Britain marks anniversary of "Blitz" as new row looms with Germany

Sep 7, 2010, 14:33 GMT

London - Britain Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the Blitz - the aerial bombing of London and other cities - by the Nazi Luftwaffe in September, 1940.

Veterans, former pilots, firefighters and nurses gathered for a memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London which - although the target of bombers - miraculously survived the devastation all around it.

Some 400 Londoners were killed during the first night of the Blitz, which was to be followed by a further 75 nights of bombing. The eight-month campaign claimed around 40,000 lives.

The sound of air raid sirens prefaced the service which was attended by the Duke of Kent, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Nick Anstee.

Meanwhile, a diplomatic row was brewing between Britain and Germany Tuesday over plans to erect a memorial in a central London park to the bomber crews of the Royal Air Force (RAF) who took part in the air raids on Dresden in 1945.

The mayor of Dresden, Helma Orosz, who attended the opening of an exhibition of the Blitz anniversary in London this week, told the Daily Express newspaper Tuesday that a memorial to the RAF bomber pilots would 'not be part of the culture of reconciliation.'

'The emotions of the people in Dresden are running high. It is against our culture of remembrance,' said Orosz, who also visited Coventry, the heavily-bombed British city now twinned with Dresden.

More than 25,000 people died in the British-American bombing raids on Dresden in February, 1945. According to British figures, in excess of 55,000 bomber crews lost their lives during World War II.