The 'Blitz on Hull' was the German bombing campaign against the English east-coast port city of Kingston upon Hull (19 June 1940/14 July 1943).

Major attacks took place on several nights throughout March 1941, resulting in more than 200 deaths. The most concentrated attacks were on the nights of 7/8 and 8/9 May 1941, resulting in just fewer than 400 deaths, and another large-scale attack took place in July 1941, resulting in 143 fatalities. In overall terms, Hull spent more than 1,000 hours under alert during raids from 19 June 1940 to 1945, with almost 1,200 people in the city killed by the bombing.

Hull was the most severely damaged British city or town during World War II, with 95% of its housing stock destroyed or damaged. Hull was the target of the first German daylight raid of the war and the last piloted German air raid on a target in the British Isles. Of a population of approximately 320,000 at the beginning of the war, about 152,000 were made homeless as a result of bomb destruction or damage, and almost 1,200 people were killed and 3,000 injured. More than 5,000 houses were destroyed and half of the city centre destroyed. The cost of bomb damage was estimated at £20 million with 3 million sq ft (280000 m²) of factory space, several oil and flour mills, the Riverside Quay and 27 churches, 14 schools or hospitals, 42 public houses and eight cinemas ruined; only 6,000 out of 91,000 houses remained undamaged at the end of the war. Despite the damage the port continued to function throughout the war.

During World War I, Hull had been bombed several times by airships. An intended raid on London by the Zeppelin L-9 was diverted to Hull as a result of bad weather on 6/7 June 1915 and dropped 13 explosive and 50 incendiary bombs, destroying 40 houses and killing 24 persons. Mobs of people then attacked shops thought to belong to people of German origin. In this bombing, a device dropped through the roof of the original Edwin Davis department store on South Churchside, destroying it. An attempted raid on Hull on 8/9 August 1915 bombed Goole by mistake as a result of navigational error. On 5 March 1916 two Zeppelins, L-11 and L-14, were diverted to Hull from an attack on the fleet base at Rosyth in the Firth of Forth. Bombs were dropped on Earles shipyard in the dock area and on Paragon station in the city centre, resulting in some deaths. The raids showed that Hull was completely unprotected from air attack and public anger led to service personnel being mobbed. Further attacks came on 25 September 1917 and 10 March 1918.

A programme of building air raid shelters was launched in 1938, and more than £1.5 million was spent on the construction of 40,000 shelters.

By the start of World War II, the Germans had identified a number of primary targets: three near Stoneferry, the water works, the gas works, Sculcoates power station, the Saltend oil refinery and the six docks, while lesser targets included the large grain mills on the Hull river.

Hull’s first air raid warning was sounded at 02.45 on 4 September 1939, summoning all 'air-raid yellow' operational crews to their posts. The public siren sounded at 03.20 and the all-clear at 04.08 after no raid had materialised. The attacks on Hull during 1940 were at a relatively low level and scale, carried out by a single aeroplane or small numbers of warplanes. The first recorded bombing raid on Hull was during the night of 19/20 June 1940, with minor damage to Chamberlain Street, and by the end of the year there had been some 20 raids, resulting in the deaths of 12 people.

An air raid on the oil depot to the east of Hull at Saltend caused a serious fire after fuel storage tanks had been ruptured, and five men received the George Medal for their bravery in containing the fire.

The intensity of the German bombing increased in the early part of 1941. In February several attacks resulted in casualties, with around 20 people killed. In the following month, major raids took place on the nights of 13/14, 14/15 and 18/19 March: the first large attack targeted the Hull river corridor resulting in damage to paint businesses in Stoneferry; the second targeted St Andrew’s Dock, but a public shelter in Bean Street nearby was hit by a parachute mine causing many deaths; and the third major raid lasted six hours during which nearly 100 people were killed as bombs dropped over a wide area of Hull, concentrated on the Hull river corridor but with many bombs also causing damage in the area to the west of the river. On 31 March/1 April the city centre was targeted, with predominant use of parachute mines. From the beginning of March to April bombing resulted in 200 deaths. The German attacks continued in April, with a major attack taking place on 15/16 April focused on the Alexandra Dock; additionally, a parachute mine hit a public shelter resulting in more than four deaths. More mine attacks took place on the two nights between 25 and 27 April, and six people were killed by a mine which descended on the Gipsyville estate.

Between 3 and 9 May, the docks and city centre became the target, these attacks coinciding with German air attacks on other ports and shipping centres including Merseyside, Belfast and Clydeside, and also on London, before the German 'Barbarossa' invasion of the USSR. Two major attacks took place on the nights between 7 and 9 May, each lasting sone five to six hours during which high explosive bombs, parachute mines, and large number of incendiary bombs were dropped. During the attacks many well known buildings were damaged or destroyed including the department stores of Hammonds, Edwin Davis and Thornton-Varley, and other buildings in the commercial centre. On the docks the Riverside Quay was destroyed by fire, and major fires erupted in the timber storage area around Hedon Road. The Rank flour mill was damaged, as was the corporation bus depot, and the buildings of the corporation telephone system. In addition to the areas of concentration, bombs fell on area across the whole city. More than 400 people were killed during the attack, many of the casualties resulting from bomb hits on communal shelters.

The anti-aircraft guns and searchlights of the Humber Gun Zone under the 39^th Anti-Aircraft Brigade struggled to defend the city against the onslaught, and both they and the night-fighters from RAF Kirton in Lindsey scored some successes.

Before and just after the start of the German campaign in the USSR, German air attacks on the UK diminished as much of the Luftwaffe’s strength was shifted to the east. Attacks continued sporadically through late May, June and July, with a major attack on east Hull and the Victoria Dock on the night of 18/19 July. Reckitt’s factory in Dansom Lane and the East Hull gas works were also badly damaged. About 140 people were killed by the bombing, many from the areas around the works.

The practice of 'trekking', or travelling to the countryside to sleep in the fields when bombing was expected, had begun in World War I, and by 1941 an estimated one-third of the population was departing Hull at night.

Minor attacks continued approximately monthly until the end of the year, with serious bombing in the early morning of 18 August and the night of 31 August/1 September.

There was a reduction in the number and weight of the German attacks in 1942, but a major bombing raid on 19/20 May targeted the Alexandra and Victoria Docks and the surrounding area and also in Marlborough Avenue, Blenheim Street and Warneford Gardens, where four people were killed. It is thought the attacks on the docks were delivered as part of a German effort to reduce the quantity of matériel and other supplies which could be shipped to the USSR. By this stage in the German campaign, bomb weight had increased, with 1,102-lb (500-kg) weapons in common use. On 1 August another raid concentrated on the eastern docks, 24 people in Grindell Street being killed when a 3,968-lb (1800-kg) bomb fell on it. There were attacks in October and December, with comparatively limited damage and each killing just two people.

Minor attacks took place on 3 and 15 January 1943, with phosphorus bombs being identified as used as incendiaries in the second attack. On 24 June a larger-scale attack took place, with the city centre once gain targeted. During this attack Hull Municipal Museum was destroyed by fire. The government allowed Hull to be named specifically as the target of the attack, and the Hull Daily Mail ran a front-page headline the next day. Another attack took place on 13/14 July, which appears have been intended to damage the railway system and caused more than 20 deaths. Two further attacks later in the year failed to penetrate the city’s defences.

No bombs fell on the city in 1944. On 17/18 March 1945, there was a small raid in which fragmentation grenades were dropped.

The bombing campaign against the UK resulted in the deaths of 121 people (82 civilian and 39 military) in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Luftwaffe targeted coastal towns such as Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea, killing a total of 44 people, as well as RAF airfields such as RAF Driffield, RAF Catfoss and RAF Leconfield. An attack on RAF Driffield on 15 August 1940 killed 15 people. Other attacks on East Yorkshire were flown against the outskirts of Hull and included the first daylight raid on British soil at the Saltend oil terminal and the attack on the Blackburn Aircraft factory at Brough. Bombs were also dropped in error, as a result of poor navigation, on the Hull Docks decoy. These attacks killed 22 people in Hedon, Bilton and Preston. Other bombing activity was caused by the Luftwaffe dumping bombs after abandoning raids not just on Hull but also on Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and other northern targets. Death and destruction inflicted by the Germans also included sea mines exploding as they hit the coast and German aircraft shooting down Allied aircraft over East Yorkshire.

On 24 December 1944 a massed aerial V-1 flying bomb attack was launched on Manchester, one of the bombs impacting prematurely at Willerby, just outside Hull, damaging housing and the Springhead pumping station.

Some 38,000 children were evacuated from Hull. In addition to destinations in rural East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, these children were evacuated to Lancashire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Leicester and elsewhere. Entire secondary schools were relocated: for example Hymers College had pupils in Pocklington and Market Weighton, while Newland High School moved to Bridlington and later Malton. However many pupils remained in the city and most evacuees returned from the end of 1942 onward.

As was the case with many other towns and cities, contemporary radio and newspaper reports did not usually identify Hull by name but referred to it as a 'north-east coast town', 'north-east town' or 'northern town' to avoid providing the Germans with tactical information of damage. After the major raids of 18/19 March 1941, 18 July 1941, 18 August 1941 and 24 June 1943 the city was named, but in the reporting of the attacks of 7/9 May 1941, the target was designated by the Air Ministry as being in the Humber area. The Hull Daily Mail newspaper referred to victims by name but locations and industrial damage were not. Damage to schools and churches was freely reported and German press releases were quoted verbatim in the British press, including the name of the town.