The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol, England by the Nazi Germany Luftwaffe during the Second World War. John Penny, Luftwaffe Operations over Bristol 1940/44 (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 85, 1995), 24 pp. Due to the presence of Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company, the city was a target for bombing and was easily found as enemy bombers were able to trace a course up the River Avon from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the waters, into the heart of the city. Bristol was the fifth-most The Blitz British city of the war.
The Luftwaffe conducted six major bombing campaigns on Bristol between November 1940 and April 1941, causing Bristol to experience 548 air raid alerts and 77 air raids with:
To counter the raids, Bristol's defenders developed an air defence system that increased in size and sophistication during the course of the war; local heavy anti-aircraft guns fired c. 59,000 rounds at attacking aircraft during the conflict. John Penny, The Air Defence of the Bristol Area 1937-44 (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 90, 1997), p. 1.
On 24 November 1940, Luftflotte 3 bombers left Germany to bomb Bristol. The attack started at 6:30 pm and continued in waves. Groups of two or three bombers passed over Bristol and dropped in total around 12,000 incendiary bombs and 160 tons of high-explosive bombs; within an hour over 70 fires had started. Park Street was "smashed" and the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery hit, 207 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged.Page 86 Blitz over Britain by Edwin Webb and John Duncan, 1990, The area that is now Castle Park was extensively damaged. The Jacobean St Peter's Hospital was destroyed, and the 17th century Timber framing Dutch House was damaged and subsequently demolished. Four of Bristol's ancient churches (St Peter's, the interior of St Nicholas, St Mary-le-Port and Temple Church) were also badly damaged. St James' Presbyterian Church 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 7 December 1940, bombs hit a Bristol to Salisbury train, killing several passengers including a number of soldiers.
One of the common types of bomb dropped on the city was a canister containing many incendiaries (locally known as Goering's Bread Basket – from the Molotov bread basket device); these caused numerous fires and were designed to cause panic amongst the citizens, and stretch the fire services to their limits.
The last raid on Bristol was on 15 May 1944.
Bristol was in danger of being hit by V-1 flying bombs, and by the A4/V2 rockets, whose launching platforms had already been built on the Cotentin peninsula in France in 1944. However, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 saw these platforms quickly overrun and consequently no V1 or V2 landed on Bristol.
The first historical account of the Bristol Blitz was published in January 1945, as thoughts turned to how best to rebuild the city after the war. Elizabeth Ralph, Harold G. Brown & Paul Redmayne, English City: the growth and future of Bristol (University of London Press, Jan. 1945), pp. 74-87.
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