60 Fun Facts About The Blitz

The Blitz began on 7 September of which year?

It ran for eight months, ending in mid-May 1941 as the Luftwaffe shifted east for the invasion of the Soviet Union.

The word 'Blitz' is a shortened form of Blitzkrieg; what does 'Blitz' mean in German?

The British press borrowed the term used for Germany's fast surprise attacks.

From 7 September 1940, London was bombed on how many of the following 57 days and nights?

The Germans called the London offensive Operation Loge, after their codename for the city.

Which Luftwaffe chief joined Hitler in ordering the switch to bombing London on 6 September 1940?

Kesselring and Sperrle commanded the two air fleets that carried the raids out.

What codename did the Luftwaffe give its air offensive against London, launched on 7 September 1940?

Loge was the German codename for London itself; Seeschlange, or Sea Snake, was the parallel operation against ports.

The raid of 29 December 1940 caused a firestorm in the City that became known as what?

Around 100,000 mostly incendiary bombs fell that night, and a low tide hampered efforts to draw water from the Thames.

On the night of the Second Great Fire, what hampered firefighters trying to draw water from the Thames?

Prime Minister Churchill sent the message that St Paul's 'must be saved at all costs'.

Which Daily Mail photographer took the famous 'St Paul's Survives' picture?

He was fire-watching on the roof of Northcliffe House and waited hours for the smoke to clear.

Under what caption did the Daily Mail run the St Paul's photograph on its front page on 31 December 1940?

The censors cleared it for publication the day after it was taken.

What was the German codename for the devastating raid on Coventry of 14 November 1940?

The raid's pathfinder marking, incendiaries and concentrated waves influenced every later strategic bombing raid of the war.

The Coventry raid was so devastating that it produced which new verb for flattening a city from the air?

An estimated 568 people were killed, though the exact figure was never confirmed.

Which architect designed the new Coventry Cathedral, insisting the bombed ruin be kept alongside it?

He was later knighted for the work; the two buildings together form one church.

Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham's 1974 book claimed Churchill let Coventry burn to protect which secret?

Other Ultra participants and historians reject the claim; the decrypts never mentioned Coventry by name.

Which government post did Sir John Anderson hold when he ordered development of the Anderson shelter?

He had special responsibility for air-raid precautions just before the war, and later became Home Secretary.

An Anderson shelter was designed to hold up to how many people?

Householders earning under £5 a week got one free; everyone else paid £7.

What were Anderson shelters made from?

Buried in the garden and covered with earth, they were often planted with vegetables and flowers.

The Morrison shelter, distributed from 1941, was designed for use where?

Officially the 'Table (Morrison) Indoor Shelter', it doubled as a dining table with a cage beneath.

Roughly how many people slept in the London Underground on 27 September 1940, its peak use as a shelter?

A November census found only about 4% of Londoners used the Tube and other big shelters; 60% stayed at home.

What did Underground officials do with station entrances during early Blitz raids, before the government relented?

Londoners forced the issue by taking shelter without authority until the stations were opened in the second week.

On 11 January 1941 a bomb hit the booking hall of which Tube station, killing 56 and leaving a crater that traffic crossed on a Bailey bridge?

The blast travelled down the stairs and escalators to the crowded platforms below.

In March 1943, 173 people were crushed to death entering the shelter at which East London Tube station?

It remains the largest single loss of civilian life in the UK during the war; the council had asked for a crush barrier in 1941.

Which bandleader was among at least 34 killed when a bomb hit London's Café de Paris on 8 March 1941?

The 50kg bomb came down a ventilation shaft into the basement ballroom, which had been marketed as the safest in London.

How many times was Buckingham Palace bombed during the Second World War?

The most publicised hit destroyed the palace chapel in 1940 while the King and Queen were inside.

After the palace was bombed, Queen Elizabeth said she could now 'look' which part of London 'in the face'?

Newsreels of the King and Queen inspecting the damage were shown in cinemas across the country.

What was later built on the site of the Buckingham Palace chapel destroyed by a bomb?

The King's Gallery opened in 1962 to show works from the Royal Collection.

Which city's Easter Tuesday raid of 15 April 1941 killed at least 987 people?

It had the UK's highest population density and its lowest proportion of public shelters.

Which leader of neutral Éire sent fire crews north to Belfast after the 1941 Easter Tuesday raid?

Within two hours of the request, 71 firemen with 13 tenders were on their way.

After the March 1941 Clydebank raids, how many of the town's roughly 12,000 houses were undamaged?

The John Brown shipyard and the Singer sewing-machine factory were the main targets.

Which was the most heavily bombed area of Britain outside London?

Around 4,000 people were killed there, most during the seven-night May Blitz of 1941.

The SS Malakand, destroyed by fire in Huskisson Dock on Merseyside on 3 May 1941, was carrying what?

Flames spread to the ship from bombed dock sheds and could not be contained.

Which city, with 95 percent of its houses damaged, was reported only as 'a north-east coast town'?

Its people became 'trekkers', leaving the city each night to sleep in the countryside.

Which naval city took a record 1,000 tons of bombs on 19-20 April 1941, for Hitler's 52nd birthday?

Its position on the south coast, close to German bases, made it the most heavily attacked of the ports.

Rubble from bombed Birmingham was put to what use in Kent and Essex?

London's rubble went the same way: 750,000 tons on 1,700 goods trains to Bomber Command airfields in East Anglia.

The 1942 Baedeker raids on Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York and Canterbury took their name from what?

The Germans reportedly picked cities with three stars in the guides.

The Baedeker raids were launched in response to the RAF's March 1942 bombing of which German city?

Rostock followed the next month, and Hitler vowed to attack Britain's 'cultural centres, health resorts and civilian centres'.

The German night-navigation beam system Knickebein takes its name from a phrase meaning what?

The British codenamed the beams 'Headache' and, naturally, the jamming effort 'Aspirin'.

What codename did the British give their efforts to jam the Knickebein beams?

The beams themselves were codenamed Headache.

What aircraft was John Cunningham flying for the first airborne-radar air victory on 19 November 1940?

He shot down a Ju 88 bomber, just as Dowding had predicted radar would allow.

Roughly how many civilians were killed by Luftwaffe bombing of Britain during the whole war?

Almost half of them died in London, where over a million houses were destroyed or damaged.

Which was 'by far the most unpopular aspect of the war for civilians', even more than rationing?

Lights were forbidden after dark for almost six years, from 1 September 1939.

Before the war, how many gas masks (respirators) were issued to British civilians?

The fear was that a gas bombardment might begin before evacuation could take place.

Britain's overseas child evacuation scheme ended in 1940 after the sinking of which ship, killing 81 children?

The programme had sent 2,664 boys and girls abroad before it was stopped.

Pub visits rose during the Blitz partly because which drink was never rationed?

13,000 people also turned out to watch cricket at Lord's.

Chislehurst Caves in Kent sheltered up to 15,000 people, each paying how much to enter?

The 'caves' are man-made chalk and flint mines, and had been used to grow mushrooms in the 1930s.

Pianist Myra Hess organised almost 2,000 lunchtime concerts during the war at which London building?

Concert halls were blacked out at night, so she played by day in Trafalgar Square.

Which American broadcaster opened his live CBS reports from the Blitz with the words 'This is London'?

His sign-off, 'Good night, and good luck', came from what Londoners said to each other before each night's raid.

Which American journalist narrated the 1940 propaganda film 'London Can Take It!'?

The aim was to nudge American opinion towards entering the war; a shorter home version was called Britain Can Take It.

Which Welsh poet worked in London during the Blitz making morale-boosting documentaries for Strand Films?

Vernon Watkins, by contrast, wrote directly about the Swansea Blitz of 1941.

Which director made the 2024 film 'Blitz'?

Elizabeth Bowen's 1948 novel The Heat of the Day is set in the same 'first heady autumn of the London air raids'.

Which Communist paper did Home Secretary Herbert Morrison shut over shelter-unrest fears?

Morrison had replaced Sir John Anderson as Home Secretary during the Blitz.

Which women's organisation, founded in 1938 by the Marchioness of Reading, ran canteens and rest centres in the Blitz?

The Women's Voluntary Services later became the WRVS and today is the Royal Voluntary Service.

Which He 111 pathfinder unit marked Coventry with incendiaries for 437 following bombers?

Its crews used the X-Gerät beam system reserved for specially trained pathfinders.

On which night did the Luftwaffe carry out its last major attack on London, flying 571 sorties?

Some 787 tons of bombs fell that night, damaging Westminster Abbey and the Law Courts.

Which part of the Palace of Westminster was destroyed in the great raid of May 1941?

The Commons chamber was later rebuilt; Westminster Abbey and the Law Courts were damaged the same night.

Who replaced Hugh Dowding at the head of Fighter Command on 25 November 1940?

Whitehall was uneasy about the RAF's failures against night raids; Dowding was already due for retirement after winning the Battle of Britain.

Which general commanded Britain's Anti-Aircraft Command during the Blitz?

On 14 October 1940 his guns fired 8,326 rounds and brought down only two bombers; falling shell fragments caused more British casualties than they prevented.

What were 'Starfish sites'?

With night fighters months away and anti-aircraft guns inadequate, the ruses drew German bombers away with simulated targets and diversionary fires.

Which German radio-navigation system was reserved for specially trained pathfinder crews in He 111s?

Knickebein was in general use, while Y-Gerät was the most complex of the three, an automatic beam-tracker run through autopilot.

Which Home Secretary set up the Women's Voluntary Services for Civil Defence in 1938?

He considered the WVS the female branch of the Air Raid Precautions service; the Auxiliary Fire Service had 138,000 personnel by July 1939.

How many people did the government plan to evacuate from London as war approached?

The national plan covered four million people, mostly women and children, from urban areas.