Apple TV BlitzDirected by Oscar winner Steve McQueen, it is a story of survival and how a diverse group of people from London managed to persist through the German bombing of the English city during World War II. The central character is a boy named George (Elliott Heffernan), who is separated from his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), when she evacuates him to the countryside to escape London. Defiant, he returns to the war-torn city to find her, where they are reunited. Naturally, some things in the film about the true story of the World War II era known as “The Blitz” had to be changed or omitted.
The Bombing Blitz of World War II lasted about eight months and began in September 1940. It was after the British Royal Air Force defeated the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain that Germany decided to begin constant air raids to devastate the country and lead him to surrender. The bombings would eventually kill thousands of civilians, but the people of the United Kingdom stood firm against the destructive Germans. The ending for Blitz is bittersweet, which parallels the real-life story quite accurately.
More than 43,000 civilians died during the Blitz
The worst attack during the Blitz occurred the following year
As soon as the Blitz began, Germany began attacking what it believed were areas vital to the war effort. The attacks began on September 7, 1940, the day now known as “Black Saturday”, when the Germans began bombing the London docks (via The Royal Air Force Museum). The attacks were constant; During the next two and a half months, London was attacked every night except one. However, it was not just London that suffered constant bombings. Other UK cities were also bombed, some quite seriously. Coventry, for example, suffered a 12-hour bombing raid in November of that year.
The worst of these attacks on London began on the night of May 10, 1941. A staggering 711 tons of explosive bombs were dropped along with incendiary bombs over the course of seven hours. This relentless blitzkrieg resulted in the death of around 1,436 Londoners and seriously injured another 1,800. However, the damage was not limited to just human lives or the structures directly bombed: at least 4,255 fires had to be put out by fire brigades, destroying more than 700 acres of London. Adjusted for inflation, the total cost of damage tonight alone equates to more than £850 million in 2024.
The Blitz was responsible for more than half of Britain’s total civilian deaths in WWII
There were around 70,000 British civilian casualties in WW2
Attacks on England decreased after the devastating attack on May 10, as Hitler wanted to place more focus on invading Russia. Even after the end of the Blitz, however, civilians in London continued to die. One such event is known as the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, which killed 173 people. It was reported that an air raid siren went off and a woman carrying her baby slipped and fell at the bottom of the stairs. She took a man with her, which created a domino effect that trapped more than 300 people at the station entrance while they were trapped in the stairs (via Stairway to Heaven Memorial), leading to a tragic event with mass casualties.
Outside the Blitz, just under 30,000 additional civilians would be claimed by the war. Casualties among London’s civilians also occurred due to things like food rationing and attacks by submarines that sank ships in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Further mass casualties were an indirect effect of the bombing. During the Blitz, for example, tragic flooding occurred at Balham tube station, killing 70 people (Imperial War Museum), who, at the time, were huddled underground to escape the bombings above. As Blitz shows, there was no more devastating time for the people of the United Kingdom than the Blitz.
Sources: Imperial War Museum, Royal Air Force Museum, Stairway to Heaven Memorial