Was the Blitz spirit simply propaganda?

PICKING extracts from the diaries of only six people who lived through World War II, Dr Lucy Worsley discredits Britain’s past achievements by saying the Blitz spirit was probably a myth and mainly propaganda. My family lived through the war in Birmingham, which suffered terribly from bombing. My father was an air raid warden and witnessed at first hand the amazing British spirit.

DAVID MORGAN, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Dr LUcy WorsLey is a wonderful historian and TV presenter. her programme about the Blitz spirit was superbly done. But I can’t help wondering if rubbishing the actions of the Government during World War II and undermining so many of our precious myths really helps the morale of this country as we go through another terrible time.

P. BRANDON, Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

I AGREE with the Mail’s TV critic Christopher Stevens in his criticism of the TV documentary Blitz Spirit. My father’s family came from the East End and were evacuated twice. The archive footage showed what people had to face. Blitz spirit was not a myth, no matter how you try to skew the picture by choosing diarists selectively. Yes, there was discord, but when the chips were down, people did pull together and look out for each other. That Blitz spirit is now the British spirit we have seen during the pandemic with the widespread support for the NHS and fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore.

A. SYMONDS, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. The true spirit of Londoners during the Blitz told in their own words was sad, poignant and tragic. obviously, as in these times, the Government tried to hide the grisly truth to maintain morale. It was a well thought out, well-told programme.

JANE BASSETT, Lee-on-the-Solent, Hants. HOW can historian Lucy Worsley say the Blitz spirit was propaganda? Were the people she interviewed hand-picked to suit her views?

TONY EDEN, Stourbridge, W. Mids. The TV documentary Blitz spirit should be shown in every secondary school in the country. A bit of British history that no one can say didn’t happen.

STEVEN MILTON, Dartford, Kent. CAN you imagine the effect on the Blitz spirit if today’s endless doom and gloom reporting of the pandemic had happened during the war? If people had been subjected to a constant barrage of the death toll, the outcome of the war could have been different.