World
War 1
During
World War 1, 52 Zeppelin raids on England killed 556 people and injured
1,357. Throughout 1915 and 1916, Zeppelin raids became a regular feature
of life. On 8 September 1915, a single airship inflicted serious damage
on the very centre of the City of London, including Lincoln's Inn.
After
several attacks by seaplanes, the main campaign began in January 1915
with airships. Until the Armistice the Marine-Fliegerabteilung (Navy
Aviation Department) and Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches
(Imperial German Flying Corps) mounted over fifty bombing raids. The
raids were generally referred to in Britain as Zeppelin raids but Schütte-Lanz
airships were also used.
Weather
and night flying made airship navigation and accurate bombing difficult.
Bombs were often dropped miles off target (a raid on London hit Hull)
and hitting military installations was a matter of luck. Civilian casualties
made the Zeppelins objects of hatred. British defensive measures made
airship raids much riskier and in 1917 they were largely replaced by
aeroplanes. The military effect of the raids was small but they caused
alarm, disruption to industrial production and the diversion of resources
from the Western Front. Concern about the conduct of the defence against
the raids, the responsibility for which was divided between the Admiralty
and the War Office, led to a parliamentary inquiry under Jan Smuts and
the creation of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1 April 1918
[Main
source Wikipedia
- for more details information see Wikipedia
- German bombing of Britain, 1914–1918]
World
War 2
England
was not only attacked by aircraft. From August 1940, Dover and Folkstone
were within range of German guns across the Channel. They were repeatedly
shelled until after D-Day (6 June 1944) when the guns were captured
by Allied troops.
Thousands
of Hitler’s ‘vengeance weapons’ were fired towards
England from occupied Europe. Over 9,500 V-1 flying bombs, commonly
known as buzz bombs or doodlebugs, were sent over during the summer
of 1944. Later in the year, V-2 rockets, the world’s first long-range
ballistic missiles, were launched against London and East Anglia.
The
fear of aerial bombing
For much of the war people overestimated the accuracy and the destructive
power of aerial bombing. During the 1930's and the first months of the
war, many experts believed that bombing could shorten wars.
It
was feared that a major attack on London using gas and high explosives
would kill thousands, break the morale of the survivors, and bring down
the government. Gas was never used, but once bombing began several myths
continued.
One
such myth was that ‘the bomber would always get through’.
In fact, improvements in air defences, particularly in fighter aircraft
and radar, meant that many were shot down. To avoid unsustainable losses,
bomber aircraft were forced to operate at night.
Targets
were harder to find in darkness so Britain used the blackout as one
of its defences against air raids. People were told that showing a light
through a window or open door could bring the punishment of a German
bomb.
[Main
source Historic
England]
Air
Raid Signals
Air
raid sirens sounded in London on 3 September 1939, the day war was declared.
But England was not actually bombed by the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe,
until the following year.
Once
the bombing began in June 1940 until the end of the war in spring 1945,
targets from Wallsend in the north to the Isle of Wight in the south
were targeted.
Various
local methods of communicating information about air raids were used.
An example is provided below.
 |
Bexhill-on-Sea
Observer - Saturday 29 June 1940, page 8 |
