The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945

The German Air Force was planning neither an aerial banquet nor a programme of gas warfare. Instead, the operations staff took stock of what had been achieved by the end of 1940 and produced a plan of attack for the spring which was designed to be the ‘culmination point’ of the campaign before the transfer to the war against the Soviet Union.¹⁷⁵ In mid-January 1941 a list of priority targets was drawn up, uniting the blockade strategy with the campaign against British aircraft production (see Table 2.2). These formed the main objectives in the final six months of the campaign between January and June 1941 and were confirmed by a directive from Hitler’s headquarters on 6 February, which once again emphasized the military importance of attacking war-essential targets rather than residential areas.¹⁷⁶ In January the air fleets were sent new maps of ports, docks, principal naval installations and aircraft industry targets. Attacks on the aircraft industry were divided between operations against areas of concentrated armaments production (Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield) and individual targets suitable for attack by a small number of aircraft on clear nights.¹⁷⁷ Particular attention was to be paid to shipping and port facilities, which were now thought to have suffered much less damage from the bombing in 1940 than at first believed. Air intelligence estimates for the port of London had at first assumed a decline of up to 80 per cent in the handling capacity of the main docks. By January the available intelligence suggested that London was still operating at almost three-quarters of its capacity despite months of heavy raiding, a figure that did indeed reflect the reality.¹⁷⁸ To ensure that the food blockade worked more effectively, bomber units were instructed to attack grain silos, sugar refineries and oilseed plants

Table 2.2: Principal Targets for German Bomb Attack, Spring 1941

Ports I	Rank Ports II Rank/Naval Depots	Aircraft Industry	Aircraft Industry
		I Rank	II Rank
Merseyside	Southampton	Manchester	Preston
London	Barrow-in-Furness	Birmingham	Gloucester
Clydeside	Port Talbot	Coventry	Cheltenham
Humber ports	Great Yarmouth	Glasgow	Oxford
Belfast	Portsmouth	Belfast	Chelmsford
Bristol	Plymouth	Bristol	Slough
Tyne ports	Chatham	Sheffield	Reading
Tees ports	Rosyth	Derby	Yeovil
Swansea	-	Luton	-
Cardiff	Liverpool*	-	-
Leith	-	-	-

^{* Liverpool to be subjected to area attack as the principal port for American aircraft supplies.}

^{Source: TsAMO, Fond 500/725168/110, Operations Staff, report on British targets and air strength, 14 Jan 1941.}

German bombing followed the plan closely in 1941. Between January and May there were 61 major raids on ports and 9 major raids on armaments centres, as well as numerous smaller Störangriffe against industrial or naval targets. These included heavy raids on Glasgow-Clydeside on 13 and 14 March, 7 April and 5 May, and on the Merseyside area on 12 and 13 March and the first four nights in May, and on Hull on the 18 March and 7–8 May. Belfast, the Northern Ireland capital, was bombed heavily on 15 April (leaving 700 dead), and Dublin, the capital of neutral Ireland, was bombed by accident on 2–3 January and again on 31 May (causing 34 deaths).¹⁷⁹ Coventry was visited again on the night of 8 April with almost as large an attack as the one in November. The largest raids, however, were reserved for London. On 16 April, 681 bombers delivered 886 tonnes of bombs and three nights later 712 aircraft dropped 1,026 tonnes and 4,252 incendiary canisters, the largest raid of the whole campaign. These were again described as ‘vengeance attacks’ for the RAF bombing of central Berlin on 10 April, which destroyed the State Opera House, and damaged Humboldt University and the State Library. The opera house was to have hosted a leading Italian opera company the following week, which may well explain why Hitler chose to subject Göring to an angry tirade following the attack.¹⁸⁰ A final heavy ‘vengeance’ raid was inflicted on London on 10 May by 505 aircraft dropping 718 tonnes of high explosive and damaging the Houses of Parliament, but after that night-time bombing tailed away.