Britain during WW2

[chimney]

We've all heard over and over how London suffered during the war (i'm from the South East and I get fed up hearing about it) I'm interested to know the extent of damage that the war had on other places across Britain. Not enough coverage is given to the rest of Britain during the war. London is not the centre of the Universe!

[Lonnie]

Hi chimney, if your interesrd in this sort of thing, have a look at Malta, while not being in Britain, was British, in proportion, they suffered more than London did, and without their courage, the African war would have been lost.

[Catso]

Plymouth suffered very badly. I think this was the only place where the authorities seriously believed civilian morale could give way.

Coventry, everyone knows about.

Most big industrial cities suffered damage to some degree. Sheffield, my home town, got several nights of heavy bombing.

[Mortartube]

With reference to Malta, I believe that the Island as a whole was awarded a Victoria Cross to reflect the people's brave attitude.

I suppose that London was seen as the communications hub that kept the war machine rolling, so the Germans could hit morale and damage the running off the elements that made up the allied offensive. Also as the BBC was located there, it is natural that they could report things on their doorstep more rapidly than travelling to other areas, so this probably gives a disjointed view that London suffered so much more than many other places, simply because there are more film and audio records of events in London that still survive.

[crete]

Clydebank in glasgow was badly damaged

[Pippa68]

Worthing was hit several times ~ contrary to popular belief we didn't suffer 'stray' bombs, but in fact planned hits.

My daughters school was hit whilst being used as an air raid shelter. Luckily there were no casualties as it happened whilst not in use.

Some info on other bombs & plane crashes here:

http://www.worthingtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/ custompage.aspx?SectionID=10480

Worthing was a 'Walmington on sea' !

[Octavius]

The Blitz in 1941 targeted several UK cities. By May 1941, 43,000 had been killed across Britain and 1.4 million had been made homeless. Not only London, but Coventry and Plymouth were particularly badly bombed but most of Britain�s cities were also attacked � Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Hartlepool etc.

I can't open this, but apparently it tries to plot UK WW2 bomb damage sites.

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/trlout/TRA27051 .html

[Lonnie]

Hi Mortartube, it was actually rewarded with the George Cross, which is the civilian equivilent to the Victoria Cross, thats why it was awarded to the whole populace.

In just one week, more bombs were dropped on Malta, than were dropped on London in the whole second year of the Blitz, and when you look at the size of the Island, you can get some idea of what they went through.

[warpig1]

Belfast was also hit due to the ship yards and airplane factories

[dot.hawkes]

A bomb did fall on Halifax in 1941 and killed 11 people and lots of other Yorkshire towns were hit, Dewsbury, Wakefield and others.

[gary baldy]

There was a programme on C4 recently called The london Blitz and its as though the rest of the country didnt get bombed!
Also, there was a great documentary made during the war about the Blitz which was originally called London Can Take It but so many people complained it was renamed Britain Can Take It.

Anyway lots of other towns and cities were very badly hit although not in the sustained way London was. Hull suffered badly, as did Sheffield Manchester and Liverpool.
Whole families were wiped out with sometimes three generations of the same familylosing their lives.
Unlike the south east the north had no air cover from the RAF and there was real unease about this in the north (hushed up at the time obviously) and the authorites were genuinely worried that civil unrest would boil over in to full scale mutiny.
If you go to places like Coventry, Portsmouth and Exeter you just have to look at how many post war buildings there are to see how much damage was done.
To add insult to injury near the end of the war the Germans began using the V weapons which had a great range and which were equally as indiscriminate and deadly as bombers.

A couple of links:

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/ex hibitions/blitz/may.asp

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/manchester/loca l/TRA27952.html

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/liverpool/local /TRA28260.html?ixsid=ipu80wgY__X

[KebabMeister]

Although not listing all the cities, a quite good article can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz

Near to where I lived, Leicester and other midland cities were hit rather bad.

[adrums1999]

Cardiff City and Docks were hit, and also several bombs hit sites in Carmarthenshire.

[dayoff]

clydebank in scotland was blitzed over three nights the town was nearly flattened and at the end there was only five housesin the whole town that did not need any repairs

[spudqueen]

Liverpool, Birkenhead, Manchester, Plymouth and Barrow in Furness were all badly hit. in fact most places that were industrial centres or ship building centres. Even places that weren't were sometimes hit as returning planes used to drop any left over bombs anywhere.

[trakcab]

A lot of places had it bad, but like everything else London had to have it better,bigger ,smaller, worse than anyone else the world start at Crawley and end at Luton or so Londoner think.

[trakcab]

oopps missed the "s" off Londoners.

[horselady]

Bristol was badly hit because of the docks.

[B00]

A bomb was dropped and totally destroyed the local chippy in Tottington (NW Lancs). My father in law is still uset over that one!

[NapoleonSolo]

They Bombed our Chippy did the Geeermans!

[1827]

Liverpool was the most bombed city outside London in WW2.I am amazed at how little this is known,
Media censorship � intended to boost morale and keep the enemy in the dark � meant that any reports described Liverpool simply as �a Northern Town� and bombings as �incidents�.
Liverpool was defended by RAF fighters, who were based at Speke as well as sites in Cheshire, Shropshire, Wales and Blackpool. They lit decoy fires on the Dee estuary that attracted many bombs meant for Merseyside.