London at War

a kid after a bombing raid in London during the war

I am pleased the 7/7 victims families now have a memorial. I am sure it offers them some kind of personal peace and focus for their grief. 

As a Londoner I don't know how I feel about remembering 7/7 other than that today none of us really talked about it, some of us didn't remember it. I think I know why. 

The day it happened I recall knowing something was wrong before I arrived at work and feeling lucky to be alive walking home slowly that same day with hundreds of Londoners, gently  joking and laughing. I remember seeing a documentary about a woman, a vicar, who lost her daughter and her faith in God. I felt intense empathy with her. Reading about a doctor at Kings Cross which is 5 minutes from where I live, who watched life slowly leave a woman who was pulled from the wreckage, nothing more than a torso. I felt absolute hatred. 

I have felt hate before. For the Irish. At an early age I remember my mum gently explaining yet another ghastly atrocity committed in their name as "something people do". In the grand scale of things Irish terrorism has had a more protracted impact on this city and my life generally and certainly even more hideous in Northern Ireland. 

As far as this city goes, I remember watching a programme about the Blitz. A man came home from the war to find that his London home had been raised to the ground and his family wiped out. He spoke gently, stoicly and only briefly - his voice cracked momentarily. I wonder is his tragedy noted anywhere in detail? Would he want it to be? 

Here is a list of terrorist atrocities in London. This is a memorial in south London where I was born which commemorates roughly the same number of people killed in a single bomb blast in the Blitz as the number killed on 7/7. It was cobbled together by Marks and Spencers.

42,000, half of them Londoners, died. Here is a list of Top Ten War Memorials commemorated for Armistice Day - worth a  look. 

This city stole my mother's quality of life in no less violent a fashion than what happened to people on 7/7. I remember thinking exactly that. This city. This city. This city. This city. 

My gut instinct about people who pointlessly attack my city for some pathetic cause that involves a focus on innocent people's lives is this - and it would remain this should I get wiped out or maimed by a bomb tomorrow: fuck you. do your worst. no surrender. 

Apologies if that is blunt, unemotional or devoid of political correctness.

My dad, 5th from left top with a bat, and his friends build a huge bonfire to celebrate the end of the war - 

either in Wales where he was evacuated to or back in London's East End, his home

Comments

[Andy]

The image I used for a long time as my profile image on blogger was a cropped shot from the Battle of Britain Memorial right out there on the river by your parliament. Is it Westminster Station that lets out there? I took a ton of pictures of it. There was also an amazing memorial just a short walk down the road from there (at least as I remember it) for paratroopers, I believe. I have pics of that one at home, too.

In fact, in the one day that I spent in London, I took pics of a bunch of memorials - your people have built some incredible ones - and the people thus memorialized are clearly well-deserving.

[ubermouth]

What happened that stole your Mum' quality of life?
Very moving post by the way.
I recall an image after the Blitz where there were porch steps leading up to a house that was gone, with a little kitten crying to be let in where the door had been.
It must have been very scary for the animals too,but nobody mentions the animals. :(

[Buck]

The spirit of London during the Blitz was well known and made famous/celebrated by broadcasters such as Edward R Murrow (see Wikipedia) in the US. While I had no *direct* experience with Murrow's wartime broadcasts, my parents did and they passed down the universal respect and admiration for Londoners to me, most especially when we lived in London during the early '50s when the memory of The Blitz was still VERY fresh.

It's good to see that same spirit is alive and well. Well said, Alison.

[jameshigham]

This is the problem - others trying to impose their agendas on us. I have a post on this tomorrow morning. So many of these people quite happy to come over and rain on our patch because they think their agenda is so important.

[alison]

NIce comments all

[daphne]

One of the things I find so wonderful about you Alison, is your unapologetic love for your country. You aren't blind, you see the bad spots, but you see the whole as something fine and worthwhile. A place worth defending and praising to the rooftops.

Yes, fuck all the little bastards and God Bless Great Britain.