May 11 2012

Places we visited: Portobello Flea Market, Imperial War Museum

Hey there! :D

 Today was a wonderful day. We had an absolutely magnificent day! :D

We spent the day at the Imperial War Museum, in London. 

The Blitz: 

Blitz, the German word for 'lightning', was applied by the British press to the tempest of heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941. This concentrated direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centres began on 7 September 1940, with heavy raids on London.

The scale of the attack rapidly escalated. In that month alone, the German Air Force dropped 5,300 tons of high explosives on the capital in just 24 nights. In their efforts to 'soften up' the British population and to destroy morale before the planned invasion, German planes extended their targets to include the major coastal ports and centres of production and supply.

The infamous raid of November 14 1940 on Coventry brought a still worse twist to the campaign. 500 German bombers dropped 500 tons of explosives and nearly 900 incendiary bombs on the city in ten hours of unrelenting bombardment, a tactic later emulated on an even greater scale by the RAF in their attacks on German cities.

World War II and Britain:

Timeline

1939

• Hitler invades Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later.

1940

• Rationing starts in the UK.
• German 'Blitzkrieg' overwhelms Belgium, Holland and France.
• Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
• British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk.
• British victory in Battle of Britain forces Hitler to postpone invasion plans.

1941

• Hitler begins Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia.
• The Blitz continues against Britain's major cities.
• Allies take Tobruk in North Africa, and resist German attacks.
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the US enters the war.

1942

• Germany suffers setbacks at Stalingrad and El Alamein.
• Singapore falls to the Japanese in February - around 25,000 prisoners taken.
• American naval victory at Battle of Midway, in June, marks turning point in Pacific War.
• Mass murder of Jewish people at Auschwitz begins.

1943

• Surrender at Stalingrad marks Germany's first major defeat.
• Allied victory in North Africa enables invasion of Italy to be launched.
• Italy surrenders, but Germany takes over the battle.
• British and Indian forces fight Japanese in Burma.

1944

• Allies land at Anzio and bomb monastery at Monte Cassino.
• Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe.
• D Day: The Allied invasion of France. Paris is liberated in August.
• Guam liberated by the US Okinawa, and Iwo Jima bombed.

1945

• Auschwitz liberated by Soviet troops.
• Russians reach Berlin: Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders on 7 May.
• Truman becomes President of the US on Roosevelt's death, and Attlee replaces Churchill.
• After atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders on 14 August.

There was a lot of exhibits to experience the different war times. Favorite exhibit(s) that were on many agenda's was the Blitz Experience, The Holocaust, and World War I and II. We all had a wonderful time at the Imperial War Museum. Many of us want to go back, because one would need more than an hour to experience every exhibit that one may be interested in. :) The Portobello Flea Market was either a "hit or a miss" for some people, some want to go back and continue shopping now that we have seen what stores, and vendors are stationed there. 

Overall, today was an eventful day and a lot got done, and we were all definitely satisfied by the end of the day. :)

Thanks for checking back! :)

~Lucky :) <3