THE BAEDECKER BLITZ - Hitler's Attack On Britain's Historic Cities by Rothnie, Niall,

Ian Allan (Shepperton) 1992, UK first printing, 144 pages,hard bound in dust jacket, 7 x 10, glossy page stock, well illustrated, photos and maps, appendices.-------------------------------------------From the early years of World War 2 both Britain and Germany had sought to extend the war to the major industrial conurbations through the application of systematic and heavy bombing. For the first three years of the war, however, the results of this bombing were largely indiscriminate and it was not until March 1942 that the RAF's Bomber Command finally achieved its first concentrated and successful attack on a German city. The target was not one of the heavily defended industrial centres such as Hamburg, but the lightly defended historic Baltic town of Lubeck.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Such a successful attack could not go unpunished but limited German resources had to be used to the best effect: why not play the British at their own game and attack cities that were the equivalent of Lubeck? The result was a sustained campaign in April 1942 against the cities of Bath, Canterbury, Exeter, Norwich and York -- the Baedeker Blitz. The results were inevitable with the cores of these historic cities severely damaged and many civilian casualties resulted. For the first time in the war terror of the civilian population had become an explicit aim of the strategic planners.In The Baedeker Blitz Niall Rothnie looks in depth at the raids and at the cities that suffered in them. Particular aspects of the raids, such as the civilian consequences and the responses of the emergency services, are examined in detail to provide a human perspective of the raids. Fifty years after the events described, the book graphically portrays, with the aid of a superb collection of historic photographs, the destruction wrought on some of Britain's best-loved cities.