The 'Blitz on Bristol' was the German heavy bombing of Bristol (24 November 1940/11 April 1941).

Given the importance of its harbour and the presence of the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s factory, the city was inevitably a target for German bombing and was also easily found as the bombers were able to trace a course up the Avon river from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the waters into the heart of the city. Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of the war.

Between 24 November 1940 and 11 April 1941 there were six major bombing raids and, in total, Bristol received 548 air raid alerts and 77 air raids in which 919 tons of high explosive bombs and large numbers of incendiary bombs were dropped in clusters; 1,299 people were killed, 1,303 persons were seriously injured and 697 persons rescued from the debris of bombed buildings; and 89,080 buildings were damaged, including 81,830 houses destroyed and more than 3,000 rendered unusable and later demolished.

In a night raid on 2 November 1940, both high explosive bombers and incendiaries were dropped on the old city.

On 24 November, 148 bombers of Luftflotte III departed to bomb Bristol. The attack started at 18.30, with waves of two or three bombers passing over Bristol dropping around 12,000 incendiary bombs and 160 tons of high explosive bombs. Within one hour more than 70 fires had been started. Park Street was destroyed and the Bristol Museum hit, 207 people were killed, and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged. The area that is now Castle Park was extensively damaged. The Jacobean St Peter’s Hospital was destroyed, and the 17^th century timber-framed Dutch House was damaged and subsequently demolished. Four of Bristol’s ancient churches (St Peter’s, the interior of St Nicholas, St Mary le Port and Temple Church) were also badly damaged. The St James' Presbyterian Church of England was gutted.

On 7 December 1940, bombs hit a train operating the service between Bristol and Salisbury, killing several passengers including a number of soldiers.

On 3/4 January 1941 Bristol suffered its longest raid, lasting 12 hours. In the course of this attack the Germans dropped an example of what was currently their most massive bomb, weighing a notional 4,409 lb (2000 kg) bomb: the bomb did not explode, and was recovered in April 1943, the bomb-disposal crew had to dig down 29 ft (8.8 m) to reach it.

The infamous Good Friday air raids of 1941 caused further damage to the centre of the city, Knowle, Hotwells, Cotham and Filton, and led to the permanent closure of the Bristol Tramways. The last air raid of 'The Blitz' on Bristol took place on 25 April 1941, when Brislington, Bedminster and Knowle were bombed. It is speculated that these suburbs were not the targets themselves but that bombs intended for Filton’s manufacturing areas were mistakenly dropped on other areas.

The last raid on Bristol occurred on 15 May 1944.

Bristol was in danger of being hit by V-1 flying bombs and V-2 ballistic rockets, whose launching platforms had already been built on the Cotentin peninsula in France in 1944. However, after the Allied 'Overlord' invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 these launching platforms were quickly overrun and consequently no V-1 or V-2 weapon ever landed on Bristol.

It is worth noting that in the early years of World War II, following the 'Mondscheinsonate' bombing of Coventry in November 1940, many decoy sites were built with the intention of decoying German bombing raids away from the major cities. The main decoy for Bristol was at Black Down on the western end of the Mendip Hills, about 15 miles (24 km) to the south-west of Bristol. A smaller site was erected in the parish of Chew Magna. These were known as 'Starfish' sites, and were designed to simulate Bristol under black-out conditions, even to the extent of mimicking the flickering lights of railway marshalling yards. In the event of an imminent air raid, beacons were lit at the decoy sites.