Book reveals dark side of The Blitz
5th October 2006
A new book recalls the horrors that people endured during the German bombing of London.
Much of London was destroyed by the Germans during their bombing campaign on the great city from 1940 to 1941 which the British later called "The Blitz." It has also been called "The Second Great Fire of London." Around 43,000 people were killed.
A darker version of The Blitz, buried in the archives of the Imperial War Museum for more than 60 years, is being told in a new book.
Tapes of interviews with survivors tell of corpses being looted, men committing crimes to avoid the call-up, and widespread promiscuity.
Historian Joshua Levine who wrote the book after listening to hours of the museum's archive material, said: "There was heroism, but there are stories of real people behaving badly under stress, lots of sexual-activity, fiddling rations, looting, getting through it all as well as they could."
In one recording, post office worker Sylvia Clark says: "I remember watching firemen attending to a building that was on fire, coming back down the ladders wearing mink coats, mink capes and fur hats. They were singing like mad as the bombers were STILL coming over."
Ballard Berkeley, a special constable in the War and who went on to play the Major in the 1970s BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, recalls a direct hit on the Café de Paris.
He found bandleader Snakehips Johnson decapitated and well-dressed people still sitting at tables - all dead but without a mark on them. Looters mingled with fire and police crews, cutting the fingers from the dead to steal their rings, he said.
The stories are published in Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle for Britain.
dailymail.co.uk
5th October 2006
A new book recalls the horrors that people endured during the German bombing of London.
A darker version of The Blitz, buried in the archives of the Imperial War Museum for more than 60 years, is being told in a new book.
Tapes of interviews with survivors tell of corpses being looted, men committing crimes to avoid the call-up, and widespread promiscuity.
Historian Joshua Levine who wrote the book after listening to hours of the museum's archive material, said: "There was heroism, but there are stories of real people behaving badly under stress, lots of sexual-activity, fiddling rations, looting, getting through it all as well as they could."
In one recording, post office worker Sylvia Clark says: "I remember watching firemen attending to a building that was on fire, coming back down the ladders wearing mink coats, mink capes and fur hats. They were singing like mad as the bombers were STILL coming over."
Ballard Berkeley, a special constable in the War and who went on to play the Major in the 1970s BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, recalls a direct hit on the Café de Paris.
He found bandleader Snakehips Johnson decapitated and well-dressed people still sitting at tables - all dead but without a mark on them. Looters mingled with fire and police crews, cutting the fingers from the dead to steal their rings, he said.
The stories are published in Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle for Britain.
dailymail.co.uk