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London at War, 1939-1945
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Hardcover
First published March 13, 1995
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About the author
Philip Ziegler
77 books40 followersPhilip Ziegler was a British biographer and historian known for his meticulously researched works on historical figures and events. After studying at Eton and New College, Oxford, he served in the British Foreign Service, with postings in Laos, South Africa, Colombia, and NATO. He later transitioned into publishing and writing, eventually becoming a distinguished biographer.
His notable works include Mountbatten: The Official Biography, Edward VIII: The Official Biography, and The Black Death. He also wrote about figures such as Lord Melbourne, Harold Wilson, and George VI. Over the years, Ziegler contributed to major publications like The Spectator, The Times, and History Today.
His personal life was marked by tragedy when his first wife was killed during a home invasion in Bogotá in 1967. He later remarried and continued his literary career until his passing in 2023 at the age of 93.
His notable works include Mountbatten: The Official Biography, Edward VIII: The Official Biography, and The Black Death. He also wrote about figures such as Lord Melbourne, Harold Wilson, and George VI. Over the years, Ziegler contributed to major publications like The Spectator, The Times, and History Today.
His personal life was marked by tragedy when his first wife was killed during a home invasion in Bogotá in 1967. He later remarried and continued his literary career until his passing in 2023 at the age of 93.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 30, 2019
London, the shining city of the diminishing British Empire, the center of commerce and government, the home of royalty, the treasure of architecture and history........what better target could there be for the Nazi war machine as Hitler was rolling over western Europe, leaving Britain standing alone. London's resilience is one of the great stories of WWII and the author does an amazing job of separating fact from myth of the years 1939 through the end of the War.
This history is really more about Londoners than London as the reader learns the thoughts and actions of all classes of the city's people through notes, manuscripts, diaries, and interviews. Their patience, courage, and determination engender a profound respect. But there was also some negative aspects within the population...... some groups clamoring for making peace with Germany, hoarding, and the black market but these are vagaries of war and were not sufficient to disprove that "London Can Take It". It is a remarkable book and I highly recommend it.
This history is really more about Londoners than London as the reader learns the thoughts and actions of all classes of the city's people through notes, manuscripts, diaries, and interviews. Their patience, courage, and determination engender a profound respect. But there was also some negative aspects within the population...... some groups clamoring for making peace with Germany, hoarding, and the black market but these are vagaries of war and were not sufficient to disprove that "London Can Take It". It is a remarkable book and I highly recommend it.
May 24, 2024
n this volume Ziegler explores the conduct and experiences of the people of London during World War II, from the so-called Phoney War September 1939 to April 1940, the Nazi blitzes of London, causing death and destruction, and the deprivations and shortages.
The first chapter The Greatest City provides a social and economic portrait of London in 1939.
London was the prime target for aerial attack, it's rulers believed it to be the most threatened and most vulnerable.
while it was not the city in England, that took the most damage, it was the city in Britain that came under the longest and most sustained attack.
Britain realized in 1939 that appeasement of evil tyranny does not work. Most the world realizes that going to war against German and Italian Fascism was the right thing to do in 1939/40, but have not yet internalized that we must take action against Islamo-Fascism.
We read of the damage done to the London zoo.
Many animals were evacuated. Chimpanzees and a young reindeer brought back from Russia known as Polyanna, helped to up morale.
On the zoo's front lawn people were taught how to keep fowl in a confined space and to rear rabbits, bees, pigeons and silkworms.
We learn of aerial military strategy and how the emergency services played their role in coping with casualties and damage, the entertainment during the war, and how people celebrated Christmas despite the shortages of so much that was usually taken for granted.
It is interesting to note that three quarters of those who defined themselves as atheists or agnostics admitted to having resorted to prayer in moments of intolerable stress.
A very interesting expose of how the people of London survived sustained attack with valour and determination.
In this age of terror, we can certainly learn from their example. Especially if the Islamo-Nazi terror spreads in a big way to the West.
We can also learn from the bravery of the people of Israel in coping with sustained terror and living under attack.
The first chapter The Greatest City provides a social and economic portrait of London in 1939.
London was the prime target for aerial attack, it's rulers believed it to be the most threatened and most vulnerable.
while it was not the city in England, that took the most damage, it was the city in Britain that came under the longest and most sustained attack.
Britain realized in 1939 that appeasement of evil tyranny does not work. Most the world realizes that going to war against German and Italian Fascism was the right thing to do in 1939/40, but have not yet internalized that we must take action against Islamo-Fascism.
We read of the damage done to the London zoo.
Many animals were evacuated. Chimpanzees and a young reindeer brought back from Russia known as Polyanna, helped to up morale.
On the zoo's front lawn people were taught how to keep fowl in a confined space and to rear rabbits, bees, pigeons and silkworms.
We learn of aerial military strategy and how the emergency services played their role in coping with casualties and damage, the entertainment during the war, and how people celebrated Christmas despite the shortages of so much that was usually taken for granted.
It is interesting to note that three quarters of those who defined themselves as atheists or agnostics admitted to having resorted to prayer in moments of intolerable stress.
A very interesting expose of how the people of London survived sustained attack with valour and determination.
In this age of terror, we can certainly learn from their example. Especially if the Islamo-Nazi terror spreads in a big way to the West.
We can also learn from the bravery of the people of Israel in coping with sustained terror and living under attack.
June 9, 2015
Well-researched, great anecdotal stories, but this was not an easy or "fun" read. Gives a new perspective on the lives of London residents during WWII, but by the end of the book, I felt as if i had been told a dozen different times that their lives were hard; they were weary of war; some had the "stiff upper lip" and just as many wanted to just give up. Only so many times you can tell me the same info.
October 10, 2018
Interesting, but tedious. There were a lot of repetitive themes. The structure was also occasionally confusing, as the book was organized in a somewhat chronological way, but there many times when the timeline momentarily would bounce back and forth in time. It did a good job on personalizing a difficult time.
May 15, 2017
Fascinating book, informative without being at all dry or boring. Highly recommended.
February 18, 2025
This book is stupendous! All we know from films and television about the war in London completely misrepresent the reality of the time. London at War describes the lack of sanitation in the shelters, the people who lived often for years in the underground, the rats roaming around the bomb sites, and the wildflowers growing on them. The dangerous ack ack guns caused deaths and injuries but were kept for morale purposes because standing back and being bombed would have been too distressing. Of course, the book is also full of cheery, plucky Londoners, but they are fleshed out with diary entries and extracts from Mass Observation. Highly recommended.
May 15, 2021
The author concentrates on London so exclusively that there is only one passing reference to Dunkirk. Good but, while London had its own story, it cannot be removed from the story of the Second World War.
May 3, 2021
2.5 stars. Interesting anecdotes but a very tedious read.
Quarantine read.
Quarantine read.
January 16, 2022
The stories about what people thought and experienced were interesting. I discovered there was a lot I didn’t know about living through all those years of bombings and rationing.
July 22, 2008
Not as good as I expected - plenty of fine detail from Londoners' diaries and other contemporary sources but it lacked contextual information about the bigger picture. How was it possible for German bombers to attack London even in 1944? Why were civilian casualties much lower than expected and conversely what was the primary cause of casualties - direct hits on shelters or people not sheltering?
January 24, 2008
Eh. Cool book cover photo. And mildly interesting. But nothing new that isn't in every WWII book.
Read
May 1, 2008I only skimmed the book. I'd much rather watch a PBS documentary on this.
Read
January 9, 2010Amazon preorder,Amazon received
October 7, 2014
Very good book about London during WW2, well written and an easy read
August 11, 2011
Fascinating look at how the war affected the lives of Londoners, especially the ordinary people trying to make it through each day.
May 23, 2016
Very well written. I especially liked the quotes from folks who were there during WWII. They were taken from diaries and personal journals.
June 7, 2015
Nicely paced history of London from 1939-45, sets many things in context, nice selection of illustrations.
July 30, 2012
So far this is excellent. It reads like a novel.
Want to read
February 7, 2015Source for Secrets of a Charmed Life
April 8, 2017
"London doesn't look down at the ruins of its houses, at the remains of its churches and houses; London looks upwards, towards the Dawn, and faces the new day with calmness and confidence."
On April 9th, 1940, Hitler’s Germany launched its great assault on the west, and by June had taken possession of Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France. England stood alone, as she had centuries prior when another jumped-up corporal seized control of Europe, and in that summer all of Hitler’s mechanical wrath and the hopes of the world were both centered on London. London was then the largest and greatest city in the world, capital of not just the United Kingdom, but of a global Empire. Peter Ziegler here uses the stories of Londoners who stuck it out in the City through the war to deliver the story of the home front, as London experienced it.
London’s most famous association with World War 2, of course, is the Blitz. Though Hitler’s air strategy initially focused on destroying the RAF, after an errant bomb fell on Berlin he switched to bombing English cities instead. While the population at large wasn’t surprised by the idea of the Blitz, concrete preparations left much to be desired. The ‘air raid trenches’ dug into the city’s parks had been excavated months prior, and were by then partially eroded and filled with water. Small wonder the Underground system was used instead, and so frequently that people began staying in the Underground even after the threat of bombing was past: as late as April 1945, when the Nazi goose was well and truly cooked (and the Berlin wishbone about to be torn in two by the Allies and Soviets), some people still insisted on spending the nights with their regular shelter-mates. Sleeping in the subway bunks had become an unexpected source of civic solidarity.
Although supplies would steadily dwindle throughout the years of the war, Kriegel demonstrates that much of normality was preserved. The theaters, cinema, and even ballet stayed open most of time, even though the war’s absorption of most of the men -- the troupes were harvested for the troops -- disrupted staffing considerably. Opera was less able to cope. Holidays like Christmas were pursued with their usual enthusiasm, even as trade from the Continent largely disappeared. Not until the Christmas of 1944 were the shelves really destitute, judging by this.
Another source of disruption to ordinary London life was the presence of so many refugees and soldiers. Prior to the great invasion of 4 June 1944, the whole of England was clogged with American airmen involved in the bombing of Festung Europa, and soldiers waiting for that singular moment of D-Day. Although Kriegel records some conflict between the American warriors and the English, stemming from romance and money, on the whole he concludes that relations were amicable. (He takes the same stance regarding London stoicism and the Blitz; yes, there was a little looting, but on the hole the city kept its head in such a manner as to bewilder a few Polish visitors.) One source of tension between Americans and the English was race, for the racial segregation of the United States was absent in England. On the opposite side, Americans cheerfully ignored the formal class striations of old England – distinctions that were also weakened by the communal life in the air raid shelters , for there was no upper class in the Underground.
In addition to experiences which England at large experienced, bombing and supply deprivation, Kriegel also shares stories particular to London.Although many government services were sent out of the city to preserve them in the event of a truly devastating Luftwaffe attack, As the nation's capital, London held the commanding spot in the United Kingdom's patriotism -- for there, despite the bombs of the Luftwaffe, the Royal Family had fixed their standard, and there the prime minister took to the streets amid bombings to remind people that they'd soon be on their feet again. Open spaces formerly reserved to society's elite were opened up, their fencing taken to use in the war efforts. Building after building fell prey to the Nazi bombs, or the V-weapons, and people promised to use the war's destruction as an opportunity to create a better city -- one with fewer slums and more attractive housing to replace them. (Here the author adds a sad note that no, what replaced the old buildings was not more attractive, and here London was failed.)
London at War's heavy use of civilian journals commends it as a look at the home front during WW2, and a look at a proud city in a dark moment.
On April 9th, 1940, Hitler’s Germany launched its great assault on the west, and by June had taken possession of Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France. England stood alone, as she had centuries prior when another jumped-up corporal seized control of Europe, and in that summer all of Hitler’s mechanical wrath and the hopes of the world were both centered on London. London was then the largest and greatest city in the world, capital of not just the United Kingdom, but of a global Empire. Peter Ziegler here uses the stories of Londoners who stuck it out in the City through the war to deliver the story of the home front, as London experienced it.
London’s most famous association with World War 2, of course, is the Blitz. Though Hitler’s air strategy initially focused on destroying the RAF, after an errant bomb fell on Berlin he switched to bombing English cities instead. While the population at large wasn’t surprised by the idea of the Blitz, concrete preparations left much to be desired. The ‘air raid trenches’ dug into the city’s parks had been excavated months prior, and were by then partially eroded and filled with water. Small wonder the Underground system was used instead, and so frequently that people began staying in the Underground even after the threat of bombing was past: as late as April 1945, when the Nazi goose was well and truly cooked (and the Berlin wishbone about to be torn in two by the Allies and Soviets), some people still insisted on spending the nights with their regular shelter-mates. Sleeping in the subway bunks had become an unexpected source of civic solidarity.
Although supplies would steadily dwindle throughout the years of the war, Kriegel demonstrates that much of normality was preserved. The theaters, cinema, and even ballet stayed open most of time, even though the war’s absorption of most of the men -- the troupes were harvested for the troops -- disrupted staffing considerably. Opera was less able to cope. Holidays like Christmas were pursued with their usual enthusiasm, even as trade from the Continent largely disappeared. Not until the Christmas of 1944 were the shelves really destitute, judging by this.
Another source of disruption to ordinary London life was the presence of so many refugees and soldiers. Prior to the great invasion of 4 June 1944, the whole of England was clogged with American airmen involved in the bombing of Festung Europa, and soldiers waiting for that singular moment of D-Day. Although Kriegel records some conflict between the American warriors and the English, stemming from romance and money, on the whole he concludes that relations were amicable. (He takes the same stance regarding London stoicism and the Blitz; yes, there was a little looting, but on the hole the city kept its head in such a manner as to bewilder a few Polish visitors.) One source of tension between Americans and the English was race, for the racial segregation of the United States was absent in England. On the opposite side, Americans cheerfully ignored the formal class striations of old England – distinctions that were also weakened by the communal life in the air raid shelters , for there was no upper class in the Underground.
In addition to experiences which England at large experienced, bombing and supply deprivation, Kriegel also shares stories particular to London.Although many government services were sent out of the city to preserve them in the event of a truly devastating Luftwaffe attack, As the nation's capital, London held the commanding spot in the United Kingdom's patriotism -- for there, despite the bombs of the Luftwaffe, the Royal Family had fixed their standard, and there the prime minister took to the streets amid bombings to remind people that they'd soon be on their feet again. Open spaces formerly reserved to society's elite were opened up, their fencing taken to use in the war efforts. Building after building fell prey to the Nazi bombs, or the V-weapons, and people promised to use the war's destruction as an opportunity to create a better city -- one with fewer slums and more attractive housing to replace them. (Here the author adds a sad note that no, what replaced the old buildings was not more attractive, and here London was failed.)
London at War's heavy use of civilian journals commends it as a look at the home front during WW2, and a look at a proud city in a dark moment.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews