The War Happened Here Stephen Hayden
The “Good War” was kind to the United States. Although it took, famished, and taxed its sons and daughters, the war remained at a distance. Rations limited civilians, and Pearl Harbor was a shocking day, which still lives in infamy, but for the most part, Americans never witnessed the war. The Second World War was much less kind to the United Kingdom, which the monuments and museums across London display for all to see. Our group visited the Churchill War Rooms, Bletchley Park, and the Imperial War Museum, as well as a number of other small monuments, which all demonstrated that in the U.K., WWII was very much a “people’s war.”
At the Churchill War Rooms, we explored the bunkers constructed in the heart of London as the nerve center of British High Command during the Blitz. At any point a bomb could have destroyed the bunkers, but Churchill would often stand atop the building to watch the bombs fall on London because he knew civilians bore the heaviest burden of the bombing. From the War Rooms we walked across St. James Park to the Bomber Command Memorial, built around the 7 bronze statues of a bomber crew holding their gear, haggard after a long mission. This monument honors lives lost during, and as a result of, the R.A.F’s bombing missions, through an inscription reading “This Monument Also Commemorates Those of All Nations who Lost Their Lives in the Bombing.” These memorials all depict Londoners’ close proximity to dropping bombs or being bombed themselves. The Blitz left an indelible mark on the British national identity incomparable to anything in American history. There is an immediately visible scar on the British national identity, worn proudly, inflicted by the Blitz. Americans might remember a lean or troubled time, but never were we physically battered like London.
A visit to the Imperial War Museum (IWM) furthers this idea. The ephemera of the “Peoples’ War” demonstrates that no one was free from responsibility or fear during the Blitz. On display was a Morrison Shelter, a small steel and mesh cage intended to provide safety in the event of a collapsed house during the Blitz. This artifact reminded me of a conversation with a Blitz survivor, Mr. Michael Hanscomb, aged 92. Our guest’s story of helping his father and neighbor to dig out bomb shelters in their back yard made it clear that every Londoner became a part of the war. Standing next to a hanging V1 and V2 rocket in the IWM, I felt humbled as an American to think that these rockets, and all their destructive might, had been aimed at the neighborhood where I was standing. It was sobering to recall Mr. Hanscomb’s story about watching “doodlebugs” (V1 rockets) flying over London as I looked at the sizable payload they carried and imagined the effect of their landings on ordinary British civilians.
We have learned how the disproportionate civilian involvement and cost separated WWII from any prior. Those discussions were meaningful, but it is more moving to stand where the bombs dropped, listen to survivors, and see how London, today, expresses itself as a city that has been under siege. I was rendered speechless that while Americans were in the war, the war happened here.