Hull Blitz
The Hull Blitz was the bombing campaign that targeted the English port city of Kingston upon Hull by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
Large-scale attacks took place on several nights throughout March 1941, resulting in over 200 deaths. The most concentrated attacks were on the nights of 7/8 and 8/9 May 1941, resulting in just under 400 deaths, and another large-scale attack took place in July 1941 with 143 fatalities.
The city spent more than 1,000 hours under alert during raids from 19 June 1940 to 1945, with almost 1,200 people in the city killed as a result of the bombing.
History[edit]
Background[edit]
During the First World War Hull was bombed several times by Zeppelin airships. An intended raid on London by Zeppelin L9 was diverted to Hull owing to bad weather and on 6/7 June 1915 dropped 13 explosive and 50 incendiary bombs, destroying 40 houses and killing 24, and led to mobs attacking shops belonging to people believed to be of German origin. In this June bombing, a device dropped through the roof of the original Edwin Davis department store on South Churchside, destroying it; Holy Trinity, Hull's central church sited opposite, was miraculously spared.[9] An attempted raid on Hull on 8/9 August 1915 bombed Goole by mistake owing to a navigation error. On 5 March 1916 two Zeppelins L11 and L14 were diverted to Hull from an attack on the fleet at Rosyth. Bombs were dropped on Earles shipyard (Docks) and on Paragon station (city centre) resulting in deaths. The raids showed that Hull was completely unprotected from aerial attack and public anger led to service personnel being mobbed. Further attacks came on 25 September 1917 and 10 March 1918.[10]
A programme of building air raid shelters was instigated in 1938 and more than £1.5 million was spent building 40,000 shelters.[11][12]
At the beginning of the Second World War, in 1939, ten primary targets had been identified in Hull: three near Stoneferry, the water works, gas works, Sculcoates power station, the oil refinery (Saltend) and the six docks.[3][13] Additional targets included large grain mills on the River Hull.[13]