  |
Context:
The main targets for air raids outside London were Liverpool, Birmingham, Plymouth, Bristol, Glasgow, Southampton, Coventry, Hull, Portsmouth, Manchester, Belfast, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cardiff.
During the Blitz more than 2,000,000 houses were destroyed. 60,000 civilians were killed; a further 87,000 were seriously injured. Many of these were women and children - indeed, during the early years of the war civilians were at greater risk than combatants.
However, the intense bombing failed to have the desired effect. The infrastructure of key cities survived, while many ordinary people have suggested that their resolve was strengthened by the Blitz.
Transcript:
As I walked along the streets it was almost impossible to believe that these fires could be subdued. I was walking between solid walls of fire. Roofs of shops and office buildings came down with a roaring crash, panes of glass were cracking everywhere from the heat, and every street was criss-crossed with innumerable lengths of hose. Men were fighting the fires from the top of 100 foot ladders, shot up from the street; others were pushing their way into the burning buildings, taking the jet to the core of the fire. Sparks were driving down the street like a heavy snowstorm. Obviously small children couldn't walk across to the station in this and so some of us went backwards and forwards carrying them in our arms. I took off my Macintosh and covered them up completely with it. It must have been rather frightening for them to be carried across by someone they didn't know and not being able to see anything...but it was the only way to protect them from those sparks. And by the time we got the last one across, we should have had to do it anyway, because the building above the station was on fire. Luckily the station escaped...and they were all moved off in trains to get food and drink.
|
|
|
|
