Figure 1.-- After the fall of France (June 1940), Britain found itself on the frontline of the air war. The Battle of Britain turned into the Blitz as the RAF made it too costly for the Luftwaffe to bomb at night. The Germans pounded British cities at night for several months. The Germans then turned east as Hitler launched Barbarossa (June 1941). While there were occassional subsequent raids such as the Baedecker Raids (1942), for the most part the British had respited as the air war shifted to the skies over the Reich. The British essentially had a-year respite. Life began to get back to normal. "The press caption here read, "Circus Loversthe World Over: London. The comfortably cool little boy in the center cranes his neck to watch the antics of performers in Ginnett's Circus. The young lady on the right is loudly appreiative , but little little Miss Moffett on the left seems to have her mind on other things. Maybe it's just her British sense of humor. Time will tell." It was dated, June 5, 1944. It may have been a day or so off. June 5 of course was the day Gen. Eisenhower had to postpone the D-Day landings becauuse the weather was so bad. Soon after D-Day the respite from German attacks ended. The Germans launched the terrifying V-1 attacks.

After the fall of France (June 1940), Britain found itself on the frontline of the air war. The Battle of Britain turned into the Blitz as the RAF made it too costly for the Luftwaffe to bomb at night. The Germans pounded British cities at night for several months. The Germans then turned east as Hitler launched Barbarossa (June 1941). While there were occassional subsequent raids such as the Baedecker Raids (1942), for the most part the British had respited as the air war shifted to the skies over the Reich. With the arrival of the Americans (1942) the balance pf power in the air shifted strongly to the Allies. Not only did the skies over Brrtain become dominated by Allied air power, but gradually France as well. As a result, when the Allies began planning the cross-channel invasion, they had detailed photo reconnaissance data on the Germans, but the Germns had very little information on the Allies. Allied air dominance was so overealming that even high speed fighter reconnaissance became difficult. The Germans never disovered that the First Army Group (FUSAG) was a huge deception--perhaps the greatest deception in the history of warfare. The Luftwaffe largely discontinued bombing, but there were a few small raids (1942-43). Not only were British air defenses formidable, but the Allies targeted Luftwaffe bases in France making it immpossible to assemble bomber groups beyond the Kamhubber Line. Small raids were possible, but no sustantial bombing. Essentially the British peopol had a 2-year respite from the bombing. Life began to a semblance of normality. The British publlic assumed that after D-Day, there would be no more German bomving, Bombing Britain was still high on Hitler's priorties. The Germans had, however, to turned to unmanned weapons to strike Britain. Thanks to the Allied strategic Bombing Campaign, the V-1 and V-2 campaigns were delayed until after D-Day.

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Created: 12:04 PM 4/24/2016
Last edited: 12:04 PM 4/24/2016