The Newcastle Blitz refers to the strategic bombing of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England by the

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'' during the

second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Close to 400 people were killed between July 1940 and December 1941 during bombing raids on the city.

Strategic target

As part of the Führer's War Directive No. 9, Newcastle, north

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as published i ...

Wearside Wearside () is a built-up area in both Tyne and Wear and County Durham, Northern England. It is named after the River Wear which flows through it and traditionally all in the County of Durham. In the 2011 census, its official name was the Sunder ...

and

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

in north-east England were deemed important targets. The areas had important heavy industry including shipbuilding and busy docks sending coal to London and the south and there were also major railway connections to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Targets included the Tyne river bridges, the docks, Elswick steelworks,

Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three powe ...

's shipyard,

Vickers Armstrong Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, wi ...

"Naval Yard" and Wallsend slipway. Following the declaration of war against Germany in September 1939, over 30,000 people, mainly children, were evacuated from the city to areas including the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

and rural

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

Bombing raids

1940

The first major raid on Newcastle and neighbouring Gateshead came on 2 July 1940. The target was the High Level Bridge and 13 people were killed with further 123 injured. Another raid on Newcastle came on 15 August 1940, when German bombers flew from bases in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

(heading for airfields). Though much of the attacking force was intercepted by British fighters a number of bombers dropped bombs on Newcastle and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

1941

On 25 April 1941, a force of German bombers attacked Newcastle and dropped high explosive bombs, incendiaries and a

parachute mine A parachute mine is a naval mine dropped from an aircraft by parachute. They were mostly used in the Second World War by the Luftwaffe and initially by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command. Frequently, they were dropped on land targets. Hist ...

. 47 were killed and dozens of homes were left uninhabitable. A raid on 1 September 1941 caused a major fire New Bridge Street Goods Station which burned for a week. The raid left 50 dead, 71 seriously injured, 140 slightly injured and over a thousand people homeless. The last substantial raid on Newcastle came on 29 December 1941 with nine people killed in the Byker area. Smaller scale 'tip and run' raids by small groups or single bombers continued for the next two years. Another air raid came for North Shields as W.A. Wilkinsons (used as an air raid shelter) was hit. Newcastle, like other English cities and large towns at the time, had been expanding rapidly throughout the 1920s and 1930s with new housing being built in the private sector, as well as new

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

to replace inner city slums. The damage to its housing stock caused in the Newcastle Blitz led to an acceleration in housebuilding across

after the war was over.

External links

In pictures: The Blitz in North Shields and Jarrow

World War II air raid damage in Newcastle

Rare film footage of Newcastle taken during World War II

References

{{WWII city bombing, state=autocollapse The Blitz History of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne