The Blitz was a massive bombing of Great Britain that began in 1940. Usually, it is imagined as if it was only about London, as the Luftwaffe pilots bombed this city particularly brutally. However, other large cities also suffered significant losses. The second most affected city was Liverpool. Learn more at liverpoolyes.com.
Why did they choose Liverpool?
Liverpool is located in the north-west of Great Britain. Thus, the distance from the coast of France, where the planes took off, to this city is almost three times longer than the one to London. Each pilot had to fly more than one hundred kilometres to reach Liverpool. They risked being shot down by anti-aircraft defences every minute. The distance was huge and required the maximum capabilities of German aircraft without the right to make a mistake. So, why did the German command take such a risk?
The fact is that Liverpool was the most important port on the west coast of Great Britain. During the war years, more than 80% of imported military goods, mainly from the United States, passed through it. Ships with food and other cargo came here on the River Mersey every week. England wouldn’t be able to conduct military operations without those supplies. In addition, the city was a significant industrial centre and a serious naval base.
The first raids
Liverpool suffered from the first raid in August 1940. More than a hundred bombers flew over the city and that was just the beginning. About 50 more raids were carried out by the end of the year. Some of them lasted a few minutes, while others lasted more than ten hours. Sometimes, only a few planes participated in the raids, but there were cases when there were hundreds of them.
The most terrible raids took place before Christmas. At the end of December, the city was bombed every night. As a result, many important objects were blown up, including the port building, the underground and a department store. There were recorded cases of bombs directly hitting residential buildings and bomb shelters. That part of the campaign was called the Christmas Blitz.
The May Blitz
However, the most intense raids were carried out a few months after the first ones. In May, Luftwaffe pilots attacked Liverpool and the surrounding area for eight days without a break. 70,000 residents were left homeless, 1,900 were killed and 1,450 were seriously injured. City roads were blocked, half of the port infrastructure was disabled and hundreds of fires broke out in the streets.
The volume of cargo handled in the ports was significantly reduced. Two main power stations and all main telephone lines were badly damaged.
The German pilots allegedly aimed their strikes at industrial facilities, but their pinpoint nature clearly indicated that civilian buildings were also targets. For example, the Mill Road Infirmary suffered a massive attack as well. That raid killed 85 people, including pregnant women, babies and their mothers.
The Times wrote that Germans called their attack the most powerful in the entire campaign against England. It involved several hundred aircraft. Since visibility was excellent, missiles hit a large number of objects, such as industrial and food warehouses, docks, barges, ships, business centres, shops and churches. During the May Blitz, about 800 tons of explosives and more than 100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Liverpool.
The end of the Blitz
In the following months, air raids became less frequent, as the army of the Third Reich invaded the Soviet Union and all the main forces of the German command were thrown in that direction. The last raid was on January 10, 1942. Then German bombs destroyed the houses on Upper Stanhope Street. One of them, numbered 102, belonged to Adolf Hitler’s half-brother, Alois Hitler Jr. The house was never rebuilt and its entire grounds were eventually overgrown with grass and brush.
Damages and losses
Today, one of the most vivid objects recalling the German air attacks is St Luke’s Church. Its outer shell was burned by an incendiary bomb. The church is still located in the centre of Liverpool as a reminder of what the city had to endure during the May Blitz. Later, the building turned into a kind of memorial garden and was preserved to commemorate the thousands of local residents who died from German bombs.
Liverpool’s other significant architectural losses include the Liverpool Museum, the Customs House, Lewis’s department store and the Bluecoat Chambers. One of the bombs also hit the Anglican Cathedral. At that time, it was partially built. The projectile bounced off, causing significant damage to the surrounding structures. In total, more than 180,000 houses were damaged and about 10,000 were completely destroyed. As a result, a huge number of citizens were left homeless. About 7,000 residents were seriously injured and more than 4,000 were killed during the Blitz.
The Liverpool Blitz is one of the most destructive campaigns of the Second World War. This is a terrible page in the history of the city, which will remain in the memory of its residents forever.