attle 142). Goering was determined to leave a lasting impression on Britain. The name for the night raids was the blitz. If Goering could not annihilate the RAF, he would try to gain victory through intimidation Britain's citizens. Herbert Agar wrote, "On October 7 Goering defined the aims of the blitz: 'Progressive and complete annihilation of London', paralyzing Britain's war potential and civil life, and 'the demoralization of the civil population of London and its provinces'" (Agar, Herbert. The Darkest Year Britain Alone. New York: Doubleday and Company Inc, 1973. 125). Under a cloak of darkness, Germany's air force lost the ability to visually confirm a target, of necessity they invented a method of allowing the planes to fly a set, previously designed path towards their target. A pilot would fly on a beam from radio-transmission towers in France that emitted a continuous hum as long as the pilot stayed on the beams coarse. If the pilot veered slightly off coarse, a series of dots and dashes would be heard. When near the target, a second beam emitted from a separate tower intercepted the original beam and the pilot would hear a difference in sound. This meant that he would now time his run to a given time interval and drop his bombs. This ingenious system was called the Knickebein or crooked leg. This helped to improve the bombers chance of hitting its key targets, because the Knickebein system was accurate up to about a square mile. The British were well aware of its existence and had developed a method of disrupting it by the time the blitz started. Britain would adapt their own radio beacons and superimpose Morse code on the frequency. This caused German pilots to be given false signals and would cause them to overshoot and completely miss their target (Mosley Battle 143). Britain employed spotlights, antiaircraft weapons, and night fighters to defend its cities from nightly raids. The immediate effect of the blitz was a swing ...
