14. The Germans return to bombing the British ports and shipping facilities
In the late winter of 1940-41, the Kriegsmarine lobbied Hitler for Luftwaffe support in the attacks on British shipping. Goering continued to resist committing the Luftwaffe to the support of naval operations, fearing that if he did so he would lose absolute control of both air operations and aircraft production, including the design of future airplanes. In February 1941 the interdiction of British imports and the destruction of port facilities and ships by the Luftwaffe was given top priority by Hitler. Goering agreed to the prioritizing of the British ports as targets but emphasized that other targets of opportunity would be included during planning, in the event that the targets in the ports were concealed by cloud cover. The aircraft would then fly on to inland targets such as factories or military installations. In March the Luftwaffe launched a raid against Clydebank, a port and shipbuilding center near Glasgow.
Clydebank saw damage to nearly twelve thousand houses, and extensive damage to facilities and other structures in a raid on March 13, 1941. The Channel port of Plymouth was the subject of several raids before the end of March. Other ports, including Belfast in Northern Ireland and Cardiff in Wales, were the targets of bombing raids. Throughout the United Kingdom, people were being rendered homeless at the rate of more than 40,000 per week. During the raids on the ports, though the docks and other port facilities were damaged, the majority of the Luftwaffe bombs fell on the business or residential portions of the cities. The eastern ports of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland were attacked, and heavy damage occurred, but the continuous trickle of supplies from North America continued to arrive in the United Kingdom.
