Experience of Air Attack

The dominant feature of the accounts from men on the ground in Belgium and France in 1940 is the terrifying experience of aerial bombardment. Reading and listening to personal accounts conjures a picture of relentless bombing night and day. The German invasion was an overwhelming assault on the senses, the sickening scream of dive bombers and the horrifying vision of the aftermath of massive explosions so fierce that individuals are thrown into the air and hang there caught in the branches of trees and all the time German aircraft hedge hopping.

The target for bombing appears to have been as much the civilian population as well as the military with dwellings and other buildings in the towns and villages deliberately destroyed. The aim seems to have been not only to terrorise the population but to use them as a weapon of war. With the roads blocked by displaced persons the armies could not easily move and so were rendered vulnerable to attack by land and air.

Whether territorial or regular no pre-war training could have prepared the men for what was to come. Although it seems clear that the German military, particularly the Luftwaffe had been practising for this. The harrowing accounts from witnesses of chaos and destruction in Northern France call to mind the painting created by Picasso to memorialise the horror of Guernica. The German military regime provided support to General Franco during the Spanish Civil War and they bombed to destruction the town of Guernica in the Basque region. There was no military objective here only terrorisation, the wanton killing of Basque people and an attempt to destroy their cultural heritage.

The impact of this event caused the British Government to become concerned about recruitment to the territorial army although the purpose was mainly to shore up home defences against possible air attacks. But in any event it would hardly have been possible in the 1930s to have provided men with simulated air attack training.