1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
Blackout (wartime)
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A blackout during war, or in preparation for an expected war, is the practice of collectively minimizing outdoor light, including upwardly directed light. This was done in the 20th century to prevent crews of aircraft from being able to identify their targets by sight. In coastal regions a shore-side blackout of city also helped protect ships from being seen in silhouette against the shore by enemy submarines farther out at sea. In actual warfare, according to M. R. D. Foot, blackouts do not impair navigation by bombers because navigators focused more on reflected bodies of water, railroad tracks, or large highways. The chief purpose is to mobilize the civilian population. During World War II, the Air Ministry had forecast that Britain would suffer night air bombing attacks causing large numbers of civilian casualties and it was widely agreed that navigation and targeting would be more difficult if man-made lights on the ground could be extinguished. As early as July 1939, Public Information Leaflet No 2 warned of the need for discipline to ensure that the blackout regulations were fully enforced during the blackout periods. Blackout regulations were imposed on 1 September 1939, before the declaration of war, the Government ensured that the necessary materials were available. External lights such as lights were switched off, or dimmed and shielded to deflect light downward. Essential lights such as lights and vehicle headlights were fitted with slotted covers to deflect their beams downwards to the ground. Shops and factories had particular problems, factories with large areas of glass roofing found it impossible to install temporary blackout panels and permanent methods lost natural light during daylight. Shops had to install double airlock doors to avoid lights showing as customers arrived and departed, blackouts proved one of the more unpleasant aspects of the war, disrupting many civilian activities and causing widespread grumbling and lower morale. The blackout was enforced by civilian ARP wardens who would ensure that no buildings allowed the slightest chink or glow of light, offenders were liable to stringent legal penalties. Blackout restrictions greatly increased the dangers of driving and fatalities increased as a consequence. As a result, some aspects were relaxed and speed limits were lowered, the anticipated increase in crime rates did not occur. As German war-making capability declined, a Dim-out was introduced in September 1944, a full Blackout would be imposed if an alert was sounded. Full lighting of streets was allowed in April 1945, on 30 April, coastal communities resisted the imposition of a blackout for amenity reasons, citing potential damage to tourism. The result was a loss of shipping, dubbed by German submariners as the Second Happy Time
3.
The Blitz
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By September 1940—two months into the battle—faulty German intelligence suggested that the Royal Air Force was close to defeat at the hands of the Luftwaffe. The German air fleets were ordered to attack London, thereby drawing up the last remnants of RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation, Adolf Hitler and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, sanctioned the change in emphasis on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, one year into the war, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days, on 15 September 1940, a large daylight attack against London was repulsed with significant German losses. Thereafter, the Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of nocturnal attacks, ports and industrial centres outside London were also attacked. The main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool was bombed, the North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, was subjected to raids in the Hull Blitz during the war. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, by May 1941, the threat of an invasion of Britain had ended, and Hitlers attention turned to Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy, the eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The German offensives greatest effect was forcing the dispersal of aircraft production, British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely but exceptions like Birmingham took three months. The German air offensive failed for several reasons, discussions in OKL revolved around tactics rather than strategy. Poor intelligence on British industry and economic efficiency was also a factor, in the 1920s and 1930s, air power theorists Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell espoused the idea that air forces could win wars, without a need for land and sea fighting. It was thought there was no defence against air attack, particularly at night, enemy industry, seats of government, factories and communications could be destroyed, taking away their means to resist. It was also thought the bombing of residential centres would cause a collapse of civilian will, democracies, where the populace was allowed to show overt disapproval of the state, were thought particularly vulnerable. This thinking was prevalent in both the RAF and the United States Army Air Corps, the policy of RAF Bomber Command became an attempt to achieve victory through the destruction of civilian will, communications and industry. In the Luftwaffe, there was a view of strategic bombing. OKL did not believe that air power alone could be decisive, contrary to popular belief, evidence suggests that the Luftwaffe did not adopt an official bombing policy in which civilians became the primary target until 1942. The vital industries and transport centres that would be targeted for shutdown were valid military targets and it could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. German legal scholars of the 1930s carefully worked out guidelines for what type of bombing was permissible under international law. Wever outlined five points of air strategy, To destroy the air force by bombing its bases and aircraft factories
4.
Civil Defence Service
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The Civil Defence Service was a civilian volunteer organisation established in Great Britain by the Home Office in 1935. In 1941, during World War II, the use of Civil Defence replaced the pre-existing Air Raid Precautions, the Civil Defence Service included the pre-existing ARP as well as wardens, firemen, fire watchers, rescue, first aid post, stretcher party and industry. Over 1.9 million people served within the CD and nearly 2,400 lost their lives to enemy action, the organisation of civil defence was the responsibility of the local authority. Volunteers were ascribed to different units depending on experience or training, each local civil defence service was divided into several sections. Wardens were responsible for reconnaissance and reporting, and leadership, organisation, guidance. Wardens would also advise survivors of the locations of rest and food centres, rescue Parties were required to assess and then access bombed out buildings and retrieve injured or dead people. In addition they would turn off gas, electricity and water supplies, medical services included first aid parties who provided on the spot medical assistance. More serious injuries were passed to first aid posts by stretcher parties, if required, bodies could be removed to emergency mortuaries. Gas Decontamination Teams were kitted out with gas-tight and waterproof clothing and were to deal with any gas attacks. They were trained to decontaminate buildings, roads, rail and other material that had been contaminated by liquid or jelly gases, report and Control dealt with the stream of information that would be generated during an attack. A local headquarters would have an ARP controller that would direct rescue, first aid, if local services were deemed insufficient to deal with the incident then the controller could request assistance from surrounding boroughs. Fire Guards were responsible for a designated area/building and required to monitor the fall of incendiary bombs and they could deal with an individual magnesium electron incendiary bomb by dousing them in buckets of sand, water or by smothering. Welfare would support the injured and people bombed out of their homes and this would involve finding suitable accommodation, issuing new documentation and money to buy food. Messengers would convey information from the site of bombing incidents back to the ARP headquarters, many messengers were teenagers equipped with nothing more than a bicycle. The Womens Voluntary Service aided in ARP and observer duties as well as running and operating the mobile canteens, the organisation and task evolved through the conflict. Initially, in the part of the war the service had no recognisable uniform. Members would generally wear civilian clothes, as uniforms became more available from February 1941, the service was issued with dark blue battledress and berets. Those not issued with a uniform would be issued with an armband with yellow Civil Defence written on it
5.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
6.
Zeppelin
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A Zeppelin was a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelins notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893 and they were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG, the worlds first airline in revenue service, by mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I the German military made use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts. The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed down the airship business, an exception was made allowing the construction of one airship for the US Navy, which saved the company from extinction. In 1926 the restrictions on airship construction were lifted and with the aid of donations from the public and this revived the companys fortunes, and during the 1930s the airships Graf Zeppelin and the larger LZ129 Hindenburg operated regular transatlantic flights from Germany to North America and Brazil. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along political and economic issues. The principal feature of Zeppelins design was a rigid metal framework made up from transverse rings. The advantage of design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships. The framework of most Zeppelins was made of duralumin, early Zeppelins used rubberised cotton for the gasbags, but most later craft used goldbeaters skin, made from the intestines of cattle. The first Zeppelins had long cylindrical hulls with tapered ends and complex multi-plane fins and they were propelled by several engines, mounted in gondolas or engine cars, which were attached to the outside of the structural framework. Some of these could provide reverse thrust for manoeuvring while mooring, early models had a comparatively small externally mounted gondola for passengers and crew which was attached to the bottom of the frame. This space was never heated so passengers during trips across the North Atlantic or Siberia were forced to bundle themselves in blankets, the flight ceiling was so low that no pressurization of the cabins was necessary, though the Hindenburg did maintain a pressurized air-locked smoking room. Access to the Zeppelin was achieved in a number of ways, the Graf Zeppelins gondola was accessed while the vessel was on the ground, via gangways. This describes a large rigidly framed outer envelope containing several separate gasbags and he had previously encountered Union Army balloons in 1863 when he visited the United States as a military observer during the American Civil War. Count Zeppelin began to pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52. Convinced of the importance of aviation, he started working on various designs in 1891
7.
Gotha G.V
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The Gotha G. V was a heavy bomber used by the Luftstreitkräfte during World War I. Designed for long-range service, the Gotha G. V was used principally as a night bomber, operational use of the G. IV demonstrated that the incorporation of the fuel tanks into the engine nacelles was a mistake. In a crash landing the tanks could rupture and spill fuel onto the hot engines and this posed a serious problem because landing accidents caused 75% of operational losses. In response Gothaer produced the G. V, which housed its fuel tanks inside the fuselage, the smaller engine nacelles were mounted on struts above the lower wing. The Gotha G. V pilot seat was offset to port with the tanks immediately behind. This blocked the connecting walkway that previously on earlier machines allowed crew members to move between the three gun stations, all bombs were carried externally in this model. Later versions expanded the tunnel to remove the gun, providing a slot in the upper fuselage that allowed the rear gunner to remain stationary. The base variant of G. V offered no improvement over the G. IV. The G. V was up to 450 kg heavier than the G. IV due to additional equipment, the Mercedes D. IVa engines could not produce the rated 190 kW due to inferior quality of fuel. The G. V entered service in August 1917, for the performance reasons aforementioned, it generally could not operate at altitudes as high as the G. IV. In February 1918, Gothaer tested a compound unit with biplane horizontal stabilizers. The new tail unit, known as the Kastensteuerung, improved the aircrafts marginal directional control on one engine, the resulting G. Va subvariant incorporated the new tail as well as a slightly shorter forward fuselage with an auxiliary nose landing gear. All 25 G. Va aircraft were delivered to Bogohl 3, carried an increased payload comparing to the earlier G. Va, and operated at a maximum takeoff weight of 4,550 kg. To reduce the danger of flipping over during landing, Gothaer introduced the Stossfahrgestell, the Stossfahrgestell proved so good that it was fitted to all G. Vs in Bogohl 3. Some G. Vb aircraft also had Flettner servo tabs on the ailerons to reduce control forces, idflieg ordered 80 G. Vb aircraft, the first being delivered to Bogohl 3 in June 1918. By the Armistice, all 80 aircraft were built but the last batch did not reach the front and was delivered direct to the Allied special commission. German Empire Luftstreitkräfte General characteristics Crew,3 Length,12.42 m Wingspan,23.70 m Height,4.5 m Wing area,89.5 m² Empty weight,2,739 kg Max
8.
Lord Privy Seal
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The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the sinecure offices of state. Originally, its holder was responsible for the personal seal. Today, the holder of the office is given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Since the premiership of Clement Attlee, the position of Lord Privy Seal has frequently been combined with that of Leader of the House of Lords or Leader of the House of Commons. The office of Lord Privy Seal, unlike those of Leader of the Lords or Commons, is eligible for a ministerial salary under the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975. The office does not confer membership of the House of Lords, leading to Ernest Bevins remark on holding office that he was neither a Lord, nor a Privy. During the reign of Edward I, prior to 1307, the Privy Seal was kept by the Controller of the Wardrobe, the Lord Privy Seal was the president of the Court of Requests during its existence
9.
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley
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He served as Home Secretary, Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Anderson shelters are named after him, in later life he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He was appointed to the Colonial Office in 1905, aged only thirty-four, Anderson headed the Civil Service staff of the new Ministry of Shipping in 1917. Later, he served as Under-Secretary for Ireland, and became Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office in 1922 and his career in the civil service was capped by a posting as Governor of Bengal from 1932 to 1937. In early 1938, Anderson was elected to the House of Commons by the Scottish Universities as a National Independent Member of Parliament, in October that year he entered Neville Chamberlains Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal. In that capacity, he was put in charge of air raid preparations and he initiated the development of a kind of air-raid shelter named the Anderson shelter, a small sheet metal cylinder made of prefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden. He retained responsibility for civil defence, in October 1940, he was replaced by Herbert Morrison in a reshuffle precipitated by Chamberlains resignation over ill-health. He became Lord President of the Council and full member of the War Cabinet, in 1941, he married Ava Wigram, widow of Ralph Wigram, a senior civil servant who had provided Winston Churchill with confidential military information during the 1930s. Following the unexpected death of Sir Kingsley Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and he remained in the post until the Labour victory in the general election early in July 1945. He left the Commons when the University constituencies were abolished at the 1950 general election, meanwhile, he became Chairman of the Port of London authority in 1946 and Chairman of the Royal Opera House in March the same year. He remained in the latter post for eleven years, Anderson Anderson shelter John Anderson, Viscount Waverley,1962 by John Wheeler-Bennett Publisher, NY, St. Martin,1962. ASIN, B000UDUU48 Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by John Anderson Archival material relating to John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley
10.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
11.
Home Office
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The Home Office is a ministerial department of the Her Majestys Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for immigration, security and law and order. As such it is responsible for the police, fire and rescue services, visas and immigration and it is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for Her Majestys Prison Service and the National Probation Service, the Cabinet minister responsible for the department is the Home Secretary. The Home Office continues to be known, especially in official papers, the Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary, a Cabinet minister supported by the departments senior civil servant, the Permanent Secretary. The plan said the department will,1, simplify national institutional structures and establish a National Crime Agency to strengthen the fight against organised crime 3. Create a more integrated criminal justice system Help the police and other public services work together across the criminal justice system 4, secure our borders and reduce immigration Deliver an improved migration system that commands public confidence and serves our economic interests. Limit non-EU economic migrants, and introduce new measures to reduce inflow and minimise abuse of all migration routes, process asylum applications more quickly, and end the detention of children for immigration purposes 5. Protect peoples freedoms and civil liberties Reverse state interference to ensure there is not disproportionate intrusion into people‟s lives 6, protect our citizens from terrorism Keep people safe through the Government‟s approach to counter-terrorism 7. Build a fairer and more equal society Help create a fair, on 27 March 1782, the Home Office was formed by renaming the existing Southern Department, with all existing staff transferring. On the same day, the Northern Department was renamed the Foreign Office, to match the new names, there was a transferring of responsibilities between the two Departments of State. All domestic responsibilities were moved to the Home Office, and all foreign matters became the concern of the Foreign Office, most subsequently created domestic departments have been formed by splitting responsibilities away from the Home Office. On 7 April 2012, hacktivist group Anonymous temporarily took down the UK Home Office website, the group took responsibility for the attack, which was part of ongoing Anonymous activity in protest against the deportation of hackers as part of Operation TrialAtHome. One Anonymous source claimed in their tweet it was launched in retaliation for draconian surveillance proposals. On 18 July 2012, the Public and Commercial Services Union announced that thousands of Home Office employees would go on strike over jobs, pay and other issues. However, the PCSU called off the strike before it was planned it claimed the department had, subsequent to the threat of actions, announced 1,100 new border jobs. From 1978 to 2004, the Home Office was located at 50 Queen Annes Gate, many functions, however, were devolved to offices in other parts of London and the country, notably the headquarters of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon. g. Wales Under the Welsh devolution settlement, specific areas are transferred to the National Assembly for Wales rather than reserved to Westminster
12.
Boys' Brigade
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For the 80s New Wave band from Canada, see Boys Brigade. Not to be confused with the Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade, the Boys Brigade is an interdenominational Christian youth organisation, conceived by Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun activities with Christian values. Following its inception in Glasgow in 1883, the BB quickly spread across the United Kingdom, as of 2003, there were 500,000 Boys Brigade members in 60 countries. Except for the addition of the word obedience in 1893, the contents of the object has remained unchanged from the beginning, however, some countries, particularly those which permit girls on their membership roll, have re-worded the object for gender neutrality. For example, in Malaysia, the word manliness has been changed to character, from this verse came the BB motto, Sure and Stedfast, retaining the old spelling of the latter word. Today, some parts of the movement have adopted the spelling of steadfast, whilst all others continue to use the older spelling. The crest was originally an anchor, bearing the BB motto with a capital B on either side. Upon the merger between the Boys Brigade and the Boys Life Brigade in 1926, the red Greek cross was placed behind the anchor to form the current emblem, the cross originally formed part of emblem of the Boys Life Brigade. By 1910, there were about 2200 companies connected with different churches throughout the British Empire, Companies of The Boys Brigade used manuals on scout training in their programs. In May 1903, Robert Baden-Powell became a vice-president, Baden-Powell promoted the idea of scouting and outdoor pursuits in the Boys Brigade and other boys organisations and schools. The Boys Brigade formally began its boy scout scheme in 1906, Boys of the Bournemouth & Poole Battalion of The Boys Brigade participated in Baden-Powells experimental camp on Brownsea Island in 1907. Baden-Powell did not originally intend to start a separate organisation, many Boys Brigade Scouts later made dual registration with The Boy Scouts Association. The 1st Bournemouth Scouts was run by the 1st Bournemouth Boys Brigade as a BP Scout group and never a BB Scout Section. The Boys Life Brigade, which merged with The Boys Brigade in 1926, the Boys Brigade Scouts continued until 1927. Some former Boys Brigade Scout units continued independently after 1927 or affiliated with The Boy Scouts Association or British Boy Scouts. Two of the original Boys Brigade Scout units continue as 1st Parkstone Scout Group and 1st Hamworthy Scout Group, in October 1926 The Boys Brigade united with The Boys Life Brigade. The merger also prompted the abandonment of dummy drill rifles that had used in The Boys Brigade. The Junior organisation of the Boys Brigade prior to 1926 was called The Boy Reserves, the name came from the fact that the junior reserve of The Boys Life Brigade had been known as Lifeboys
13.
Phoney War
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The Phoney War was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there were no major military land operations on the Western Front. Even though Poland was overrun in five weeks in the German Invasion of Poland beginning on 1 September 1939 and Soviet invasion beginning on 17 September 1939. The quiet of the Phoney War was punctuated by a few Allied actions, in the Saar Offensive in September, the French attacked Germany with the intention of assisting Poland, but it fizzled out within days and they withdrew. Fighting there continued until June when the Allies evacuated, ceding Norway to Germany in response to the German invasion of France, action in the air began on 16 October 1939 when the Luftwaffe launched air raids on British warships. There were various minor bombing raids and reconnaissance flights on both sides, the term Phoney War customarily appears using the British spelling even in North America, rather than the American phony, although some American sources do not follow the trend. The term appeared in Great Britain by January 1940 as phoney, the Phoney War was also referred to as the Twilight War and as the Sitzkrieg. In French it is referred to as the drôle de guerre, in Polish, it is referred to as the Dziwna Wojna. The term Phoney War was probably coined by US Senator William Borah who commented in September 1939 on the inactivity on the Western Front, There is something phoney about this war. While most of the German army was engaged in Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, their fortified defensive line along the French border. The Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, civilian attitudes in Britain to their German foes were still not as intense as they were to become after the Blitz. In April 1940 a German Heinkel bomber crashed at Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, killing its crew and they were all laid to rest in the local cemetery which was provided with support from the Royal Air Force. Wreaths with messages of sympathy for the casualties were displayed on the coffins, meanwhile, the opposing nations clashed in the Norwegian Campaign. In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun buying large amounts of weapons manufacturers in the US at the outbreak of hostilities. The non-belligerent US contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales, despite the relative calm on land, on the high seas the war was very real. On 4 September, the Allies announced a blockade of Germany to prevent her importing food and raw materials to sustain her war effort, the Germans immediately declared a counter-blockade. General Siegfried Westphal stated, that if the French had attacked in force in September 1939 the German army could only have held out for one or two weeks. The Saar Offensive was a French attack into the Saarland defended by the German 1st Army in the stages of World War II. Its purpose was to assist Poland, which was then under attack, however, the assault was stopped after a few kilometres and the French forces withdrew
14.
Air raid shelter
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Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack, prior to World War II, in May 1924, an Air Raid Precautions Committee was set up in the United Kingdom. In February 1936 the Home Secretary appointed a technical Committee on Structural Precautions against Air Attack and this proposal was eventually implemented in January 1939. During the Munich crisis, local authorities dug trenches to provide shelter, after the crisis, the British Government decided to make these a permanent feature, with a standard design of precast concrete trench lining. Unfortunately these turned out to very poorly. They also decided to free to poorer households the Anderson shelter. Air raid shelters were built specifically to serve as protection against enemy air raids, a commonly used home shelter known as the Anderson shelter would be built in a garden and equipped with beds as a refuge from air raids. For this reason, air-raid precautions during World War II in Germany could be more readily implemented by the authorities than was possible in the UK. However, the inadequacies of cellars and basements became apparent in the firestorms during the attacks on the larger German inner cities, especially Hamburg. Some occupants perished from heat stroke or carbon monoxide poisoning, in contrast to other shelters, these buildings were considered completely bomb-proof. They also had the advantage of being built upward, which was cheaper than downward excavation. There were no equivalents of hochbunkers in the cities of the Allied countries, hochbunkers usually consisted of large concrete blocks above ground with walls between 1 m and 1.5 m thick and with huge lintels above doorways and openings. They often had a constant interior temperature of 7 to 10 °C and they were designated to protect people, administrative centres, important archives, and works of art. Some of the circular towers contained helical floors that gradually curved their way upward within the circular walls, many of these structures may still be seen to this day. They have been converted into offices, storage space, and some have even adapted for hotels, hospitals and schools. In Schöneberg, a block of flats was built over the Pallasstrasse air-raid shelter after World War II, during the Cold War, NATO used the shelter for food storage. The cost of demolishing these edifices after the war would have been enormous and these towers had anti-aircraft batteries on platforms on their roofs. The attempted demolition caused no more than a crack in one of the walls of the tower, after efforts were abandoned
15.
Poplar, London
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Poplar is an historical, mainly residential area of East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about 5.5 miles east of Charing Cross, historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was formed, which also included Bromley, the district became the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900 which was abolished in 1965. The district centre is Chrisp Street Market, Poplar contains notable examples of public housing including the Lansbury Estate and Balfron Tower. Architecturally it is a mixture of 18th and 19th-century terraced houses, st Matthias Old Church is located on Poplar High Street, opposite Tower Hamlets College. It is next to Poplar Town Hall – which has mosaic detail – and Poplar Bowls Club, a recently reopened sports centre called The Workhouse stands on the site of Poplar Workhouse, where local politician Will Crooks spent some of his earliest years. The Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was the location, in 1921, of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, led by the Mayor, George Lansbury, who was later elected as leader of the Labour Party. As part of the 1951 Festival of Britain, a new housing estate was built to the north of the East India Dock Road. This estate includes Chrisp Street Market, which was commended by Lewis Mumford. Other notable buildings in Poplar include Poplar Baths, which reopened in 2016 having finally closed in 1988, during the development of the Isle of Dogs the street signs pointed to the new development, and Poplar was lost for a decade or more. The following year, tenants on further estates voted to remain with the Council, although many people associate wartime bombing with The Blitz during World War II, the first airborne terror campaign in Britain took place during the First World War. Air raids in World War One caused significant damage and took many lives, German raids on Britain, for example, caused 1,413 deaths and 3,409 injuries. Air raids provided a means of striking at resources vital to an enemys war effort. The East End of London was one of the most heavily targeted places, Poplar, in particular, was struck badly by some of the air raids during the First World War. Initially these were at night by Zeppelins which bombed the area indiscriminately, the first daylight bombing attack on London by a fixed-wing aircraft took place on 13 June 1917. Fourteen German Gotha G bombers led by Hauptmann Ernst Brandenberg flew over Essex and it was a hot day and the sky was hazy, nevertheless, onlookers in Londons East End were able to see a dozen or so big aeroplanes scintillating like so many huge silver dragonflies. These three-seater bombers were carrying shrapnel bombs which were dropped just before noon, numerous bombs fell in rapid succession in various districts. In the East End alone 104 people were killed,154 seriously injured and 269 slightly injured, the gravest incident that day was a direct hit on a primary school in Poplar
16.
The London Gazette
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The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette. This claim is made by the Stamford Mercury and Berrows Worcester Journal. It does not have a large circulation, in turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette, the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO on behalf of Her Majestys Stationery Office. They are subject to Crown Copyright, the London Gazette is published each weekday, except for Bank Holidays. The official Gazettes are published by The Stationery Office, the content, apart from insolvency notices, is available in a number of machine-readable formats, including XML and XML/RDFa via Atom feed. The London Gazette was first published as The Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665. Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London, the Gazette was Published by Authority by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, the Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense, it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public. Her Majestys Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889, publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector, under government supervision, in the 1990s, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office. In time of war, dispatches from the conflicts are published in The London Gazette. People referred to are said to have mentioned in dispatches. When members of the forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here. Man tally-ho, Miss piano, Wife silk and satin, Boy Greek and Latin, the phrase gazetted fortune hunter is also probably derived from this. Notices of engagement and marriage were also published in the Gazette. Gazettes, modelled on The London Gazette, were issued for most British colonial possessions
17.
George Cross
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The George Cross is the second highest award of the United Kingdom honours system. It is awarded for not in the face of the enemy to members of the British armed forces. It has always been able to be awarded posthumously and it was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. Many of the awards have been presented by the British monarch to both recipients and in the case of posthumous awards to next of kin. These investitures are held at Buckingham Palace. The George Cross was instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI, at this time, during the height of the Blitz, there was a strong desire to reward the many acts of civilian courage. I propose to give my name to this new distinction, which will consist of the George Cross, which will rank next to the Victoria Cross, the medal was designed by Percy Metcalfe. The Warrant for the GC, dated 24 September 1940, was published in The London Gazette on 31 January 1941. The GC replaced the Empire Gallantry Medal, all holders of the EGM were instructed to exchange their medals for a GC and this substitution policy ignored holders of the Albert Medal and the Edward Medal, awards which both took precedence over the EGM. The anomaly was rectified in 1971, when the recipients of the AM. Of the 64 holders of the Albert Medal and 68 holders of the Edward Medal eligible to exchange,49 and 59 respectively took up the option. The GC, which may be awarded posthumously, is granted in recognition of, the award is for civilians but also for military personnel whose actions would not normally be eligible to receive military awards, such as gallantry not in the face of the enemy. The Warrant states, The Cross is intended primarily for civilians, bars are awarded to the GC in recognition of the performance of further acts of bravery meriting the award, although none has yet been awarded. Recipients are entitled to the postnominal letters GC, All GC awards are published in The London Gazette with the exception of the two collective bestowals. Since its inception in 1940, the GC has been awarded 407 times,401 to men,4 to women, of the 159 individuals who received original awards,86 have been posthumous. In addition there were four recipients of the Empire Gallantry Medal whose awards were gazetted after the start of the Second World War. All the other recipients were living as of the date of the decisions for the exchanges. The George Cross has, on the instruction of the Sovereign, been awarded twice on a collective basis, to the island of Malta
18.
Thomas Alderson
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Thomas Hopper Alderson GC was the first person to be directly awarded the George Cross shortly after its creation in 1940. He was an Air Raid Precautions warden in Bridlington and he was fifth of six children. He went first to his village school and then continued his schooling at Elwick Road senior boys school, West Hartlepool. During World War I he witnessed the bombardment of West Hartlepool by the German High Seas Fleet on 16 December 1914, after leaving school at 15 he first worked as an office boy and a draughtsman, and then undertook an engineering apprenticeship. He joined the Merchant Navy, becoming a first engineer, following the birth of his daughter in 1935 he became an engineer for West Hartlepool council. He moved to Bridlington in 1938 as works supervisor for the Corporation, local authorities were responsible for air raid precautions and trained their own workforces in rescue work. Alderson attended a school at Easingwold, near York. He worked as part-time Air Raid Warden, leading a detachment of rescue, the coastal town was soon attacked by Luftwaffe bombers, and residential areas were hit. On three occasions in August 1940 he led rescue teams and entered dangerous buildings to rescue trapped civilians. He was the first person to receive the newly instituted George Cross from the King and this interview can be heard in full on The Blitz, an audiobook CD of wartime recordings. In 1946 he joined the East Riding of Yorkshire County Council workforce as an assistant highways surveyor and he then joined the new Civil Defence Corps, this time to protect the civilian population from nuclear warfare, rather than conventional bombs. On 28 October 1965 he died of cancer in Northfield hospital at Driffield. His George Cross is on display at the Imperial War Museum where it can be seen with a medal from the RSPCA, Alderson interview on The Blitz audiobook
19.
Bridlington
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The Gypsey Race river runs through the town and emerges into the North Sea in the town harbour. In the 2011 Census the population of the parish was 35,369, Bridlington is a minor sea fishing port with a working harbour and is well known for its shellfish. It has a mix of businesses across the manufacturing, retail. The origins of the town are uncertain, but archaeological evidence shows habitation in the Bronze Age and in Roman times. The settlement at the Norman conquest was called Bretlinton, but has gone by the names of Berlington, Brellington and Britlington. The town is twinned with Millau in France and Bad Salzuflen in Germany, one of the UKs coastal weather stations is located at Bridlington. The Priory Church of St Mary and the associated Bayle Gate are Grade I listed buildings, the church stands on the site of the original Augustine Priory. The first mention of the town is in the Domesday Book as Bretlinton and it has also gone by the names of Berlington, Brellington and Britlington, before settling on its modern name in the 19th century. There are several suggestions about the origin of the name, all suggest that it followed the Anglo-Saxon custom of referring to a person and the type of settlement. In this case there are different personal names put forward such as Bretel, a Roman road from York, now known as Woldgate, can be traced across the Yorkshire Wolds into the town, and Roman coins have been found in the town. Two Roman coin hoards were found in the area, along with two Greek coins dating from the 2nd century BC – suggesting that the port was in use long before the Roman invasion. It has been suggested that the Roman maritime station of Gabrantovicorum was located in the vicinity of the modern town, in the early 2nd century Ptolemy described Bridlington Bay in his Geography as Gabranticorum Sinus, with many harbours. In the 4th century Count Theodosius established signal stations on the North Yorkshire coast to warn of Saxon raids and it is believed that Flamborough Head would also have had one of these stations. From the Headland an observer can see Filey, Scarborough Castle, a fort at Bridlington would have been well placed to act as centre of operations for these forts. A network of signal stations stretching south around the broad Bridlington Bay has also been suggested and this counterpart to the northern chain would guard this huge and accessible anchorage from barbarian piracy. Near Dukes Park are two bowl barrows known as Butt Hills and they have been designated as Ancient Monuments designated and is now recorded in the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England. Also nearby are the remains of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery on a farm outside of Sewerby, the earliest written evidence of Bridlington is in the Domesday Book. It records that Bretlinton was the head of the Hunthow Hundred and was held by Earl Morcar before it passed into the hands of William the Conqueror by the forfeiture, the land was given to Gilbert de Gant, uncle of King Stephen, in 1072
20.
Civil defense siren
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A civil defense siren is a siren used to provide emergency population warning of approaching danger and sometimes to indicate when the danger has passed. Some are also used to call the fire department to go fight a fire. Initially designed to warn of air raids in World War II, they were adapted to warn of nuclear attack, the generalized nature of the siren led to many of them being replaced with more specialized warnings, such as the Emergency Alert System. A mechanical siren generates sound by spinning a slotted chopper wheel to interrupt a stream of air at a regular rate, modern sirens can develop a sound level of up to 135 decibels at 100 feet. The Chrysler air raid siren, driven by a 331-cubic-inch Chrysler Hemi gasoline engine, by use of varying tones or on/off patterns of sound, different alert conditions can be signaled. Electronic sirens can transmit voice announcements in addition to alert tone signals, Siren systems may be electronically controlled and integrated into other warning systems. Many warning sirens have a sound that is distinguishable from that used by emergency vehicles by use of two simultaneous tones, with pitches usually in a 5,6 frequency ratio. In the United States, several sets of warning tones have been used which varied over time, by government structure, the initial alerts used during World War II were the Alert Signal, and the Attack Signal. The Victory Siren manual stated that when manual generation of the tone was required, it could be achieved by holding the Signal switch on for 8 seconds. Later AF timers changed the color-coding, coloring the Alert button blue, the Take Cover button yellow, in 1955, the Federal Civil Defense Administration again revised the warning signals, altering them to adapt to deal with concern over nuclear fallout. The new set of signals were the Alert Signal and the Take-Cover Signal, the All-Clear signal was deleted because leaving a shelter while fallout was present would be hazardous. The Attack Warning would be sounded when the Royal Observer Corps spotted enemy aircraft in the immediate area and this was done by emitting the tones in reverse order, with the All Clear tone followed by the Red Warning tone. This ensured the public would not confuse the test with a real warning and this integrated approach enhances the credibility of warnings and reduces the risk of their being dismissed as false alarms by corroborating the warning messages through multiple media. The Common Alerting Protocol is a standard for this sort of multi-system integration. Siren installations themselves have many ways of being activated, commonly used are DTMF broadcasts over phone lines or over radio broadcast. This does leave room for exploitation, but there are protections from false alarms and these sirens can also be tied into other networks such as a fire departments volunteer notification/paging system. The basics of this type of installation would be a device connected to the system of the siren. When a page is received, the siren is activated, a mechanical siren uses a rotor and stator to chop an air stream, which is forced through the siren by radial vanes in the spinning rotor
21.
Auxiliary Fire Service
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The Auxiliary Fire Service was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level, in this job it was hampered severely by the incompatibility of equipment used by these different brigades — most importantly the lack of a standard size of hydrant valve. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the brigades were superseded in August 1941 by the National Fire Service. After the war the AFS was reformed alongside the Civil Defence Corps and it was disbanded in the UK in 1968. Members of the AFS were unpaid volunteers, but could be called up for whole-time paid service if necessary. This was very similar to the establishment of the police Special Constabulary. Men and women could join, the mainly in an administrative role. An AFS was formed in every county borough, borough and urban district, each AFS was commanded by a Commandant, with Deputy and/or Assistant Commandants in the larger services. The services operated their own stations, each commanded by a Section Officer. Services with five or more stations divided them into Divisions, each under the command of a Divisional Officer and these ranks were not laid down by the government, and some services used different systems. However the role of the AFS was to provide fire fighting columns that could be deployed to areas that had suffered a nuclear attack. The old equipment was not suitable for this task, so in the 1950s the AFS was requipped and this included 1,000 Green Goddess fire engines, Land Rovers, motorcycles and support vehicles such as pipe carriers, mobile kitchens, and foam and water carriers. It was anticipated there would be some warning of the nuclear attack allowing some regular fire fighting equipment to join the AFS columns which would head to wherever they were required, the AFS equipment was painted in Land Rover bronze green, and carried large AFS door transfers. Each fire station typically had an AFS division, and so AFS crews frequently attended fires and they provided significant assistance at some of the worst fires, such as that at Billingsgate Market and at Barking wood yard. AFS personnel were trained in firefighting by their own officers and with assistance from full-time fire officers, many were trained to the St John Ambulance Higher First Aider Certificate standard - often proving invaluable at major incidents involving injury. Later versions were based on the Bedford 4x4 RLHZ chassis, with the pump and 300 gallon water capacity. An inflatable dam was used as the source for the relay. Water could be drawn from open water supplies by a Transportable Water Unit more commonly known as Bikini Units and these were floated on a raft so they could draw directly from a water and also use water under pressure to propel the raft
22.
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Strategic bombing during World War II was the sustained aerial attack on railways, harbours, cities, workers housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory during World War II. Strategic bombing is a strategy which is distinct from both close air support of ground forces and tactical air power. As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the Axis and the Allies increased significantly, in September 1940, the Luftwaffe began targeting British cities in The Blitz. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and eventually, when the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced these efforts and controversial firebombings were carried out against Hamburg, Dresden, and other German cities. In the Pacific War, the Japanese bombed civilian populations throughout the war, the effect of strategic bombing was highly debated during and after the war. Both the Luftwaffe and RAF failed to deliver a blow by destroying enemy morale. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which address the codes of conduct on land. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts to update international humanitarian law to include aerial warfare, many reasons exist for the absence of international law regarding aerial bombing in World War II. Most nations had refused to ratify laws or agreements because of the vague or impractical wording in treaties such as the 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare. Also, the major powers possession of newly developed advanced bombers was a military advantage. Article 25 of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions on Land Warfare also did not provide a guideline on the extent to which civilians may be spared. Consequently, cyclical arguments, such as advanced by Italian general and air power theorist Giulio Douhet. Before World War II began, the pace of aviation technology created a belief that groups of bombers would be capable of devastating cities. For example, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin warned in 1932, when the war began on 1 September 1939, Franklin D. If the Luftwaffe confined attacks to purely military targets, the RAF should launch an attack on the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven, the first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 15/16 May 1940 while the Battle of France was still continuing. During the German invasion of Poland, the Luftwaffe engaged in air raids against Polish cities, bombing civilian infrastructure such as hospitals. Notably, the Luftwaffe bombed Warsaw, Wieluń, and Frampol, in his book, Eyes on the Sky, Wolfgang Schreyer wrote, Frampol was chosen as an experimental object, because test bombers, flying at low speed, werent endangered by AA fire. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an orientation point for the crews
23.
Imperial War Museum
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Imperial War Museums is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military war effort and sacrifice of Britain, the museums remit has since expanded to include all conflicts in which British or Commonwealth forces have been involved since 1914. As of 2012, the aims to provide for, and to encourage. Originally housed in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill, the museum opened to the public in 1920. The outbreak of the Second World War saw the museum expand both its collections and its terms of reference, but in the period, the museum entered a period of decline. The 1960s saw the museum redevelop its Southwark building, now referred to as Imperial War Museum London, during the 1970s, the museum began to expand onto other sites. The first, in 1976, was an airfield in Cambridgeshire now referred to as IWM Duxford. In 1978, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Belfast became a branch of the museum, in 1984, the Cabinet War Rooms, an underground wartime command centre, was opened to the public. From the 1980s onwards, the museums Bethlem building underwent a series of multimillion-pound redevelopments, finally,2002 saw the opening of IWM North in Trafford, Greater Manchester, the fifth branch of the museum and the first in the north of England. In 2011, the museum rebranded itself as IWM, standing for Imperial War Museums, the museum is funded by government grants, charitable donations, and revenue generation through commercial activity such as retailing, licensing, and publishing. General admission is free to IWM London and IWM North, the museum is an exempt charity under the Charities Act 1993 and a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. As of January 2012, the Chairman of the Trustees is Sir Francis Richards, since October 2008, the museums Director General has been Diane Lees. On 27 February 1917 Sir Alfred Mond, a Liberal MP and First Commissioner of Works and this proposal was accepted by the War Cabinet on 5 March 1917 and the decision announced in The Times on 26 March. A committee was established, chaired by Mond, to oversee the collection of material to be exhibited in the new museum, there was an early appreciation of the need for exhibits to reflect personal experience in order to prevent the collections becoming dead relics. Sir Martin Conway, the Museums first Director General, said that exhibits must be vitalised by contributions expressive of the action, the experiences, the valour and the endurance of individuals. The museums first curator and secretary was Charles ffoulkes, who had previously been curator of the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London, in July 1917 Mond made a visit to the Western Front in order to study how best to organise the museums growing collection. While in France he met French government ministers, and Field Marshal Haig, in December 1917 the name was changed to the Imperial War Museum after a resolution from the India and Dominions Committee of the museum. The museum was opened by The King at the Crystal Palace on 9 June 1920, shortly afterwards the Imperial War Museum Act 1920 was passed and established a Board of Trustees to oversee the governance of the museum
24.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
25.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
26.
Barrow Blitz
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The Barrow Blitz is the name given to the Luftwaffe bombings of Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom during World War II. They took place primarily during April and May 1941, although the earliest Luftwaffe bombing occurred in September 1940, VSEL shipyard was the main target for bombing alongside Barrows steelworks which were formerly the largest in the world. During the Second World War, Walney Island was home to two of the many coastal artillery installations, numerous pillboxes can to this day be found littered across the Walney coastline. They were used as lookouts and contained rifles and light guns that could be used to defend Barrow against the Luftwaffe. The entrance to a large underground air-raid shelter that was used by shipyard workers can be found in the car park of the Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness development. A large unit of the Royal Air Force was based at Barrow/Walney Island Airport which was expanded during the war in an effort to aid Britains air defences, surrounding towns and villages were often mistaken for Barrow and were attacked instead, while many streets in Barrow were severely damaged. Bombing during mid-April 1941 caused significant damage to a portion of Abbey Road, completely destroying the Waverley Hotel as well as Christ Church. The towns main public baths and Essoldo Theatre were also severely damaged, hawcoat Lane is a street that is most noted for taking a direct destructive hit in early May 1941. This shortage of shelters was believed to have led to high casualties. Two fire watchers were killed in May 1941 when the hammer head crane they were stationed in at Vickers Shipyard was bombed by the Luftwaffe, in May 1941 it was attacked and badly damaged by the Luftwaffe. Most of the hotel was demolished and the remaining part became a public house/restaurant known as The Abbey Tavern. Her memoirs were adapted for television. Barrows main war memorial is a located in Barrow Park. It bears the names of hundreds of Barrovians who died in combat during various wars, including 616 in the First World War,268 in the Second World War, the Dock Museum in Hindpool contains an exhibit about the Barrow Blitz. In 2016, filmmaker and Barrow Sixth Form student Matthew Dodd created a documentary to commemorate the Barrow Blitzs 75th anniversary, Timeline of events during the Barrow Blitz. September 1940 The first compulsory blackout in Barrow,300 incendiaries are dropped on Salthouse, and a 5 year old child becomes the first victim of the Barrow Blitz. May 1941 Bombing intensifies as the Luftwaffe drops land-mines, incendiaries, Barrow Central railway station is completely destroyed by bombing. Some 2,250 children are evacuated from the town, june 1941 A further 4,000 children are evacuated as the death toll from bombing exceeds 80
27.
Bath Blitz
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The term Bath Blitz refers to the air raids by the German air force on the British city of Bath, Somerset, during World War II. The city was bombed in April 1942 as part of the so-called “Baedeker raids”, in which targets were chosen for their cultural and historical, rather than their strategic or military, value. Bath was largely untouched during the Blitz, the German night bombing offensive against Britains cities, Bath was subject to numerous air raid warnings as raiders flew overhead on their way to Bristol, but no bombs were dropped on Bath at this point. Over the weekend of 25–27 April 1942, Bath suffered three raids, from 80 Luftwaffe aircraft which took off from Nazi occupied northern France. As the city sirens wailed, few citizens took cover, even when the first pathfinder flares fell, during the previous four months Bristol had been hit almost every night, so the people of Bath did not expect the bombs to fall on them. The first raid struck just before 11 pm on the Saturday night, the German aircraft then returned to France, refuelled, rearmed and returned at 4.35 am. Bath was still on fire from the first raid, making it easier for the German bombers to pick out their targets, the third raid, which only lasted two hours but caused extensive damage, commenced in the early hours of Monday morning. The bombers flew low to drop their high explosives and incendiaries,417 people were killed, another 1,000 injured. Over 19,000 buildings were affected, of which 1,100 were seriously damaged or destroyed, houses in the Royal Crescent, Circus and Paragon were destroyed and the Assembly Rooms were burnt out. A500 kilograms high explosive bomb landed on the side of Queen Square. The Francis Hotel lost 24 metres of its frontage. Casualties on the Square were low considering the devastation, with the majority of hotel guests, the majority of Baths churches were greatly damaged including St Andrews Church which had to be demolished and the site is now a park. The buildings have subsequently restored, although there are still some signs of the bombing. After the raid, a shelter was provided for Queen Square occupants in the then private central garden. In 1948, the residents gave the garden to the people of Bath with the intention it would become a memorial to the victims of the enemy attacks, today the square plays host to a variety of community activities including the Jane Austen Festival and the annual Bath Boules Tournament. Willi Schludecker,87, who more than 120 sorties for the Luftwaffe, including the Bath Blitz. Willi Schludecker died in a hospital in Cologne on 17 June 2010, among the firefighters assigned to the scene in Bath was Harry Patch, who in the 2000s became the last surviving British army veteran from the First World War. In 2016 a live 500 pounds bomb was discovered by workmen under the playground of the former Royal High School, Bath site
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Belfast Blitz
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The Belfast Blitz was four attacks of high-casualty German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II. The first was on the night of 7–8 April 1941, an attack which probably took place only to test Belfasts defences. The next took place on Easter Tuesday,15 April 1941, two hundred bombers of the Luftwaffe attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured, High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz, the third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 4–5 May 1941,150 were killed. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid, the fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 5–6 May. In total, more than half the housing stock was rendered uninhabitable by the bombings. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories, Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort, producing many naval ships, aircraft and munitions, therefore, the city was deemed a suitable bombing target by the Luftwaffe. Meanwhile, unlike Northern Ireland, southern Ireland was no part of the UK. Under the leadership of Éamon de Valera, it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War, the Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940 and his death came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. Richard Dawson Bates, was the Home Affairs Minister, Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the Hiram Plan to evacuate the city and it was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. He said, I have heard speeches about Ulster pulling her weight, and the government has been slack, dilatory and apathetic. Craigavon died on 24 November 1940 and he was succeeded by John Miller Andrews, then 70 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign and he was replaced by Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Harland and Wolff was one of the largest shipbuilding yards in the world, up to 35,000 people were employed
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Birmingham Blitz
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The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe of the city of Birmingham and surrounding towns in the United Kingdom, beginning on 9 August 1940 and ending on 23 April 1943. It is considered a part of the greater Blitz, which was part of the Battle of Britain, situated in the Midlands, Birmingham, Englands most populous British city outside London, is an important industrial and manufacturing location. Around 1,852 tons of bombs were dropped on Birmingham, making it the third most heavily bombed city in the United Kingdom in the Second World War, behind only London and Liverpool. There was also significant bombing of towns in the neighbouring Black Country, particularly in Dudley, Tipton and West Bromwich, as with most provincial cities bombed during the Blitz, reports of the bombing were kept low key. Wartime censorship meant that Birmingham was not mentioned by name in contemporary reports about the bombing, being referred to instead as a Midland Town. This was done in order to keep the Germans from knowing the outcome of their raids, overall, there were 365 air raid alerts, and 77 actual air raids on Birmingham, eight of which were classified as major. Official figures state that 5,129 high explosive bombs and 48 parachute mines landed on the city, along with many thousands of incendiary bombs. Of the high explosive bombs, around one fifth failed to detonate, in total,2,241 people were killed, and 3,010 seriously injured. A further 3,682 sustained lesser injuries,12,391 houses,302 factories and 239 other buildings were destroyed, with many more damaged. The first air raid on the city took place on 9 August 1940, one person was killed, and six injured. On 13 August the aircraft factory in Castle Bromwich which produced Spitfires was attacked, eleven bombs hit the main target causing significant damage. 7 people were killed, and 41 injured, regular small raids followed over August, September, October and early November. The city centre was hit between 25–30 October. Among the buildings hit were Birmingham University, the Art Gallery, the roof of the Council House was damaged by fire, and on the 29th, St Philips Cathedral suffered serious fire damage after being hit by an incendiary. In November 1940, a series of air raids on Birmingham took place. Between the 19th and 28th of that month around 800 people were killed and 2,345 injured, around 400 tonnes of high explosives were dropped during the raid, including 18 parachute mines. The raid turned out to be the most severe attack on Birmingham in the course of the war, a number of factories were badly damaged in the raid, including the Lucas Industries and GEC works. The Birmingham Small Arms Company factory was damaged, causing loss of production
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Bristol Blitz
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The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during World War II. Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II, between 24 November 1940 and 11 April 1941 there were six major bombing raids. In a night raid on 2 November 1940,5,000 incendiary and 10,000 high explosive bombs were dropped on the old city, on 24 November 148 Luftflotte 3 bombers left Germany to bomb Bristol. Park Street was smashed and the Bristol Museum hit,207 people were killed, the area that is now Castle Park was extensively damaged. The Jacobean St Peter’s Hospital was destroyed, and the 17th century timber-framed Dutch House was damaged, four of Bristols ancient churches were also badly damaged. The St James Presbyterian Church of England, Bristol was gutted, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Alderman Thomas Underwood, described the effect of the raids as The City of Churches had in one night become the city of ruins. On 3 –4 January 1941 Bristol had its longest raid, lasting 12 hours and it was nicknamed Satan, and weighed 2,000 kilograms, measuring over 8 feet long, and 26 inches in diameter. It did not explode, and was recovered in April 1943, the bomb disposal crew had to dig down 29 feet to get to it. The bomb was later paraded through the streets of London during the VE Day Victory Parade at the end of the war. The infamous Good Friday air raids caused damage to the centre of the city, Knowle, Hotwells, Cotham and Filton. Winston Churchill visited the ruins on 12 April 1941, the last air raid of the Blitz on Bristol was on 25 April 1941, when Brislington, Bedminster and Knowle were bombed. It is speculated that these suburbs were not the targets themselves, the last raid on Bristol was on 15 May 1944. Bristol was in danger of being hit by V-1 flying bombs, however, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 saw these launching platforms on Cotentin being quickly overrun and consequently no V1 or V2s landed on Bristol. The main decoy for Bristol was at Black Down on the end of the Mendip Hills. A smaller one was in the parish of Chew Magna and these were known as starfish sites, and were designed to simulate Bristol under blackout conditions, even to the extent of mimicking the flickering lights of railway marshalling yards. In the event of an imminent air raid, beacons were lit at the decoy sites, – WW2 Peoples War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc. co
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Cardiff Blitz
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The Cardiff Blitz refers to the bombing of Cardiff, Wales during World War II. Between 1940 and the raid on the city in March 1944 approximately 2,100 bombs fell. Cardiff Docks became a bombing target for Luftwaffe as it was one of the biggest coal ports in the world. Consequently, it and the area were heavily bombed. Llandaff Cathedral, amongst many other civilian buildings caught in the raids, was damaged by the bombing in 1941, during 1940 the Luftwaffe targeted Cardiff on 3,10 and 12 July and 7 August. This was followed in 1941 with raids on 2,3 and 10 January, over 100 bombers attacked the city over a 10-hour period beginning at 6.37 pm on the night of 2 January 1941. Dropping high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs and parachute mines, the Riverside area was the first to be bombed, in Grangetown, the Hollyman Brothers bakery was hit by a parachute mine and 32 people who were using the basement as a shelter were killed. When the raid was over 165 people had killed and 427 more injured. Chapels and the nave of Llandaff Cathedral were also damaged, western Cardiff was the worst hit area, particularly Canton and Riverside, where 116 people were killed, an estimated 50 of which were killed in one street in Riverside, De Burgh Street. The 10-hour air raid had started at 18,37 and Grangetown was the first area to be hit by 100 German aircraft. Further raids followed on 27 February, through 1,4,12,20 March and 3,12,29,30 April and 4 to 11 May. One landed harmlessly in the Castle grounds, narrowly missing the Civic shelter, ten died in Lewis Street in Riverside from one mine. The other two fell in Cathays on Llanbleddian Gardens and Wyverne Road, killing 23 people, in 1942 fewer raids occurred but two occurred on 30 June and 2 July. On the final raid, one of the bombers mistook the Irish Sea for the River Severn and bombed Cork in Ireland
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Clydebank Blitz
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The Clydebank Blitz refers to two devastating Luftwaffe air raids on the shipbuilding town of Clydebank in Scotland which took place in March 1941. As a result of the raids on the nights of 13 and 14 March 1941,528 people died,617 people were seriously injured, and hundreds more were injured by blast debris. Out of approximately 12,000 houses, only seven remained undamaged — with 4,000 completely destroyed and 4,500 severely damaged, over 35,000 people were made homeless. Clydebanks production of ships and munitions for the Allies made it a target, major targets included the John Brown & Company shipyard, ROF Dalmuir and the Singer Corporation factory. A total of 439 bombers dropped over 1,000 bombs, RAF fighters managed to shoot down two aircraft during the raid, but none were brought down by anti-aircraft fire. He claims that while the raid on 13 March was not intended as a terror attack, but the bombing the following night was indeed a terror attack as it was intended to crack morale and force the people to call for an end to the war. However, it had quite the opposite effect, strengthening resolve for the war in Scotland, despite the devastation in the town itself, the Clydebank air raids were far from a military success. Among the primary targets were the John Brown Shipyard and Beardmores Diesel Works, the only plant completely destroyed was the Strathclyde Hosiery Company. A war memorial is dedicated to the crew of a Polish destroyer, ORP Piorun and it is located directly opposite from the Town Hall, which has itself a shrine dedicated to those in Clydebank who died during World War I and World War II. There is another war memorial on Graham Avenue, a recording made in May 1941 by bombed-out civilian Tom Wright features on The Blitz, an archive audiobook CD issued in 2007. Macleod, John, River of Fire, The Clydebank Blitz, the Clydebank Blitz, West Dunbartonshire Libraries & Museums,2007,118 pages. ISBN 0-9537736-2-0 Taylor Les, Luftwaffe over Scotland, a history of German air attacks on Scotland, 1939-45, ISBN 1-84995-000-8 Post-Blitz Clydebank — a documentary about Clydebank, Scotland from 1947 to 1952 Full list of casualties The Blitz audiobook featuring Tom Wright
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Coventry Blitz
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The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place on the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force, the most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940. At the start of the Second World War, Coventry was a city of around 238,000 people which, like much of the industrial West Midlands. In Coventrys case, these cars, bicycles, aeroplane engines and, since 1900. In the words of the historian Frederick Taylor, Coventry. was therefore, in terms of what little law existed on the subject, however, it developed many large interwar suburbs of both private and council housing, which were relatively isolated from industrial buildings. There were seventeen small raids on Coventry during the Battle of Britain between August and October 1940 during which around 198 tons of bombs fell, together, the raids killed 176 people and injured around 680. The most notable damage was to the new Rex Cinema which had opened only in February 1937 and had already been closed by an earlier bombing raid in September. War production in two factories had ceased on a temporary basis because of it, with a number of people living nearby having to be evacuated. Campbell found that the bomb was fitted with a delayed action fuse that was impossible to remove and that was done by lorry, and he lay alongside the bomb so that he could hear if it started ticking and could warn the driver to stop and run for cover. Having taken it to a distance, he disposed of the bomb successfully but was killed whilst dealing with another bomb the next day. Campbell was posthumously awarded a George Cross for his actions on 17 October 1940, the raid that began on the evening of 14 November 1940 was the most severe to hit Coventry during the war. It was carried out by 515 German bombers, from Luftflotte 3, the initial wave of 13 specially modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft of Kampfgruppe 100, which were equipped with X-Gerät navigational devices, accurately dropped marker flares at 19,20. The British and the Germans were fighting the Battle of the Beams and these later waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of bomb, those made of magnesium and those made of petroleum. Coventrys air defences consisted of twenty-four 3.7 inch AA guns, however, only one German bomber was shot down. At around 20,00, Coventry Cathedral, was set on fire by incendiaries for the first time. During the same period, more than 200 other fires were started across the city, most of which were concentrated in the area, setting the area ablaze. The raid reached its climax around midnight with the all clear sounding at 06,15 on the morning of 15 November
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Hull Blitz
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The Hull Blitz was the Nazi German bombing campaign targeting on the English port city of Kingston upon Hull, during the Second World War. Large-scale attacks took place on nights in March 1941, resulting in some 200 deaths. The most concentrated attacks were between 3 and 9 May 1941, resulting in 400 deaths, and another large-scale attack took place in July 1941 with around 140 fatalities. The city spent more than 1,000 hours under alert during raids from 19 June 1940 to 1945, Hull was the most severely damaged British city or town during the Second World War, with 95 percent of houses damaged. Hull had more than 1,000 hours spent under air raid alerts, Hull was the target of the first daylight raid of the war and the last piloted air raid on Britain. Of a population of approximately 320,000 at the beginning of the war, overall almost 1,200 people were killed and 3,000 injured by the air raids. More than 5,000 houses were destroyed and half of the city centre destroyed, the extent of the damage was similar to that of the Plymouth Blitz. Despite the damage the port continued to function throughout the war and we lived in the middle of an industrial area that was a regular target for German bombers. One night as we were all filing into the air raid shelter Mam dashed back into the house, where are you going, Mary, said Dad. Back for my teeth, she replied. Come back here, the Germans are dropping bombs not meat pies, during the First World War Hull was bombed several times by Zeppelin airships. An attempted raid on Hull on 8/9 August 1915 bombed Goole by mistake owing to a navigation error, on 5 March 1916 two Zeppelins L11 and L14 were diverted to Hull from an attack on the fleet at Rosyth. Bombs were dropped on Earles shipyard and on Paragon station resulting in deaths, the raids showed that Hull was completely unprotected from aerial attack and public anger led to service personnel being mobbed. Further attacks came on 25 September 1917 and 10 March 1918, an air-raid-shelter-building programme was instigated in 1938 and more than £1.5 million was spent building 40,000 shelters. Additional targets included large grain mills on the River Hull, hulls first air-raid warning was at 02,45 on Monday 4 September 1939, as an air-raid yellow all operational crews were called to their posts. The public siren sounded at 03,20 and the all-clear at 04,08, the attacks on Hull during 1940 were at a relatively low level and scale, carried out by single or small numbers of planes. The first recorded bombing raid on Hull was during the night of 19/20 June 1940, by the end of the year around 20 raids had taken place and 12 people had been killed by the bombing. Bombing intensity increased in the part of 1941
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Leeds Blitz
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The Leeds Blitz comprised nine air raids on the city of Leeds, the largest of which took place on the night of 14/15 March 1941. The raid affected the city centre, Beeston, Bramley and Armley, Leeds is a large city in the industrial heartland of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The countys largest city, much of the economic, administrative. Leeds had taken precautions, including building many public air raid shelters, beginning just after 9 pm on Friday 14 March 1941, around 40 bombers took part in the raid on Leeds, in all 451 were over Britain that night. Incendiary bombs were first dropped onto the city on the Friday night, around 100 houses were destroyed,4,600 sustained damage, and around 65 people were killed. Other nearby towns were damaged in this raid. In total 25 tons of bombs fell on Leeds during the raid, german sources from the time claim raids on Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield, Tilbury Docks, Plymouth and Southampton. The bombing of the museum resulted in the losses of historic civic possessions including the destruction of a mummy. Curator Herbert Ricketts described salvaging artefacts after the bombing as having a dig in our own museum, the museums front, dating from 1821, was also damaged and had to be taken down. A concrete front was built on the front to replace the destroyed Victorian facade, the museum closed in 1965 and was moved to the central library on the Headrow. The museum was demolished in 1966 and the site is now occupied by the HSBC bank, in 1999 the museum was moved from the library. The museum is now in the mechanics institute on Millennium Square. Other historic buildings were superficially damaged, at certain sites such as the town hall, shrapnel damage is still evident. 31st Anti-Aircraft Brigade was responsible for defence of West Yorkshire. There were many RAF airfields to the east of the city in the Vale of York, while most were home to command units. On the night of the main Leeds raid Junkers Ju-88 and Dornier Do-17 aircraft were shot down over Northern England, following the raids, unexploded bombs have been found in the city including one in Potternewton Park in 2012. Unexploded anti-aircraft shells have also found to the south and east of the city. Starting in September 1940, all unexploded bombs were to be logged in a detailed bomb diary, harrison, at the time a child, was sheltering in the cellar of a house on Tempest Road in Beeston
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Liverpool Blitz
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The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the British city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe. The government was concerned to hide from the Germans just how much damage had been inflicted upon the docks, around 4,000 people were killed in the Merseyside area during the Blitz. This death toll was only to London, which suffered 30,000 deaths by the end of the war. Liverpool, Bootle and the Wallasey Pool complex were strategically very important locations during the Second World War. The large port had for years been the United Kingdoms main link with North America. Liverpool was the end of a Transatlantic chain of supplies from North America. The evacuation of children at the start of the war, in September 1939, was a measure to save the population of urban or military areas from German aerial bombing. The evacuations were organised by Liverpool Corporation and though some children were transported to smaller towns nearby, many went to areas in North Wales. The first major air raid on Liverpool took place in August 1940 and this assault continued over the next three nights, then regularly for the rest of the year. There were 50 raids on the city during this three-month period, some of these were minor, comprising a few aircraft, and lasting a few minutes, with others comprising up to 300 aircraft and lasting over ten hours. On 18 September,22 inmates at Walton Gaol were killed when high-explosive bombs demolished a wing of the prison,28 November saw a heavy raid on the city, and the most serious single incident, when a hit on an air-raid shelter in Durning Road caused 166 fatalities. Winston Churchill described it as the single worst incident of the war, the air assault in 1940 came to a peak with the Christmas blitz, a three-night bombardment towards the end of December. A series of heavy raids took place in December 1940, referred to as the Christmas blitz, on 21 December another hit on a shelter killed 74 people. The bombing decreased in severity after the new year, may 1941 saw a renewal of the air assault on the region, a seven-night bombardment that devastated the city. The first bomb landed upon Seacombe, Wallasey, Wirral, at 22,15 on 1 May, the peak of the bombing occurred from 1 –7 May 1941. It involved 681 Luftwaffe bombers,2,315 high explosive bombs and 119 other explosives such as incendiaries were dropped, the raids put 69 out of 144 cargo berths out of action and inflicted 2,895 casualties and left many more homeless. Another landed on the front steps without exploding but incendiaries destroyed equipment in the yard at the west end. One incident on 3 May involved the SS Malakand, a ship carrying munitions which was berthed in the Huskisson Dock, although its eventual explosion is often attributed to a burning barrage balloon, this fire was put out
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Manchester Blitz
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The Manchester Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in North West England during the Second World War by the Nazi German Luftwaffe. Manchester was an important inland port and industrial city during the war, air raids began in August 1940, and in September 1940 the Palace Theatre on Oxford Street was bombed. The heaviest raids occurred on the nights of 22/23 and 23/24 December 1940, killing an estimated 684 people, Manchester Cathedral, the Royal Exchange and the Free Trade Hall were among the large buildings damaged. Nazi propaganda claimed that the city had been burned to the ground. Neighbouring Salford, Stretford and other districts were badly damaged by the bombing. It is estimated more than 215 people were killed and 910 injured in Salford. Seventy-three were killed in Stretford, and many more were injured, the following month Old Trafford was hit during an air raid that lasted 3 hours. In June 1941 German bombs damaged the original Salford Royal Hospital on Chapel Street, killing 14 nurses. On 11 March 1941 Old Trafford football stadium, the home of Manchester United F. C. was hit by a bomb aimed at the complex of Trafford Park, wrecking the pitch. The stadium was rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1949, in June 1941 German bombs damaged the police headquarters. Manchester continued to be bombed by the Luftwaffe throughout the war, on Christmas Eve 1944, Heinkel He111 bombers flying over the Yorkshire coast launched 45 flying bombs at Manchester. No V-1 landed in downtown Manchester, but 27 people in neighbouring Oldham were killed by a stray bomb, another 17 people were killed elsewhere and 109 wounded overall. One German bomber was shot down over the North Sea and another was damaged by a package of RAF De Havilland Mosquito. The city was beyond the range of the V-2 rockets, history of Manchester The Blitz Notes Bibliography Daily Dispatch and Evening Chronicle Our Blitz, Red Sky over Manchester. Manchester, Kemsley Newspapers The Manchester Christmas Blitz, by Frank Walsh
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Nottingham Blitz
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The Nottingham Blitz was an attack by the German Luftwaffe on Nottingham during the night of 8–9 May 1941. Nottingham was the first city in Britain to develop an ARP network and it was developed because of the foresight of Nottingham City Police Chief Constable Captain Athelstan Popkess. The city was divided into zones, controlled by report and control centres with 45 auxiliary fire service stations, by the time of the raid, Nottingham had built a significant number of public shelters. The John Player & Sons tobacco company had built a network of tunnels at its factory, the raid on the night of 8–9 May by the German Luftwaffe was targeted at Nottingham and Derby. The X-Gerät beams set up to cover the Rolls Royce works were detected, a Starfish decoy fire system located near Cropwell Butler in the Vale of Belvoir confused the aircraft, and many of the bombs intended for Nottingham were dropped on open farmland in the vale. There were over 100 bombers in the Nottingham raid, emergency services tackled 97 fires on the night of the Nottingham Blitz on 8 and 9 May 1941. Records list 12 fires as serious,40 as major and 42 as medium, in some cases, fires started by incendiary bombs were put out before they took hold. Firefighters successfully tackled a fire in the transept at St Marys Church after an incendiary bomb burned through the roof. A turntable ladder was positioned on High Pavement to enable them to direct a hose on to the roof, the vicar of St. Marys, Neville Stuart Talbot noted, We had a visitation - nothing compared with some places, but still a very real taste. We had gone to bed, and tried to believe that the explosions were our guns, peering out of the top window, I soon realised that big fires had been started, so, there being a lull, I went down. I found a fire going in the South Transept of the Church and it took a long time really to put it out. There were fierce fires at Trivetts Building near St. Marys Church, in Short Hill, St. John the Baptists Church, Leenside, Nottingham, remains demolished and site cleared after the war. There were 159 people recorded as killed with 274 injured, at the Co-op bakery on Meadow Lane,49 employees and members of the Home Guard were killed, and 20 others injured. At University College,45 people were killed, the Nottingham Evening Post of 17 May 1945 records that there were 11 raids on Nottingham in total,178 people were killed and 350 injured. 479 high explosive bombs were dropped
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Plymouth Blitz
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The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz, the royal dockyards at HMNB Devonport were the main target in order to facilitate Nazi German efforts during the Battle of the Atlantic. Despite this, civilian casualties were high and the dockyards continued in operation. The first bombs fell on the city on Saturday 6 July 1940 at Swilly, in early 1941, five raids reduced much of the city to rubble. Attacks continued as late as May 1944 with two air raids in that month. During the 59 bombing attacks,1,172 civilians were killed and 4,448 injured, the resident population fell from 220,000 at the outbreak of war to, at one point, only 127,000. In 1941 most of the children were evacuated and on any night that a raid was expected thousands of people were taken by lorry into the countryside, in March 1941, St Andrews Parish Church was bombed and badly damaged. Amidst the smoking ruins a headmistress nailed over the door a wooden sign saying simply Resurgam, indicating the wartime spirit and that entrance to St Andrews is still referred to as the Resurgam door and a carved granite plaque is now permanently fixed there. Charles Church, destroyed by incendiaries on the nights of 20–21 March 1941, has preserved in its ruined state as a memorial to civilian victims of the Blitz. The Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association on the Hoe was also damaged on the evening of 20 March 1941. The bombardment is described in the obituary of Stanley Wells Kemp who was the director of the Association at the time, the seminal work by Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley on the ionic basis of nerve conduction resumed there in June 1947. On the evening of 22 April 1941 during an attack on the central area, during the Blitz the two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, along with 26 schools, eight cinemas and 41 churches. In total,3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged, masters, Warren Plymouth in the Blitz
40.
Sheffield Blitz
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The Sheffield Blitz is the name given to the worst nights of German Luftwaffe bombing in Sheffield, England, during the Second World War. It took place over the nights of 12 December and 15 December 1940, in 1940 Sheffield was a city of about 560,000 people and contained many heavy industries, primarily centred on steel and armaments. Hadfields steelworks was also the place in the UK at that time where 18-inch armour-piercing shells were made. Most of the factories were located in the East end of the city beside the River Don, the full moon was on 14 December 1940 and both blitz nights were cold and clear. The German code name for the operation was Schmelztiegel, the yellow alert was received at 6. 15pm followed by the purple alert at 6. 45pm. The red alert was sounded at 7pm, the attack was made by three main groups of aircraft flying from airfields in northern France, including Cambrai. 13 Heinkel 111s from Kampfgruppe 100, the German Pathfinder unit arrived over the city at 7.41 p. m. the first incendiaries were dropped over the suburbs of Norton Lees and Gleadless. The first main group was made up of three waves of 36 Junkers 88s and 29 Heinkel 111s, the second group was made up of 23 Junkers 88s,74 Heinkel 111s and 7 Dornier 17s. The last group was made up of 63 Junkers 88s and 35 Heinkel 111s, at about 9.30 p. m. a stick of bombs fell on Campo Lane and Vicar Lane, demolishing the West end of the Cathedral. At about 10.50 p. m. a 500 kg bomb fell on and destroyed the C&A, the Marples Hotel itself received a direct hit. It is not known exactly how people were killed but approximately 70 bodies were recovered from the rubble. This was the single biggest loss of life in the attacks, the majority of the bombs on this night fell on the City Centre or on residential districts with the last bombs falling at 4am. The second night of the Blitz saw the first use of a new German policy for their pathfinders, high-explosive bombs were no longer carried and were replaced by incendiaries. On this night the force was made up of 16 Heinkel 111s that dropped 11,520 B1 E1 incendiaries between 7 p. m. and 7.50 p. m. The 15 large and numerous small fires started were visible from 150 km away, the main raid was carried out by 50 Heinkel 111s and 11 Dornier 17s. The raid finished at 10.15 p. m, many steelworks received hits, including Hadfields, Brown Bayleys and Steel, Peech and Tozer Ltd, although the damage was not serious enough to affect production. In total over 660 people were killed,1,500 injured and 40,000 made homeless,3,000 homes were demolished with a further 3,000 badly damaged. A total of 78,000 homes received damage, six George Medals were awarded to citizens of Sheffield for their bravery during the raids
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Battle of the Beams
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British scientific intelligence at the Air Ministry fought back with a variety of their own increasingly effective means, involving jamming and distortion of the radio waves. The period ended when the Wehrmacht moved their forces to the East in May 1941, among these was a considerable amount of research and development of blind landing aids which allowed aircraft to approach an airport at night or in bad weather. The primary system developed for this role was the Lorenz system, developed by Johannes Plendl, the Lorenz system worked by feeding a special three-element antenna system with a modulated radio signal. The signal was fed to the dipole, which had a slightly longer reflector element on either side set slightly back. A switch rapidly alternated the opened midpoint connection of each reflector in turn, sending the slightly to the left. The beams widened as they spread from the antennas, so there was an area directly off the approach where the two signals overlapped. The switch was timed so it spent longer on the side of the antenna than the left. An aircraft approaching the airport would tune one of their radios to the Lorenz frequency, hearing the dots, they would know they had to turn to the right in order to be flying down the centreline. If they started on the side, they would instead hear a series of longer tones followed by short pauses. Hearing the dashes, they would turn to the left to capture the centreline, in the centre, the radio would receive both signals, which sounded like a continual signal, the so-called equisignal. During the early 1930s, the concept of a night bombing campaign began to become paramount in military aviation circles. This was due to the performance of bombers, which were beginning to have the capability to strike across Europe with useful bomb loads. These aircraft were slow and lumbering, easy prey for interceptors, a bomber, painted black, could be spotted only at very short ranges. And as the altitude and speed increased, the threat from ground based defences was greatly reduced. Simply put, planners believed that the bomber will always get through, the problem with night bombing is that the same limitations in visibility meant the bomb aimers would have a difficult time finding their targets, especially a blacked-out target at night. Only the largest targets, cities, could be attacked with any probability of success, the concept of huge fleets of bombers flying unhindered over their enemy was so reprehensible that the Royal Air Force built up its night bomber force largely as a deterrent. It was hoped that the fear of unrestrained attack against German cities would prevent the Luftwaffe from considering attacks against England and this system was put into use as soon as the war began and was initially regarded as successful. In reality, the bombing effort was a complete failure
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