Ground the British air force in time for ‘Sealion’. That day a record 56 Luftwaffe planes were brought down. Hitler twice postponed making a final decision on whether or not to go ahead before making his decision day 17 September. As the day dawned, London was smoking. But the Luftwaffe had paid a heavy price for the privilege of setting alight this
THE FEW
‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’
(Winston Churchill after the Battle of Britain.)
Historic capital, and the planes of the Royal Air Force were not only still challenging their fighters but also found time to bombard the Channel ports where the German invasion fleet was based.
Hitler had no option but to call off ‘Sealion’ indefinitely. The Battle of Britain was won and the stout little island was safe from invasion. That meant renewed hope for occupied Europe, for without Britain from which to mount an attack on Hitler’s Nazi empire there would have been barely a flicker of opportunity for liberation. Churchill’s words of praise and thanks for the gallant RAF, spoken back in August, echoed through the free world. ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’
Yet the ordeal went on for both the men of the RAF and the people of Britain. Luftwaffe attacks continued unabated. London was attacked for 76 nights in succession and failed to enjoy much more than a few hours of eerie peace until the middle of 1941.
Anti-aircraft guns boomed in answer to the rain of bombs. There was little chance of them hitting their target. Only 75 aircraft were brought down by anti-aircraft shells - when the Luftwaffe flew about 12,000
The Fuhrer flew Into a three-day rage when his deputy, Rudolph Walter Richard Hess, flew to Britain to make peace. A full day after the flight from Germany in a Messerschmitt 110 fighter aircraft, German radio explained away the demoralising desertion by claiming Hess was suffering from hallucinations.
British intelligence chiefs, meanwhile, were similarly at a loss to know what to make of the ace pilot who had been a loyal member of the Nazi party since 1920. On 10 May 1941, when he came down to earth at the end of a parachute and suffered a broken ankle, he claimed he had an important message for the Duke of Hamilton, This message was, apparently, a peace formula which would end the conflict between Britain and Germany.
High-ranking British officers and Churchill himself would not hear of making peace by the back door. Nevertheless, they were reluctant to trumpet the capture of such a key Nazi, Were they being duped by Hitler? Was there a further dimension to this unexpected prize which had fallen into their laps?
Even today, no one can tell whether Hess was demented at the scale of the bloodshed and hatched his plan to end the war accordingly; whether he discussed the plan with Hitler who wished to secure peace with Britain before invading Russia; or whether it was in fact the real Hess who carried out the madcap caper. Years later there were claims that the man held by the Allies was in fact an imposter, dispatched by Himmler or Goring after the murder of Hess.
What remains certain is that the man who fell to earth that night in 1941 was tried as a war criminal at Nuremberg, sentenced to life imprisonment and incarcerated at Spandau prison in Germany for 4& years until his death, apparently by suicide.
RUDOLPH HESS
Sorties over Britain. Post-war investigation proved that for every bomber shot down by an anti-aircraft gun in September 1940 the gun had to expend an enormous 20,000 rounds. Results did improve and by February 1941 the figure was down to 3,000. Still, the knowledge that something was being done was at least a small comfort to the population.
Goring also turned his attention to other British cities. Perhaps his aim was to eliminate great industrial centres and not simply to mete out punishment to British civilians. In fact, the lack of accuracy among bombers of the age ensured that civilians were foremost among the casualties.
In Coventry, 568 people were killed on 14 November 1940 when
Cicrman bombers opened their doors and let 4 50 tons of bombs drop on the city. Its historic cathedral was ruined. Birmingham, Manchester, Hxeter, Shetlield, Liverpool, Cardiff, Swansea,’ Bath, Plymouth, Ipswich, Norwich, Southampton, Sunderland, Hull, Middlesborough and Canterbury all also received a battering.
Countless thousands of people were made homeless by these air raids, being left only with the clothes they stood up in. During the worst of them which occurred in December 1940 and May 1941 in London, the firefighters ran out of water as they fought hundreds of blazes and were left with little option but to let them rage on. On 10 May 1941 550 German bombers unleashed 700 tons of high explosives and thousands of incendiaries, killing 1,436 people and destroying 700 acres of city. Just 14 of the attackers were brought down.
World History
