| A Luftwaffe (“Nazi German Air Force”) Heinkel He 111, possibly of Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG 26) Löwengeschwader (“Lions’ Wing”) flies over the English coast. Like the Dornier 17 and Junkers 88, this German twin-engine bomber, too slow (440 kilometers per hour; 270 miles per hour) and too lightly armed with 7.92 millimeter (.312 inch) MG15 machine guns, was initially used during the day and without escort. Consequently, it was very vulnerable to British fighters. On October 8, 1940, the pattern of large-scale day and night attacks caused significant damage and casualties – mainly in London where approximately 200 people were killed, and 400 were injured, many during the rush hour. However, the Luftwaffe’s operations were widespread across the country. United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) addressed the House of Commons the same day, summing up the previous month of the Blitz. He pointed out that improved shelter facilities and accurate air raid warnings had cut the death toll to 1/10 of the pre-war estimates, but the destruction of property, however, had been very considerable. Most painful was the number of small houses inhabited by working folk which have been destroyed, but the loss has also fallen heavily upon the West End. Churchill claimed all classes had suffered evenly, as the government desired them to do. The reality was somewhat different; casualties were distributed among everyone, but fell disproportionately on the working classes. While the government projected an ideal of national unity, communists and socialists called for more air raid shelters in the summer of 1940, before heavy raids began. The brick above-ground and the basement shelters offered not enough space, and were not able to sustain a direct hit, or even a near miss. When heavy bombings began, people followed leftist agitation to occupy the Tube stations for safety overnight. Churchill’s administration finally had to make a U-turn in late September 1940 and decided to open deep-level Tube stations as civilian shelters during air raids. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0301.jpg |
| Image Size | 2 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 4085 x 2883 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Press-Image Center, Berlin |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 8, 1940 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Archive | National Museum, Denmark |
| Record Number | FHM-291501 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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