Manchester and the surrounding area was a major centre of industry during the Second World War. Many large firms were concentrated in the Trafford Park area, making it an important target for German bombers. Major producers included the aircraft manufacturer A V Roe which produced Manchester and Lancaster bombers.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Lvl8m0X_M-k
What was the main target of the Blitz?
It was decided to focus on bombing Britain’s industrial cities, in daylight to begin with. The main focus was London.
Which cities were targeted in the Blitz and why?
The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive.
Which city was most affected by the Blitz?
However, this proved to be the last major raid until January 1943. While London was bombed more heavily and more often than anywhere else in Britain, the Blitz was an attack on the whole country. Very few areas were left untouched by air raids.
Why was the East End targeted in the Blitz?
Why was the East End targeted by the Germans? The East End of London contains some of the city’s most important dockland areas. At the time, it was a hub for imports and was used to store vital goods for the war effort, making this a prime target for bombing raids.
Where did people hide in the Blitz?
During almost nightly German air raids (known as “the Blitz”) on London, the civilian population of the city sought refuge–as shown in this footage–in air raid shelters and in London’s subway system (called the “Underground” or the “Tube”).
Why was the Blitz a war crime?
Article 6(b) of the Charter thus condemned the “wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity” and classified it as a violation of the laws or customs of war, therefore, making it a war crime.
What was the first city to be bombed in the Blitz?
On September 7, 1940, 300 German bombers raid London, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. This bombing “blitzkrieg” (lightning war) would continue until May 1941.
Which British city was bombed the most in WW2?
The air raid on Coventry on the night of 14 November 1940 was the single most concentrated attack on a British city in the Second World War. Following the raid, Nazi propagandists coined a new word in German – coventrieren – to raze a city to the ground.
Which city was bombed most in WW2?
London was the worst bombed city in WW2. Nearly half of the 40,000 people killed were Londoners. Some 30,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped overall.
What was the worst night of the Blitz?
10/11 May 1941
The most devastating raid on London took place on the night of 10/11 May 1941. The moon was full and the Thames had a very low ebb tide. These two combined with a maximum effort by the Germans, before the moved east to attack the Soviet Union, to produce one of the most devastating raids on the capital.
What impact did the Blitz have on the city of Manchester?
The city’s infrastructure was badly affected by the air raids in December 1940. Both of the city’s main railway stations were hit, as was the bus station. Two of the main roads in the city, Deansgate and Oxford Road, were blocked by debris from damaged buildings, bomb craters and unexploded bombs (UXBs).
Which cities were not bombed during the Blitz?
15 Beautiful German Cities Not Destroyed That Survived WW2 Almost Untouched
- 1 – Goslar, Lower Saxony.
- 2 – Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg.
- 3 – Regensburg, Bavaria.
- 4 – Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg.
- 5 – Bamberg, Bavaria.
- 6 – Lüneburg, Lower Saxony.
- 7 – Göttingen, Lower Saxony.
- 8 – Celle, Lower Saxony.
Was the Blitz a turning point?
The battle marked a turning point in the North Africa campaign, reviving the morale of the Allied troops following the failure of the Battle of France.
Which cities suffered the most damage in ww2?
Hiroshima lost more than 60,000 of its 90,000 buildings, all destroyed or severely damaged by one bomb. In comparison, Nagasaki – though blasted by a bigger bomb on 9 August 1945 (21,000 tonnes of TNT to Hiroshima’s 15,000) – lost 19,400 of its 52,000 buildings.
What could you smell during the Blitz?
There was always the faint smell of wall plaster in the air from the wrecked houses and tumbledown walls, a dry dusty smell in fine weather and a damp more pungent smell after rain. After the major blitz on Coventry in November, fractured gas mains left a smell of gas which pervaded the outside air.
How did people stay safe in the Blitz?
People carried gas masks to protect themselves against a possible gas attack. People built air raid shelters in their gardens. All windows and doors were blacked out to make it harder for the enemy planes to spot where they lived.
Did air raid shelters have toilets?
Did you know: the shelters had basic amenities: electric lights, benches and bunk beds, flushing toilets, first aid post and sick bay. There were even facilities for nursing mothers. in the war the shelters were nicknamed the Chestergate Hotel because of the ‘luxurious’ standard of accommodation they offered.
How many civilians are killed during the Blitz?
In WWII there were 384,000 soldiers killed in combat, but a higher civilian death toll (70,000, as opposed to 2,000 in WWI), largely due to German bombing raids during the Blitz: 40,000 civilians died in the seven-month period between September 1940 and May 1941, almost half of them in London.
What did blitz stand for?
‘Blitz’ comes from the German word for lightning. Its arrival in the English language can be traced to the German military strategy of Blitzkrieg (literally ‘lightning war’), which used tanks and bombers to secure rapid victories at the start of World War II.
Is it illegal to bomb civilians?
The fact that a person lives in a settlement, whether legal or not, does not make him or her a legitimate military target. Under international humanitarian law, intentional attacks on civilians, or attacks that do not distinguish between military targets and civilians, are prohibited under all circumstances.