Why were the major cities of Britain bombed by the Germans

In 1940, the Blitz began. The Luftwaffe changed their tactics from bombing the RAF to the cities of the United Kingdom. It's aim was to destroy British morale.

The Battle of Britian offically began in August 1940. This was because there was an accidental bombing of Croydon in England, which caused a retailiation bombing on Berlin. This caused an uproar and in revenge back on England, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb the major cities of Britain, and its main target was London. It also seemed as if Hitler had given up on his plan of destroying the RAF, and it was believed that he must have also given up his plan to invade BritainLondon was attacked for a total of 76 days.A period in which devestation was caused. However, London was not the only city to be bombed, others included: Hull, Belfast, Aberdeen, Plymouth, Dover, Birmingham, Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester, Cardiff, Reading and Glasgow.

Areas which were attacked heavily included docks and factories. The bombing of factories meant that the war production was slowed and was an attempt of completely disrupting the war effort. Ports, especially Liverpool and Bristol, were also bombed heavily. This was to halt and cut off American supplies and other convoys.

This was also to try and lower morale, as with less supplies coming through to England there was even less rations.Outcomes of inital attacks meant that supplies were not getting through to the bombed areas, and deaths totaled to around 1000, with another 1000 casualtys. People moved away from the city or into the suburbs.Cities adjusted, and built underground air raid centres.

The very deep shelters, such as on the London underground, were the safest. However not all of the stations were deep enough. If the people didn't arrive there early enough the conditions were very uncomfortable. The undergrounds adjusted though and began to provide toilets and sanitation.

There was one major disaster. The Balam station was hit causing a water pipe to burst. As a result, many people drowned.The Germans also attacked at night. There was also no pattern in any of the attacks, so it couldn't be predicted when they would next be a bombing.

In larger places the emergency services seemed to cope better, but in smaller towns and villages, it was on the point of collapse. Churchill broadcasted on the radio to the people of England. This inspired people as he told them to 'do their duty for their country', and that the British people would not give up and had pride. Many people listened to Churchill speaking and it did give them a sense of pride.

Through the bombing, the morale was lowered. In the targetted cities, morale was at a whole time low as the people could see the reality of what was going on. In areas that were untouched it wasn't as bad. Though, it did unnerve the people and this lowered the morale. So Mass Obsevation was set up to give the government an idea of how to address problems that the people were facing.In conclusion, the bombing of the British cities did lower the morale, but overall, it was a military failure.

The society didn't collapse and the industry was still going. The Blitz stopped as Hitler was making preparations to invade Russia in June 1941. One in six houses were damaged, and the overall fatality figures was 43,000 killed.