mx wcfc
Well-Known Member
There's an urban myth down here that Winchester didn't get deliberately bombed because Hitler wanted to be crowned Emperor of Britain in Winchester Cathedral, Winchester being the "capital" of the germanic Anglo Saxon Kingdom.I’m sure I remember being mentioned in multiples articles/ TV documentaries before that Hitler didn’t want the Luftwaffe to destroy the most important historical landmarks in London, as he envisioned himself enjoying them as spoils of war once England had been conquered.
Presumably that’s the one reason the likes of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament endured relatively light damage over the entire course of WWII? Because if Hitler had given up at any point on his vision and given the order to flatten its most relevant historical landmarks as a fuck you to Britain, it seems staggering that the Luftwaffe didn’t do a better job of it. Blackout & barrage balloons or not, if you really intended to destroy the likes of Tower Bridge, Parliament or the Palace as revenge, and still have the capacity to launch 400-plane-strong raids on London, as the Germans did well past the time they’d abandoned Operation Sealion, I can’t believe believe they were incapable to do so, considering how many large scale raids they carried out over the course of the conflict.
It is odd the city wasn't targeted by bombers, given the army barracks that were here. Maybe they just didn't have a Baedecker Guide for Winchester.
The city was bombed once, but it appears to have been a lone, lost, small bomber that dumped its load on the local brewery. There were a lot of civilian casualties.