London at War

For our last lecture, we discussed what London went through during both World War One and World War Two. WW1, aka "The Great War" was from 1914-1945 and consisted of many air raids from the Germans that cost the lives of hundreds of Londoners. More so than physical damage or number of deaths, the great cost of the bombs that hit London was the psychological damage it had on its residents. The Paris Peace Conference in 1919 ended the war, with Germany being punished financially, physically shrunk and officially blamed for the war. We seemed to focus more on WW2 however, which was from  1939-1945. The physical and mental damage the war had on Londoners was countless. Within a few minutes of war being declared (by England), the first bomb had already hit London by the Germans. From that day forward a Londoner's day was filled with terror and anticipation of what was to come. Beyond shear terror of the people, the everyday activities in London had to be postponed. Every single night, homes, stores, cars and all buildings were all required to turn their lights off and be blacked out. Police would actually go on foot to make sure no light was visible. The point of this was that so German planes above would not be able to easily spot out London by all its lights and bomb it. Anywhere where large groups of people would gather were also suspended; plays, sports, literally everything except for churches were banned, a big hit to English culture .  The paranoia about and preparation for bombs continued with children being evacuated out of London, food and clothing being rationed, gas masks and Anderson shelters (for homes) and Morrison shelters (for apartments) being distributed for protection. Eventually when London was being bombed daily, hundreds of thousands of people took shelter in the tube stations, which was mostly effective in keeping them safe.

What I found most interesting was the length that people went to to keep themselves and their families safe. Sleeping in a tube station every night with no bathroom facilities (at first), using no lights at night (which led to many accidental deaths and injuries) and sheltering in a cold, wet Anderson shelter during a bomb scare seems horrible. I truly cannot imagine living like this and I give so much credit to Londoners during this time for being so brave and so efficient in a horrible situation.

I also found it interesting that class did not seem to be an issue. Being a sociology major, class and hierarchy in society is something we frequently study. Except for the rich who could likely get their food un-rationed (if you had money, you had food), it seemed that for those taking shelter in the tube stations and for general safety, class was not an issue and everyone was on equal grounds, equally vulnerable and equally in danger.

Overall what I learned from this lecture was the extreme physical and psychological damage on London during the two world wars. Learning from an English perspective the details of the horrific everyday lives of Londoners and how they had to keep on living (working, recreation, etc) is a very remarkable story.