London During the Blitz

[red solo cup]

[Bernadette]

This brings to mind a question that I've been wondering about lately: whether many people resisted the mandatory blackout back then, like you see with people and masks these days.

[paul14]

London during the Blitz.  A nice cup of tea, and a sit down.

edit: These days you buy tables at IKEA; but back then you got them from Morrisons.

[Frank]

London during the Blitz.  A nice cup of tea, and a sit down.

edit: These days you buy tables at IKEA; but back then you got them from Morrisons.

I used to sleep (aged eight) alongside one of those and when the bangs came extra close my
parents would drag me in through the slot between the top of my bed and the top angle of the
morrison. Normally morrisons had demountable wire mesh screens on the sides to prevent debris
falling in. This was left off on my side. Presumably my bed would have served as a substitute.

My wife told me she tap-danced on hers. Must have made an awful racket.

After the war the council collected them and our mahogany Victorian round table was reinstalled.

[Frank]

This brings to mind a question that I've been wondering about lately: whether many people resisted the mandatory blackout back then, like you see with people and masks these days.

The answer is no. And ARP wardens patrolled the streets to make sure they didn't. Any chink of light and you would hear the cry:

PUT THAT LIGHT OUT!

[paul14]

Here's a postcard from the Blitz.

[LausTibiChriste]

My Grandpa was too young to join the Army so he rode around on his bicycle reporting all the fires during the Blitz.

His older brother, my Great-Uncle, was a Hurricane pilot and was shot down in the Battle of Britain near Cranbrook. Visited his grave on the Isle of Wight, it was cool.

Military history is neat-o.

[awkwardcustomer]

This brings to mind a question that I've been wondering about lately: whether many people resisted the mandatory blackout back then, like you see with people and masks these days.

People didn't resist the blackout because they could see and hear the planes and the bombs they dropped.

But they didn't always obey the call to go to the shelters when the bombers came.  My own mother, who was in London all through the blitz, used to stay in bed whenever the sirens sounded rather than get up in the middle of a freezing cold night and stumble through the pitch black into an unheated shelter.

Coal was rationed, there was no central heating or air con, and in the middle of winter, when you've finally got warm in bed, the siren goes signalling yet another air raid.  I wonder how many other people chose to stay at home too.  We'll never know, but the attitude then was 'if it's got my number on it', in other words - if it's meant to get me it will so might as well stay warm in the meantime.

[Frank]

This brings to mind a question that I've been wondering about lately: whether many people resisted the mandatory blackout back then, like you see with people and masks these days.

People didn't resist the blackout because they could see and hear the planes and the bombs they dropped.

But they didn't always obey the call to go to the shelters when the bombers came.  My own mother, who was in London all through the blitz, used to stay in bed whenever the sirens sounded rather than get up in the middle of a freezing cold night and stumble through the pitch black into an unheated shelter.

Coal was rationed, there was no central heating or air con, and in the middle of winter, when you've finally got warm in bed, the siren goes signalling yet another air raid.  I wonder how many other people chose to stay at home too.  We'll never know, but the attitude then was 'if it's got my number on it', in other words - if it's meant to get me it will so might as well stay warm in the meantime.

Quite true - but in contrast to the blackout there was no compulsion to go to a shelter.
It was entirely up to you.

[Bernadette]

My Grandpa was too young to join the Army so he rode around on his bicycle reporting all the fires during the Blitz.

His older brother, my Great-Uncle, was a Hurricane pilot and was shot down in the Battle of Britain near Cranbrook. Visited his grave on the Isle of Wight, it was cool.

Military history is neat-o.

My grandma. aged. 15, did war work drilling bullets. The bullets had to be accurately drilled to the millimeter. All the rest of the bullet drillers were boys. The majority of her pay was "donated" (confiscated) for the war effort.

[red solo cup]

Getting some pay back.

[Greg]

[Jayne]

The Blitz  forms the historical background for the story The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, an influential book in my childhood.  It was not, however, as explicit in the book as it was in the recent film version.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_A18p4n67Q[/yt]