211: The Battle Before Britain Pt. 3 - How to Build a Bombing Campaign

History of the Second World War

Wesley Livesay

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.5 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode delves into the often-overlooked early years of Britain’s Bomber Command during 1940, revealing a story of ambitious plans, flawed assumptions, and determined aircrews. We explore how Bomber Command transitioned from pre-war theory to desperate anti-invasion efforts, laying mines and attacking German harbors as the threat of a Nazi landing loomed. Beyond the immediate crisis, we uncover the enduring belief – championed by Churchill – that strategic bombing held the key to victory, despite early failures and a fundamental misunderstanding of the challenges ahead, setting the stage for the massive campaigns to come. Join us as we uncover the realities of early war bombing and the unwavering faith in a strategy that would define much of the conflict. Contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to advertise on History of the Second World War. History of the Second World War is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:09.4	Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.
0:12.6	I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world.
0:18.3	These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vigllan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark,
0:23.0	and so many other famous, and not so famous, adventures from throughout history.
0:27.4	Go to Explorerspodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app.
0:31.6	That's the Explorers Podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to history of the Second World War episode 209, The Battle
0:49.4	Before Britain Part 3, How to Build a Bombing Campaign.
0:53.8	This week, a big thank you goes out to Ron and Springfield for choosing to support the podcast
0:58.5	by becoming members.
1:00.0	You can find out more about supporting the podcast over at History of the Second World War.com
1:04.2	slash members.
1:06.2	For what I think are pretty obvious reasons, the majority of the discussions around the Battle of Britain focus on the air battles over
1:12.9	Britain during the summer and autumn of 1940.
1:16.1	This is where the fate of the campaign would be decided, and it was also an area where
1:19.8	the British could focus in which they were very clearly winning.
1:22.9	They were doing a great job, and so a lot of the publicity, the propaganda, focused on those events. But there
1:28.7	were all kinds of other things happening in the war at this time, which were directly related
1:33.2	to the ongoing air battle over Britain, but were not, well, the air battle over Britain.
1:39.2	Many of these events would involve RAF Bomber Command, as it tried to maintain its own bombing campaign
1:45.0	of German targets. These efforts were important, and they would have an important impact on the
1:49.5	German invasion preparations throughout the summer, but they were still overshadowed, both by the
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