The Blitz
The Blitz or Blitzkreig (lightning war) followed on from the Battle of Britain in August-September 1940. The Luftwaffe's intention was to cripple the ports, destroy the industrial centres and crumble the will to continue.
The Luftwaffe switched to terror bombing and London was the first to suffer this new tactic with daylight and night raids on the 7th/8th September. The bombing lasted for nine hours and 1800 people were killed.
London was bombed every night that September by an average of 200 planes each night. The devastation was immense. However on the 14th November, Coventry suffered the worst raid of the entire war. Over 400 bombers dropped more bombs (incendiary and high explosive) than any part of London had experienced in one evening. Southampton, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester all suffered smaller scale destruction.
By March 1941 it was clear that the Blitzkreig was a failure. A final onslaught came in May. On May 10th over 300 bombers attacked London causing 1400 deaths after five hours of bombing.
In the period of the Blitz (Autumn 1940 - Summer 1941) over 43000 civilians were killed including almost 5500 children. Over 190,000 bombs were dropped and nearly 1.25 million homes in the London Region alone were damaged.
source: 'We Remember the Blitz': compiled by Frank and Joan Shaw:
ISBN 1 872779 00 X