My mum and dad lived through The Blitz in London. Mum worked as a "clippy" on the buses, Dad in construction. They were Irish who had emmigrated in 1938. They could have simply gone home to Eire, but decided to stay with the British people who had welcomed them. Dad ended up in the British Army, landed at Salerno in 1943, and fought to the end in Italy. They loved England, loved the English, and never considered doing less than their share. I'm so proud of them. Surrender? Not likely.
I went to Coventry in 1965 and still remember the state of the cathedral, especially with the cross stood in front of the altar which was made from two pieces of charred roofing! When we moved into new flats in SE London in the early 1950s there were two big town houses standing nearby that were shells left over from the Blitz. Our parish church was badly damaged by a V1 and wasn't repaired until the early 1950s. In the 1960s it was still possible to spot roofs that had roof tiles replaced after near misses. The Luftwaffe sowed the wind!
I visited the cathedral in Coventry in 2017. Unforgettable. It reminded me that one of the great tragedies of war, apart from the sheer human misery it causes, is the destruction of priceless historical monuments that are the world’s heirloom. The shattered cathedral dated to the 14th century of our era.
The fire brigades from outside Coventry found that there hose fittings would not connect with the city's hydrants. The destruction of the water mains then guaranteed a mini fire storm. The industrial production kept going - the biggest issue after the raid was homelessness. Surrender? No chance. Coventry wouldn't have surrendered to Birmingham, let alone Germany.
A little known fact is that we'd just cracked the Nazi enigma code macine and knew of the planned raid on Coventry. Churchill himself let it proceed for fear of perhaps the Germans realizing we'd broken their code. We could have briefly intercepted them way out at sea, so they knew they'd been seen, then hammered them closer to our shores. In consequence, 568 were killed and 1,000+ injured plus the loss of the City's homes, utilities, phones and Triumph manufacturing plant next to the Cathedral.
@@merlin6955 Sadly sometimes sacrifices have to be made to win the bigger picture; you ever play chess? Know about sacrificing your queen to win the game? Basically what Churchill had to do and we had revenge; we did it to Dresden. But it's why it annoys me when people say we were out of order for that and that our Bomber command shouldn't be considered heroes. It was war; they bombed us; we bombed them. Tit for Tat. Ask anyone in London or Coventry at the time if they thought we were out of order bombing Dresden; I doubt many but Conchies would say we were.
@@johnbower7452 Not forgetting Clyde Bank in Glasgow suffered s lot, Think there was 14 houses left standing which weren't damaged or destroyed, since the Clyde was important for ship building...
Here's an interesting anecdote about the blitz on Coventry: On the 12th of March 2008 the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry was due to host a performance of a play called "One Night in November" which takes place during the raid of the 14th/15th. However this play had to be postponed due to a German bomb being unearthed at a building site next door the the theatre, which is both ironic and also sobering that all these years later the Blitz is still effecting peoples lives here and I imagine across all of Europe. An undying legacy of the horrors of warfare.
oh yeah. here in italy we still find WWII unexploded ordnance all the time. whenever they dig the foundations of a new building or do some kind of underground work, they have to call the army bomb disposal squads because an old shell will do a pekaboo. I think it was a couple of years ago that someone found an anti tank mine washed up on the bank of a channel. I imagine that in france, belgium and germany it's the same. we also still find stuff from WWI laying around on the old frontline up in the mountains.
@@Niinsa62 The Morrison had a major advantage. People could stay in their dry and warm homes rather than huddle in a hole in their backyard. Also, it worked for those who didn't have backyards. I'd love to get its equivalent for protection from a tornado.
I was born after the war in a court as they are called, in the Butts district of Coventry, a fact of which I'm proud, and raised in the Hillfields area of the city. Both are about ½ a mile from the cathedral. I remember the gaps in the housing in the street where we lived, and the surrounding streets where there were no houses at all, just rubble that hadn't been completely cleared away. When I looked out of my bedroom window there was a "bomb patch" as we used to call them, where before there were twenty houses, and neighbors would talk of the people who once lived there. As kids we would play in the old Anderson shelters that were still in many people's gardens, (those that had gardens) usually games to do with the war, where one side would be the British and the other German, or one side American and the other Japanese. Of course, the Allies always won. I also remember a man who lived at the top of the street who had lost his leg and used crutches. We used to see him most days and when we played soccer he would sometimes join in. Then we stopped seeing him around. We found out that he'd finally succumbed to his wounds, one of countless others who's suffering continued after the war. I never knew his name but I've never forgotten him. The Germans coined a term for the destruction of a city: Coventration. But the city they "Coventrated" rose again, better than ever. Coventry has become a world renowned centre for reconciliation, and if I remember correctly started the custom of "twinning" with other places affected by war. Coventry is twinned with Dresden, once a city of the enemy, which was in it's turn destroyed and rose again. It just goes to show what a terrible waste war is.
Excellent video, I always did wonder how close Britain came to the breaking point. It is fortunate that experts like Mr. Kikuchi can give us insights into how the bombings actually played out in people´s lifes and the emotional impact. More merit to that generation that was able to overcome and endure. Do carry on on producing videos of this caliber. Might I suggest one on the RAF pilots who fought at this time and how they coped with the stress and the responsability that they faced.
I live close to an RAF airbase (RAF Honington) and I remember when I was in primary school we used to go swimming at the swimming pool there. I think the base was built around 1937 or thereabouts (I could be wrong there). My granddad served in the RAF, not in combat I don’t think but as a dog handler- my grandparents had dogs for most of my childhood and early adulthood. He was stationed in what was then the colony of Malta from 1956 to 1959- it gained independence in 1964. Malta was of course an area of great strategic importance during World War Two because of its position in the middle of the Mediterranean, between Italy and North Africa- I think it’s roughly north of Libya which was an Italian colony during World War Two. Malta fought on the Allied side; my grandad told me that Germany was bombing the country in the daytime and Italy at night, so they were under near constant attack. So in the way they experienced their own Blitz. But they never gave in, and the people of Malta were later awarded the George Cross for Bravery, so he told me. My grandad and his fellow service members stayed at the barracks during his time there, in a town called Birkirkara. We went on holiday to Malta in 2015 as he wanted to show us where he and my grandma lived for 3 years, because they truly loved their time living there, it’s a beautiful country. The barracks are now a souvenir shop and we bought some items there and just generally had a great time. I would recommend travelling to Malta to anyone, it really is a beautiful country with great and friendly people. We were in Valletta the capital one day and wanted to visit Birkirkara but we had just missed the bus. We were standing outside some shops wondering how we were going to get there, and a man who ran one of the shops very kindly gave us a lift in his car. Everyone we talked to was really friendly and spoke perfect English. I tried to learn some Maltese before the trip but didn’t get very far. The Maltese language I believe is a mixture of English, Italian, Arabic, and possibly some Turkish as well. It’s a blend of cultures because I think it was an Ottoman (Turkish) colony before it was a British colony. It’s also fairly close to Lebanon and other Arab countries so there’s probably an Arab community there as well. And it’s directly to the south of Sicily so also some Italian cultural influence there too. So it’s a really muliticultural country I suppose you could say. In terms of religion it’s mostly Roman Catholic and we visited a church in Mellieha, the city where we were staying (Apologies if I have misspelled that). None of us are particularly religious but churches are interesting buildings to visit. I realise I’ve gone off on a tangent here about my holiday to Malta but I just have so many great memories of our time there even though we were only there for a week. My grandma died in 2013 and we were actually in Malta on what would’ve been her 80th birthday, so we all thought about her a lot that day. Of course we still think about her now and miss her a lot. I think some of my grandparents happiest memories were of their time living in Malta. Sorry this is quite long- I’m just remembering the things my grandad told me. He has a really good memory of things that happened many years ago and is still very sharp at 84 years old. I’ve always been very close to my grandad and love him dearly and my grandma too of course, may she rest in peace. Thank you if you’ve read all of this, and I hope you have a good day :)
You mean “what better way of getting out of 10 years of poverty ‘due to the Great Depression’ by declaring war on the guy who’s fixing his country.” Sure a war based economy is better than no economy hey.
@@animatechap5176 hes right. Why did Britain declare war on Germany? And dont say they invaded Poland, Russia did too why didn't they declare war on them?
We lived in east end London, spent nights in anAnderson shelter and were evacuated in1941 to a safe area 25 miles from Coventry. In the Ultra Secret the code breakers warned Mr Churchill of the Coventry raid, He called for a Civil Defence warning and sacrificed Coventry rather than give up the code breaking of the Enigma machine, Thousands of old men and reserved occupation workers volunteered for the Home Guard. We would never surrender.
Don't worry about it mate. Since the end of world war II Great Britain has been invaded, by races and cultures far more alien to our way of life and culture than what the Germans would ever have been. It was all for nothing. The penny will drop eventually but by then it will be too late. It was the tragedy of the 20th century. Only the most short sighted of people fail to see it.
@@292Nigel just like how the British Empire invaded on foreign lands and making the natives second class citizens while stripping their nations of wealth, you reap what you sow
@@sutherlandA1 Well i can only speak for myself, but i have never 'invaded' anyone or anything. It's obvious that you're just another lefty, with the same tired old agenda. What's the matter? Didn't daddy leave you an inheritance with a mansion, in two hundred acres of ground, with horses and a Bentley to knock around with? No? Me neither!! You're referring to a TINY number of privileged elite who benefited from those colonial times. Those days are long gone!. The vast majority of ordinary people have to work hard to scratch out a living. So I'm sorry, but if you're looking for 'white guilt' you're barking up the wrong tree.
@@292Nigel here we go another right wing racist scared of a bit of multiculturalism, we have your kind in Australia too just another legacy of old Britannia. No inheritance just hard work and good with money thanks to the opportunities and good quality of life my country provides, how's brexit going?
A number of people have commented here that Churchill knew the bombing of Coventry was going to happen on the night of Nov. 14th, 1940 and Churchill kept quiet because he did not want to give away "Ultra." This is a false accusation that was started by Captain F. W. Winterbotham - however - " Winterbotham's claim has been rejected by other Ultra participants and by historians. They state that while Churchill was indeed aware that a major bombing raid would take place, no one knew what the target would be. " . British scientist R V Jones discovered that Luftwaffe bombers were guided by radio waves. The first system was called Knickebein and during the Coventry raid a more advanced system called X-Gerät was used. The Luftwaffe changed the frequencies all the time and the British had various transmission counter measures. This became known as the "Battle of the Beams." As R V Jones stated during the Coventry raid on Nov. 14th, the British used a modulation frequency of 1.5KHz while the new X-Gerat receivers had a very sharp filter which was tuned to 2.0KHz.
Not just London and Coventry but northern towns and cities including Sheffield. My mum and grandad actually saw the bombs dropping on Rotherham. My grandad was an air raid warden and a lump of shrapnel just missed his head. It was saved as a souvenir but my family can’t remember what happened to it.
As a hospital volunteer in recent years I had as a co-volunteer a man who'd been a young boy in Manchester: he had a shrapnel collection as many boys did and brought some of it in to show me after he learned I have a deep interest in the history of WWII. His story, that of a current neighbor who was a child in Liverpool, and those stories of the wife of one of my professors, herself a Londoner who grew up during that time brought the experience home quite vividly. As did being in London on the exact 30th anniversary of the start of the Blitz- my first full day in London as it happened. Came out of a theater to the sound of the air raid siren and searchlights; a commemoration, apparently. That sound went through my bones.. cannot imagine hearing it every night.. I have always been impressed by how Britons endured.
if you consider the level of bombing between that conducted by the Germans vs the Allies to both Germany and Japan, and the neither Germany nor Japan were willing to surrender to bombing alone, then Britain should have been very far being even annoyed. Note: the sequence of events for the atomic bombs on Japan was little known until more recently. The hard core faction had control of Japan. On the first atomic bomb, they knew what it was and that it was very difficult to produce fissionable material, hence they said it would be months before the next bomb. Then came the second bomb, and this caused the hardcore to lose face, giving the Emperor the courage goes against their position. There was actually an attempted coup to prevent the surrender in the night before, but the execution of this coupe was disrupted by a regular bombing mission.
The thing about morale bombing is every time it's been tried it's hardened civilian resolve to fight, not degraded it. It brings home the idea that they're at war as well as the armed forces. It's been tried in earnest multiple times and each time has failed.
I’m a proud American who, while certainly recognizing my country’s role in helping to win the war, doesn’t believe we “saved” GB. GB saved us. British resilience saved the world from this tyranny, and I think Churchill is the greatest man that ever lived. Also… There’s a lot of misinformation about Americans’ unwillingness to enter the war before Pearl Harbor. After September ‘39, and certainly the following year after the fall of France, there are MANY credible opinion polls which showed a growing and MAJORITY support amongst Americans for us to get into the action. We didn’t because FDR had promised otherwise early in his campaign, and just couldn’t, or refused to, do an about face.
Very-well said. In democracies, even Presidents and Prime minister's, held in high esteem, are subject to the will of people. I believe that Roosevelt waited till after his third win in 1940. before committing his country to helping Britain with materials of war etc. Come Pearl Harbour, restrictions were lifted. Had the US NOT joined the Brits in a world war against the Nazis, and Britain had failed to beat off the Luftwaffe ? as Nikita Kruschev said, ''Come WW3. on Day one, that unsinkable Aircraft Carrier', WOULD BE SUNK ! A reference to the fact, that Britain, in WW2, had become a Island of Air Bases and and massive military supplies etc etc. From which, we Allies, had pounded Nazis Europe, Launched 'D-Day', AND--supplied the Soviet Union, with her every type of need. Without a free Britain? KAPUT.
In October of 1939 a Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans didn't support helping the UK and France if it appeared Germany was going to defeat them. Maybe FDR made that promise, and tried to keep it, because that was literally the will of most Americans... I'm happy we entered the war, but it just seems like a weird thing to leave out or just make FDR seem unnecessarily craven due to politics. I imagine there were many difficult decisions to be made with solutions that included many reasons.
A Gallup poll found in May of 1940 that 93% of Americans didn't support going to war with Germany. Very scary stuff, I'm glad FDR, and other events, were able to eventually get Americans on board with fighting the Nazis and Axis powers, but it sure wasn't always that way. :/
@@ComradeCatpurrnicus Gallup was only founded in the mid-30s, and their methodologies were far from sophisticated at that time. And come on…claiming 93% were against entering the war? In 1940? On any level, that’s simply a ridiculous number. Other polls tell a different story.
In my mothers collection of little treasures was a shell fragment that had nearly hit her as she was sheltering in a shop doorway in Southampton during a bombing raid. The joke element was that it could have come from an anti-aircraft shell fired by her later to be husband.
Who can forget Sicknote and John rescuing the old Blitz fireman in Londons Burning and he recalls the terrible nights on the docks in December 1940? Classic stuff.
As well as our heroic and determined Forces and Civil Defencd, recognition must be given to the civilians who endured terrible hardship and trauma during WWII, like we saw in this video. Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day should be as much for them as it is for our glorious Forces.
' Glorious forces'?. That's the kind of language they used in German news reels after the fall of France. We're no better than they were, we just happened to fall on the winning side.
@@John1873-- Thanks for the advice it's always nice to get the opinion of someone who's professionally qualified in internet use. Hit a nerve did I? They say the truth often does. I'm simply pointing out the hypocrisy of it all.
@@292Nigel I think you're seeing a glorification of war, rather than glorification of personnel. There's a difference. The poster is referring those who made sacrifices against the Germans, including civilians. We're told every year to remember these people... do you take issue with this too? Y'know, the military isn't just a bunch of cowboys itching to see some action and shoot their guns... They assist with humanitarian aid. Assist with natural disasters and logistical problems. In areas where some of the personnel have no family, friends or history, they'll continue with their patrol, knowing they're likely the first target of any potential attack. It doesn't matter that they don't even speak the language of the locals... they're still there, putting their own lives on the line, so the locals can enjoy some form of peace, of which you've likely experienced for your entire life. In a perfect world, there would be no need for military personnel. Welcome to reality, Nigel... where everything ISN'T perfect.
@@John1873-- Well thanks for the sermon reverend! I don't recall saying that the world was perfect nor did I touch on the subject of troops patrolling foreign countries, what relevance any of that has to the original comment baffles me!! You clearly have an agenda going on here, you wouldn't be American by any chance?
My Nan & Grandad lived through the Coventry Blitz. The Germans created a new word after: 'Coventerize' meaning to annihilate/decimate. Always made me aware how lucky we are, as much as we forget it sometimes.
Yes during WW I Germany launched a strategic bombing campaign targeted at London and British towns Most notably by Zeppelins and then Gotha bombers . Approx, 1,400 civilians were killed and there were another 3,300 injuries. This caused considerable public alarm. After WW I , Italian general Douhet developed a strategic bomber theory which the father of the RAF Trenchard completely adopted and British Prime Stanley Baldwin coined "The Bomber Must Always Get Through."
Most likely not, see Adam Tooze’s “Wages of Destruction”. The British had a Navy, it had sufficient and growing stronger Air Force, including Heavy Bombers + the Mosquito in addition of the Spitfire. Germany had no credible navy in the present or near future. England’s per capital productivity was higher than Germany’s even though Germany’s absolute GNP was higher. Finally, Britain had support of its Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - to say nothing of Roosevelt’s sympathy, which lead to the invention of “lend-lease”. In essence this Geopolitics had been predicted by Orwell’s 1984 in Oceania and Eurasia. The obvious issue is that Eurasia was still divided between Germany & the Soviet Union. Tooze’ also points out that despite Germany conquering considerable industrial economies in Netherlands, Belgium & France, it was not able to realize the potential game this suggest for a variety of logistical reasons. German coal production was at capacity just for filling the needs of the German war economy. French industry had been reliant upon British coal, and now it was cut off, rending it to little added value. The Blitz was essentially a terrorist enterprise & the English didn’t fall for it. Likewise the bombing of Germany did little to lower Germany’s GNP, its real value was in stealing industrial capacity from offensive weapons.
Delighted to see history being taught by the IWM. Hopefully a resource and reminder to the current generation who have had little or no access to factual historical information through education of the sacrifices of previous generations to win the freedom and liberties they take for granted today. Perhaps they might pause for thought before tearing down their heritage.
@@davidhoward437 Possibly you are not a UK resident - otherwise your comment is utterly baffling. The IWM should be praised for presenting the facts and hopefully redressing the balance in the historical narrative. This will not suite some people who are working tirelessly to rewrite British history in their own image. As a retired history teacher I suppose I will be one of the first up against the wall.
Seems like the presented opinion is that with sufficiently intense bombing the population could be demoralised. Which explains 'shock and awe' in Iraq.
I Was born in post war England and have had lots of conversations with people who lived through it. I never heard of anyone that considered giving up as an option. The bombings just made them want to fight back. I wonder how this generation would react.
Thank you! This was very informative, and I especially like how you explained why this massive attempt to destroy Britain morale did not work as the Third Reich expected.
Thing was that the British and Americans also used the same bombing tactics on the Germans, and Japan. They are always unjustified war crimes when dropped on civilian centres, and just harden the resolve of both the population and the military
@@chernobylcat1791 You perhaps should ask yourself whether, in an industrial war, there really are such things as civilians. Is the civilian who manufactures a shell not contributing as much to the war effort as the soldier who fires it?
@@dovetonsturdee7033 During the second world war it was mainly women that ran the factories worked on the farms. Built the war machinery and made bombs and ammunition. Most of the men were in the fighting lines. This lead to the great women's independent movement and the advancement of women in the '60s and of course the Pill.
Yes - my parents, who lived 11 miles away, said when Coventry was bombed ( Nov. 14th, 1940 ) it looked like daylight. Many people talk about the droning ( hetrodyning ? ) sound of the twin engine Luftwaffe engines. There was a false accusation that Churchill knew the bombing of Coventry was going to happen, but if it was stopped, that would have given away "Ultra." This has been shown to be non sense. The reality was at night the Luftwaffe bombers were guided by radio beams and the carrier frequency was changed all the time. The British scientist who discovered this was R V Jones - he said on Nov. 14th, 1940, the wrong carrier frequency was used to try to detect the Luftwaffe radio beams.
My grandmother was pregnant in 1944 with my mother and was forced to have my mother in the countryside of England were all new mothers were sent to have there babies.
Germany never wanted to conquer Britain, they just wanted peace with them because they didn't want to fight a two front war, as Germany had already begun planning its invasion of Russia before the Battle of Britain. Hitler considered the British to be "fellow Aryans" and natural allies of the Germans. Nazi Germany's main enemies were the communists and the French. The French had humiliated the Germans after they defeated them in The Great War, and they wanted revenge, and of course the communists were the archenemy of the Nazis during the German November Revolution. Many of the communists leaders and members were Jewish, and this is where I believe the anti-Semitism of the Nazis was first realized. The revolution was also supported by the Soviet Union. A lot of people tend to look at WW2 as being mad men looking to see who they could conquer, but it's very complex and there are always deep-seated reason for why they did the things that they did.
Well said Ira and good on you for the public acknowledgment of the efforts of those to stem NAZI expansion in the first years of the war prior to 42. They took the initial momentum and initiative out of the enemy. From an Aussie.👍🇦🇺
This is so much more interesting than Canadian history, which can be summarized as: For 150 or so years of being a nation, it was pleasant, and nothing ever really happened.
My Nana is 96yrs old and survived the Blitz in Liverpool, evacuated to the Isle of Man only to almost be blown up by an underwater mine under the boat. They safely transferred everyone to another boat. She wouldn’t of met my grandad if she didn’t make it.
This video also reminds the "Dresden was a WAR CRIME" shouters that Germany started it, Britain dared fight back, and Germany suffered for it, and tough crap to them, really.
Dreaden was a shocking fire that raged and wind speeds reach hurricane force dragging women and children trying to escape the fire along the streets into the great fire to be burned alive. Never ever want to see that happen again. That was beyond war. Even Churchill was shocked at that news.
@@briansture4353 No war is peaceful or nice... You fight for your existence and right to live in your own country. Once declared a war is about winning. "War crimes" are a consequence of war and if you look at every war from the use of chemical weapons, gas, Incendiary bombs, earthquake bombs, nuclear bombs... It's impossible to pursue all out war without stepping over the later defined lines... The forced creativity of war always creates something new and in every war desperation leads to the blurring of lines. To think it's easy to make that call is to dismiss the events, challenges, horror and demands on the people of that time. It's too easy to judge now when you didn't go through it and live in peace because of it...
Right, Churchill said the U-boats were the only factor in the war that worried him. We should all be glad that Hitler's ego had him building the Bismarck rather than dozens of ocean-going U-boats.
@@Inkling777 In the end it wouldn't matter, Convoy System effectively destroyed the u-boats by 1944. U-boats are useless against destroyers and escort frigates.
@@cedriceric9730 It would matter if the u-boats worked against the convoy system, then yes they could starve britain, but the point I am making is that the convoy system was the perfect counter to the u-boats, so with the convoy system Britain was no longer in danger at all.
@@jonataspereira1691 hence why the German admiralty wanted fast heavy surface raiders like Graf Spee Bismarck tirpitz and Scharnhosrt if those had got into the Atlantic the convoys would have been sitting ducks under the big guns and would have been forced to scatter allowing the uboats to destroy them
Interesting stuff. I have just been to Duxford and seen part of the me110 fuselage Hess flew over in. I bet her father would never have expected to be capturing a top nazi in scotland.
My mum use to tell stories of watching the bombers flying up/down the Clyde to bomb the docks as well. Also told of the celebrations when the barrage balloon at the end of their street brought down a bomber.
A curious feature of the WW2 aerial bombardement campaigns is that the British Bomber command campaign against Germany was expected to bring about a collapse in civilian morale, although the Luftwaffe campaign against Britain had notably failed to cause civilian morale to collapse. It was known that much RAF bombing was ineffective, but I know of no study of the effect of bombing on civilian populations that was undertaken during WW2.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 That's probably a lot of the reason, although there was a battle inside war cabinet when it was shown that RAF bombing was so inaccurate as to be useless so one might have thought someone would have looked into relevant observations from the British Blitz experience. Conceivably the answer to that one might be that Churchill had decided that there had to be a bombing campaign even if it wasn't going to achieve much in terms of direct results (by which I mean damage to war production).
@@jimthorne304 The reality was that, in the early part of the war, a bombing campaign was the only way that Britain could take the fight to Germany in anything other than a defensive manner.
Here it is Said that the blitz was initiated because germany failed to achieve air superiority, but wasnt it actually due to a british air raid targeting civilian in germany? Thats what is being Said in some other documentaries.
The British sufferings are portrayed as the ultimate sacrifice of the human race while the sufferings of their subject states during the war were not only overlooked, but jested upon by the British… quite satisfactory to watch the destruction German forces brought onto these barbarians.
Getting conquered by barbaric people is embarrassing to think about it. Clearly must be inferior culture and people to let that happen. Much like the Roman’s who never were conquered by the barbaric north .
This is an interesting interpretation by the British of why the Germans bombed cities. I would like to hear the interpretation of the Blitz by the Germans.
Yes I have heard, that is was Churchill who started the hole thing by bombing Berlin! The germans had a firm policy not to bomb cities or civilian targets?
@@cortkim Yes, a couple of twin-engined Whitely bombers droned over Berlin dropping a few bombs at random doing little damage and Hitler went ape! Meanwhile, have you heard of the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish civil war and the bombing of the centre of Rotterdam in 1940, both of which caused a lot of damage and casualties. Funny firm policy, that!
@@Wombat1916 Well I suppose, it was just British targets then. Anyway I read it in a book by some believable English historian! Don't think Hitler wanted a war with England. He was going after Stalin! Nevertheless I also read that Churchill wanted Hitler to go after London, so that the English people would get more, what do you call it, hm ready to get into war! Well I guess it's complicated! :-)
@@cortkim The first British bombs fell on Berlin the night after the first German bombs landed on London. The germans had a firm policy not to bomb cities or civilian targets.' I wonder if they conveyed this noble purpose to the good citizens of Republican Spain during the Civil War, or to those of Warsaw, or Rotterdam?
Had the Luftwaffe kept bombing airfields etc and not switched to bombing the cities, they would likely have broken the RAF and history may well have been very different. Switching tactics allowed the RAF to recover and therefore the Germans couldn't win air superiority and the invasion had to be called off
That's a bit of an outdated view. They couldn't break the RAF. They could put pressure on the airfields in the south east, but the longest they were able to knock out an airfield was 24 hours. Grass airfields meant the RAF could be operational again very quickly. Furthermore they never dropped below 75% strength for pilots in a squadron. That may seem bad at first, but they ran 2 pilots for every plane in a squadron, so really at worst, they were 18 pilots for 12 planes in a squadron. In a worst case scenario the RAF could have just started using airfields further north, but they never needed to. The British outproduced German plane production throughout the Battle of Britain and for almost every year of the war. The Luftwaffe just wasn't big enough to establish air superiority over Britain, and the German war machine wasn't producing enough to change that, the Luftwaffe didn't even recover to pre-Battle of Britain strength by the time Germany invaded Russia.
@@NRProductionss I agree, it was easy to repair or to make a new grass airfield these days. German bombers needed protection by fighters and their range was limited to the south of england. They started in France and they had to fly back, their time over british territory was very limited.
There was never a question of surrender on the French model. Rather it was a question of whether to make a deal with Hitler to end the war, which would have left Hitler in control of the Continent.
I have a mixed view of Chamberlain: yours I agree with, plus he was a very sick man by this point, in a time when a stiff upper-lip and keeping it quiet was the thing. That said, the press address, waving Hitler's worthless promises, is rather cringeworthy, as is the "peace in our time" quote. Still, on balance, I agree it gave some time.
@@JimMorrisonLoL Horace Wilson was pulling his strings. Chamberlain didn't think he was buying time, he thought Hitler was a reasonable chap who just wanted a few legitimate grievances sorted out. He really thought he had delivered peace in our time by sacrificing some Czechs.
I'd be interested in a video critique of the Battle of Arnhem of september 1944 particularly the build up and planning and the apportionment of responsibility for its eventual failure. Thankyou
There already is.... Its a film called 'A Bridge too Far', made in 1977. A Richard Attenborough production, a cast of thousands and its in Panavision and Technicolor. It encompasses all you need to know. Give it a whirl, its available on RUclips free. Good luck.
@@CB-fz3li Perhaps not but a recently deceased friend of mine who was actually deposited there said the film was about right. Of course if you are talking about the finer points of politics and who said what and why then phew !
@@oldgitsknowstuff They had quite a few veterans advising so in terms of getting some feel for the spirit of the operation and fighting I imagine it is better than the old men and maps style of documentary. In terms of the overall planning and responsibility for failures etc then I would say it is an unreliable source. The role of Gavin for example and the 82nd not prioritising the bridge at Nijmegen. I am not really qualified to comment on that but Hollywood just wouldn't go there for obvious reasons.
@@CB-fz3li Well it was a Richard Attenborough production and a great deal of effort was put into getting things right even down to the correct medal ribbons one the uniforms because there were so many veterans around in 1977, they would tear it to shreds in an instant. Edward Fox in the role of Major General Brian Horrocks got his role off to a tea ! 'Gentlemen, thank you Gentlemen. You're about to embark upon an adventure about which you can tell your grandchildren, and mightily bored they'll be' ! Excellent.
You specifically mentioned the blitz. However, before Germany might even begin to claim a victory, there was something else in their way. The Royal Navy, which in 1940 was it it's most powerful. And to claim an out right victory you'd need to invade and occupy. Easier said than done...... The Nazis were in no way geared up to invade Britain, despite Hitler's best intentions. They had no purpose built assault ships, and no way of transporting heavy armour over the channel to invade. They would have needed to capture a working port, which again, is easier said than done when you'd have the (then) World's most powerful navy trying to stop you........ Hitler could never have pulled it off, and maybe realised it?
Sure... That's why Churchill didn't had to bag the US for help. Neither the Soviet Union and the red army had a massive impact on the outcome of the war. The war was decided in El Alamein where the axis powers were fighting against a outnumbered enemy and without fuel and ammunition to move on. Stop believing in heroism during the war. Our people suffered a lot during this time.
@@larsgrotjohann he begged the US for help and it came in 1941 after the war was already won. As Churchill said the might of the German army must soon be turned against these islands or he will loose the war. Britain was a highly important position for strategic destruction of the German industry el Alemain prevented the capture of the Arabian and Iraqi oil fields. And the Royal Navy ensured that Stalin didn’t seek peace in 1941 during the defence of Moscow something like 1/3rd of the heavy tanks were british built matildas or Valentines. The artic convoys prevented Stalin seeking peace many times in meetings with both Churchill and Eike he said if they don’t get through I will be forced to seek peace. Those artic convoys would have been impossible without the might of the Royal Navy and the brave sailors of the Merchant Navy
@@wargey3431 the war was not won in 1941. Stalingrad was the turning point in WWII! The red army improved a lot during the war and they effort was decisive for the liberation of Europe from fascism and the retarded Nazi ideology.
@@larsgrotjohann the war was won in 41 the defeat of the German airforce in the Battle of Britain and the almost breaking of U Boat warfare as well as Moscow won the war Stalingrad was hitlers point of no return
@@wargey3431 the battle of Britain has a huge symbolism for the Brits. In Germany we don't talk that much about it. The battle of Britain consisted in air raids from the Luftwaffe on British military and civil targets. It doesn't had any major impact on the war. The British army wouldn't take France back without the help of the American troops. And they'd certainly major problems If the Wehrmacht had only just one enemy to fight. The Soviet Union ended the war as a superpower and was in the opinion of German historian's the main reason for Nazi defeat in WW II. It's interesting that every nation in Europe has its own patriotic view over the course of the war. You know what amazes me the most? Who supported the Nazi party (financially) since the beginning? The German economy was at its lowest point! The money certainly did not come only from German businessmen. What about the world? The was a huge economic recession and out of a sudden we had money for weapons! Hope that history doesn't repeat and that our children doesn't have to fight each other like our ancestors did. Take care
Could winning the blitz have meant Germany defeated the Brits in the fall of 1940? No, it mattered not who controlled the air over the English Channel. If Germany had landed in SE England, the Royal Navy would have come roaring down from Scapa Flow. Its losses might have been enormous, but the British could absorb those losses far better than the Germany Navy, which had been badly weakened by the invasion of Norway the previous April. And don't forget that Churchill became Prime Minister in May of 1940. That made all the difference. Under him the Brits would have fought on until, as he put it, the last Brit lay dying, choking in his own blood.
The Blitz wouldn’t win them even the air war it was a propaganda campaign to destroy public morale and force a surrender just hitler didn’t understand the British mentality of you hit us well hit you back the chance he had for victory was Dunkirk before he began mass bombing of Britain but Churchill fought on
The Blitz, indeed any aerial bombardment, depends for its effectiveness on two things; quality and effectiveness of aerial defences, including AA guns, aircraft, and shelters, and secondly the population's mentality and ability to endure. For example in Italy the air defences were terrible, and the Italians were not so mentally robust as for example the Germans or British - perhaps in part /because/ they knew the defences were so bad. Thus bombing them had more effect than say bombing the Maltese who endured endless months of bombing but showed no sign of being worn down.
nobody said anything about him being a quitter, he may have been a bastard but he ran his country thru thick and thin, he was a conservative., not a liberal thats what they called the parties
no body said anything about Churchill being a quitter, the cabinet. you have to remember most of Europe was in German hands with most of their army stuck on the beaches of France, the cabinet was ready to talk not Churchill, he saved the army
My Great Grand grandmother Dorothy Stevenson tore her leg up pretty bad on one of those metal air raid shelters and after developed gang green in her leg but she refused to have her leg amputated.Doctors warned her she would lose her life if she didn't. She stuck to her decision and lived many years after with her leg never fully healing ..my mother would say that they would change bandages throughout the rest of her life. It happened in 1944 and she died at 86 in 1977..Doctors were puzzled why this happened even after years with this condition She was entered in the British journal of medicine because it could never be explained
The dark secret of the Coventry bombing is that the Enigma code breakers cracked the messages sent between Luftwaffe high command and the operational units and the intercepts were presented to Churchill to decide what to do. A warning and stiff defense could have diminished the scale of the damage and loss of lives but would have tipped off the Nazis that the Enigma code was broken. Churchill made the most difficult decision of his life and decided that the secret that Enigma was compromised had to be protected so it was decided not to warn Coventry that this massive raid was coming. After WW2 this information was leaked and the cost paid by Coventry was very controversial but it was decided that it was a necessary cost to successfully pursue the defeat of Hitler, who considering everything he did, including The Holocaust, had to be stopped before he could destroy the whole world, which considering there were no nukes would have been an extremely grim prospect especially as his theories appealed to the extremists in Japan who were in power and wanted to share total victory with the systematic mass destruction of humanity, such as they did at the horrific Nanking massacre, with Hitler and his Nazis. If the Nazis had conquered Britain they would have defeated the Soviet Union and with Japan, the US. So there was a lot at stake in this one raid. It's not that the outcome of WW2 depended on this one air raid, but if the Enigma secret was revealed that could have changed just about everything. Another way it was put, the secret that Enigma was broken was being protected by "A Bodyguard of Lies"...
my mother worked at supermarine in southampton in 1940 building spitfires, she survived the factory bombing because the works shelter she should have gone to was full up, it recieved a direct hit and just about everyone in there was killed, it would have taken superman to get her in any shelter after that!
It was more a reflection of the views of the Italian Air Strategist Guilio Douhet, who in the 1920s argued that civilian morale would collapse under bombing, and governments would be replaced by ones willing to surrender. Douhet died in 1930, and thus didn't see his theories exposed as false ones.
Whatever the fiasco, aplomb is unbroken. Mistakes, failures, stupidities and other causes of disaster mysteriously vanish. Disasters are recorded with care and pride and become transmuted into things of beauty. Official histories record every move in monumental and infinite detail but the details serve to obscure. Barbara Tuchman, on official British accounts of the Second World War in Burma.
I am an American of Anglo Saxon descent, i commend my brothers In England for their valiant resistance against the Nazi menace. Leftists in my country call the RAF bombings of Germany a war crime, but I salute my English brothers to refuse to be helpless victims and retaliate tit for tat against the Nazis, bring the fight to them! like harris said if your sow the wind you will reap the whirlwind. how pretensions of nazis (and their leftist allies) assuming one country can bomb whoever they want left and right and not have the same done to them! Long live England, my anglo saxon forefathers!
Because the Luftwaffe was set up to support the ground forces not bomb Britain as Britain bombed Germany. No 4 engines heavy bomber fleets, fighters with a very limited range and Goering’s stupid insistence on fighter staying near the bombers. Plus the Nazis went east and most of their air power went there too to destroy the Red airforce.
That was because the RAF saw what the Germans had done and with British thoroughness and organization and expertise did it back to the Germans in a far better managed and greater way.
Benchley Park had broken enough of German code to know what was coming for Coventry. There was a debate about taking action to save the People. It was decided it was more important to protect the Ultra Secret that to evacuate Coventry. I believe a few leaders came to view the City & its sites…one final time
Over the years, I have seen many pictures of firefighters spraying water on burning buildings during the Blitz. Meaning NO disrespect, but, judging from the apparent diameters of the water streams, the hoses used by the firefighters look like garden hoses rather than serious firefighting equipment.
Apparently the bombing and destruction of Hamburg made some German leaders consider surrender. This was on a vastly bigger scale than that which any British city endured. And still Germany didn't surrender. Although a leader who didn't care what his people went through may have differentiated them from Britain.
As a blitz was occurring the British were trying to stop it by shooting at the planes with antaicraft battries did not hit the German airplanes and their bombs fell directly on the cities they were trying to protect which is interesting
I'm sure the British would have never let Germany win. If necessary, they would have found asylum in Scotland. Then in the Shetland Islands. Then in Iceland. Then in Greenland. Then in Canada. Then from the Arizona desert, Winston Churchull would have proclaimed on the radio: 'We will never surrender, we will never give up, we will fight to the end whatever it costs America'.
It's always seemed to me to be curious that Britain didn't seem to learn from the Blitz experience and apply those lessons later, when the UK started to bomb Germany. In particular, we have Harris insisting that bombing German cities would bring about a collapse in civilian morale although there was never any evidence that the German Blitz against the UK came anywhere near generating a collapse in British morale.
I think it was rooted in the idea that civillians are less likely to oppose a war of aggression when they dont feel any consequences of said war of aggression but once they begin to actually feel those consequences on home soil the sentiment is much more likely to change than it would be if they were engaging in a war against an aggressor. If my government starts a war and my home is bombed I will be pissed off at my government. But if someone else starts the war and bombs my home I will be pissed off at them.
@@IXSICNESS That was the idea. It was also because, as morbid as it is, the enemy can't make equipment if the factory workers are all dead. Harris never performed his plans of area bombing until the Nazis declared Total War against the World and, well, in Total War the average civilian worker is now a combatant due to providing material for this Total War. There's no going back when Total War is declared until the war is over.
The Kriegsmarine had neither the resources nor the expertise to make large scale landings on British shores in 1940, which put the Wehrmacht out of the picture. The Luftwaffe on its own could not win the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe didn't even have any heavy strategic bombers to pound Britain into submission. So the British government knew Britain was relatively safe in 1940.
The Kriegsmarine would have had to fight its way across English Channel, in the face of the largest Navy in the world. The invasion was war-gamed by British and German WW2 generals after the war at Sandhurst. While the German Army may have been able to land around 90000 troops, they'd have been cut off from their supplies by the Royal Navy and ground down by the British Army, home guard, planned Guerilla tactics, and their own lack of logistical support. The British had a plan for defending in depth. It would have cost them dearly but would have defeated the Germans.
@@larsgrotjohann not in 1940 it wasn't. The Nazis and Soviets were great pals, each trying to outdo the other in the "who can murder more Poles" competition. For 13 months, from the fall of France to Barbarossa, Britain along with the Commonwealth and Empire was the only opponent to the Nazi domination of Europe. This video covers that period.
@@cedriceric9730 The Kriegsmarine only had their first purpose built landing craft, Marinefährprahm, capable of carrying tanks in April 1941. Before that, they were planning to use hundreds of river barges towed by German warships to carry troops and tanks across the English Channel. Even madman like Hitler thought the plans were too crazy.
" The German strategy during the Blitz is to force Britain out of the war , so it [ the Luftwaffe bombers ] attacks ports hoping to disrupt vital supplies , our food and raw materials. " Yes , as Admiral Raeder explained to Hitler, during a number of meetings , the Kriegsmarine was no match to the Royal Navy, and consequently Raeder advised against Sea Lion. So the bombing of the east London docks, Liverpool, Bristol, Portsmouth, Hull, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast should be viewed as a siege of Britain.
I wonder, if there were to be in theory, a muslim country, like iran, Saudi Arabia, strong enough to attack great britain with the same tenacity as germany did, would there be the same unity and cohesion as the British people had, or would there be a split and infighting?
Having lived through the second world war years if there had been an invasion the Brits would have stuffed up the enemy to such an extent it would have driven them mad such was the determination of the people at that time. That determination is still around today. Never push the Brits back to the wall as all hell will let loose, suddenly. Something VDL should be mindful of.
What are 'Brits' Brian? I've lived in the UK all of my long life and I've NEVER met any such thing as a "Brit'. What do you call Americans? Would that be 'Amers'? What do you call Welsh people? Wels? Scottish people 'Scoots' and Irish people 'Ires'.? Maybe you call English people 'Engs'. And German people 'Germs'. I have relations in Canada. Are you suggesting that I refer to them as 'Cans'?
@@wargey3431 You are not 'a Brit'. You never have been and never will be. There is no such thing as 'a Brit', which is a coarse term that rhymes with 'shit'. I was born and have lived all my life in England in Great Britain. Why is it called 'Great' Britain? It is so called to distinguish it from 'Little Britain'. Where is Little Britain? Well, it's just another name for Brittany. No self respecting British person would ever stoop so low to refer to their fellow citizens as 'Brits.' It's akin to describing Americans as 'Unitedstatesians.' We should always love our country and do all we can to improve its good name. Describing its citizens as 'Brits' is a lazy, ill-mannered and insulting utterance akin to describing Italians as 'Ities', Germans as 'Germs', French as 'Frens' and Swedes 'Turnips.' Do you know the difference between a turnip and a swede? True, loyal British citizens would be ashamed to refer to themselves as Brits. There was an old fellow called Brit, Who went to the woods for a shit. When he dropped down his pants, He was bitten by ants, Which caused him to scream in a fit. YOU ARE NOT A BRIT.
@@CAPTAINBAZOOKA-wn5by saved.... who gave you radar, taught you how to read maps, out fitted and built you your mustangs and bombers ... when you guys win a war without aid, allies or other nations mapping out and coordinating your attacks because you dont understand the metric system come back and comment lol... you got beat by the Vietnamese lol farmers with pitchforks and torches... lol and to top it off the SAS train your special forces.. lol ouch.. yeah lol learn your knowledge about your own countries military before you embarrass yourself again kid
It was much harder to intercept at night. Don't forget that in 1940, radar was still in it's relative infancy. It worked well enough in the daytime when you still retain the visual element, but night time interception didn't improve greatly for another year or so.....
Because all of the fixed radar sites were pointed away from Britain, after aircraft passed over them they could not be tracked by radar. It was up to the Observer Corps to track them after they crossed the coast.
Please 'Google Dr.RV Jones and you'll find the explanation. Also, there is a rumour that Britain already knew about the raid on Coventry. We didn't want 'Jerry to know that we had sussed how it was done.
My mum and dad lived through The Blitz in London. Mum worked as a "clippy" on the buses, Dad in construction. They were Irish who had emmigrated in 1938. They could have simply gone home to Eire, but decided to stay with the British people who had welcomed them. Dad ended up in the British Army, landed at Salerno in 1943, and fought to the end in Italy. They loved England, loved the English, and never considered doing less than their share. I'm so proud of them.
Surrender? Not likely.
You're right to be proud of them!
Well said !
They were traitors to Ireland.
❤
Yet the English have always made the Irish suffer.
As a boy of five, I visited Coventry with my father in 1945 and remember the bomb sites still surrounded with old house doors stood on end.
I went to Coventry in 1965 and still remember the state of the cathedral, especially with the cross stood in front of the altar which was made from two pieces of charred roofing! When we moved into new flats in SE London in the early 1950s there were two big town houses standing nearby that were shells left over from the Blitz. Our parish church was badly damaged by a V1 and wasn't repaired until the early 1950s.
In the 1960s it was still possible to spot roofs that had roof tiles replaced after near misses. The Luftwaffe sowed the wind!
@@RideForRuin Actually I am 82
That doesn't sound like a great holiday.
I visited the cathedral in Coventry in 2017. Unforgettable.
It reminded me that one of the great tragedies of war, apart from the sheer human misery it causes, is the destruction of priceless historical monuments that are the world’s heirloom. The shattered cathedral dated to the 14th century of our era.
Coventry was a legitimate military target.
The RAF had already bombed cities and towns in Germany for six months.
The fire brigades from outside Coventry found that there hose fittings would not connect with the city's hydrants.
The destruction of the water mains then guaranteed a mini fire storm.
The industrial production kept going - the biggest issue after the raid was homelessness.
Surrender? No chance. Coventry wouldn't have surrendered to Birmingham, let alone Germany.
A little known fact is that we'd just cracked the Nazi enigma code macine and knew of the planned raid on Coventry. Churchill himself let it proceed for fear of perhaps the Germans realizing we'd broken their code. We could have briefly intercepted them way out at sea, so they knew they'd been seen, then hammered them closer to our shores. In consequence, 568 were killed and 1,000+ injured plus the loss of the City's homes, utilities, phones and Triumph manufacturing plant next to the Cathedral.
@@merlin6955 Sadly sometimes sacrifices have to be made to win the bigger picture; you ever play chess? Know about sacrificing your queen to win the game? Basically what Churchill had to do and we had revenge; we did it to Dresden. But it's why it annoys me when people say we were out of order for that and that our Bomber command shouldn't be considered heroes. It was war; they bombed us; we bombed them. Tit for Tat. Ask anyone in London or Coventry at the time if they thought we were out of order bombing Dresden; I doubt many but Conchies would say we were.
@@johnbower7452 Not forgetting Clyde Bank in Glasgow suffered s lot, Think there was 14 houses left standing which weren't damaged or destroyed, since the Clyde was important for ship building...
Are they in the same footie division?
@@merlin6955 I've know this for years. Any time I mentioned it I was quickly put back in my box.
Here's an interesting anecdote about the blitz on Coventry: On the 12th of March 2008 the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry was due to host a performance of a play called "One Night in November" which takes place during the raid of the 14th/15th. However this play had to be postponed due to a German bomb being unearthed at a building site next door the the theatre, which is both ironic and also sobering that all these years later the Blitz is still effecting peoples lives here and I imagine across all of Europe. An undying legacy of the horrors of warfare.
oh yeah. here in italy we still find WWII unexploded ordnance all the time. whenever they dig the foundations of a new building or do some kind of underground work, they have to call the army bomb disposal squads because an old shell will do a pekaboo. I think it was a couple of years ago that someone found an anti tank mine washed up on the bank of a channel. I imagine that in france, belgium and germany it's the same.
we also still find stuff from WWI laying around on the old frontline up in the mountains.
I remember playing in our old Anderson shelter, in the Fifties. In the cellar, disassembled and hanging on wall, was the Morrison shelter.
Never heard of the Morrison shelter, had to look it up on Wikipedia.
@@Niinsa62 The Morrison had a major advantage. People could stay in their dry and warm homes rather than huddle in a hole in their backyard. Also, it worked for those who didn't have backyards. I'd love to get its equivalent for protection from a tornado.
@@Niinsa62 It was ready made, for indoor use. small ,but extremely strong, and saved many lives.
YOU PLAYED IN IT ? You were lucky, We lived in ours.
I was born after the war in a court as they are called, in the Butts district of Coventry, a fact of which I'm proud, and raised in the Hillfields area of the city. Both are about ½ a mile from the cathedral. I remember the gaps in the housing in the street where we lived, and the surrounding streets where there were no houses at all, just rubble that hadn't been completely cleared away. When I looked out of my bedroom window there was a "bomb patch" as we used to call them, where before there were twenty houses, and neighbors would talk of the people who once lived there. As kids we would play in the old Anderson shelters that were still in many people's gardens, (those that had gardens) usually games to do with the war, where one side would be the British and the other German, or one side American and the other Japanese. Of course, the Allies always won. I also remember a man who lived at the top of the street who had lost his leg and used crutches. We used to see him most days and when we played soccer he would sometimes join in. Then we stopped seeing him around. We found out that he'd finally succumbed to his wounds, one of countless others who's suffering continued after the war. I never knew his name but I've never forgotten him.
The Germans coined a term for the destruction of a city: Coventration. But the city they "Coventrated" rose again, better than ever. Coventry has become a world renowned centre for reconciliation, and if I remember correctly started the custom of "twinning" with other places affected by war. Coventry is twinned with Dresden, once a city of the enemy, which was in it's turn destroyed and rose again. It just goes to show what a terrible waste war is.
Keep buggering on! This was truly enjoyable & informative. Thank u.
Excellent video, I always did wonder how close Britain came to the breaking point. It is fortunate that experts like Mr. Kikuchi can give us insights into how the bombings actually played out in people´s lifes and the emotional impact. More merit to that generation that was able to overcome and endure. Do carry on on producing videos of this caliber. Might I suggest one on the RAF pilots who fought at this time and how they coped with the stress and the responsability that they faced.
I live close to an RAF airbase (RAF Honington) and I remember when I was in primary school we used to go swimming at the swimming pool there.
I think the base was built around 1937 or thereabouts (I could be wrong there).
My granddad served in the RAF, not in combat I don’t think but as a dog handler- my grandparents had dogs for most of my childhood and early adulthood. He was stationed in what was then the colony of Malta from 1956 to 1959- it gained independence in 1964.
Malta was of course an area of great strategic importance during World War Two because of its position in the middle of the Mediterranean, between Italy and North Africa- I think it’s roughly north of Libya which was an Italian colony during World War Two. Malta fought on the Allied side; my grandad told me that Germany was bombing the country in the daytime and Italy at night, so they were under near constant attack. So in the way they experienced their own Blitz. But they never gave in, and the people of Malta were later awarded the George Cross for Bravery, so he told me.
My grandad and his fellow service members stayed at the barracks during his time there, in a town called Birkirkara. We went on holiday to Malta in 2015 as he wanted to show us where he and my grandma lived for 3 years, because they truly loved their time living there, it’s a beautiful country.
The barracks are now a souvenir shop and we bought some items there and just generally had a great time. I would recommend travelling to Malta to anyone, it really is a beautiful country with great and friendly people. We were in Valletta the capital one day and wanted to visit Birkirkara but we had just missed the bus. We were standing outside some shops wondering how we were going to get there, and a man who ran one of the shops very kindly gave us a lift in his car. Everyone we talked to was really friendly and spoke perfect English. I tried to learn some Maltese before the trip but didn’t get very far. The Maltese language I believe is a mixture of English, Italian, Arabic, and possibly some Turkish as well. It’s a blend of cultures because I think it was an Ottoman (Turkish) colony before it was a British colony. It’s also fairly close to Lebanon and other Arab countries so there’s probably an Arab community there as well. And it’s directly to the south of Sicily so also some Italian cultural influence there too. So it’s a really muliticultural country I suppose you could say. In terms of religion it’s mostly Roman Catholic and we visited a church in Mellieha, the city where we were staying (Apologies if I have misspelled that). None of us are particularly religious but churches are interesting buildings to visit.
I realise I’ve gone off on a tangent here about my holiday to Malta but I just have so many great memories of our time there even though we were only there for a week. My grandma died in 2013 and we were actually in Malta on what would’ve been her 80th birthday, so we all thought about her a lot that day. Of course we still think about her now and miss her a lot. I think some of my grandparents happiest memories were of their time living in Malta.
Sorry this is quite long- I’m just remembering the things my grandad told me. He has a really good memory of things that happened many years ago and is still very sharp at 84 years old. I’ve always been very close to my grandad and love him dearly and my grandma too of course, may she rest in peace.
Thank you if you’ve read all of this, and I hope you have a good day :)
There are many books written about that period. I suggest you start reading them, they were around, when these lads were still alive!
Nothing like a dangerous threat against a country and its people to forge national unity and determination into a powerfully cohesive force.
So very true..
You mean “what better way of getting out of 10 years of poverty ‘due to the Great Depression’ by declaring war on the guy who’s fixing his country.” Sure a war based economy is better than no economy hey.
@@mattyvonlong-schlong4433 what????
@@mattyvonlong-schlong4433 huh?
@@animatechap5176 hes right. Why did Britain declare war on Germany? And dont say they invaded Poland, Russia did too why didn't they declare war on them?
We lived in east end London, spent nights in anAnderson shelter and were evacuated in1941 to a safe area 25 miles from Coventry. In the Ultra Secret the code breakers warned Mr Churchill of the Coventry raid, He called for a Civil Defence warning and sacrificed Coventry rather than give up the code breaking of the Enigma machine, Thousands of old men and reserved occupation workers volunteered for the Home Guard. We would never surrender.
Don't worry about it mate. Since the end of world war II Great Britain has been invaded, by races and cultures far more alien to our way of life and culture than what the Germans would ever have been. It was all for nothing. The penny will drop eventually but by then it will be too late. It was the tragedy of the 20th century. Only the most short sighted of people fail to see it.
@@292Nigel just like how the British Empire invaded on foreign lands and making the natives second class citizens while stripping their nations of wealth, you reap what you sow
@@sutherlandA1
Well i can only speak for myself, but i have never 'invaded' anyone or anything. It's obvious that you're just another lefty, with the same tired old agenda. What's the matter? Didn't daddy leave you an inheritance with a mansion, in two hundred acres of ground, with horses and a Bentley to knock around with? No? Me neither!! You're referring to a TINY number of privileged elite who benefited from those colonial times. Those days are long gone!. The vast majority of ordinary people have to work hard to scratch out a living. So I'm sorry, but if you're looking for 'white guilt' you're barking up the wrong tree.
@@292Nigel here we go another right wing racist scared of a bit of multiculturalism, we have your kind in Australia too just another legacy of old Britannia. No inheritance just hard work and good with money thanks to the opportunities and good quality of life my country provides, how's brexit going?
A number of people have commented here that Churchill knew the bombing of Coventry was going to happen
on the night of Nov. 14th, 1940 and Churchill kept quiet because he did not want to give away "Ultra."
This is a false accusation that was started by Captain F. W. Winterbotham - however - " Winterbotham's claim has been rejected by other Ultra participants and by historians. They state that while Churchill was indeed aware that a major bombing raid would take place, no one knew what the target would be. "
.
British scientist R V Jones discovered that Luftwaffe bombers were guided by radio waves. The first system was called Knickebein and during the Coventry raid a more advanced system called X-Gerät was used.
The Luftwaffe changed the frequencies all the time and the British had various transmission counter measures.
This became known as the "Battle of the Beams." As R V Jones stated during the Coventry raid on Nov. 14th,
the British used a modulation frequency of 1.5KHz while the new X-Gerat receivers had a very sharp filter
which was tuned to 2.0KHz.
lie..lie..lie......churhill knew....................
Not just London and Coventry but northern towns and cities including Sheffield. My mum and grandad actually saw the bombs dropping on Rotherham. My grandad was an air raid warden and a lump of shrapnel just missed his head. It was saved as a souvenir but my family can’t remember what happened to it.
As a hospital volunteer in recent years I had as a co-volunteer a man who'd been a young boy in Manchester: he had a shrapnel collection as many boys did and brought some of it in to show me after he learned I have a deep interest in the history of WWII. His story, that of a current neighbor who was a child in Liverpool, and those stories of the wife of one of my professors, herself a Londoner who grew up during that time brought the experience home quite vividly. As did being in London on the exact 30th anniversary of the start of the Blitz- my first full day in London as it happened. Came out of a theater to the sound of the air raid siren and searchlights; a commemoration, apparently. That sound went through my bones.. cannot imagine hearing it every night.. I have always been impressed by how Britons endured.
if you consider the level of bombing between that conducted by the Germans vs the Allies to both Germany and Japan, and the neither Germany nor Japan were willing to surrender to bombing alone, then Britain should have been very far being even annoyed.
Note: the sequence of events for the atomic bombs on Japan was little known until more recently. The hard core faction had control of Japan. On the first atomic bomb, they knew what it was and that it was very difficult to produce fissionable material, hence they said it would be months before the next bomb. Then came the second bomb, and this caused the hardcore to lose face, giving the Emperor the courage goes against their position. There was actually an attempted coup to prevent the surrender in the night before, but the execution of this coupe was disrupted by a regular bombing mission.
Churchill did a great job of holding the country together .
(metaphorically speaking)
He did an even better job of firing a revolver straight in that forehead of the British Empire.
@@mattyvonlong-schlong4433 how exactly did he do that? Wasn’t he a known imperialist that valued the empire above anything else?
too bad we don't get leaders like that
@@mattyvonlong-schlong4433 what ever the cost maybe. empires never last
To bad gen z and millennials don't appreciate what hes done
The thing about morale bombing is every time it's been tried it's hardened civilian resolve to fight, not degraded it. It brings home the idea that they're at war as well as the armed forces. It's been tried in earnest multiple times and each time has failed.
I’m a proud American who, while certainly recognizing my country’s role in helping to win the war, doesn’t believe we “saved” GB. GB saved us.
British resilience saved the world from this tyranny, and I think Churchill is the greatest man that ever lived. Also…
There’s a lot of misinformation about Americans’ unwillingness to enter the war before Pearl Harbor. After September ‘39, and certainly the following year after the fall of France, there are MANY credible opinion polls which showed a growing and MAJORITY support amongst Americans for us to get into the action.
We didn’t because FDR had promised otherwise early in his campaign, and just couldn’t, or refused to, do an about face.
Very-well said. In democracies, even Presidents and Prime minister's, held in high esteem, are subject to the will of people. I believe that Roosevelt waited till after his third win in 1940. before committing his country to helping Britain with materials of war etc. Come Pearl Harbour, restrictions were lifted. Had the US NOT joined the Brits in a world war against the Nazis, and Britain had failed to beat off the Luftwaffe ? as Nikita Kruschev said, ''Come WW3. on Day one, that unsinkable Aircraft Carrier', WOULD BE SUNK ! A reference to the fact, that Britain, in WW2, had become a Island of Air Bases and and massive military supplies etc etc. From which, we Allies, had pounded Nazis Europe, Launched 'D-Day', AND--supplied the Soviet Union, with her every type of need. Without a free Britain? KAPUT.
USSR saved world from Nazis, While US saved world from communists.
In October of 1939 a Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans didn't support helping the UK and France if it appeared Germany was going to defeat them. Maybe FDR made that promise, and tried to keep it, because that was literally the will of most Americans... I'm happy we entered the war, but it just seems like a weird thing to leave out or just make FDR seem unnecessarily craven due to politics. I imagine there were many difficult decisions to be made with solutions that included many reasons.
A Gallup poll found in May of 1940 that 93% of Americans didn't support going to war with Germany. Very scary stuff, I'm glad FDR, and other events, were able to eventually get Americans on board with fighting the Nazis and Axis powers, but it sure wasn't always that way. :/
@@ComradeCatpurrnicus Gallup was only founded in the mid-30s, and their methodologies were far from sophisticated at that time. And come on…claiming 93% were against entering the war? In 1940? On any level, that’s simply a ridiculous number.
Other polls tell a different story.
That photo reconnaissance map at 4.17 is dated 8.6.39. It was taken from a civilian plane before the war started.
Excellent presentation, thanks
In my mothers collection of little treasures was a shell fragment that had nearly hit her as she was sheltering in a shop doorway in Southampton during a bombing raid. The joke element was that it could have come from an anti-aircraft shell fired by her later to be husband.
Who can forget Sicknote and John rescuing the old Blitz fireman in Londons Burning and he recalls the terrible nights on the docks in December 1940? Classic stuff.
As well as our heroic and determined Forces and Civil Defencd, recognition must be given to the civilians who endured terrible hardship and trauma during WWII, like we saw in this video.
Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day should be as much for them as it is for our glorious Forces.
' Glorious forces'?. That's the kind of language they used in German news reels after the fall of France. We're no better than they were, we just happened to fall on the winning side.
@@292Nigel you know you need a break from the Internet, when you begin literary analysis on RUclips comments 👍
@@John1873--
Thanks for the advice it's always nice to get the opinion of someone who's professionally qualified in internet use. Hit a nerve did I? They say the truth often does. I'm simply pointing out the hypocrisy of it all.
@@292Nigel I think you're seeing a glorification of war, rather than glorification of personnel. There's a difference.
The poster is referring those who made sacrifices against the Germans, including civilians. We're told every year to remember these people... do you take issue with this too?
Y'know, the military isn't just a bunch of cowboys itching to see some action and shoot their guns...
They assist with humanitarian aid. Assist with natural disasters and logistical problems. In areas where some of the personnel have no family, friends or history, they'll continue with their patrol, knowing they're likely the first target of any potential attack. It doesn't matter that they don't even speak the language of the locals... they're still there, putting their own lives on the line, so the locals can enjoy some form of peace, of which you've likely experienced for your entire life.
In a perfect world, there would be no need for military personnel. Welcome to reality, Nigel... where everything ISN'T perfect.
@@John1873-- Well thanks for the sermon reverend! I don't recall saying that the world was perfect nor did I touch on the subject of troops patrolling foreign countries, what relevance any of that has to the original comment baffles me!!
You clearly have an agenda going on here, you wouldn't be American by any chance?
My Nan & Grandad lived through the Coventry Blitz. The Germans created a new word after: 'Coventerize' meaning to annihilate/decimate. Always made me aware how lucky we are, as much as we forget it sometimes.
Yes during WW I Germany launched a strategic bombing campaign targeted at London and British towns
Most notably by Zeppelins and then Gotha bombers . Approx, 1,400 civilians were killed and there were another 3,300 injuries. This caused considerable public alarm. After WW I , Italian general Douhet developed a strategic bomber theory which the father of the RAF Trenchard completely adopted and British Prime Stanley Baldwin coined
"The Bomber Must Always Get Through."
yes, the spire of the cathedral is *inspiring*
nicely done
How could anyone not like this?
Most likely not, see Adam Tooze’s “Wages of Destruction”. The British had a Navy, it had sufficient and growing stronger Air Force, including Heavy Bombers + the Mosquito in addition of the Spitfire. Germany had no credible navy in the present or near future. England’s per capital productivity was higher than Germany’s even though Germany’s absolute GNP was higher. Finally, Britain had support of its Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - to say nothing of Roosevelt’s sympathy, which lead to the invention of “lend-lease”. In essence this Geopolitics had been predicted by Orwell’s 1984 in Oceania and Eurasia. The obvious issue is that Eurasia was still divided between Germany & the Soviet Union. Tooze’ also points out that despite Germany conquering considerable industrial economies in Netherlands, Belgium & France, it was not able to realize the potential game this suggest for a variety of logistical reasons. German coal production was at capacity just for filling the needs of the German war economy. French industry had been reliant upon British coal, and now it was cut off, rending it to little added value.
The Blitz was essentially a terrorist enterprise & the English didn’t fall for it. Likewise the bombing of Germany did little to lower Germany’s GNP, its real value was in stealing industrial capacity from offensive weapons.
Coventry was a legitimate military target.
The RAF had already bombed cities and towns in Germany for six months.
Excellent commentary…. True strength ..
Delighted to see history being taught by the IWM. Hopefully a resource and reminder to the current generation who have had little or no access to factual historical information through education of the sacrifices of previous generations to win the freedom and liberties they take for granted today. Perhaps they might pause for thought before tearing down their heritage.
Garbage. How are young people tearing down their heritage? You need to do some learning yourself.
@@davidhoward437 Possibly you are not a UK resident - otherwise your comment is utterly baffling. The IWM should be praised for presenting the facts and hopefully redressing the balance in the historical narrative. This will not suite some people who are working tirelessly to rewrite British history in their own image. As a retired history teacher I suppose I will be one of the first up against the wall.
Interesting. Thank you.
The Blitz had the opposite effect and made the population more determined to fight
Seems like the presented opinion is that with sufficiently intense bombing the population could be demoralised. Which explains 'shock and awe' in Iraq.
I Was born in post war England and have had lots of conversations with people who lived through it. I never heard of anyone that considered giving up as an option. The bombings just made them want to fight back. I wonder how this generation would react.
The raid on Coventry ( operation 'moonlight sonata') was a failure, war production was little affected.
Thank you! This was very informative, and I especially like how you explained why this massive attempt to destroy Britain morale did not work as the Third Reich expected.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thing was that the British and Americans also used the same bombing tactics on the Germans, and Japan. They are always unjustified war crimes when dropped on civilian centres, and just harden the resolve of both the population and the military
@@chernobylcat1791 You perhaps should ask yourself whether, in an industrial war, there really are such things as civilians. Is the civilian who manufactures a shell not contributing as much to the war effort as the soldier who fires it?
@@dovetonsturdee7033 During the second world war it was mainly women that ran the factories worked on the farms. Built the war machinery and made bombs and ammunition. Most of the men were in the fighting lines.
This lead to the great women's independent movement and the advancement of women in the '60s and of course the Pill.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 no. Of course not. the fact that you think that is even worth asking is worrying.
I remember my Grandfather telling stories about how he could see the glow in the sky of Coventry burning from his farm in Leicestershire.
Leicestershire, my homeland!
Yes - my parents, who lived 11 miles away, said when Coventry was bombed ( Nov. 14th, 1940 ) it looked like daylight.
Many people talk about the droning ( hetrodyning ? ) sound of the twin engine Luftwaffe engines.
There was a false accusation that Churchill knew the bombing of Coventry was going to happen,
but if it was stopped, that would have given away "Ultra." This has been shown to be non sense.
The reality was at night the Luftwaffe bombers were guided by radio beams and the carrier frequency was changed all the time. The British scientist who discovered this was R V Jones - he said on Nov. 14th, 1940,
the wrong carrier frequency was used to try to detect the Luftwaffe radio beams.
Correction : It was the modulation frequencies that were different - not the carrier frequencies.
My Mum told me they could see the glow of Coventry burning, from Stoke-on-trent 30 miles away. Horrific!
Same a old family friend once told me that they could see the glow from the bombing of Cardiff during the blitz from around 15 miles away
My grandmother was pregnant in 1944 with my mother and was forced to have my mother in the countryside of England were all new mothers were sent to have there babies.
Excellent documentaries- more please and link some of the planes, tanks and ships you have in museums to the documentaries
Germany never wanted to conquer Britain, they just wanted peace with them because they didn't want to fight a two front war, as Germany had already begun planning its invasion of Russia before the Battle of Britain. Hitler considered the British to be "fellow Aryans" and natural allies of the Germans. Nazi Germany's main enemies were the communists and the French. The French had humiliated the Germans after they defeated them in The Great War, and they wanted revenge, and of course the communists were the archenemy of the Nazis during the German November Revolution. Many of the communists leaders and members were Jewish, and this is where I believe the anti-Semitism of the Nazis was first realized. The revolution was also supported by the Soviet Union. A lot of people tend to look at WW2 as being mad men looking to see who they could conquer, but it's very complex and there are always deep-seated reason for why they did the things that they did.
Well said Ira and good on you for the public acknowledgment of the efforts of those to stem NAZI expansion in the first years of the war prior to 42.
They took the initial momentum and initiative out of the enemy. From an Aussie.👍🇦🇺
This is so much more interesting than Canadian history, which can be summarized as: For 150 or so years of being a nation, it was pleasant, and nothing ever really happened.
Do you have any footage of the Battle of Jutland? Or Dogger Bank? Thanks!
My Nana is 96yrs old and survived the Blitz in Liverpool, evacuated to the Isle of Man only to almost be blown up by an underwater mine under the boat. They safely transferred everyone to another boat. She wouldn’t of met my grandad if she didn’t make it.
The Liverpool Blitz should have been much heavier.
My ma-in-law, 92, well remembers the Coventry blitz, and still has a fear of fire. In later years, she worked at Owen Owen's store.
What a great video!
So glad to have found your channel. I cant wait to watch every one of your WWII videos! Thankyou so much for doing what you do. :-)
Sounds to me like you need to get a life. Sad.
You’ve covered the Blitz from the UK military perspective.
Thanks for the good show,anyway.
Slightly incorrect, Goering said if they had a few more Dresden's, Germany public would have sued for peace.
Source?
This video also reminds the "Dresden was a WAR CRIME" shouters that Germany started it, Britain dared fight back, and Germany suffered for it, and tough crap to them, really.
Dreaden was a shocking fire that raged and wind speeds reach hurricane force dragging women and children trying to escape the fire along the streets into the great fire to be burned alive. Never ever want to see that happen again. That was beyond war.
Even Churchill was shocked at that news.
@@briansture4353 No war is peaceful or nice... You fight for your existence and right to live in your own country. Once declared a war is about winning. "War crimes" are a consequence of war and if you look at every war from the use of chemical weapons, gas, Incendiary bombs, earthquake bombs, nuclear bombs... It's impossible to pursue all out war without stepping over the later defined lines...
The forced creativity of war always creates something new and in every war desperation leads to the blurring of lines. To think it's easy to make that call is to dismiss the events, challenges, horror and demands on the people of that time. It's too easy to judge now when you didn't go through it and live in peace because of it...
I belive it was about Hamburg he said that, Dresden was just a few months before the end of the war. Operation Gomohrra on Hamburg was i august 1943.
The blitz could not have caused a surrender. The u-boat campaign, that's another story.
Right, Churchill said the U-boats were the only factor in the war that worried him. We should all be glad that Hitler's ego had him building the Bismarck rather than dozens of ocean-going U-boats.
@@Inkling777 In the end it wouldn't matter, Convoy System effectively destroyed the u-boats by 1944. U-boats are useless against destroyers and escort frigates.
@@jonataspereira1691 it would matter from the civil unrest of hundreds of thousands starving
@@cedriceric9730 It would matter if the u-boats worked against the convoy system, then yes they could starve britain, but the point I am making is that the convoy system was the perfect counter to the u-boats, so with the convoy system Britain was no longer in danger at all.
@@jonataspereira1691 hence why the German admiralty wanted fast heavy surface raiders like Graf Spee Bismarck tirpitz and Scharnhosrt if those had got into the Atlantic the convoys would have been sitting ducks under the big guns and would have been forced to scatter allowing the uboats to destroy them
Short answer, no. Long answer, noooooooo. Proper answer, NEVAH!
My mother tells of hiding under the stairs during the Clydebank bombings. Her father was one of the men who captured Hess.
Interesting stuff. I have just been to Duxford and seen part of the me110 fuselage Hess flew over in. I bet her father would never have expected to be capturing a top nazi in scotland.
My mum use to tell stories of watching the bombers flying up/down the Clyde to bomb the docks as well. Also told of the celebrations when the barrage balloon at the end of their street brought down a bomber.
My grandfather was also a member of that Home Guard unit. He had a night off when Hess landed.
A curious feature of the WW2 aerial bombardement campaigns is that the British Bomber command campaign against Germany was expected to bring about a collapse in civilian morale, although the Luftwaffe campaign against Britain had notably failed to cause civilian morale to collapse. It was known that much RAF bombing was ineffective, but I know of no study of the effect of bombing on civilian populations that was undertaken during WW2.
Probably because Bomber Harris had convinced himself of the validity of Douhet's arguments, and no amount of evidence to the contrary could sway him.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 That's probably a lot of the reason, although there was a battle inside war cabinet when it was shown that RAF bombing was so inaccurate as to be useless so one might have thought someone would have looked into relevant observations from the British Blitz experience. Conceivably the answer to that one might be that Churchill had decided that there had to be a bombing campaign even if it wasn't going to achieve much in terms of direct results (by which I mean damage to war production).
@@jimthorne304 The reality was that, in the early part of the war, a bombing campaign was the only way that Britain could take the fight to Germany in anything other than a defensive manner.
Hastings' Bomber Command covers it pretty well.
Coventry - 500 dead. Dresden - 50,000
Here it is Said that the blitz was initiated because germany failed to achieve air superiority, but wasnt it actually due to a british air raid targeting civilian in germany?
Thats what is being Said in some other documentaries.
The British sufferings are portrayed as the ultimate sacrifice of the human race while the sufferings of their subject states during the war were not only overlooked, but jested upon by the British… quite satisfactory to watch the destruction German forces brought onto these barbarians.
Getting conquered by barbaric people is embarrassing to think about it. Clearly must be inferior culture and people to let that happen. Much like the Roman’s who never were conquered by the barbaric north .
In April-May 1941, Samuel Hoare & Lord Halifax met with Hess numerous times in Spain, Portugal & Switzerland.
Good job by Clement Atlee
This is an interesting interpretation by the British of why the Germans bombed cities. I would like to hear the interpretation of the Blitz by the Germans.
Yes I have heard, that is was Churchill who started the hole thing by bombing Berlin! The germans had a firm policy not to bomb cities or civilian targets?
@@cortkim Yes, a couple of twin-engined Whitely bombers droned over Berlin dropping a few bombs at random doing little damage and Hitler went ape!
Meanwhile, have you heard of the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish civil war and the bombing of the centre of Rotterdam in 1940, both of which caused a lot of damage and casualties. Funny firm policy, that!
@@Wombat1916 Well I suppose, it was just British targets then. Anyway I read it in a book by some believable English historian! Don't think Hitler wanted a war with England. He was going after Stalin! Nevertheless I also read that Churchill wanted Hitler to go after London, so that the English people would get more, what do you call it, hm ready to get into war! Well I guess it's complicated! :-)
@@cortkim The first British bombs fell on Berlin the night after the first German bombs landed on London.
The germans had a firm policy not to bomb cities or civilian targets.' I wonder if they conveyed this noble purpose to the good citizens of Republican Spain during the Civil War, or to those of Warsaw, or Rotterdam?
The blitz was puny compared to the destruction wrought on Germany
you reap what you sow
Had the Luftwaffe kept bombing airfields etc and not switched to bombing the cities, they would likely have broken the RAF and history may well have been very different. Switching tactics allowed the RAF to recover and therefore the Germans couldn't win air superiority and the invasion had to be called off
That's a bit of an outdated view. They couldn't break the RAF. They could put pressure on the airfields in the south east, but the longest they were able to knock out an airfield was 24 hours. Grass airfields meant the RAF could be operational again very quickly. Furthermore they never dropped below 75% strength for pilots in a squadron. That may seem bad at first, but they ran 2 pilots for every plane in a squadron, so really at worst, they were 18 pilots for 12 planes in a squadron. In a worst case scenario the RAF could have just started using airfields further north, but they never needed to. The British outproduced German plane production throughout the Battle of Britain and for almost every year of the war. The Luftwaffe just wasn't big enough to establish air superiority over Britain, and the German war machine wasn't producing enough to change that, the Luftwaffe didn't even recover to pre-Battle of Britain strength by the time Germany invaded Russia.
@@NRProductionss I agree, it was easy to repair or to make a new grass airfield these days. German bombers needed protection by fighters and their range was limited to the south of england. They started in France and they had to fly back, their time over british territory was very limited.
The Germans didn't really have a heavy Bomber, they only have the Heinkel 111s
There was never a question of surrender on the French model. Rather it was a question of whether to make a deal with Hitler to end the war, which would have left Hitler in control of the Continent.
I believe history has treated Chamberlain unfairly. The Munich Agreement (1938) bought Britain a year, this was a year in which we built Spitfires.
I have a mixed view of Chamberlain: yours I agree with, plus he was a very sick man by this point, in a time when a stiff upper-lip and keeping it quiet was the thing. That said, the press address, waving Hitler's worthless promises, is rather cringeworthy, as is the "peace in our time" quote. Still, on balance, I agree it gave some time.
Owen Shebbeare I didn't know he was unwell in 1938 and thought his (terminal) cancer was only evident in 1940.
@@JimMorrisonLoL Horace Wilson was pulling his strings. Chamberlain didn't think he was buying time, he thought Hitler was a reasonable chap who just wanted a few legitimate grievances sorted out. He really thought he had delivered peace in our time by sacrificing some Czechs.
@@Iain1962 Czechoslovakia only existed due to the Versailles treaty. Disbanding it to buy peace probably seemed a good idea
@@Trebor74 Indeed it's always an easy option to sacrifice someone else for peace in our time.
I'd be interested in a video critique of the Battle of Arnhem of september 1944 particularly the build up and planning and the apportionment of responsibility for its eventual failure.
Thankyou
There already is....
Its a film called 'A Bridge too Far', made in 1977.
A Richard Attenborough production, a cast of thousands and its in Panavision and Technicolor.
It encompasses all you need to know.
Give it a whirl, its available on RUclips free.
Good luck.
@@oldgitsknowstuff Not sure a Hollywood movie is the place to go to understand Arnhem, or any history for that matter.
@@CB-fz3li
Perhaps not but a recently deceased friend of mine who was actually deposited there said the film was about right.
Of course if you are talking about the finer points of politics and who said what and why then phew !
@@oldgitsknowstuff They had quite a few veterans advising so in terms of getting some feel for the spirit of the operation and fighting I imagine it is better than the old men and maps style of documentary. In terms of the overall planning and responsibility for failures etc then I would say it is an unreliable source. The role of Gavin for example and the 82nd not prioritising the bridge at Nijmegen. I am not really qualified to comment on that but Hollywood just wouldn't go there for obvious reasons.
@@CB-fz3li
Well it was a Richard Attenborough production and a great deal of effort was put into getting things right even down to the correct medal ribbons one the uniforms because there were so many veterans around in 1977, they would tear it to shreds in an instant. Edward Fox in the role of Major General Brian Horrocks got his role off to a tea !
'Gentlemen, thank you Gentlemen. You're about to embark upon an adventure about which you can tell your grandchildren, and mightily bored they'll be' !
Excellent.
You specifically mentioned the blitz. However, before Germany might even begin to claim a victory, there was something else in their way. The Royal Navy, which in 1940 was it it's most powerful. And to claim an out right victory you'd need to invade and occupy. Easier said than done...... The Nazis were in no way geared up to invade Britain, despite Hitler's best intentions. They had no purpose built assault ships, and no way of transporting heavy armour over the channel to invade. They would have needed to capture a working port, which again, is easier said than done when you'd have the (then) World's most powerful navy trying to stop you........ Hitler could never have pulled it off, and maybe realised it?
Sure... That's why Churchill didn't had to bag the US for help. Neither the Soviet Union and the red army had a massive impact on the outcome of the war. The war was decided in El Alamein where the axis powers were fighting against a outnumbered enemy and without fuel and ammunition to move on.
Stop believing in heroism during the war. Our people suffered a lot during this time.
@@larsgrotjohann he begged the US for help and it came in 1941 after the war was already won. As Churchill said the might of the German army must soon be turned against these islands or he will loose the war. Britain was a highly important position for strategic destruction of the German industry el Alemain prevented the capture of the Arabian and Iraqi oil fields. And the Royal Navy ensured that Stalin didn’t seek peace in 1941 during the defence of Moscow something like 1/3rd of the heavy tanks were british built matildas or Valentines. The artic convoys prevented Stalin seeking peace many times in meetings with both Churchill and Eike he said if they don’t get through I will be forced to seek peace. Those artic convoys would have been impossible without the might of the Royal Navy and the brave sailors of the Merchant Navy
@@wargey3431 the war was not won in 1941. Stalingrad was the turning point in WWII!
The red army improved a lot during the war and they effort was decisive for the liberation of Europe from fascism and the retarded Nazi ideology.
@@larsgrotjohann the war was won in 41 the defeat of the German airforce in the Battle of Britain and the almost breaking of U Boat warfare as well as Moscow won the war Stalingrad was hitlers point of no return
@@wargey3431 the battle of Britain has a huge symbolism for the Brits. In Germany we don't talk that much about it. The battle of Britain consisted in air raids from the Luftwaffe on British military and civil targets. It doesn't had any major impact on the war.
The British army wouldn't take France back without the help of the American troops. And they'd certainly major problems If the Wehrmacht had only just one enemy to fight.
The Soviet Union ended the war as a superpower and was in the opinion of German historian's the main reason for Nazi defeat in WW II.
It's interesting that every nation in Europe has its own patriotic view over the course of the war.
You know what amazes me the most? Who supported the Nazi party (financially) since the beginning? The German economy was at its lowest point! The money certainly did not come only from German businessmen.
What about the world? The was a huge economic recession and out of a sudden we had money for weapons!
Hope that history doesn't repeat and that our children doesn't have to fight each other like our ancestors did.
Take care
Could winning the blitz have meant Germany defeated the Brits in the fall of 1940? No, it mattered not who controlled the air over the English Channel. If Germany had landed in SE England, the Royal Navy would have come roaring down from Scapa Flow. Its losses might have been enormous, but the British could absorb those losses far better than the Germany Navy, which had been badly weakened by the invasion of Norway the previous April. And don't forget that Churchill became Prime Minister in May of 1940. That made all the difference. Under him the Brits would have fought on until, as he put it, the last Brit lay dying, choking in his own blood.
The Blitz wouldn’t win them even the air war it was a propaganda campaign to destroy public morale and force a surrender just hitler didn’t understand the British mentality of you hit us well hit you back the chance he had for victory was Dunkirk before he began mass bombing of Britain but Churchill fought on
I would interested in seeing a video about the Royal Naval Division , in WW1
The Blitz, indeed any aerial bombardment, depends for its effectiveness on two things; quality and effectiveness of aerial defences, including AA guns, aircraft, and shelters, and secondly the population's mentality and ability to endure. For example in Italy the air defences were terrible, and the Italians were not so mentally robust as for example the Germans or British - perhaps in part /because/ they knew the defences were so bad. Thus bombing them had more effect than say bombing the Maltese who endured endless months of bombing but showed no sign of being worn down.
Gerry sowed the wind - and reaped the whirlwind not so long after.
the cabinet was leaning towards peace talks hoping to keep its independence somewhat, but the people werent having it
Nonsense. Churchill was in many respects a bastard but he wasn't a quitter.
nobody said anything about him being a quitter, he may have been a bastard but he ran his country thru thick and thin, he was a conservative., not a liberal thats what they called the parties
yes.....the kind and queen wanted to get rid of that drunk churhill and wanted peace.......
no body said anything about Churchill being a quitter, the cabinet. you have to remember most of Europe was in German hands with most of their army stuck on the beaches of France, the cabinet was ready to talk not Churchill, he saved the army
Didn't Churchill say Coventry looked better after the bombing?
My Great Grand grandmother Dorothy Stevenson tore her leg up pretty bad on one of those metal air raid shelters and after developed gang green in her leg but she refused to have her leg amputated.Doctors warned her she would lose her life if she didn't. She stuck to her decision and lived many years after with her leg never fully healing ..my mother would say that they would change bandages throughout the rest of her life. It happened in 1944 and she died at 86 in 1977..Doctors were puzzled why this happened even after years with this condition She was entered in the British journal of medicine because it could never be explained
That's crazy
Some of the audio is spotty as is the speaker’s diction. Otherwise rather interesting.
Is that Neddy Seagoon (Sir Harry Secombe) at 3:36 ? Does look like him although Harry was 19 at the time of the 1940 Blitz.
It does look like a later version of him but he was a young whipper-snapper back in 1940. Good to see that he is Goon but not forgotten.
The dark secret of the Coventry bombing is that the Enigma code breakers cracked the messages sent between Luftwaffe high command and the operational units and the intercepts were presented to Churchill to decide what to do. A warning and stiff defense could have diminished the scale of the damage and loss of lives but would have tipped off the Nazis that the Enigma code was broken. Churchill made the most difficult decision of his life and decided that the secret that Enigma was compromised had to be protected so it was decided not to warn Coventry that this massive raid was coming. After WW2 this information was leaked and the cost paid by Coventry was very controversial but it was decided that it was a necessary cost to successfully pursue the defeat of Hitler, who considering everything he did, including The Holocaust, had to be stopped before he could destroy the whole world, which considering there were no nukes would have been an extremely grim prospect especially as his theories appealed to the extremists in Japan who were in power and wanted to share total victory with the systematic mass destruction of humanity, such as they did at the horrific Nanking massacre, with Hitler and his Nazis. If the Nazis had conquered Britain they would have defeated the Soviet Union and with Japan, the US. So there was a lot at stake in this one raid. It's not that the outcome of WW2 depended on this one air raid, but if the Enigma secret was revealed that could have changed just about everything. Another way it was put, the secret that Enigma was broken was being protected by "A Bodyguard of Lies"...
my mother worked at supermarine in southampton in 1940 building spitfires, she survived the factory bombing because the works shelter she should have gone to was full up, it recieved a direct hit and just about everyone in there was killed, it would have taken superman to get her in any shelter after that!
Didn't the film 'The shape of Things to Come' predict the Blitz?
It was more a reflection of the views of the Italian Air Strategist Guilio Douhet, who in the 1920s argued that civilian morale would collapse under bombing, and governments would be replaced by ones willing to surrender.
Douhet died in 1930, and thus didn't see his theories exposed as false ones.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 Thank 6ñl
Whatever the fiasco, aplomb is unbroken. Mistakes, failures, stupidities and other causes of disaster mysteriously vanish. Disasters are recorded with care and pride and become transmuted into things of beauty. Official histories record every move in monumental and infinite detail but the details serve to obscure.
Barbara Tuchman, on official British accounts of the Second World War in Burma.
I am an American of Anglo Saxon descent, i commend my brothers In England for their valiant resistance against the Nazi menace.
Leftists in my country call the RAF bombings of Germany a war crime, but I salute my English brothers to refuse to be helpless victims and retaliate tit for tat against the Nazis, bring the fight to them! like harris said if your sow the wind you will reap the whirlwind.
how pretensions of nazis (and their leftist allies) assuming one country can bomb whoever they want left and right and not have the same done to them!
Long live England, my anglo saxon forefathers!
Well said mate
Compared to the Germans we received very little bombing.
Because the Blitz ended just a year after Churchill became PM.
Because the Luftwaffe was set up to support the ground forces not bomb Britain as Britain bombed Germany.
No 4 engines heavy bomber fleets, fighters with a very limited range and Goering’s stupid insistence on fighter staying near the bombers.
Plus the Nazis went east and most of their air power went there too to destroy the Red airforce.
That was because the RAF saw what the Germans had done and with British thoroughness and organization and expertise did it back to the Germans in a far better managed and greater way.
Tell that to Hull, Plymouth and Portsmouth.
Coventry came under very heavy bombing and later Britain returned the favour 10 fold with America.
Benchley Park had broken enough of German code to know what was coming for Coventry. There was a debate about taking action to save the People. It was decided it was more important to protect the Ultra Secret that to evacuate Coventry.
I believe a few leaders came to view the City & its sites…one final time
This has been shown to be false. I've written what occurred above.
Alex the name is bletchley park not Benchley
@@peterrooke5336 spell check is a random pain in the ass. I always check before I post but there are times I miss the corrective mistakes
@@alexius23 then you should use edit , I do !
'London, Coventry, Manchester and many more were bombed.'
But Manchester was only bombed twice. It was way down the list of bombed cities.
Over the years, I have seen many pictures of firefighters spraying water on burning buildings during the Blitz. Meaning NO disrespect, but, judging from the apparent diameters of the water streams, the hoses used by the firefighters look like garden hoses rather than serious firefighting equipment.
Apparently the bombing and destruction of Hamburg made some German leaders consider surrender. This was on a vastly bigger scale than that which any British city endured. And still Germany didn't surrender. Although a leader who didn't care what his people went through may have differentiated them from Britain.
I heard a joke that the British told themselves after the war that the Blitz caused £200,000,000 worth of improvements to the London cityscape.
As a blitz was occurring the British were trying to stop it by shooting at the planes with antaicraft battries did not hit the German airplanes and their bombs fell directly on the cities they were trying to protect which is interesting
still finding unexploded bombs all over Europe
I'm sure the British would have never let Germany win. If necessary, they would have found asylum in Scotland. Then in the Shetland Islands. Then in Iceland. Then in Greenland. Then in Canada. Then from the Arizona desert, Winston Churchull would have proclaimed on the radio: 'We will never surrender, we will never give up, we will fight to the end whatever it costs America'.
It's always seemed to me to be curious that Britain didn't seem to learn from the Blitz experience and apply those lessons later, when the UK started to bomb Germany. In particular, we have Harris insisting that bombing German cities would bring about a collapse in civilian morale although there was never any evidence that the German Blitz against the UK came anywhere near generating a collapse in British morale.
I think it was rooted in the idea that civillians are less likely to oppose a war of aggression when they dont feel any consequences of said war of aggression but once they begin to actually feel those consequences on home soil the sentiment is much more likely to change than it would be if they were engaging in a war against an aggressor.
If my government starts a war and my home is bombed I will be pissed off at my government. But if someone else starts the war and bombs my home I will be pissed off at them.
@@IXSICNESS
That was the idea. It was also because, as morbid as it is, the enemy can't make equipment if the factory workers are all dead.
Harris never performed his plans of area bombing until the Nazis declared Total War against the World and, well, in Total War the average civilian worker is now a combatant due to providing material for this Total War. There's no going back when Total War is declared until the war is over.
The Kriegsmarine had neither the resources nor the expertise to make large scale landings on British shores in 1940, which put the Wehrmacht out of the picture. The Luftwaffe on its own could not win the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe didn't even have any heavy strategic bombers to pound Britain into submission. So the British government knew Britain was relatively safe in 1940.
The Kriegsmarine would have had to fight its way across English Channel, in the face of the largest Navy in the world. The invasion was war-gamed by British and German WW2 generals after the war at Sandhurst. While the German Army may have been able to land around 90000 troops, they'd have been cut off from their supplies by the Royal Navy and ground down by the British Army, home guard, planned Guerilla tactics, and their own lack of logistical support. The British had a plan for defending in depth. It would have cost them dearly but would have defeated the Germans.
@@larsgrotjohann not in 1940 it wasn't. The Nazis and Soviets were great pals, each trying to outdo the other in the "who can murder more Poles" competition. For 13 months, from the fall of France to Barbarossa, Britain along with the Commonwealth and Empire was the only opponent to the Nazi domination of Europe. This video covers that period.
@@larsgrotjohann what the 🦆 ..
They did have the expertise but the Royal Navy was the Royal Navy
You just couldn't defeat it on a whim
@@cedriceric9730 The Kriegsmarine only had their first purpose built landing craft, Marinefährprahm, capable of carrying tanks in April 1941. Before that, they were planning to use hundreds of river barges towed by German warships to carry troops and tanks across the English Channel. Even madman like Hitler thought the plans were too crazy.
" The German strategy during the Blitz is to force Britain out of the war , so it [ the Luftwaffe bombers ] attacks ports hoping to disrupt vital supplies , our food and raw materials. " Yes , as Admiral Raeder explained to Hitler, during a number of meetings , the Kriegsmarine was no match to the Royal Navy, and consequently Raeder advised against Sea Lion.
So the bombing of the east London docks, Liverpool, Bristol, Portsmouth, Hull, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast should be viewed as a siege of Britain.
I wonder, if there were to be in theory, a muslim country, like iran, Saudi Arabia, strong enough to attack great britain with the same tenacity as germany did, would there be the same unity and cohesion as the British people had, or would there be a split and infighting?
Seeing the destruction of Coventry cathedral I know why Londoners (and all Brits) were given hope after seeing St Paul's survival.
! was 9 when the 2nd world war ended but if I grew up, I would have fought like hell, as it happened I did not have too.
Did you not hear Winston ? " WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER" !
that DRUNK
Yea, meanwhile while he was in the country in the north.
The blitz is not good enough, it failed to erase the Colonial mentality.
?
Having lived through the second world war years if there had been an invasion the Brits would have stuffed up the enemy to such an extent it would have driven them mad such was the determination of the people at that time. That determination is still around today. Never push the Brits back to the wall as all hell will let loose, suddenly. Something VDL should be mindful of.
What are 'Brits' Brian? I've lived in the UK all of my long life and I've NEVER met any such thing as a "Brit'. What do you call Americans? Would that be 'Amers'? What do you call Welsh people? Wels? Scottish people 'Scoots' and Irish people 'Ires'.? Maybe you call English people 'Engs'. And German people 'Germs'. I have relations in Canada. Are you suggesting that I refer to them as 'Cans'?
@@anthonyweedonweedon1426 I'm a Brit.
@@anthonyweedonweedon1426 I'm a Brit.
@@anthonyweedonweedon1426 I’m a Brit
@@wargey3431 You are not 'a Brit'. You never have been and never will be. There is no such thing as 'a Brit', which is a coarse term that rhymes with 'shit'. I was born and have lived all my life in England in Great Britain. Why is it called 'Great' Britain? It is so called to distinguish it from 'Little Britain'. Where is Little Britain? Well, it's just another name for Brittany. No self respecting British person would ever stoop so low to refer to their fellow citizens as 'Brits.' It's akin to describing Americans as 'Unitedstatesians.' We should always love our country and do all we can to improve its good name. Describing its citizens as 'Brits' is a lazy, ill-mannered and insulting utterance akin to describing Italians as 'Ities', Germans as 'Germs', French as 'Frens' and Swedes 'Turnips.' Do you know the difference between a turnip and a swede? True, loyal British citizens would be ashamed to refer to themselves as Brits. There was an old fellow called Brit, Who went to the woods for a shit. When he dropped down his pants, He was bitten by ants, Which caused him to scream in a fit. YOU ARE NOT A BRIT.
The britts are the most fearsome alive
Not anyomore we are the most scared country in the world when comes to covid 19.
@@douglastaggart9360 hi take heart , youse guy's are a brilliant mixed race of people, your genetics is spread through the world .
That is called British exceptionalism, it stinks and has nothing to do with reality and is totally unnecessary and worthless.
Never… we would have never surrendered ! Churchill would never of allowed us to loose
you guys survived because the USA came and saved your ASS
@@CAPTAINBAZOOKA-wn5by saved.... who gave you radar, taught you how to read maps, out fitted and built you your mustangs and bombers ... when you guys win a war without aid, allies or other nations mapping out and coordinating your attacks because you dont understand the metric system come back and comment lol... you got beat by the Vietnamese lol farmers with pitchforks and torches... lol and to top it off the SAS train your special forces.. lol ouch.. yeah lol learn your knowledge about your own countries military before you embarrass yourself again kid
How did the Luftwaffe get all the way to Coventry without getting intercepted by the RAF?
Night bombers were difficult to intercept at that point in the war.
It was much harder to intercept at night. Don't forget that in 1940, radar was still in it's relative infancy. It worked well enough in the daytime when you still retain the visual element, but night time interception didn't improve greatly for another year or so.....
Because all of the fixed radar sites were pointed away from Britain, after aircraft passed over them they could not be tracked by radar. It was up to the Observer Corps to track them after they crossed the coast.
Please 'Google Dr.RV Jones and you'll find the explanation.
Also, there is a rumour that Britain already knew about the raid on Coventry. We didn't want 'Jerry to know that we had sussed how it was done.
NIKOBINE!.
Certainly puts the inconvenience of wearing a freaking mask and getting vaccinated in perspective.
What about the Morrison Shelter that was an inside shelter for homes
They didn't come about until March 1941...