Geographers map London Blitz

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LONDON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- A website now offers a street-by-street and night-by-night look at the damage London suffered during the Blitz in World War II.

A team from Portsmouth University spent a year on the project, which they called Bomb Sight, the BBC reported. Researchers used information from the National Archives and photographs from the Imperial War Museum.

"When you look at these maps and see the proliferation of bombs dropped on the capital, it does illustrate the meaning of the word Blitz, which comes from the German meaning lightning," said Kate Jones, a university geographer. "It seems astonishing that London survived the onslaught."

Between Sept. 7, 1940, and May 11, 1941, German bombs killed more than 20,000 people in London. More than 1 million became homeless.

Important landmarks such as St. Paul's Cathedral were saved by scores of volunteers who extinguished fires.

The Blitz ended as the German military began preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union in late June 1941.