London: air defence and life through the Blitz

Defending the skies

Summer–autumn 1940

Air superiority was a requirement for the planned invasion.

The Luftwaffe sought to defeat the Royal Air Force before a German invasion. Air bases and other military targets came under attack. Radar and ground observers helped defenders locate approaching raids and direct aircraft towards them.

Germany failed to gain the required air superiority and postponed the invasion. The Battle of Britain was not a battle fought over London alone: the wider air campaign extended across southeastern England.

The city becomes a sustained target

September 1940 – May 1941

Bombing changed how people worked, travelled and found shelter.

From 7 September 1940 London was repeatedly attacked; after October the Blitz became predominantly a night bombing campaign. Underground stations became communal shelters. The experience of trying to stay safe belonged alongside the work of pilots and air-defence personnel.

London was not the only target. Other ports and industrial cities also suffered attacks. Keeping that wider geography in view avoids turning Britain’s civilian war into the story of its capital alone.

Survival did not mean the war was over

1941

Britain continued fighting while the conflict spread.

Churchill’s government continued the war. Lend-Lease explains how American support developed while the United States was still outside the fighting. Meanwhile, in 1941, the war widened with the German invasion of the Soviet Union and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.