The Imperial War Museum: The Blitz

The Citizens’ War. The Blitz. The Battle of Britain. Known by many different names, the Germans’ incessant bombing of Britain’s major metropolitan areas, particularly London, during World War II has gone down in history as one of the most destructive military strikes recorded. One reason for the Blitz’s significance lies in its direct impact on the everyday lives of British civilians. As I wandered through the World War II exhibit and the Blitz Experience at the Imperial War Museum, I began to get some idea of the true extent of what the bombing meant--and still means--for Londoners.

For the Germans, the Blitz, which began on 7 September 1940, was seen as merely a prelude to invasion, or as a way to weaken the country to make Hitler’s taking over easier. I can only imagine how frightening it would be to live each day in fear of invasion; right now, as I walk around a London that successfully spurned Hitler’s advances, it’s hard to think of German forces taking over the country. But for the British during the Blitz, the possibility was an everyday reality. The people weren’t completely unprepared for what was coming though, for “by February 1941 the government had given out 2.5 million Anderson shelters, tents of corrugated iron people buried in backyards and covered with earth. Each one held six persons” (Roberts 801). The shelters, of which there was also a style called a Morrison, which as Brother Chittock mentioned, was more dangerous because it could mean the death of 300 instead six people, were not infallible though. Because the situation was so intense at the height of bombing in London, children were billeted with families in the country, most often for a year or longer. This ensured that they were safe, despite living with the possibility that one or both of their parents in London would be killed by the Luftwaffe.

Life during the Blitz was hard. Rationing drastically cut short the amount and quality of food prepared for meals. For example, Brother Chittock said that eggs were rationed to 1 egg per person for every two months, and everyone got a small piece of meat each week. The frugality and ingenuity of the people was amazing. Some kitchens experimented with “mock” dishes, in which ingredients more readily available were substituted for others harder to come by. Although it sounds like a good idea, the result was often unappetizing. But the people ate it anyway.

Despite the destruction and chaos caused by the bombing, the citizens showed brilliant resilience and shared a sense of banded community. In almost all cases, they met the challenges of war equally: “Britons spent many nights during the blitz in all kinds of shelters—underground stations, the crypts of churches, hotel lobbies, caves railway arches, and Turkish baths. Each shelter had a distinctive personality, but all had a neighborliness that came from shared sacrifice. A similar equality was found in factories and fields, where citizens doubled their energies so that Britain could defy the Nazis” (Roberts 801).


The people were not without a strong leader though, and the importance of Winston Churchill in getting Britain through not only the Blitz but also the war itself cannot be taken too lightly. As Roberts informs us, Churchill was known for his “candor, eloquence, and resoluteness. He promised not ‘peace in our time’ but ‘blood, toil, tears, and sweat’ and spoke of the resolve that ‘We shall fight in the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender. . . .’ His eloquence and courage inspired a people tired of the prosaic and timid. During the dark hours of the blitz his stirring speeches gave an exhilarating sense of heroism to millions” (800).

The Royal Air Force, whose part was fighting the Battle of Britain, also played an unequivocal part in keeping Britain free from Nazi oppression. Jenkins states that “The essence of the Battle of Britain was that the Germans endeavoured to destroy the British fighter force either in the air or on the ground, and also to disrupt the output, mounting strongly during the summer months, of Hurricanes, Spitfires and bombers” (631). Hitler’s failure to break up the RAF and other military forces turned into a punitive assault on London. Thus the citizens turned from the Battle of Britain to the Blitz. Nevertheless, the RAF continued to fight the Germans, perhaps even more fiercely than before.

The Blitz is an event in British history whose effects are still being felt, even by a short-term resident like me. I feel it whenever I read of a building that was destroyed “in the Blitz,” or when I hear of the Underground being delayed because an unexploded bomb from WWII was found in a Docklands canal. From my own study and experience I have come to appreciate and somewhat understand that importance of the Blitz in British history.

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Works Cited

Brother Chittock Talk. 10 June 2008 at BYU London Center.

Jenkins, Roy. Churchill. London: Pan Books, 2001.

Roberts, Clayton, and David Roberts. A History of England: 1688 to the Present. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1991.