On September 7, was the first mass attack on London. This, said Goering, is the historical time in which our air force struck their first blows in the heart of the enemy. This attack was carried out between 5 and 6 pm. About 320 bombers, escorted by more than six hundred fighters, came along the river Thames and bombed the arsenal at Woolwich, Beckton refinery, Dockland, the power plant at West Ham, the city center, Westminster and Kensington. Large fires were caused by the attack, and the population of Silvertown had to be evacuated by river. At 20.10, over 250 bombers approached, the attack continued until 4:30 in the morning. Among the civilian population was 430 deaths and about 1,600 people seriously injured. The London Fire Brigade fought all day to quell the fires. At 19:30 on the 8th, two hundred other bombers appeared, who, guided by the flames, made the Blitz.
For 23 consecutive days, the Luftwaffe kept the pressure. U.S. observers were impressed with the way Londoners accepted the situation. It is almost unbelievable, reported Helen Kirkpatrick, Chicago Daily News (September 9), see how people are relatively calm after this terrible experience. There is a certain amount of terror, but not on the scale expected by the Germans and certainly not on a scale that makes the English think of anything else but to continue the fight. The fear is mixed to the point with a deep, almost uncontrollable rage, which is difficult to know where one ends and the other begins feeling. The number of casualties, although high, was never as intense as the disciples of Douhet hoped .
The biggest day of the attacks occurred on September 15 and the intense struggles between London and Dover Strait cost the Germans 56 devices. This was the climax of the battle.The increasing number of casualties was beginning to decrease the power of the Luftwaffe. The bombers left to act during the day around 5 October. The attacks, carried out by fighter-bombers (Messerschmitt 110), with a large escort, flying about 914 meters tall and each carrying only two pumps were never very impressive. At the end of the month, the Battle of Britain ended.
On 12 October, Hitler canceled Operation Sea Lion because the Luftwaffe had failed to establish conditions for the Germans succeeded in crossing the Channel. This attempt cost theLuftwaffe 1733 handsets. It was a great British victory, one of the decisive battles of World War II. And was not easily won. Although the battle itself is over, the shelling continued overnight. London, Southampton, Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Coventry, Birmingham and Exeter were among the cities that were attacked. Many civilians died, but the attacks against the cities only served to emphasize that the Germans had failed to achieve its real goal - the destruction of the RAF.
The RAF countered the Ruhr, the refineries in West Germany and Berlin. Goering's statement to the effect that a British plane would never appear on the territory of the Reich proved to be false. The Italians did not escape unscathed. In autumn, the RAF flew over the Alps to bomb Milan and Turin. We can not say that the bombardment during this phase of the war diminished in some way its duration. The damage caused to relatively small arms industry were quickly repaired on both sides. The morale of the civilian population failed to be sufficiently affected to cause concern to the government. The government of Winston Churchill through the Emergency Powers Act, had taken control over the lives and possessions of the British population, an attitude which, being more subtle, no less serious than the iron control exercised by a dictator or fascist nazi . The year 1940, which witnessed the greatest triumph of Hitler, had come to an end. It was no longer heresy to question the German invincibility. It is true that Senator Burton K. Wheeler said this year's Christmas in the United States were hurting a lot Britain, encouraging the country to continue and fight until exhaustion ... There was not a single official of sound mind, he said, he believed that Britain would be able to land troops on German territory. And even that our advertisers are able to involve us in war ... I doubt that the joint efforts of Britain and the United States can succeed in this project.
The english version of this article will be available soon. In the meanwhile, the text above was the result of a Google translation from portuguese version to english.
