Battle of Britain

London Under the Bombs (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

“A German plane dropped a flare. Then the inevitable stick bombs followed and the Savoy [Hotel] trembled. I looked and winced. Two large fires were reaching up into the night. This dwarfed any Blitz I have ever seen. Still both incendiaries and high-explosives screamed down. The night was filled with noise – all of it frightening noise. And above the planes still roared. It was so light that the balloons could be seen clearly. Now and then there would come the rattle of machine gun fire, hardly heard over the crackling of fires and the noise of the bombs. But it told us that the night fighters were up there.”

London Under the Bombs (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

“A German plane dropped a flare. Then the inevitable stick bombs followed and the Savoy [Hotel] trembled. I looked and winced. Two large fires were reaching up into the night. This dwarfed any Blitz I have ever seen. Still both incendiaries and high-explosives screamed down. The night was filled with noise – all of it frightening noise. And above the planes still roared. It was so light that the balloons could be seen clearly. Now and then there would come the rattle of machine gun fire, hardly heard over the crackling of fires and the noise of the bombs. But it told us that the night fighters were up there.”

London Under the Bombs (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

“A German plane dropped a flare. Then the inevitable stick bombs followed and the Savoy [Hotel] trembled. I looked and winced. Two large fires were reaching up into the night. This dwarfed any Blitz I have ever seen. Still both incendiaries and high-explosives screamed down. The night was filled with noise – all of it frightening noise. And above the planes still roared. It was so light that the balloons could be seen clearly. Now and then there would come the rattle of machine gun fire, hardly heard over the crackling of fires and the noise of the bombs. But it told us that the night fighters were up there.”

The Pilots War (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

Reviewed anonymously in the attached column are two books, I Was a Nazi Flyer, the diary of Gottfried Leske, and The Airmen Speak, which is a compilation of war stories told by assorted RAF pilots.

Yank Pilots in the RAF (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

“Many Americans are serving both with the British and Canadian Air Forces, but the RAF’s Eagle Squadron is the only unit that is all-American save for the British squadron leader who succeeded William Erwin Gibson Taylor (1905 – 1991), a New Yorker, released to rejoin United States naval aviation.”

Life Under Siege (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

Here is an account of life during the Blitz, as written by sculptor Clare Sheridan (née Frewen; 1885 – 1970):


“I have from the very beginning put [poison] gas out of my thoughts and refused to carry a gas mask. But in a mad world growing madder daily who knows what the madmen may not resort to!… According to the gas booklet, the stuff will come through the window clacks, under the door and down the chimney.”

”Workingman’s War” (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

This 1941 Collier’s article looks at the British working class during the Blitz on London. Numerous men and women were interviewed concerning their aspirations and hopes for the post-war world. Much is written about the 300 free kitchens that were placed throughout London to accommodate them as well as the free schools that were instituted to train war plant workers how to use the various machines needed to create the necessary war materinél.


“Hitler isn’t making war against capitalism, as he says he is. He’s not the great proletarian he brags he is, but is instead deliberately bombing civilians, their schools, churches, homes and hospitals in order to throw the civilian population into despair and terror. Well, he has failed.”

”Buzz-Bombs Blitz” (Yank Magazine, 1944)

Launched by air or from catapults posted on the Northern coast of France, the German V-1 “Buzz-Bomb” was first deployed against the people of London on June 12, 1944. Before the V-1 campaign was over 1,280 Britons would fall on greater London. 1,241 of these rockets were successfully destroyed in flight.

Accompanied by a diagram of the contraption, this is a brief article about London life during the “Buzz-Bomb Blitz”. Quoted at length are the Americans stationed in that city as well as the hardy Britons who had endured similar carnage during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns earlier in the war.

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