The Bombing War: Europe 1939–1945

by Richard Overy

  217. TNA, AIR 40/288, ‘The Blitz’, App A, ‘Morale’, 1.

  218. MO-A, TC15/1/A, ‘Demolition in London 1941’, 23–4, 40–45, 47. Air marshal story in Newcastle University Special Collections, Twentieth-Century Pamphlets, Box 7, Tom Harrisson, ‘Mass Observation’, World Review, Aug 1940, 66.

  219. Gallup, Gallup International Polls, 37, 43. A good example of a diary is Helen Millgate (ed), Mr. Brown’s War: A Diary of the Second World War (Stroud: 1999), 63–75. Also Jesse, Harwood, While London Burns, where news of bombing in letters to their American friends ebbs away after October.

  220. TWA, DX 52/1, minute book, Percy Crescent and Cockburn Terrace Fire-Fighting Scheme, North Shields, meetings of 2 Feb, 4 Feb, 6 Feb, 12 Feb 1941; Fire-Watching Rotas, 1941, 1943, 1944.

  221. HHC, TSCD/4, ‘Coventry Conference for ARP Controllers’, 17 Dec 1940, 2.

  222. TNA, HO 186/608, ‘Notes for the Guidance of Area Commands’, 26 Nov 1940.

  223. Ibid., AIR 40/288, ‘The Blitz’, App A, ‘Morale’, 1.

  224. Ibid., 1; TWA, MD-NC/276/3, Office of Northern Regional Commissioner memorandum, ‘Air Raid Damage’, 13 Mar 1941.

  225. TNA, HO 186/927, Regional Commissioner, South-West region, to all town clerks, ‘Intensive Air Attacks – Co-ordination of Services’, 20 Dec 1940.

  226. Brittain, England’s Hour, 123.

  227. Donnelly, Mrs. Milburn’s Diaries, 80–81, entry for 14 Jan 1941.

  228. UEA, Zuckerman Archive, OEMU/56/3, Report on Interview with Head Shelter Wardens of Lewisham Borough, Oct 1941, 3–4.

  229. Cited in Jalland, Death in War and Peace, 134–5.

  230. Julie Rugg, ‘Managing “Civilian Deaths Due to War Operations”: Yorkshire Experiences During World War II’, Twentieth Century British History, 15 (2004), 164–8.

  231. Cowles, Looking for Trouble, 439.

  232. TNA, AIR 40/288, ‘The Blitz’, 7–8; UEA, Zuckerman Archive, OEMU/57/3, draft report, ‘Birmingham’, 10 Jan 1942; Report prepared by Zuckerman and J. D. Bernal, ‘A Quantitative Study of the Total Effect of Air Raids’, 2 Apr 1942, 8.

  233. TNA, HO 186/608, minutes of meeting, 3 Dec 1940.

  234. MO-A, TC23 Box 11, File 11E, opinion poll, 2 Aug 1941; File 11/K, Warden posts general report, 13 June 1941.

  235. TWA, CB.SU/3/1, Sunderland ARP Committee, report on damage, 1 May 1942, 5 June 1942, 11 Oct 1942, 16 Oct 1942, 14 Mar 1943, 22 Mar 1943, 16 May 1943, 24 May 1943.

  236. TNA, HO 186/927, MHS, ‘Departmental Reports on Preparations for Heavy Attacks’, Aug 1941, 22–3.

  237. O’Brien, Civil Defence, 548–58, 690.

  238. TNA, HO 186/2315, LCC, ‘Note on Crash Raids’ [n.d. but Oct 1942], 3.

  239. TNA, PREM 3/27, Morrison and Bevin to Churchill, 9 Oct 1941; MH 76/491, London Civil Defence Region, Progress report on air-raid shelters, Dec 1941.

  240. HHC, TSA/CD/87, memorandum, Hull City Engineer, 22 Nov 1941; TSCD/41, meeting of Emergency Works Committee, 8 Apr 1942.

  241. HHC, TSA/CD/87, Ministry of Food, instructions to town clerks, 9 Aug 1941; TNA, HO 186/2347, City of Leicester: Emergency Feeding Scheme, July 1943.

  242. TNA, HO 199/140, Home Security Office, Bristol, report on bombing in Weston-super-Mare, 29 June 1942; Report re. Weston-super-Mare, 30 June 1942; MHS Report on the South-Western Region for the month of June 1942.

  243. TNA, HO 186/2315, Town Clerk Norwich to Eastern Regional Commissioner, 3 June 1942, ‘Memorandum in Connection with the Recent Raids on Norwich’, 1–4.

  244. UEA, Zuckerman Archive, OEMU 50/2/4, REDept, ‘Effects on Labour of Air Raids’, 19 Oct 1942, 1–5.

  245. TNA, HO 186/2315, Notes of meeting at Home Office, ‘Crash Raids’, 20 Oct 1942; ‘Mass Raids: an appreciation of Civil Defence under altered conditions of enemy action’, 9 Oct 1942.

  246. TNA, HO/2315, County Borough of East Ham, ‘Civil Defence Services: Modification in Tactical Dispositions in Case of Crash Raids’, 6 July 1943; Hodsoll (MHS) to Sir Edward Warner, 5 Nov 1943, ‘Crash Raiding’; draft report for Regional Commissioners, ‘Reporting of Damage Caused by Intensive Raids’ [n.d. but Dec 1943].

  247. TWA, MD-NC/276/5, Newcastle Fire Prevention Department, ‘Fire Guard Organisation’, 27 Apr 1943; Emergency Committee meeting minutes, 20 Sept 1943.

  248. HHC, TYW/1/A23, Hull ARP controller to chief warden, 25 Feb 1944; TYW/1/T2, Home Security circular, ‘Refresher Courses at Home Security Schools’.

  249. TWA, DX 1306/1, Tynemouth civil defence Musical and Dramatic Society minute book, 1943–4.

  250. Doherty, Post 381, 121–3.

  251. TNA, MH 79/500, MH minute, ‘Shelters – L.P.T.B. Tube Stations’, 2 Mar 1944; London Transport Board report, ‘Tube Shelters’, 29 Feb 1944; O’Brien, Civil Defence, 546–7.

  252. TNA, MH 79/500, MH minute, ‘Provision of Shelters – London Region’, 25 Feb 1944; London Transport Board report, ‘Tube Shelters’, 29 Feb 1944; ‘Air Raid Shelter Provision’, March 1944; London Tube Shelter Population, Feb to Oct 1944.

  253. TNA, HO 186/2944, London Civil Defence Region, ‘Reporting the First Flare by Civil Defence’, Mar 1944.

  254. Stebbing, Diary of a Decade, 243–52 (three entries only; on the one raid directly over Stebbing’s house he wrote that he was too lazy and too cold to get out of bed); Millgate (ed), Mr. Brown’s War, 205 (one entry on a raid in Feb).

  255. TNA, HO 186/2271, Note of a meeting at the Home Office, 7 July 1943; ‘Long Range Rocket: London Region Appreciation’, 16 July 1943.

  256. TNA, HO 186/2271, War Cabinet minutes, 3 Feb 1944; Churchill to Morrison, 13 Feb 1944.

  257. TNA, HO 186/2944, ‘London Regional Narrative: History of Operations in London Region’, 1945, 28; O’Brien, Civil Defence, 652–3.

  258. Hewison, Under Siege: Literary Life in London 1939–1945, 168; Stebbing, Diary of a Decade, 262–3.

  259. UEA, Zuckerman Archive, OEMU/59/13/1, Regional Information Office, ‘Flying Bomb Attack on London’, 12 July 1944, 1.

  260. Ibid., OEMU/59/13/3, MoI, ‘Effect of the Flying Bomb on Industrial Workers’, 1–2.

  261. Ibid., OEMU/59/13, British Institute of Public Opinion, survey third week of Aug 1944; ‘Effects of Rockets and Flying Bombs’ [n.d.]; MO-A, TC 23 File 12/E, observer report, London, 30 June 1944.

  262. Titmuss, Social Policy, 426–7.

  263. CCAC, Hodsoll papers, HDSL 5/4, ‘Review of Civil Defence 1944’, 2–7.

  264. TNA, HO 186/2299, ‘Lessons from Recent Raids: Flying Bomb’ [n.d.], 1.

  265. UEA, Zuckerman Archive, OEMU/59/9, MHS REDept, ‘Casualty Rate of Flying Bombs at Night’, 4 July 1944; ‘Flying Bombs: Casualties in London Region’, 20 Dec 1944.

  266. TNA, MH 79/500, London Tube Shelter Population, Feb–Oct 1944; HO 191/11, ‘Statement of Civilian Casualties’, 31 July 1945.

  267. MO-A, TC 23 File 12/G, some notes on reaction to V2, March 1945.

  268. UEA, Zuckerman Archive, OEMU/59/13, draft ‘Shelter Habits’, Table A, Table B. Numbers sheltering from rockets varied between 29 per cent of families with a private shelter to 0 per cent using public shelters with or without a family.

  269. TNA, MH 79/500, London Tube Shelter Population, Feb–Oct 1945; Titmuss, Social Policy, 428–9.

  270. HHC, TYP Pt I, War Damage Returns, Hull, 1939–45; TNA, HO 186/2944, London Region Narrative, 1945, 28. Total casualties in TNA, HO 191/11, ‘Statement of Civilian Casualties in the United Kingdom’, 31 July 1945.

  271. MO-A, TC 23 File 12/H, ‘The Lifting of the Blackout’, 28 Sept 1944; ‘A Note on Relaxation of the Blackout’, 17 Sept 1944; Wiggam, ‘The Blackout and the Idea of Community’, 54–5.

  272. TWA, MD-NC/276/5, Emergency Committee minutes, 31 July 1944; TSCD/41, ‘Report of City Engineer to Emergency Committee’, 22 Sept 1944. On reducing civil defence numbers see HHC, TYW/1/A23, Regional Commissioners to ARP Controllers, 14 Apr 1944; Hull ARP Controller to chief warden, 16 Aug 1944; minute ARP Controller, Hull, 28 Sept 1944; Home Office, North-Eastern region to Hull t
own clerk, 11 July 1947, ‘Collection and Disposal of Steel Shelter Material’; Home Office to town clerk, 6 Dec 1947. On London TNA, MEPO 2/6463, Sir Ernest Gowers to MP Commissioner Sir Philip Game, 16 July 1942; MP Commissioner to Westminster town clerk, ‘Shelters: Improper Use’, 13 Sept 1945.

  273. HHC, TYW/1/A-58, Home Office, Leeds to Hull town clerk, 14 June 1945.

  274. TNA, HO 207/226, Daily Tube Shelter Returns, 30 Jan, 9 Apr 1945; memorandum, ‘How the Tube Shelter Occupancy Figures Read for the Last Few Nights’, 8 May 1945.

  275. Royal Society, London Blackett papers, PB/4/4, Note on effects of bombing on civilian population, 15 Aug 1941, 3.

  4. THE UNTOLD CHAPTER: THE BOMBING OF SOVIET CITIES

  1. PArch, Balfour papers, BAL/1, Moscow Diary 1941, entries for 27–28 Sept, 2 Oct 1941.

  2. Alexander Werth, Moscow ’41 (London: 1944), 86, 93–5.

  3. Walter Citrine, In Russia Now (London: 1942), 55–6.

  4. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.297, Report on air attacks against Moscow between 21 July and 22 Aug 1941; Horst Boog et al., DRZW: Band 4: Der Angriff auf die Sowjetunion (Stuttgart: 1983), 692.

  5. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.443, report of MPVO HQ, air attacks on the territory of the Soviet Union, Jan–June 1942, 15–36.

  6. Richard Suchenwirth, Command and Leadership in the German Air Force: USAF Historical Studies, no. 174 (New York: 1969), 254, citing an intelligence briefing by Gen. Josef Schmid.

  7. Walther Hubatsch (ed), Hitlers Weisungen für die Kriegführung (Munich: 1965), 100, Directive no. 21, ‘Case Barbarossa’, 18 Dec 1940.

  8. LC, Spaatz papers, Box 134, Interrogation of Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, 10 May 1945, 10; UEA, Zuckerman Archive, SZ/BBSU/75/1, USAAF HQ, Air P/W Interrogation Detachment, Enemy Intelligence Summaries, Hermann Goering, 1 June 1945, 8.

  9. James Corum, Wolfram von Richthofen: Master of the German Air War (Lawrence, KS: 2008), 272–3.

  10. Andrew Brookes, Air War Over Russia (Hersham, Surrey: 2003), 67, citing Pravda for 6 Feb 1939.

  11. Leonid Kerber, Stalin’s Aviation Gulag: A Memoir of Andrei Tupolev and the Purge Era, ed Von Hardesty (Washington, DC: 1996), 5–13.

  12. Protivovozdushnaia oborona strany (1914–1995) (Moscow: 1998), 88–92.

  13. Brookes, Air War Over Russia, 31, 63.

  14. Protivovozdushnaia oborona strany, 92–104.

  15. Lt. Gen. Beregovoi, ‘Voiska VNOS PVO Strany v pervom periode voiny’, Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal, 7 (1975), 13–21; Gen. P. Batitsky, ‘Voiska protivovozduzhnoi oborony strany’, Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal, 8 (1967), 20–22.

  16. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.297, MPVO HQ, Operational Report, June 1941–Feb 1942, 1–9.

  17. F. Kagan, ‘The Evacuation of Soviet Industry in the Wake of “Barbarossa”: A Key to Soviet Victory’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 8 (1995), 396–8, 406; G. A. Kumanev, ‘The Soviet Economy and the 1941 Evacuation’, in Joseph L. Wieczynski (ed), Operation Barbarossa: The German Attack on the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941 (Salt Lake City, UT: 1993), 189, 191–3.

  18. RGAE, f.29, o.1, d.1792/1961, 2; Brookes, Air War Over Russia, 63–4.

  19. Olaf Groehler, Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland (Berlin: 1990), 160–61; Rolf-Dieter Müller, Der Bombenkrieg 1939–1945 (Berlin: 2004), 100.

  20. Harry Flannery, Assignment to Berlin (London: 1942), 271–2.

  21. Groehler, Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland, 164–5.

  22. Hubatsch (ed), Hitlers Weisungen, 164, Directive no. 33, 19 July 1941.

  23. Ibid., 173, Directive no. 34a, 12 Aug 1941. See too Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters 1939–45 (London: 1964), 186–8.

  24. Henrik Eberle, Matthias Uhl (eds), The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin (London: 2005), 77.

  25. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.297, MPVO HQ, Operational Report, June 1941–Feb 1942, 10–14.

  26. Von Hardesty, Ilya Grinberg, Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II (Lawrence, KS: 2012), 57–9, 68; Brookes, Air War Over Russia, 70.

  27. TsAMO, f.500, o.957971, d.425, Luftwaffe Operations Staff, Foreign Air Forces East, ‘SU-Grossgerät zur Flugabwehr’, 8 Mar 1944, 4–6.

  28. Boog et al., DRZW: Band 4, 692–3.

  29. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.297, MPUO HQ, Operational Report, June 1941–Feb 1942, 98.

  30. Corum, Wolfram von Richthofen, 272–4; David Glantz, The Siege of Leningrad 1941–1944: 900 Days of Terror (London: 2004), 47. Leningrad survived the ordeal, but was besieged for more than two years.

  31. Glantz, Siege of Leningrad, 72–3; Harrison Salisbury, The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (London: 1969), 297–8. Figures for German and Soviet aircraft from Ray Wagner (ed), The Soviet Air Force in World War II: The Official History (Newton Abbot: 1973), 48–52. The figures fluctuated a good deal over time and should be regarded as indicative only.

  32. Cited in Anna Reid, Leningrad: Tragedy of a City under Siege 1941–1944 (London: 2011), 139.

  33. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.443, MPVO HQ, Operational Report no. 2, Dec 1941 and Jan 1942, 1–3; Report no. 3, Feb 1942, 1; Report no. 5, Mar 1942; Report no. 9, Apr 1942; Report no. 50, June 1942, 1–2.

  34. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.297, MPVO HQ, Operations of the German Air Force over the territory of the USSR, 22 June 1941–22 July 1941.

  35. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.189, Reports on the enemy’s air raids over the territory of the USSR, 17 July 1941–Feb 1942, MPVO HQ, 1–3, 5–6; F.37878, 0.1, d.443, Report no. 9, Apr 1942.

  36. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.189, 9–11, Report from Lt. Penkov, Ivanovo region, to Major Sosulin, MPVO HQ, 13 Dec 1941; 54–7, Report for Col. Baskov, Operational Dept., MPVO, from Lt. Col. Starchenko, Rostov MPVO-NKVD.

  37. Ibid., 39–53, telegrams to MPVO HQ from Yaroslav region.

  38. P. Batitsky, ‘Voiska protivovozduzhnoi’ 20–22.

  39. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.445, Total number of hits on railroads from July–Dec 1941 to Jan–June 1942, 2; Summary of the enemy’s air raids on USSR’s railway facilities from 1 Jan to 1 July 1942, Report by Gen. Kovalev, Head of War Communications, 10–12, 15.

  40. TsAMO, f.500, 0.801858, d.218, German Air Force operations staff, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe, Nr. 19’, 5 Nov 1941, 10–12; ‘Bemerkungen Nr. 20’, 22 Jan 1942, 8–9.

  41. RGVA, f.37878, 0.1, d.445, Report by Gen. Kovalev, 6–7, 8, 12–13, 22, 25.

  42. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.443, MPVO HQ, Report no. 24, June 1942; Report no. 50, July 1942; f.37878, o.1, d.444, ‘Enemy aviation targeting railways and railway stations of the Soviet Union in May–July 1942’, 2–4.

  43. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.444, MPVO HQ, Report no. 68, 19 Aug 1942.

  44. Boris Voyetekhov, The Last Days of Sevastopol (London: 1943), 68–9, 71, 78–9.

  45. Joel Hayward, Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler’s Defeat in the East 1942–1943 (Lawrence, KS: 1998), 100–101, 110–17; Corum, Wolfram von Richthofen, 293–8.

  46. Brookes, Air War Over Russia, 90.

  47. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.438, 124, Stalingrad MPVO summative report of activities of enemy aviation in Aug 1942.

  48. TsAMO, f.500, o.725109, d.1080, Operational Staff, German Air Force, ‘Sowjetunion: Einzelbildunterlagen von Werken der Flugrüstungsindustrie, der Kraftwagen und Kampfwagenherstellung’, 1 Feb 1942; o.725168, d.386, ‘Übersicht der Archivunterlagen: Band 1: Rüstungsindustrie’.

  49. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.438, 125, Summative report, Aug 1942. See too Hardesty, Grinberg, Red Phoenix, 125, for Gen. Yeremenko’s vivid description of the damage done by the burning oil-storage tanks, which, as at Rotterdam, were responsible for much of the damage.

  50. Hayward, Stopped at Stalingrad, 188–9.

  51. A. H. Birse, Memoirs of an Interpreter (London: 1967), 148–9.

  52. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.444, MPVO HQ, Lt. Gen. Osokin, Military dispatches on the consequences of enemy air raids on the territory of the Soviet Union in Aug 1942, 17 Sept 1942; f.37878, o.1, d.438, 125, Summative report, Aug 1942. The figure was incomplet
e since some of the injured were drowned trying to cross to the east side of the river.

  53. Ibid., report for Sept 1942, 15 Oct 1942; report for Nov 1942, 1 Dec 1942.

  54. Williamson Murray, Luftwaffe: Strategy for Defeat 1933–1945 (London: 1985), 141–4.

  55. LC, Spaatz papers, Box 134, Interrogation of Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, 10 May 1945, 10.

  56. TsAMO, f.500, o.801858, d.218, German Air Force operations staff, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe, Nr. 19’, 5 Nov 1941, 11–12.

  57. Scott Palmer, Dictatorship of the Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia (Cambridge: 2006), 115–21.

  58. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.722, Lt. Col. Nechaev, MPVO HQ, ‘The state of the MPVO in People’s Commissariats of transport and industry at the time of the MPVO system transfer to the NKVD’, 24 Aug 1945.

  59. Ibid., 52, 57; Maj. Bychkov, MPVO HQ, ‘Organisational Structure of the MPVO during the War’, 12 July 1945.

  60. RGVA, f.37878, 0.1, d.189, Report on state of preparedness of the city of Kursk for Air Defence [n.d.].

  61. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.722, Col. M. Linin, Chief of Anti-Chemical Defence, MPVO, ‘Anti-Chemical Defence during the War’, 3 July 1945; Maj. Bychkov, MPVO HQ, ‘Organisational Structure of the MPVO’, 12 July 1945.

  62. Lennart Samuelson, Tankograd: The Formation of a Soviet Company Town: Cheliabinsk 1900–1950s (Basingstoke: 2011), 219.

  63. Ibid., 65–72; on Stalingrad, RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.189, Lt. Ageev (MPVO, Stalingrad station), ‘Operational review of the activities of MPVO headquarters and agencies in the Stalingrad region until 14 Jan 1942’.

  64. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.701, MPVO HQ, Lt. Gen. Osokin, ‘Report on the Activities of the GU MPVO/NKVD over the Period of the War to December 1 1944’, 6 Jan 1945; f.37878, 0.1, d.722, ‘Organisational Structure of the MPVO’, 74–81.

  65. RGVA, f.37878, o.1, d.722, 10, ‘Financial systems of the MPVO’ [n.d.].

  66. Ibid., f.37878, o.1, d.701, ‘Report on the Activities of GU MPVO/NKVD over the Period of the War’, 6 Jan 1945; f.37878, 0.1, d.722, ‘Anti-Chemical Defence during the War’, 3 July 1945; ‘The State of the MPVO in People’s Commissariats’, 24 Aug 1945.