The Bombing War: Europe 1939–1945

by Richard Overy

  75. BA-MA, RL2 IV/33, Luftwaffe Staff, ‘Angriffe auf England: Materialsammlung, 1940–41’.

  76. HHC, TYP Pt I, Damage to Property 1939–1945, reports for 1940.

  77. BA-MA, RL2 IV/30, Maj. Leythehauser lecture, ‘Einsatzarten und ihre Durchführung im Englandkrieg’, 14 Feb 1944, 1–2; on mining RL2 IV/33, ‘Angriffe auf England’.

  78. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, Luftwaffe Kriegsberichte-Kompanie, ‘Bomben auf Flugplätze vor London, 18 Aug 1940’, 3.

  79. Ibid., account by Hellmut Schwatle, 18 Aug 1940, 2; Anton Dietz, ‘Erlebnisbericht: Grossangriff auf London’, 5.

  80. AHB Translations, vol 2, VII/26, ‘Course of the Air War’, 2. BA-MA, RL2 IV/27, Bechtle lecture, 2 Apr 1944, 3; Klaus Maier, ‘Luftschlacht um England’, in Maier et al., DRZW: Band 2: Die Errichtung der Hegemonie auf dem europäischen Kontinent (Stuttgart: 1979), 384–5.

  81. KTB/OKW: Band 1, Teilband 1, 59–60, entry for 3 Sept 1940.

  82. Ibid., 50, 55, 62, entries for 29 Aug, 30 Aug, 4 Sept 1940.

  83. TNA, AIR 16/432, Home Security intelligence summaries, night raids 18–19, 19–20, 22–23, 24–25, 25–26, 28–29 Aug.

  84. AHB Translations, vol 2, VII/26, ‘Course of the Air War’, 3.

  85. Shirer, Berlin Diary, 380–81, entry for 26 Aug 1940.

  86. Elke Fröhlich (ed), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels: Sämtliche Fragmente, 4 vols (Munich: 1987), vol 4, 296, entry for 27 Aug 1940; KTB/OKW: Band 1, Teilband 1, 50, entry for 29 Aug 1940.

  87. Shirer, Berlin Diary, 391.

  88. NC, Cherwell papers, F260, RAF Operational Statistics, ‘Night Bomber Sorties, 1 Aug 1940–7 Nov 1940’.

  89. BA-MA, RL 41/2, RLB, Luftschutz-Bericht, 22 May 1940, 3.

  90. Ibid., Luftschutz-Bericht, 31 July 1940, 2; Luftschutz-Bericht, 11 Sept 1940, 2.

  91. Boberach, Meldungen aus dem Reich, vol 5, 1,525, 2 Sept 1940.

  92. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 71.

  93. Hugh Trevor-Roper, Hitler’s Table Talk 1941–1944 (London: 1973), 697. ‘It was the British who started air attacks,’ Hitler claimed. ‘The Germans are always restrained by moral scruples, which mean nothing to the British.’

  94. AHB Translations, vol 2, VII/30, ‘Proposal for the Conduct of Air Warfare against Britain’, 22 Nov 1939, 3; vol 1, VII/10, ‘The Course of the Air War over Central and Western Europe’, 1944, 1.

  95. KTB/OKW: Band 1, Teilband 1, 27, entry for 13 Aug 1940.

  96. AHB Translations, vol 2, VII/30, ‘Proposal for the Conduct of Air Warfare against Britain’, 22 Nov 1939, 4.

  97. BA-MA, RL2 IV/30, Maj. Leythehauser lecture, 14 Feb 1944, 1.

  98. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.14, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 3 Sept 1940, 4.

  99. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 73; Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, 390–91. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.14, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 3 Sept 1940, 29 Sept 1940, 14 Oct 1940, 11 Jan 1941. On Hitler’s rejection of terror attacks in favour of raids on ‘war-essential’ targets see KTB/OKW: Band 1, Teilband 1, 76, entry for 14 Sept 1940.

  100. BA-MA, RL8/1, I Fliegerkorps, ‘Befehl zum Angriff auf Hafenanlagen in Loge’, 6 Sept 1940.

  101. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 21 Sept 1940. This was the phenomenon of ‘Abgeflogensein’ – to be averse to flying – observed among crew who had had no previous psychiatric response to combat.

  102. Ibid., f.500, o.725168, d.527, KBK-Tagesbericht, Kriegserlebnis, 7 Sept 1940, ‘Ein Feueurgürtel lodert um London’, 1, ‘Unternehmen: Vergeltung’, 1.

  103. Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, 309, 316.

  104. KTB/OKW: Band 1, Teilband 1, 76, entry for 14 Aug 1940.

  105. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 70–71, 73; Adolf Galland, The First and the Last (London: 1955), 45.

  106. On German estimates see KTB/OKW: Band 1, Teilband 1, 60, 67, 86. Not only was Fighter Command assumed to have around 300 aircraft left, it was wrongly claimed that squadron strength had been reduced from 12–15 down to 5–7 planes.

  107. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 71.

  108. Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, 390–91.

  109. Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, 410, entry for 24 Nov 1940.

  110. NARA, RG 332, Box 115, interrogation of Wilhelm Keitel [n.d.], 11–12.

  111. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, Jagdgeschwader 3, Erfahrungsbericht, 12 Nov 1940, ‘Bombenwerfen der Jäger’.

  112. Sönke Neitzel, Der Einsatz der deutschen Luftwaffe über dem Atlantik und der Nordsee 1939–1945 (Bonn: 1995), 55–6.

  113. Ibid., 85. See too K. Poolman, Focke-Wulf Condor: Scourge of the Atlantic (London: 1978), chs 10–11. On the shipping campaign see BA-MA RL2 IV/48, Luftwaffe Generalstab Studie, ‘Zusammenarbeit Marine-Luftwaffe im Seekrieg gegen England’, 28 Feb 1944, 2–7. ‘All possibilities offered by the bombing war must be placed unreservedly in the service of the campaign against tonnage.’

  114. Calculated from Neitzel, Einsatz über dem Atlantik, 68.

  115. Ibid., 70, 73.

  116. Calculated from BA-MA, RL2 IV/27, Bechtle lecture, Anlage, ‘Grossangriffe bei Nacht gegen Lebenszentren Englands, 12.8.1940–26.6.1941’.

  117. NARA, RG 332 Box 115, Keitel interrogation, 12. ‘A great quantity of motor vehicles and equipment came from America and so the war was continued through attacks on these harbours.’

  118. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.110, Luftwaffe Operations Staff, ‘Die britische Fliegertruppe’, 14 Jan 1941, 10–11.

  119. Ibid., f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Taktische Feindnachrichten Nr. 11’, 9 Nov 1940.

  120. BA-MA, RL2 IV/33, ‘Luftkrieg gegen England: Weisungen und Befehle’, 7 Nov 1940.

  121. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Taktische Feindnachrichten Nr 15’, II Fliegerkorps, 1 Dec 1940, 1–2. On morale see IWM, Italian Series (Air Force), Box 14, 2547, OKL Ic Report, ‘Wirkung deutscher Luftangriffe auf England’, 1.

  122. Calculated from TNA, HO 191/11, MHS, ‘Statement of Civilian Casualties to 31 May 1945’, 31 July 1945.

  123. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Taktische Feindnachrichten Nr 11’, 3.

  124. TNA, HO 186/669, Meteorological Office, ‘The Frequency with which aimed Bombing can be carried out during daytime’, Aug 1937; ‘Note on possible use of smoke for camouflage’, 1 June 1938.

  125. TNA, WO 208/3506, Air Intelligence (k), Report 341, ‘Report on Four He111’s of K. Gr. 100’, 22 June 1941; TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.15, London map, target areas for Fliegerkorps 3 and 4, July 1940; 725168/17, London map, target areas for Fliegerkorps 1 and 2, July 1940. The full target intelligence maps can be seen in the IWM Archive at Duxford. See e.g. the materials for ‘Zielstammkarte: Ort: Manchester-Clifton-Junction’, prepared in October 1939, which include two maps and two large photographs, each clearly marked in red with captions for specific targets.

  126. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.14, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 11 Jan 1941, 2–4.

  127. TNA, AIR 40/288, A.I.9, ‘The Blitz’, 14 Aug 1941, 1, 5.

  129. On this and declining use of beams see TNA, AIR 41/17, AHB Narrative, ‘The Air Defence of Great Britain: vol III, June 1940–December 1941’, 113–14.

  128. On training see TNA, AIR 20/335, RAF Wireless Intelligence Periodical Summary, 16 Sept 1940, assessing material on German navigation training courses. On the beams, R. V. Jones, Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945 (London: 1978), 96–110.

  130. TNA, PREM 3/22/4, Sinclair to Churchill, 22 July 1941; Sinclair to Churchill, 13 Nov 1941.

  131. TNA, AIR 41/46, ‘No 80 Wing, RAF: Historical Report 1940–1945’, 20–22.

  132. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.14, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 14 Nov 1940, 7–8.

  133. Ibid., ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 11 Jan 1941, 3; 8 May 1941, 3–4.

  134. TNA, PREM 3/22/4b, ‘Radio Countermeasures’, Periodical Report 8, 25 Oct 1940. On the history of Trent Park
see AIR 40/1177, ADI (K), ‘Intelligence from Interrogation’, 31 Dec 1945.

  135. TNA, WO 208/3506, ‘X-Gerät’ interrogations, Special Extract 46.

  136. Ibid., Special Extract 54, 11 Oct 1940 on London; Special Extract 52, 8 Oct 1940.

  137. AHB Translations, vol 5, VII/92, German Aircraft Losses Jan–Dec 1941; vol 7, VII/107, Luftwaffe Strength and Serviceability Tables. Kesselring remark from NC, Cherwell papers, G27, Sholto Douglas to Lindemann, 17 Dec 1940, reporting a POW interrogation.

  138. IWM, Milch documents, MD 62/5177, ‘Monatliche Ausbringungszahlen 1941’; BAB RL3/162, Lieferplan Nr. 18, 1 July 1940. See too Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie, 705.

  139. BAB, RL3/350, GL Amt to Jeschonnek, 7 Mar 1941.

  140. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, Fliegerkorpsarzt, Fliegerkorps II, ‘Frontfliegerfahrungsberichte’, 29 Nov 1940, 1–5.

  141. Ibid., f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Bericht eines Amerikaners am 23.10’, 7 Nov 1940; Luftflottenkommando 2, Operations Staff Report, 28 Nov 1940.

  142. Ibid., f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Tagesbefehl: Reichsmarschall Göring’, 23 Nov 1940.

  143. TNA, AIR 16/380, notes of a conference at the Air Ministry, 18 Oct 1940.

  144. PArch, Beaverbrook papers, BBK/D/328, Note, ‘Balloon Barrages – Lethal Devices’, 28 Aug 1940.

  145. Anthony Cooper, Anti-Aircraft Command 1939–1945: The Other Forgotten Army (Fleet Hargate, Lincs.: 2004), 68; Frederick Pile, Ack-Ack: Britain’s Defence against Air Attack during the Second World War (London: 1949), 144–5.

  146. TNA, AIR 41/17, ‘Air Defence of Great Britain: Volume III’, 113; Dobinson, AA Command, 279–81.

  147. TNA, PREM 3/22/1, Note for Churchill from the Night Air Defence Committee, 25 June 1941; Cooper, Anti-Aircraft Command, 74–5.

  148. Pile, Ack-Ack, 172–3.

  149. TNA, PREM 3/22/4B, Portal to Churchill, 5 Nov 1940; HO 186/391, Civil Defence Committee memorandum, 5 Aug 1940.

  150. Donald Brown, Somerset Against Hitler: Secret Operations in the Mendips 1939–1945 (Newbury: 1999), 173–7.

  151. TNA, AIR 41/46, No 80 Wing, Historical Report, 25–6.

  152. TNA, HO 186/391, Camouflage Committee meeting, 20 June 1940; HO 191/1, Camouflage Advisory Panel, minutes of meeting 21 Oct 1939.

  153. HHC, TSCD/41, Air Raids Committee minutes, 9 Sept 1939; Works Committee, ‘Camouflage of Concrete Roads’, 19 Mar 1941.

  154. TNA, AIR 16/113, D. Pye to Dowding, 24 Apr 1939; B. Dickens, ‘Note on a visit to RAF Bawdsey, 17 May 1940’; AIR 20/2419, Sir Henry Tizard, ‘Technical Aids to Night Fighting’, 8 May 1941, 7.

  155. TNA, PREM 3/22/1, Lindemann to Churchill, 2 Oct 1940; ‘Report of Meeting on Night Air Defence’, 7 Oct 1940, 3; AIR 20/2419, Douglas note, 8 Oct 1940; AIR 16/524, ‘Progress Report of AO C-in-C Fighter Command 10 May–18/19 June 1941’, 4.

  156. NC, Cherwell papers, G174/5, D. R. Pye to Lindemann, 18 Nov 1939; G175, memorandum by the First Sea Lord, ‘Coal Dust for Camouflaged Coastline’, 9 Aug 1941; MHS, REDept, ‘Note on the Screening of Water by Coal Dust Filters’, 17 Apr 1941.

  157. TNA, AIR 16/387, Air Ministry to Dowding, 14 Sept 1940; Air Council recommendations, 17 Sept 1940.

  158. TNA, AIR 16/387, Dowding to Harold Balfour, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Air, 27 Sept 1940; minutes of meeting, 1 Oct 1940; Dowding to Churchill, 8 Oct 1940.

  159. TNA, AIR 16/380, Dowding to all Fighter Command Groups, 9 Oct 1940; Director of Home Operations to Dowding, 18 Oct 1940; Dowding to Director of Home Operations, 4 Nov 1940.

  160. TNA, PREM 4/3/6, Irene Ward to Bracken, encl. memorandum, ‘A weak link in the nation’s defences’, 3.

  161. PArch, Beaverbrook papers, BBK/D/32, Dowding to Sinclair, 14 Oct 1940; Dowding to Sinclair, 9 Oct 1940.

  162. Sebastian Ritchie, ‘A Political Intrigue Against the Chief of the Air Staff: The Downfall of Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall’, War & Society, 16 (1998), 83–104.

  163. TNA, PREM 3/22/1, Salmond to Churchill, 5 Oct 1940.

  164. TNA, AIR 16/622, Douglas to Portal, 6 Dec 1940; Portal to Douglas, 8 Dec 1940; Douglas to Balfour, 14 Dec 1940; Douglas to group headquarters, Fighter Command, 30 Jan 1941.

  165. TNA, PREM 3/22/3, Sinclair to Churchill, 15 Nov 1940; Sinclair to Churchill, 13 July 1941; AIR 41/17, ‘Air Defence of Great Britain: Volume III’, App 8.

  166. Details on GCI radar in Dobinson, Building Radar, 367–73.

  167. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.107, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 7 Mar 1941, 2.

  168. Ibid., ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, 4 July 1941, 1–2.

  169. TNA, AIR 8/463, ‘Present and Future Strength of the German Air Force’ [n.d. but Oct 1940]; AHB Translations, vol 7, VII/107, Luftwaffe Strength and Serviceability Tables.

  170. NC, Cherwell papers, G25, ‘Comparative strengths of the German and British air forces’, 7 Dec 1940, 1.

  171. Ibid., F125, Lindemann to Churchill, 4 Jan 1941.

  172. TNA, AIR 8/463, Portal to Churchill, 18 Feb 1941 and 20 Mar 1941.

  173. TNA, PREM 3/88/3, Churchill to Gen. Ismay, 26 Dec 1940.

  174. PArch, Beaverbrook papers, BBK/D/32, Sinclair to Beaverbrook, 1 Sept 1940; Beaverbrook to Sinclair, 3 Oct 1940; Sinclair to Beaverbrook, 22 Oct 1940; minute for Churchill, 19 Apr 1941.

  175. BA-MA, RL2 IV/33, Angriff auf England: Materialsammlung, ‘Durchführung – Erfolg: April 1941’.

  176. FCNA, 179, Directive No 23, ‘Basic Principles of the Prosecution of the War against British War Economy’; Boog et al, DRZW: Band 7, 327.

  177. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.112, Operations Staff, ‘Unterlagen für Luftangriffe auf britische Häfen und Anlagen der Rüstungsindustrie’, 25 Jan 1941.

  178. Ibid., f.500, o.725168, d.110, Operations Staff, Report on British targets, 27 Jan 1941, 2.

  179. John Duggan, Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich (Dublin: 1985), 138–41; Clair Wills, That Neutral Island: A History of Ireland during the Second World War (London: 2007), 208–9, 212.

  180. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 93–4; BA-MA, RL2 IV/33, ‘Durchführung – Erfolg: April 1941’; on Italian opera see Harry Flannery, Assignment to Berlin (London: 1942), 163–4.

  181. BA-MA, RL2 IV/27, Bechtle lecture, 2 Apr 1944, 5–6; Collier, Defence of the United Kingdom, 503–5, App xxx.

  182. BA-MA, RL2 IV/33, ‘Durchführung – Erfolg: April 1941’; losses calculated from AHB Translations, vol 5, VII/92, German Aircraft Losses (West) Jan–Dec 1941.

  183. BA-MA, RL2 IV/28, ‘Weisung für die Luftkriegführung gegen England, 16.3.1941’.

  184. BA-MA, RL2 IV/27, Bechtle lecture, 6–8; RL2 IV/28, ‘Weisung 3.7.1941’ and ‘Weisung 30.7.1941’; RL2 IV/33, ‘Durchführung – Erfolg: Juni 1941’.

  185. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 79. Overheard in conversation with army leaders Franz Halder and Walter von Brauchitsch.

  186. TNA, AIR 20/8693, Testimony of Hermann Göring, 6 Apr 1946, 13.

  187. FCNA, 177–8, Conference with Führer, 4 Feb 1941.

  188. Hubatsch, Hitlers Weisungen, 119; on the naval war see Neitzel, Der Einsatz der deutschen Luftwaffe, 50–51.

  189. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 84, 103; quotation in Eberle, Uhl (eds), The Hitler Book, 69, from a reported conversation in March 1941. See too Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 133–4: ‘As soon as the campaign in the East was over, the “siege” was to be resumed in full force.’

  190. FDRL, President’s Secretary’s Files, Box 34, ‘Great Britain Military Situation’, reports to the president, Sept–Dec 1940.

  191. Martin van Creveld, Hitler’s Strategy 1940–1941: The Balkan Clue (Cambridge: 1973), 27–30; von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 77; Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 127–30.

  192. Ivan Maisky, Memoirs of a Soviet Ambassador (London: 1967), 104, 109–10: ‘Hitler cherished much more serious plans,’ wrote Maisky, ‘he wanted to conquer Britain.’ For the Soviet view, Pavel Sevostyanov, Before the Nazi Invasion: Soviet Diplomacy in September 1939–June 19
41 (Moscow: 1984), 137–43.

  193. AHB Translations, vol 2, VII/28, ‘A Survey of German Air Operations 1939–1944’, 21 Sept 1944, 4–5.

  194. Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, vol 4, 720, entry for 28 June 1941.

  195. TsAMO, f.500, o.725168, d.527, ‘Bericht eines Amerikaners am 23.10’, 7 Nov 1940.

  196. Ibid., 7 Nov 1940, 3.

  197. Michael Postan, British War Production (London: 1957), 484–5; Maier, ‘Luftschlacht’, 402–4.

  198. NC, Cherwell papers, G181, ‘Bombing of London in September, October and November’.

  199. Royal Society, London, Blackett papers, PB/4/4, ‘Operational Research: Recollections of Problems Studied, 1940–1945’, 100; ‘Effects of Bombing Policy’, paper for the JIC, Apr 1942; casualty figures from TNA, HO 191/11, ‘Statement of Civilian Casualties in the United Kingdom’, 31 July 1945.

  200. TNA, AIR 40/288, Air Intelligence, ‘The Blitz’, 14 Aug 1941, App A, Table 1, ‘Effects of Blitz’.

  201. NARA, RG 107, Box 138, MHS Report, ‘German Bombing of Britain’, 31 May 1942, 3–5.

  202. TNA, AIR 41/17, ‘Air Defence of Great Britain: Volume III’, App 1, ‘Summary of Damage to Key Points 1940 and 1941’, 2–4.

  203. Ibid., App A, ‘Morale’, 1.

  204. Cooper, Anti-Aircraft Command, 74–5.

  205. Calculated from Terence O’Brien, Civil Defence (London: 1955), 690, App x.

  206. TNA, HO 187/1156, ‘Manpower in the National Fire Service: Historical Survey’.

  207. Gavin Bailey, ‘Aircraft for Survival: Anglo-American Aircraft Diplomacy 1938–42’, PhD thesis, Dundee University 2010, 162–8; on British fighter strength, TNA, AIR 20/313, Note, 9 Jan 1941.

  208. BA-MA, RL2 IV/30, Maj. Leythehauser lecture, 14 Feb 1944, 5–6, 19–20.

  209. BA-B, RL3/157, ‘Plan Elch: 13.8.1941’; RL3/146, ‘Göring-Flugzeug-Lieferplan’, 15 Sept 1941; IWM, FD 5450/45, ‘Expanded Air Armament Programme’, 6 July 1941. See too Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie, 715–21. The special order for aircraft production was backdated to 22 June 1941, the opening day of Barbarossa.

  210. Richard Overy, ‘From “Uralbomber” to “Amerikabomber”: The Luftwaffe and Strategic Bombing’, The Journal of Strategic Studies, 1 (1978), 169–70. For the Azores see FCNA, 199, Conference with the Führer, 22 May 1941; James Duffy, Target America: Hitler’s Plan to Attack the United States (Guilford, CT: 2006), 51–5, 126–9.