The Blitz, from the German word 'Blitzkrieg' meaning 'lightning war', was the name borrowed by the British press and applied to the heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. This concentrated, direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centres began with heavy raids on London on 7 September 1940, during what became known as the Battle of Britain. Adolf Hitler's and Hermann Goering's plans to destroy the Royal Air Force to allow an invasion of Britain were failing, and in response to an RAF raid on Berlin, which itself was prompted by an accidental German bombing of London, they changed their tactics to the sustained bombing of civilian targets.