Hi. Just finished Eric Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile. I found it an excellent read. But, I’m still a little at loose ends about how quickly the Blitz came to end. According to Larson (and a few other decidedly non-academic texts I’ve read), the Blitz “ended” on 11 May 1941, with the Luftwaffe’s deadliest-to-date raid on London.
Larson and others say there were other raids, but none as regular and destructive/deadly as those of 1940-41.
What accounts for this abrupt stop? Was it really just Hitler/Goring’s intense new focus on the Soviet front? Were there any other factors at play?
What accounts for this abrupt stop? Was it really just Hitler/Goring’s intense new focus on the Soviet front?
In a word: yes. As of June 1941 around two thirds of the Luftwaffe's strength was devoted to Operation Barbarossa, and with further commitments in the Mediterranean only 8 of its 44 bomber groups were left for operations against Britain. Luftflotte 3 continued to mount night raids through 1941, including comparatively heavy raids on Hull and the Midlands, but lacked the aircraft for significant and sustained bombing - German bomber production had not kept pace with the attrition suffered in almost constant operations from May 1940, in total there were 30 percent fewer bombers available in May 1941 than there had been a year earlier.
British night defences also dramatically improved in the spring of 1941; where the RAF were all but powerless to intercept German bombers at night in 1940, the introduction of Ground Controlled Intercept (GCI) radars and Beaufighter night fighters equipped with Airborne Intercept (AI) radar in early 1941 resulted in an increasingly heavy toll on German bombers. This had no impact on the decision to withdraw the majority of the Luftwaffe for the invasion of the Soviet Union, but further lessened the impact of the remaining bomber groups and meant attempts at heavier attacks such as the 'Baedeker Blitz' of 1942 and 'Baby Blitz' of 1944 were costly and generally ineffectual.