Baedecker Blitz

Baedeker Blitz
Part of the Western Front of World War II
Exeter Bath Norwich York Canterbury Baedeker Blitz (the United Kingdom) Cities targeted
Date April - May 1942 Location England Result German strategic failure
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Sholto Douglas Frederick Alfred Pile	Hermann Göring Hugo Sperrle
Strength
RAF Fighter Command No. 11 Group RAF No. 9 Group RAF No. 10 Group RAF No. 12 Group RAF Anti-Aircraft Command	Luftflotte 3 KG2 KG106 I/KG100
Casualties and losses
637 killed civilians ~1,760 civilians injured 50,000 homes destroyed or damaged	40 bombers destroyed 150 aircrew

RAF Fighter Command

Luftflotte 3

The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids were a series of attacks by the Luftwaffe on English cities during the Second World War.

The raids were planned in response to a devastating increase in the effectiveness of the Royal Air Force's (RAF) bombing offensive, starting with the bombing of Lübeck in March 1942. The aim was to begin a tit-for-tat exchange with the hope of forcing the RAF to reduce their actions. To increase the effect on civilian life, targets were chosen for their cultural and historical significance, rather than for any military value. The main set of raids began late April 1942, and ended by the end of May, though towns and cities continued to be targeted for their cultural value for the next two years.

By any measure, the attempt was an abject failure. In the time following the original Blitz, a little over a year earlier, the RAF had dramatically improved its night fighter capability and introduced the AMES Type 7 radar specifically for the night fighting role. Losses to the Luftwaffe's bomber force were unsustainable, and for a variety of reasons the damage to the targeted cities was minimal. Nevertheless, the raids resulted in over 1,600 civilian deaths and tens of thousands of damaged homes.

By the winter of 1941/1942 both the British and German strategic bombing campaigns had reached a low ebb. The German offensive, a nine-month period of night bombing known as the Blitz, which had left London and many other British cities heavily damaged, had come to an end in May 1941, when the Luftwaffe had switched its resources to the invasion of the Soviet Union. Thereafter it had confined itself to hit-and-run raids on British coastal towns. Meanwhile, the RAF's night bombing offensive had been shown to be largely ineffective, culminating in the Butt report in August 1941, and by Christmas the offensive had largely petered out.