In pictures: The Blitz
Between September 1940 and May 1941, the home front in Britain came under attack by German bombs. The raids, which targeted large cities and industrial areas, resulted in 43,000 civilian deaths, and completely destroyed thousands of homes and workplaces.
This article was first published in July 2015
Now, the Blitz is the subject of a new interactive exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North. Titled Horrible Histories®: Blitzed Brits, the exhibition includes more than 200 photographs, objects, posters and film clips from the Blitz. Visitors also have the chance to learn about the personal stories of the people who lived through the bombing.
The exhibition charts the heavy raids on Britain’s shores that began on 7 September 1940, during what became known as the battle of Britain. The German air force, the Luftwaffe, dropped 5,300 tonnes of high explosives on London over the course of just 24 nights in September alone. The Luftwaffe then targeted major ports and centres of production and supply.
Here, we take a look at some of the images on display at the exhibition…
Buildings burning in Manchester after a German air raid on the night of 23 December 1940. (Credit: IWM North/H_6318)
Sister and brother, June and Tony Bryant, waiting for the train at Clerkenwell Station which evacuated them from London to Luton. (Credit: IWM North/ HU 36217)
(Credit: IWM North/Art.IWM_PST_8234)
A female warden carrying a little girl after she had been rescued by a fireman from a house on which a V1 flying bomb had landed in Southern England. (Credit: IWM North/HU 36277)
A police constable comforts a man sitting amongst the rubble of his house destroyed by a V1 Flying Bomb in 1944. (Credit: IWM North/ IWM_D_21213)
A young child putting kitchen waste into a municipal pig bin at Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. These scraps were then collected, treated and fed to pigs. (Credit: IWM North/HU36203)
(Credit: IWM North/Art.IWM_PST_8105)
Two small girls in the rubble of Battersea on VE Day waving their flags to celebrate the end of the war. (Credit: IWM North/HU49414)
Horrible Histories®: Blitzed Brits is open at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester until 10 April 2016. Entry is free.
To find out more about the exhibition, click here.