The Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Canterbury
Councillor Pat Burke
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The Right Worshipful Mayor of Exeter
Councillor Anthony Fry
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Additional Info
The reason for these raids is found in the process of reprisal and counter-reprisal which characterised the nature of bombing attacks in the early part of World War II. It seems to have first arisen during the Battle of Britain when, during the night of 24th August 1940, two German aircraft mistakenly. so it was claimed, dropped bombs on London. The Cabinet immediately ordered a retaliatory raid on Berlin which was made by Bomber Command the next night, with only marginal success, but with the dramatic and expected result that Hitler, against the advice of the Luftwaffe. ordered a massive reprisal raid on London. This was made on September 7th changing the whole pattern of the Battle of Britain as the Germans diverted their bombing from attacks on the hard-pressed RAF airfields and installations to the attempted destruction of cities. From that point on, the Germans argued that such attacks would be made against military targets but that these inevitably had to include the environment of docks, roads, bridges, public utilities including hospitals, railway stations, factories, shops and of course human beings. By December 1940, 13,596 people had been killed in London alone, and thousands more had died in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Sheffield, Southampton and many other places.

Bomber Command, because of its inability to navigate and so identify targets, were unable to match this pattern although raids on Germany were attempted whenever possible, always with the intention of striking at so-called military targets. Then, on February 14th 1942. the Cabinet issued the Area Bombing Directive and, on the 22nd, appointed Air Marshal Arthur Harris as Commander-in-Chief, Bomber Command to put this policy into effect

During the night of 3rd/4th March 1942, Bomber Command successfully attacked the Renault factory at Billancourt near Paris with a force of 220 aircraft. Hitler at once ordered a heavy reprisal raid on London which for certain reasons was not carried out. The Bomber Command offensive continued with raids on Essen (8th/9th March), Cologne (I 3th/ 14th March) and Essen (25th/26th March) but with very little success. Then, during the night of 28th/29th March, about 190 Bomber Command aircraft attacked the Baltic port of Lubeck, listed as an industrial and armament centre, causing widespread damage to the city including the burning-down of nearly 2,000 buildings.

Such an event could not go unpunished and, on 14th April 1942, Hitler issued the following Directive to the Luftwaffe:-

'The Fuhrer had ordered that air warfare against England is to be given a more aggressive stamp. Accordingly, when targets are being selected, preference Is to be given to those where attacks are likely to have the greatest possible effect on civilian life. Beside raids on ports and Industry, terror attacks of a retaliatory nature are to be carried out against towns other than London.

In this way the Baedeker Raids were planned, being selected from towns which were listed as having prime historical and cultural interest in the European Baedeker Guide.

The first reprisal raid was made on the City of Exeter by 25 aircraft during the night of 24th/25th April. There was extensive damage and many fatal casualties. The next night Bath was heavily bombed and again on 26th/27th April when there were heavy casualties and many historic buildings were damaged. Then it was the turn of Norwich which was heavily attacked, followed by York when 20 aircraft caused casualties and damage during the night of 28th/29th April. Norwich was again bombed the following night.

Exeter was revisited on 3rd/4th May. There was indiscriminate bombing in south-eastern England during 7th/8th May, in East Anglia on 8th/9th May, and south-western England on 15th May. Then, during the night of 31st May/ 1st June, the Germans bombed Canterbury and caused considerable damage. The next night, East Anglia and south-east England were raided. After a few more sporadic attacks in these areas, the Baedeker blitz petered out on 6th June 1942.

During the period April 23rd to June 6th, the Luftwaffe flew around 900 sorties against Baedeker targets. They lost 33 aircraft whilst causing heavy damage to buildings and houses and killing 855 people. The raids served no purpose whatsoever except to stiffen the resolve of the civilian population to hasten the ultimate retaliation against Germany.

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