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Air raids
More than one in ten air raid victims was below the age of 16: 7,736 children were killed and 7,622 seriously wounded. A baby 11 hours old was the youngest victim. Many children were orphaned or lost brothers and sisters. In the worst single incident involving children, 38 were killed and 60 injured when a bomb hit a school in Catford in January 1943. Children over 16, including Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, helped the ARP services during air raids by acting as messengers, fire watchers, or working with the voluntary services. The work could be highly dangerous and significant numbers were killed while on civil defence duty. Bombing continued throughout the war, and in 1944 new weapons - the V1 flying bomb and the V2 rocket - caused more casualties and devastation.
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From
September 1940 the German air force began to bomb cities throughout
Britain at night. At the start of the Blitz, London was attacked on 57
successive nights and there were heavy raids on other cities and ports.