London @ War

The Lecture on London’s role in WWI and WWII was very interesting because it dealt with modern warfare which changed the view of the war front forever. Prior to the early 20^th century, war was characterized by cavalry but technological advances enabled the creation of weaponry that transformed warfare to unrecognizable lengths.

For the first time London was confronted with aerial bombardment as airships dropped bombs on London during the first air raid on May 31^st 1915. By September 1916, airships were replaced by planes with exploding ammunition. Between 1914 and 1918 over six hundred people were killed in London and thousands of people sheltered from bombs in the tube system. While it proved to be a safe shelter, the British government saw it as a problem due to people’s reluctance to exit the tube stations after the war. The government the set up the Imperial Defense Committee as it quickly realized London’s vulnerability and lack of evacuation schemes. The committee created provisions for the evacuation of children, pregnant women and the disabled. They also rejected deep shelters and implemented basement shelter and shallow shelter that were provided to the public for free.

Even though all these preparations were made, the British government gave no consideration to the possibility of another world war. By the 1930s war seemed to be in sight as Hitler breaks the Treaty of Versailles and goes on a quest to reclaim German supremacy. On September 3^rd 1939, Britain declared war on Germany because Hitler invaded Poland. This war was known as the Phoney War because the government imposed a blackout in London. Children were evacuated, rationing was implemented and the nation was prepared for the war.

What I found most interesting was the Blitz because it served as the period which had the biggest psychological effect on Londoners. After Hitler’s invasion of Britain failed, his new policy was to destroy London. Bombs were dropped on the city , destroying ¾ of it. New weapons were created, most importantly the V1 and V2 which were incredible for its time because it was “unheard, unseen and unstoppable”.

These wars, especially the technological advances made it extremely clear that humankind now had the power to destroy itself in a very short space of time and that in itself is quite frightening. What I found to be most significant is that throughout this period of destruction St. Pauls Cathedral stood among the rubble which made me realize that regardless what happens there is always hope. All we can do is hope that people can see the value in human life and nuclear bombs are not set off, completely destroying our beautiful planet.