plans
This page contains a full scheme of work plus many one off lessons so you can create your own second world war primary curriculum. ( sharing note : while i am happy to let you share the resources far and wide with colleagues, please let them know where it comes from and share this page), new souvenir ww2 penny research sheet, full ww2 primary scheme of work.
6 weeks of lesson plans for the WW2 blitz topic
One off lessons
1) A 'letter to the Queen' writing lesson (you will also need to listen to the audio below during the lesson)
2) Evacuees writing lesson
3) Rescue poem writing lesson complete with writing frames
(requires the sound file below to be played in the lesson)
Air Raid report writing lesson
Spitfire poem (not a full lesson but a beautiful poem I am sure you can use written by my dad, John Birchall)
General WW2 teaching resources and activities
A 20th Century timeline
Women in WW2 research sheet
Second World War poster pack
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WW2 leaders wordsearch solution
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WW2 Home Front - The Blitz
Subject: History
Age range: 11-14
Resource type: Unit of work
Last updated
5 September 2021
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A colourful, well-presented, and creative resource. Includes worksheets and embedded links, ideas and activities.
Main contents … ( 67 pages in total )
1 - Simple key word and vocabulary starter, matching activity. Extension, differentiation option included.
2 - Background and overview gap fill exercise.
3 - Source study ( all sources included ) and template worksheet. The focus here is … Air Raid Warden / Precaution / Children of the Blitz / Blitz Spirit / Impact / effect of bombing on civilians. Students can colour code, categorise then summarize the key information discovered into a neat template.
4 - Source Skills / type activity - understanding primary, secondary and tertiary sources via Blitz source type examples.
5 - Air Raid Warden / Precaution focus. This included well-presented information worksheets, primary sources and a summary /via a fun, diverse differentiated literacy activity to consolidate learning.
6 - The Blitz Spirit - Four focus sources and supporting worksheet template that consider the idea of The Blitz Spirit.
Extension - Creative exercise gives students examples of Blitz propaganda and option to create their own piece of propaganda.
7 - Take Shelter - Covers the various ways people tried to escape the bombs. Morrison and Anderson shelters, London Underground, communal shelters, and countryside evacuations for children. There are two activities here - one allows students to match the group to the shelter, the second is a simple table summary.
8 - Strike Back - This is a very interactive activity that covers RAF Bomber Command and British response to German bombing. Students can be put into teams and make decisions based on their given team role / perspective. Cross curricular links here with - Math / e.g., using statistics - ethics / moral decision making. This activity also looks at D-Day, Dam Buster Raid and the Battle of Britain - albeit in brief.
There are many links to videos and other websites embedded in the resource throughout.
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| Primary Homework Help Britain Since the 1930s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The heavy and frequent bombing attacks on London and other cities was known as the 'Blitz'. Night after night, from September 1940 until May 1941, German bombers attacked British cities, ports and industrial areas. London was bombed ever day and night, bar one, for 11 weeks. One third of London was destroyed. The bombs destroyed many buildings.
The Blitz was the name given to the bombing raids that Germany launched against Britain in 1940, during World War II (1939-45). For eight months German airplanes dropped bombs on London and other cities, including Birmingham, Coventry, Sheffield, Liverpool, Plymouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, and Manchester. These were all places where ...
World War II was total war - every person, every business, every service was involved. Britain did not fight alone, the war also involved many countries. World War II involved 61 countries with 1.7 billion people (three quarters of the world's population). Fifty million people lost their lives and hundreds of millions people were injured.
London suffered its worst assault of the Blitz at the end of the campaign, during the night of May 10-11, 1941. More than 500 German planes dropped bombs across the city, killing nearly 1,500 people and destroying 11,000 homes. One in every 10 bombs that fell during the Blitz did not explode immediately.
The Battle of Britain took place between 10th July 1940 and 31st October 1940. Some historians extend this to June 1941. It was the ongoing battle between the RAF (Royal Air Force) and the German Luftwaffe to control the skies above the British Isles. Adolf Hitler and the German army wanted to force the British to surrender.
There was no mustard gas attack in the UK during WW2 because the Nazis knew that Britain would fight back even more should they have used it. The Blitz (which is German for "lightning war") was a period where the Germans started dropping bombs on large British cities such as London. It lasted from 1940 to 1941 and killed 43,000 people over the ...
It was a time when most of Europe had been defeated by the Nazi regime in Germany, typically through 'Blitzkrieg' - or lightning war methods of attack - whereby heavy bombing from the air was followed by rapid military action on the ground. Britain had declared war on Germany after its invasion of Poland in 1939, following its ...
The Battle of Britain took place between 10th July 1940 and 31st October 1940. Some historians extend this to June 1941. It was the ongoing battle between the RAF (Royal Air Force) and the German Luftwaffe to control the skies above the British Isles. Adolf Hitler and the German army wanted to force the British to surrender.
pdf, 37.18 MB. Learn about the characteristic features of the Blitz in Britain during the Second World War, where bombing raids took place, how the bombing could be stopped and the different ways civilians protected themselves. The set includes facts sheets/posters, real pictures (use as flashcards or posters), worksheets and planning.
The Blitz Primary Resources. Help students learn about the bombing of British Cities in the Second World War with our range of resources on The Blitz for Key Stage 1 History students. Featuring Blitz PowerPoints, displays and vocabulary activities including key phrases such as air raid, London, bomb, Luftwaffe and siren.
Step back in time with Twinkl's excellent Blitz resources. If you're planning to teach the Blitz to KS2 pupils, then you'll be amazed at our wide assortment of the Blitz activities for KS2!. Within this collection, you'll find a wide variety of resources that will help you teach children what the Blitz was and what life would have been like for the people living through it.
Nearly two million children were evacuated from their homes at the start of World War Two. They were evacuated to the countryside to escape the bombing. Children had labels attached to them, as though they were parcels. They stood at railway station not knowing where they were going nor if they would be split from brothers and sisters who had ...
air raid siren ALL CLEAR. 00:00 / 00:58. Free primary school history lesson plans and teaching resources for the WW2 Blitz Second World War topic for key stage 1 and key stage 2 including a full scheme of work and WW2 lesson ideas.
Air Raid Warden / Precaution / Children of the Blitz / Blitz Spirit / Impact / effect of bombing on civilians. Students can colour code, categorise then summarize the key information discovered into a neat template. 4 - Source Skills / type activity - understanding primary, secondary and tertiary sources via Blitz source type examples.
Primary Homework Help Ww2 Blitz - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free.
Battle of Britain is the name commonly given to the effort by the Luftwaffe to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), before a planned sea and airborne invasion of Britain during the Second World War. The Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force. The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the ...
A thought-provoking activity where pairs or groups discuss the evidence provided by a variety of historical sources from the Blitz. Teaching resources like these sources of evidence worksheets are perfect for helping KS2 children engage with the topic. Gain an understanding of how different sources have informed history and give us an inside into the Blitz. With a selection of different ...
People were encouraged to walk facing the traffic and men were advised to leave their shirt-tails hanging out so that they could be seen by cars with dimmed headlights. Other people were injured during the Blackout because they could not see in the darkness. Many people were injured tripping up, falling down steps, or bumping into things.
The masks were made of black rubber, which was very hot and smelly. It was difficult to breathe when wearing a gas mask. When you breathed in the air was sucked through the filter to take out the gas. When you breathed out the whole mask was pushed away from your face to let the air out. Woman wearing a gas mask.
Miners. Farmers. Scientists. Merchant Seamen. School teachers. Railway and dock workers, Utility Workers - Water, Gas, Electricity. (The list above is also known as the reserved occupations in World War 2) Some men were not fit enough or were too old to join the army so they volunteered as fire fighters (fire workers), ARP wardens or joined the ...