Hitler wanted to bomb Britain into submission

But while so-called 'Blitz Spirit' has latterly been painted as a myth, aerial attacks by the Luftwaffe on the UK's towns and cities DID bring Britons together. We could take it!

- By Joshua Levine

FOR the British people, the Blitz was entirely distinct from the Battle of Britain. One had been a dramatic fight in the skies over southern England, the other was a restless series of bombing raids on towns and cities across the UK.

But for Adolf Hitler there was no such distinction. They were both attempts to use air power to bring Britain to heel whether by invasion, negotiation or popular uprising. The intensive bombing would, he believed, disable trade, shatter industry and hinder governance.

Perhaps most crucially, it would leave ordinary people so terrorised and distressed they would force their leaders to make peace.

Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, promised Hitler he could force Britain to sue for peace by bombing its airfields and key cities - especially London.

So it was that from September 7, 1940, the aerial assault was focused on the capital the most populous city, containing the centre of government and a port bringing in almost half of the nation's supplies. For 57 consecutive nights it was attacked before the aerial assault was extended to all parts of the nation in November.

For Londoners, this was a time of terror and misery and remitting darkness. Almost 100,000 were killed or seriously injured over eight-and-a-half months of brutal enemy action.

Albert Dance, a member of the Rifle Brigade, had recently returned from Dunkirk after getting a few days leave following his wedding. Shortly after his return an officer gave him a glass of whisky, told him his wife Maisie had been badly injured in a raid, and sent him home.

Maisie, it turned out, had been stepping into her factory's air-raid shelter when a bomb exploded by the entrance. She was in hospital in Plumstead, south-east London. "She was a beautiful girl with lovely hair," Albert said years later. "Her hair was all matted with oil, her face bashed, stones were embedded in her cheeks."