The Blitz (lightning strike in German) were a series of air strikes on many main cities. The main city being London but others were also heavily hit, such as:

• Belfast
• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Cardiff
• Coventry
• Glasgow
• Sheffield
• Swansea
• Liverpool
• Hull
• Manchester
• Portsmouth
• Plymouth
• Southampton

The Luftwaffe bombed Britain constantly from late 1940 to mid 1941. On 7th September 1940, London received 300 tonnes of bombs from 350 pilots of the German Air Force. The bombs demolished East End London and buried many civilians in rubble.

To avoid as many casualties as possible, Winston Churchill introduced the Blackout. The Blackout was when, at night, everybody would have to cover their windows and doors with blackout curtains, cardboard and paint. This move was made on 1st September 1939.

German pilots would find it easy to find big cities with masses of lights clustered together in the darkness. The Blackout would stop the omitting lights from reaching the pilots. Street lights would be switched off or dimmed, and then they would have a cover to make sure light only goes downwards. Traffic lights and cars would have similar shields.