The name derives from Baedeker, a series of German tourist guide books, including detailed maps, which were used to select targets for bombing.

To increase the effect on British civilian morale, bombing targets were chosen by the Germans for their cultural and historical significance rather than for any military value.

The majority of the raids took place in late April and May of 1942, but British towns and cities continued to be targeted for their cultural value over the following two years.

In the year following the Blitz of 1940 and 1941, the RAF had dramatically improved its night fighter capability and introduced the AMES Type 7 radar specifically for night-fighting operations.

The raids resulted in unsustainable bomber losses for the Luftwaffe, and for a variety of reasons the damage to the targeted cities was minimal compared to the Blitz or to the contemporaneous RAF bombing campaign against Germany.

The German offensive, a nine-month period of night bombing known as the Blitz, which had left London and many other British cities heavily damaged, had come to an end in May 1941 when the Luftwaffe had switched its resources to the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Prior to this the RAF had attempted to conduct precision bombing, aiming at individual factories, power stations, even post offices, in multiple strikes across the country; this had been costly and ineffective.

Following the example of the Luftwaffe's November 1940 attack on Coventry, the RAF began concentrating a single blow against an area where several worthwhile targets existed, including the homes and morale of the civilian population living there.

Now, Joseph Goebbels reported, "the damage was really enormous" and "it is horrible ... the English air raids have increased in scope and importance; if they can be continued for weeks on these lines, they might conceivably have a demoralising effect on the population.

Community life there is practically at an end ... the situation is in some sections catastrophic ... seven-tenths of the city have been destroyed ... more than 100,000 people had to be evacuated ... there was, in fact, panic".

[7] After the raid on Bath, Goebbels reported that Hitler intended to "repeat these raids night after night until the English are sick and tired of terror attacks" and that he "shared [Goebbels'] opinion absolutely that cultural centres, health resorts and civilian centres must be attacked ... there is no other way of bringing the English to their senses.

[7] The first raid of the Baedeker Blitz was directed against Exeter, the ancient county town of Devon with its immense heritage of historic buildings, on the night of Saint George's Day, 23/24 April 1942.

The German bombers suffered heavy losses for minimal damage inflicted, and the Axis's need for reinforcements in North Africa and on the Eastern Front meant further operations could only continue at a reduced scale.

[citation needed] In September they attacked Sunderland, a port and industrial centre, and King's Lynn, a market town of no military value.

[19] On 31 October 1942, thirty German fighter-bombers escorted by sixty fighters made a low-level attack on Canterbury, dropping 28 bombs on the city and causing 30 deaths.

[24] Throughout the year raids were made on a variety of targets; some of strategic value (Southampton, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull, Sunderland, Newcastle) and others with little or none (Eastbourne, Hastings, Maidstone, Cheltenham, Chelmsford, Bournemouth, Lincoln).

In June 1943 a raid on Grimsby saw the use of delayed-action anti-personnel "butterfly bombs", which resulted in 163 civilian casualties, most of them from these devices as people returned to their homes after the all clear was sounded.

[25] In November 1943, following the RAF and USAAF bombing of Hamburg and the first use of the "Window" radar countermeasure, the Luftwaffe were able to respond with a raid on Norwich, using Duppel, their equivalent.

Henceforth, efforts were re-directed toward the ports that the Germans suspected were going to be used for the allied invasion of France, while the assault on London became the domain of Germany's V-weapons.