Bristol Blitz Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II . The presence of Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company made it a target for bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe who were able to trace a course up the River Avon from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the waters into the heart of the city . Between 24 November 1940 and 11 April 1941 there were six major bombing raids . In total Bristol received 548 air raid alerts and 77 air raids with : First raids . In a night raid on 2 November 1940 , 5 , 000 incendiary and 10 , 000 high explosive bombs were dropped on the old city . On 24 November 148 Luftflotte 3 bombers left Germany to bomb Bristol : the attack started at 6 . 30pm with waves of 2 or 3 bombers passing over Bristol dropping some 12 , 000 incendiary bombs and 160 tons of high - explosive bombs ; within an hour 70 fires had started ; Park Street was " smashed " ; Bristol Museum hit ; 207 people killed and thousands of houses destroyed or damaged . The area that is now Castle Park was extensively damaged . The Jacobean St Peter ’ s Hospital was destroyed , and the 17th 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 , Bristol was gutted . The Lord Mayor of Bristol , Alderman Thomas Underwood , described the effect of the raids as " The City of Churches had in one night become the city of ruins . " Following raids . On 3 – 4 January 1941 Bristol had its longest raid lasting 12 hours ; during this raid the Luftwaffe dropped their biggest bomb on the city . It was nicknamed " Satan " , and weighed , measuring long ( without the tail ) , and in diameter ; it did not explode . The bomb was recovered in April 1943 . The bomb disposal crew had to dig down to get to it . " Satan " was paraded through the streets of London during the VE Day Victory Parade at the end of the war . The infamous Good Friday air raids caused further damage to the centre of the city , Knowle , Hotwells , Cotham and Filton , and caused the permanent closure of the Bristol Tramways . Winston Churchill visited the ruins on 12 April 1941 . The last air raid of the Blitz on Bristol was 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 . One of the common types of bomb dropped on the city was a canister containing a large number of incendiaries ( locally known as " Goering ' s Bread Basket " – from the Molotov bread basket device ) ; these caused numerous fires and were designed to cause panic amongst the citizens , and stretch the fire services to their limits . The last raid on Bristol was on 15 May 1944 . Bristol was in danger of being hit by V - 1 flying bomb s , and by the A4 / V2 rockets , whose launching platforms already had been built on the Cotentin peninsula in 1944 ; D - Day on 6 June 1944 put an end to this danger . The launching platforms on Cotentin were quickly overrun by the allies , so Bristol was safe from the V1 and V2 . Decoys . In the early years of World War II there was a sophisticated system of decoy sites all over the country with the aim of diverting air attacks away from the major cities . The main decoy for Bristol was at Black Down on the western end of the Mendip Hills , about 25 km southwest of Bristol . A smaller one was in the parish of Chew Magna . These were known as QL sites , and were designed to simulate Bristol under blackout 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 ; these were sometimes successful in tricking the Luftwaffe bombers into thinking that it was Bristol , and they dropped their bombs harmlessly onto the hills .