Talk:The Blitz

German aircraft lost

Under "Aftermath" the article states: "the OKL recorded the loss of 2,265 aircraft over the British Isles, a quarter of them fighters and one third bombers." A quarter plus a third = 58%. This seems unlikely, since it's difficult to think of other types of aircraft the Luftwaffe were sending over Britain in 1940-41. I'm going to remove this dubious statement. 199.168.151.164 (talk) 15:43, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

I don't have the source, so I can't check, but it may be the remaining casualties weren't "lost over the British Isles" - accidents, weather etc. might account for the remainder. It's also possible it should say "A quarter of their fighters..." - a proportion of their total strength. (Hohum ^@) 16:33, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Real reason for Blitz?

The introduction says the Germans thought the British were close to defeat in September 1940. However multiple sources say Hitler ordered the Blitz in retaliation for RAF bombing raids over Germany. (GustavMenschen (talk) 19:13, 22 November 2016 (UTC))

Interesting point, which seems to be covered rather better in Battle of Britain#Day and night attacks on London: start of the Blitz. Note that both points are true: Hitler was under public pressure to retaliate for RAF raids, small as they were, and both Göring and Kesselring were in favour, "having received reports the average strength of RAF squadrons was down to five or seven fighters out of twelve and their airfields in the area were out of action." It suited them to present the long-planned raid on the Port of London as a reprisal, though it fitted in with their original strategy of economic blockade. Perhaps something to improve in this article? . . dave souza, talk 19:55, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

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spelling error

The article says:

"The London Underground rail system was also effected".

The correct spelling is:

"The London Underground rail system was also affected".

Interesting. But arguably not the case. See the usage notes for "effect" in Wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/effect . Gog the Mild (talk) 22:11, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

Start of the Blitz

The first Nazi bomb to land on British soil occurred on 16th October 1939 near the Forth Rail Bridge, Edinburgh - Luftwaffe bombing raids (sporadic and otherwise) then continued until the end of the war in May 1945. 'The Blitz' is not a well-defined period and there were many lethal raids on UK cities well after May 1941 where survivors would now be surprised to find that they were not being blitzed as part of The Blitz. It seems wrong to exclude Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Exeter, Norfolk and a host of other cities from this article because of such an arbitrary definition of the time period - and in any case what about Swansea which was attacked in February 1941? (ifmaclean ^@) 03:39, 7 February 2017 (GMT)

The title 'The Blitz' has come to refer to a specific Luftwaffe campaign that took place in 1940-41 and so while you are correct in that other places were bombed at various times, these raids did not form part of the specific set of raids after the Fall of France aimed at making Britain capable of being invaded or to be made to sue for peace. The express purpose of what became known as 'The Blitz' was to force Britain out of the war after the Fall of France prior to the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Mistake in lede

The Blitz began because the Germans were losing the Battle of Britain, not because they thought they were winning. (86.129.39.4 (talk) 22:01, 16 February 2017 (UTC))

Continuing Aftermath

The Aftermath section only talks about the immediate aftermath. It might be worth mentioning that the aftermath goes on, 75 years later:

• WW2 bomb found on Brondesbury Park building site -- 2 March 2017
• Children played with unexploded bomb at Rosemarkie -- 23 February 2017
• WW2 bomb found in Portsmouth harbour -- 22 February 2017
• Unexploded WW2 bomb taken to Bangor police station -- 15 February 2017
• World War Two bomb removed from River Thames and exploded -- 20 January 2017
• Rothbury WW2 bomb scare: Homes and shops evacuated -- 16 December 2016
• Corfe Mullen evacuations prompted by WW2 bomb find -- 24 November 2016
• Portsmouth evacuations prompted by WW2 bomb find -- 16 November 2016
• Fourth unexploded WW2 bomb found in Sheffield -- 3 October 2016 ... "the fourth time in a week a device - believed to be a World War Two munition - had been found in the city"

-- johantheghost (talk) 13:07, 3 March 2017 (UTC)