PAPERBACKS
poverty, plague and violence, but there were also feast days, football and shopping. Few would choose to swap modern comforts and convenience with the squalor and disease of medieval times but, as Mount skilfully conveys, some things have changed little. Medieval Londoners had the same preoccupations as we have today, from work and family to health and – above all – the vagaries of the English weather. response to Hitler’s menace was professional, resolute, ruthless and packed with purpose.
Beginning with Churchill’s rise to power, McKinstry shows how the new PM’s will to resist the Nazis infused the nation with a quiet determination. As beaches were transformed into bristling barriers of barbed wire, and pillboxes sprouted across the country, Hitler had to abandon hopes of a bloodless surrender and plan for Operation Sealion: the invasion and occupation of the defiant island.
Yet Hitler was always halfhearted about the prospects for a successful seaborne invasion, and his cautious navy and army chiefs reinforced his doubts. Both the young pilots of ‘the Few’ and the grim, grey navy warships stood in the path of a surprise Channel crossing. As summer turned to autumn, he abandoned Sealion and fatally turned his thoughts to the east.
Before the summer of 1940 Hitler had an unbroken record of success. After it – as McKinstry’s masterly narrative clearly shows – Britain’s bulldog spirit showed the world that even the fearsome Nazi war machine was not invincible.