The resulting devastation altered the landscape and the character of the city beyond all recognition. Task: Put yourself in the shoes of a Londoner. Starvation was rampant. I enjoyed learning more about London and the effects of war on its population. WHAT people lived thru!! A little patchy. As the attacks spread to include other cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow and Coventry, the civilian population of Britain found itself in the front line as never before. Nothing intrigues me more, as a historian, than the in depth study of people, places, and events during WWII. Over a period of 267 days London was attacked 71 times. They’ve smashed that – St James’s, Piccadilly, the Burlington Arcade, Garland’s Hotel, where we stayed for the pantomime, Maples and John Lewis. (2010). One might consider it too detailed, but I learned a great deal and came away so impressed with the organization the government displayed and the courage of the people. Wow,I was totally blown away reading what it was like for England during WW II! I was happy to see the chapter on the 1945 general election when Churchill was badly beaten by Attlee. Constant bombing, children had to be evacuated by trains to foster homes. The purpose of the Blitz was to disrupt the British economy and destroy morale. ‘They don’t hang women, not in this war’, Mrs Bellairs replies with a touching faith in British justice, only for Prentice to remark ‘We may hang more people ma’am … than the papers tell you about’ (Book 3, ch. This story was submitted to the People's War site by Helen Avey of the BBC London Team on behalf of Maud Joan Blake and has been added to the site with her permission. This was a fascinating study of life in London at the end of WWII. The Blitz also allowed secrets to flourish. I have it in my library I treasure it. The US could learn as lot about disaster relief/preparedness farm the VERY organized British! The text in this article is available under the Creative Commons License. An extraordinary close up view of the effects of war. Usage terms © William Vandivert / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images. Usage terms © Fox Photos / Stringer / Getty Images. Museum of London. So many of WWII related books are devoted to the military portion of the war or the Holocaust that the British home front is greatly neglected. With colorful detail and rich insight, historian Maureen Waller takes readers through London in the last year of war. After a brief stint at the National Portrait Gallery, she went on to work as an editor at several prestigious London publishing houses. get your stories, facts, anecdotes, quotes on individual cards, order them, and then write the chapter from them. Less of the detailed data about damage, injuries, bombs, rationing, looting, housing shortages, etc. In particular, one of the characters, Kay Langrish, finds her life given new purpose by her wartime career as a London ambulance driver, only to suffer a comparable loss of purpose when the war ends and her role is no longer required. As a result, most novels set during the Blitz tended to concentrate on the aftermath of the raids: the rubble-strewn streets and the houses with walls blown away to reveal the private interiors of bedrooms and bathrooms. Interesting study on the history of London during the war. WW2 - REBUILDING LONDON. The raids killed 43,000 civilians and lasted for eight months. The author gives us a window into how the people of London survived the rockets and bombs falling on the city in the last year of the war, and the tragic casualties and fatalities, which included babies and children., how the British government directed and managed life in Britain at the time, life in the shelters , the gruelling food shortages and strict rationing, it is heartbreaking to read of childhood malnourishment as a result of this. What was life like in London during World War II? Secondly, it provokes the reader to reflect upon who most deserved particular jobs after the war ended – the women who had carried out their duties under appalling conditions, or the men who had been forced to give up the jobs originally to fight for their country?