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Edexcel GCSE: Warfare Through Time: The Blitz ()
A detailed collection of my GCSE notes for History, Edexcel exam board, for the Blitz section of the warfare paper.
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By: rebeccadowding • 2 year ago
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London andWW2; The
Blitz
1939-45
, The Target of the City of Lond
● London was the capital city of England and had several key areas that were targets for
the Blitz and air raids:
○ East end had the docks and main warehouses, which contained supplies. Also, it
was a dense area for housing and contained factories. The most important target
was the docks that imported food, raw materials and weaponry for the war effort.
○ The City of London was the financial centre of England and contained a lot of
banks and the Stock Exchange and also had the rail and telephone links, such as
the Faraday Building containing the telephone exchange. It was the target of
intensive bombing on 29th December 1940.
○ Suburban London contained most of the city’s population. The east suffered a
larger tonnage of bombs that west London.
○ Westminster was also a target due to the fact it had Buckingham Palace and the
Houses of Parliament. This area wasn’t heavily targeted in the first days of the
Blitz but was during 1941.
Preparations made for the Blitz
● The London County Council (LCC) and 28 borough councils gathered together to create
preparations for the air raids.
● Gas masks were issued after the 1938 Munich crisis to all Londoners. It was found that
less and less people, however, carried these gas masks after the Phoney War. This
research was done by Mass Observation, a research group that recorded information
about people’s lives and attitudes. By March 1940, as few as 5% of people took their gas
masks out with them. Even at the height of the Blitz, only around one third carried them
around as well.
● The Air Raid Precautions Act required local Governments to set up air raid precautions
(ARP). ARP wardens were sent out to check that blackout curtains were being put up
and numbers of lights were being reduced. This was to stop the bombers from being
able to target areas of London when they came at night.
● Evacuation became commonplace during the Blitz. The ARP committee split the
country into three types of areas of danger and he determined the safer areas for those
who were in higher danger zones to evacuate to in order to increase safety. The idea
was to give free transport to 1,400,000 people, including school children with their
teachers and pregnant women, and also mothers and young infants. Also, those who
could afford it were asked to pay towards billeting, which was providing the food and
shelter in the reception areas. A total of 1.3 million people were evacuated and when
the threat of air raids seemed to reduce, many returned home. By January 1940, over
300,000 had returned and by March there were only 300,000 left in the reception areas.
Essential because it was feared that up to 35000 tonnes of bombs could be dropped in
the first 24hrs, killing 58,000 people.
● Shelters were also key in the main areas of London for those who could not evacuate.
These included:
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