Part of the Strategic bombing campaign of World War II
Bomb-damaged buildings and the remains of St Mary le Port church (left) viewed from the south east, following bombing of the area now known as Castle Park
Date
1940–1941
Location
Bristol
Result
Bristol heavily damaged by German air raids
Belligerents
Nazi Germany
United Kingdom
Casualties and losses
Unknown
1,299 killed, 1,303 injured
v
t
e
The Blitz (1940–1941)
The Blitz
Belfast
Birmingham
Bournemouth
Bristol
Cardiff
Clydebank
Coventry
Dublin
Hull
Graveney Marsh
Leeds
Liverpool
Manchester
Plymouth
Portsmouth
Sheffield
Southampton
Swansea
The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol, England by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during the Second World War.[1] 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 heavily-bombed British city of the war.[2]
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:
919 tons of high-explosive bombs plus many thousands of incendiary bombs dropped in clusters
1,299 people killed, 1,303 seriously injured and 697 rescued from the debris of bombed buildings
89,080 buildings damaged including 81,830 houses destroyed and over 3,000 rendered unusable and later demolished.[3]
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.[4]
^John Penny, Luftwaffe Operations over Bristol 1940/44 (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 85, 1995), 24 pp.
^"Overview". Bristol Blitzed. Archived from the original on 17 May 2007. Retrieved 7 March 2007.
^Blitz over Britain by Edwin Webb and John Duncan 1990, page 90
^John Penny, The Air Defence of the Bristol Area 1937-44 (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 90, 1997), p. 1.
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centre: Bristol 1940-45". Replanning the blitzed city centre. Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15633-9. "Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Bristol". Bristol City...
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Global Information
Nazi Germany
United Kingdom