Figure 1.--When the Luftwaffe launched the Blitz on London, there were many children in the city. Many parents had brought the children home. This boy lost his mother. The caption read, "Sage in a British War Relief Society nursing home, this war orphan is being helped to forget the loss of his mother in an air raid. His father is with the British army overseas. The British War Relief Society, a participating agency of the National War Fund, maintaining many homes for child victims of the war."

The Germans suceeded in destroying 60 percent of the homes in London. Overall they destroyed 2.0 million homes, about 0.4 million in London. With so many homeless, ways had to be found to meet their needs. Casualties totaled 60,000 killed and 87,000 badly injured. More than half of the preople killed were Londoners. The population of central London was reduced 25 percent. While the toll was devestating, what the Germans did not do bombing at night was to serious impair British war production. London was not the industrial midlnds. There were several reaons for this. First, at night they were unavle to find and hit specific targets beyond whole cities. Second, the Luftwaffe was a tacticak force which used medium bombers with limited ranges and payloads. A much larger bomber force was needed to level British cities. Third, they made limited use of incindaries. British industry was located in cities. This if a city could be destroyed, industrial production could have been effective. The Luftwaffe (and Bomver Command), however, preferred big bang high explosives. If they had given a greater emphasis to incendiaries, they would have done much more damage. Also monbing at night they were unable to hit many military targets. In the ininital phase of the War, the German thus killed more women and children than British soldiers and sailors. Hitler seemed to think that such a toll would force the British to make peace. Some Luftwaffe commanders agreed. The people of London and other British cities paid a terrible price for defying Hitler, but they proved him wrong.

Created: 6:25 AM 5/6/2008
Last updated: 6:25 AM 5/6/2008