https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2021/07/2021084-secret-history-of-blitz-joshua.ht... ( )

Excellent, readable history. ( )

The Secret History of the Blitz – Fascinating

Since the end of the Second World War many myths have built up that have become ‘historically’ correct in our minds even if they are false memories. Joshua Levine helps to shatter that myth with this well written and well researched book, The Secret History of the Blitz, which has the also states how we behaved during our darkest days and created Modern Britain.

In a previous life Joshua Levine was a criminal barrister who has used his forensic skills to tunnel down in to what is sometimes remembered through sepia tinted glasses. My great aunt was a caretaker who lived on the premises during the Blitz and she used to go on the roof with a bottle of whisky and shoot ‘if I am going, I am going pissed!’ rather than run off to an air raid shelter. Levine looks at the other stories the ones that are not usually mentioned in the history of the time, which makes this quite readable.

The first major air raid on Britain happened in June 1940 but it is widely acknowledge that the Blitz itself did not begin until the September. This also shows that the Government were having to work on the fly, reacting rather than being proactive, such as the use of the Underground as air raid tunnels. It was also a time when the British Army had been defeated at Dunkirk and were losing in the eyes of the public and this caused a great deal of mental anguish in the population. Levine uses the example of the Student at Oxford who was firing a rifle and should have met the hangman but was declare insane.

One of the things that does come through besides the fear of the population is the living in the moment and some of the illicit affairs that people had is used to illustrate that. Along with a growth in the Black Market the Blitz was also used as a business opportunity by many criminals, once again help to give this book some colour.

While there was clearly psychological trauma felt by many, Levine also shows that a mood of defiance grew from the Blitz, to the never surrender attitude of the British. The book also shows that the British in spite of what the Germans were throwing at them just dusted themselves down and got on with it.

Levine draws together many illustrations of what he writes, whether it is criminal enterprise of using the Blitz as cover to break in to warehouses. Levine also uses some heart rendering anecdotes which can pull on the heart strings.

This is an excellent social history of the Blitz that does just more than churn out the number of victims or the cost of the Blitz. It looks at how the people reacted and survived then moved on to give that ‘bull dog’ spirit to British attitudes. ( )