Info Graphic on Every Bomb Dropped During the Blitz

[cupper]

Very interesting article and interactive presentation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2243951/The-astonishing-interactive-map-EVERY-bomb-dropped-London-Blitz.html

 

[Pieman]

Wow! I had no idea the city was bombed so badly until I saw this graphic. Really puts it in to perspective, Doesn't look like a single street block would have gone unscathed.

 

[NavyShooter]

If you zoom out to about level 4, you can actually see the individual strings of bombs....

 

[Ignatius J. Reilly]

Excellent graphic on the original site:
http://bombsight.org/
Very well done!

 

[Staff Weenie]

Simply incredible! What a perspective it brings to any study on life during the Blitz, and on the resiliency of a people.

I would also be interesting to see the impact on other cities - perhaps Tokyo or Berlin - though I suspect it would simply be a mass of red dots.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Simply incredible! What a perspective it brings to any study on life during the Blitz, and on the resiliency of a people.

I would also be interesting to see the impact on other cities - perhaps Tokyo or Berlin - though I suspect it would simply be a mass of red dots.

I agree with both your points.

But it is hard to image the impact of, say, a firestorm, like this ... harder still to weigh the morality of war.

 

[Rifleman62]

I wonder how many Jews and other were burned in the crematoriums and pits of the many camps prior, during and after these raids. That is not war.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Don't get me wrong, Rifleman62 I'm one of those who has no problem with the strategic bombing campaign. I'm not sure it did as much good as Bomber Harris suggested it would but raids like Hamburg and Dresden were in some measure, designed to strengthen British morale, which had taken quite a pounding - as shown by the original post - and which suffered again under the V1 and V2 raids.

But I think there are, or ought to be, some moral considerations in war ... beyond the obvious crimes against humanity. It seems to me that outlawing weapons - gas, or napalm or cluster bombs, or delivery systems - drones, is the wrong approach: we, humans, will always find a new and innovative way to kill one another. I think we reacted correctly in Nurmeberg in 1945/46: reasonably public hangings were the right response to what the likes of Hans Frank, Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Rosenberg did.

 

[mariomike]

I'm not sure it did as much good as Bomber Harris suggested it would but raids like Hamburg and Dresden were in some measure, designed to strengthen British morale, which had taken quite a pounding - as shown by the original post - and which suffered again under the V1 and V2 raids.

It was also designed to strengthen Soviet morale.

"I am deeply conscious of the giant burden borne by the Russian armies and their unequaled contribution to the common cause. I must emphasize that our bombing of Germany will increase in scale month by month..."
6 Apr 1943 Churchill to Stalin.

Throughout the war, "Bomber" Harris sent updated copies of his Blue Books ( his personal photograph albums of the wrecked cities of Germany ) to Stalin.

Edit to add.

From the briefing notes issued to Groups and squadrons on the eve of the Dresden raid, "......., and incidentally to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do."

 

[Infanteer]

Are you sure about that?  A quote from Stalin does not equal "lifting the morale of the Soviet people" who, in all likelihood, did not have much access to Western media.

 

[mariomike]

Are you sure about that?  A quote from Stalin does not equal "lifting the morale of the Soviet people" who, in all likelihood, did not have much access to Western media.

It was a quote from Winston Churchill.
Ref: "Bomber Command" by Max Hastings page 180.

"Bomber Command’s efforts also played a crucial role in Britain’s alliance with Russia. After Russia was attacked by the Germans, Stalin repeatedly demanded that the Allies open a second front in the west to divert German forces. He wanted an invasion launched across the Channel as early as 1942 and accused Churchill of cowardice. Churchill knew it would be up to two years before this was possible, but he argued that the RAF’s bombing of Germany already was a second front and this helped to convince Stalin that the British were committed to attacking Germany. Had he not believed this, Russia might have felt forced to agree a truce with Germany. This would have been extremely dangerous for Britain, for Hitler could then have turned all his military force towards a second attempt at invading Britain itself.":
http://www.rafbombercommand.com/bc_assessment.html