Images of The Blitz

The Children's War

The Blitz was the sustained bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between September 7, 1940 and May 16, 1941. It was carried out by the Luftwaffe, and hit many towns and cities across the UK, but the main attack was concentrated on London. The Blitz inflicted about 43,000 deaths and destroyed more than a million houses, but failed to achieve the Germans' strategic objectives of knocking Britain out of the war or rendering it unable to resist an invasion.

Although the word Blitz is a shortening of the German word blitzkrieg, meaning "lightning war," it was not an example of blitzkrieg but was an early example of strategic bombing. The literal translation of the German word "Blitz" is "lightning."

In 1944 during the "Little Blitz", aerial attacks resumed with the Germans using V1s and V2s .