Bath Blitz

Bath was bombed in WW2 as part of the "Baedeker raids". Named after German travel guides because the raids targeted cultural and historical sites in England. They took place in response to RAF raids on German civilian targets.

Many residents ignored the initial siren warnings as they assumed the planes would be targeting Bristol as had happened almost every night for the previous 4 months. 417 people were killed in Bath, another 1000 injured. 19,000 buildings were affected including iconic buildings such as the Assembly Rooms, which lost its roof. Luckily the priceless chandeliers had been moved into a local mine for safekeeping not long beforehand.

The archive has a collection of poignant photos documenting the devastation that took place over that one weekend in April 1942.