City shell-shocked but more united after blitz
It was one of the worst nights during the Battle of Britain.
Referred to as the Second Great Fire of London, the hours of darkness on December 29, 1940 saw 100,000 bombs dropped on London by German troops in one of the most devastating air raids of The Blitz.
The Germans dispatched 136 bombers over the city, concentrating on an area packed with warehouses, office blocks and churches. The bombs, made of magnesium, created up to 1,500 blazes.
Firefighters’ efforts were hampered after a water main was ruptured during the attacks.
Attempts to draw water from the Thames were hindered by the low tide. High winds, combined with the concentrated area of the attack, made a daunting task even more difficult.
Nevertheless, firefighters seemed to save most of the city from destruction.
St Paul’s Cathedral came close to suffering the same grim fate as 19 other churches in the city, after it was struck by 28 incendiary bombs.
However, Winston Churchill stated St Paul’s had to be saved “at all costs”. And, thanks to the heroic efforts of firefighters and volunteers, the building remained intact.
The scale of the destruction caused by the ensuing firestorm after three-and-a-half hours of bombing was larger than the area destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Just months before the raid, Prime Minister Churchill predicted Britain would be next on Hitler’s list in one of his most famous speeches.
He told MPS in the House of Commons: “The Battle of France is over.
“The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire.
“The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.
“If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘ This was their finest hour’.”
Hitler had demanded that “the Royal Air Force must be eliminated to such an extent that it will be incapable of putting up any sustained opposition to the invading troops.”