London At War

I found the “London at War” lecture to be interesting because it was from a British person’s standpoint. I am so used to seeing both WWI and WWII from the perspective of the American side. London’s first air raid took place on May 31^st, 1915 where 28 people were killed and over a ton of bombs were released. The 1^st zeppelin was shot down in September of 1916 and flying officer Leif-Robinson became a national hero. New advances in war technology were being made throughout early-mid 1900s and in September of 1916, planes replaced airships and the worst raid yet which occurred June 13^th, 1917. Two years later, the Paris Peace Conference occurred and Germany was punished physically, militarily, and had to pay financial reparations. When Hitler became Germany’s new chancellor, he broke the treaty and annexes Austria along with the Sudetenland.

During the time of WWII, London was going through many changes. Over 670,000 children were evacuated from schools, rationing began, and the Black Market flourished. London was anticipating a massive attack and soon enough, the Blitz took place where the goal was to destroy London. I didn’t know that at this time, London went through so much turmoil. It’s still hard to believe that Hitler, being one person, could have so much influence over a country enough to where millions of people were sacrificed. As a psychology major, we learn that people under a state of vulnerability will most likely cling to the first idea out of the misery or stress they are dealing with. This can be seen on a small, individual scale but it's scary when it happens to millions of people. I could see that after Germany had to pay reparations, they were in a state of vulnerability so they believe a charismatic speaker who claimed that Germany would become the best it has ever been. Little did they know, Hitler was, in my opinion, one of the biggest downfalls in history. I remember that on the walking tour through the East side of London, Russell explained that the people of London are mentally strong and have a unity that sometimes can't be seen on the streets. Even after all of this chaos happened in London, their people were able to overcome what the war left behind.