After the Blitz

From May 1941 to the end of night raids in 1943, Luftwaffe bombers attacked provincial cities across England, Scotland, and Wales. However, these air raids are not considered part of the Blitz—at least, not according to the British Official History. The official historiography maintains that the Blitz on the United Kingdom ended when aircraft were redeployed to support the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, after the final major raid against London that May. In After the Blitz: The Luftwaffe Bombing of Britain, 1941–1943, author Stephen Moore argues that official histories minimize the impact of bombing on cities like Newcastle, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham because they use attacks on London to define the Blitz's chronological boundaries. By excavating British and German archives and cross-referencing government documentation with memoirs and secondary sources, Moore demonstrates that Britain suffered from Luftwaffe assaults well after the official end date of the Blitz and rescues the history of post-Blitz bombings from obscurity. After the Blitz cements itself in the historical record by confronting the official scholarship that has been foundational to the field and affirms the traumatic experiences of people who lived outside of London during this period.