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Blackout
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"Blackout" A dash of History with your Blackout Tea?
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I thought her research was fabulous. I've seen her speak a couple of times in the last few years - once after she had completed Blackout but before it was published, and once just after All Clear came out - and both times she filled her talks with facts that she had loved but couldn't fit into the books. Great stuff.
Sarah Pi wrote: "I thought her research was fabulous. I've seen her speak a couple of times in the last few years - once after she had completed Blackout but before it was published, and once just after All Clear c..."I am so jealous. You got to hear Connie speak in person!
It's fairly evident that Willis's topic to a large extent is the exploration f people in the past as admirable, cognizant and relevant to us, in the future. She does it in Doomsday Book, she does it in To Say Nothing of the Dog, and she very clearly does it in Blackout/All Clear.It's interesting, too, to see her explore he topic of "heroes". One of the characters' assignments is to search out heroes in Dunkirk. Do people suppose Michael finds his heroes? Where? What about the characters themselves? Do they become more heroic by dint of living in the kind of time that forces them to it?
I'd say the answer to that last one is yes. I love that their whole focus is on finding everyday heroes. This may be an American thing, but I think for the most part our society's historical emphasis is on Heroes with a capital H. The ones who make it into books. What the characters in Blackout/All Clear go back to witness is not the big battles or the signing of treaties. They don't go back to kill Hitler. They go back to see the little moments that embody true everyday heroism and resilience. Maybe this is because they live in a future where they are the survivors of some vaguely referenced cataclysm?
I find it exceptional that Willis (an American, as you said) manages to capture the experience of war as she does. I wanted to send her some of my Jerusalem photographs with hilarious signs from cafes and street corners that are strikingly reminiscent of the signs she found for the London blackout, but could not find a way to contact her expediently.
Drat! I just finished the books, now what to read! I enjoyed the history and like several of you did some research on items mentioned in the books. My husband is a huge war history reader so he was very pleased that I was learning this information and was aghast that I didn't know what a V1 was before reading this book -- the horror!Any suggestions on the next book to read?
I remember thinking Beth, after reading each of the books when they came out, because I wouldn't/ couldn't wait to read them together the feeling that I'd never find a book as wonderful, inspiring, heartbeaking and involving as these.Genia, I think Michael finds those heroes eveywhere he looks, inluding in mirrors. Remember the old lady who was buried under rubble, who says something like, 'My husband's got it easy, he's at the front!'
The heroism of the English during the Blitz is something that Dr Who returns to sorta often. It made more sense to me, after reading these. Also I got a "Keep Calm and Carry On" bookmark immediately after. Soon I think I'll get the poster.
Something completely different Beth, but also a little similar: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.
Hmmm. Can't say I am into zombies (my daughter is) however, I will give it a try. I like the bookmark and will look for it.Love Dr. Who, have never read any of the books though and on the serier (BBC) they do reference teh heroism of the British during WWII which makes so much more sense to me now than it ever did prior to reading this series.
Thank you Julia!
Excellent, I will try Farthing as well. Thank you.
Had a Keep Calm and drink coffee mug bought for my birthday, grew up in Leicester and Nottingham two cities which seemed to get off lightly. Coventry faired much worse, the worst night was 14th November in 1940, the cathedral was destroyed, the main fire house, 2 hospitals and over 4000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Water and power were knocked out early in the raids, and roads were damaged. Fortunately most people were leaving the city at night or in shelters. The ruins of the cathedral still stand next to the new cathedral as a garden of rememberance.Remember Grandma talking about her time as an Air Raid Warden, going up to look out for enemy planes and doing the rounds.
There's a "Babylon 5" episode where [mumble, Sheridan mumble] talks about the Coventry air raids. Winston Churchill knew the Germans were coming ahead of time, but couldn't say anything, because then the Germans would know they had broken their code and x thousands of people died...
Okay, so according to the august Wikipedia that's wrong. Here's some of the right from that same source:An estimated 568 people were killed in the raid (the exact figure was never precisely confirmed) with another 863 badly injured and 393 sustaining lesser injuries. Given the intensity of the raid, casualties were limited by the fact that a large number of Coventrians "trekked" out of the city at night to sleep in nearby towns or villages following the earlier air raids. Also people who took to air raid shelters suffered very little death or injury. Out of 79 public air raid shelters holding 33,000 people, very few had been destroyed.[24]
The raid reached such a new level of destruction that Joseph Goebbels later used the term Coventriert ("Coventrated") when describing similar levels of destruction of other enemy towns. During the raid, the Germans dropped about 500 tonnes of high explosives, including 50 parachute air-mines, of which 20 were incendiary petroleum mines, and 36,000 incendiary bombs.[25]
In the Allied raids later in the war, 500 or more heavy four-engine bombers all delivered their 3,000–6,000 pound bomb loads in a concentrated wave lasting only a few minutes. But at Coventry, the German twin-engined bombers carried smaller bomb loads (2,000–4,000 lb), and attacked in smaller multiple waves. Each bomber flew several sorties over the target, returning to base in France to rearm. Thus the attack was spread over several hours, and there were lulls in the raid when fire fighters and rescuers could reorganise and evacuate civilians.[27] As Arthur Harris, commander of RAF Bomber Command, wrote after the war "Coventry was adequately concentrated in point of space [to start a firestorm], but all the same there was little concentration in point of time".[28]
Coventry and Ultra
In his 1974 book The Ultra Secret, Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham asserted that the British government had advance warning of the attack from Ultra: intercepted German radio messages encrypted with the Enigma cipher machine and decoded by British cryptoanalysts at Bletchley Park. He further claimed that Winston Churchill ordered that no defensive measures should be taken to protect Coventry, lest the Germans suspect that their cipher had been broken.[30] Winterbotham was a key figure for Ultra; he supervised the "Special Liaison Officers" who delivered Ultra material to field commanders.
However, Winterbotham's claim has been rejected by other Ultra participants and historians who argue that while Churchill was indeed aware that a major bombing raid would take place, no one knew what the target would be.[31][32]
Peter Calvocoressi was head of the Air Section at Bletchley Park, which translated and analysed all deciphered Luftwaffe messages. He wrote "Ultra never mentioned Coventry... Churchill, so far from pondering whether to save Coventry or safeguard Ultra, was under the impression that the raid was to be on London."[33]
Scientist R. V. Jones, who led the British side in the Battle of the Beams, wrote that "Enigma signals to the X-beam stations were not broken in time," and that he was unaware that Coventry was the intended target. Furthermore, he explained that a technical mistake caused jamming countermeasures to be ineffective.[34] Furthermore Jones argues in his book 'Most Secret War' that Churchill returned to London that afternoon, and that in Jones opinion indicated that Churchill believed that London was the likely target for the raid of November 14.
Aftermath
The ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral, the most visible reminder of the Blitz
In the aftermath of the war, Coventry city centre was extensively rebuilt according to the Gibson Plan compiled by the town planner Donald Gibson; a then innovative scheme which created a pedestrianised shopping precinct.
The ruined Coventry Cathedral was left as a ruin, and is today still the main reminder of the bombing. A new cathedral was constructed alongside the ruin in the 1950s, designed by the architect Basil Spence. Spence (later knighted for this work) insisted that instead of re-building the old cathedral it should be kept in ruins as a garden of remembrance and that the new cathedral should be built alongside, the two buildings together effectively forming one church.[39] The use of Hollington sandstone for the new Coventry Cathedral provides an element of unity between the buildings.
The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid by the Queen on 23 March 1956.[40] It was consecrated on 25 May 1962, and Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, composed for the occasion, was premiered in the new cathedral on 30 May to mark its consecration.[41][42]
Archive audio recordings
The devastating raid on the night of 14/15 November 1940, and its aftermath, were vividly described by several civilians interviewed by the BBC several days later. The speakers included Mr E. Letts, Muriel Drewe, Miss G.M. Ellis and the Very Reverend R.T. Howard. These archive 1940 recordings feature on The Blitz, an audiobook CD issued in 2007.
In fiction and drama
Babylon 5 television series, episode In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum. Captain Sheridan, Babylon 5's commander, in a discussion of "how much is a secret worth", repeats the Churchill/Coventry myth.
Deanne wrote: "Had a Keep Calm and drink coffee mug bought for my birthday, grew up in Leicester and Nottingham two cities which seemed to get off lightly. Coventry faired much worse, the worst night was 14th Nov..."My local library (the Kansas City Public Library) tweeted this YouTube video this afternoon. Loved it!
@KCLibrary: Cool & inspiring video: The story of the Keep Calm & Carry On poster by @BarterBooks. http://t.co/QrXEuRz #WW2
Love the bookshop Jon, have to see if I can get up there one weekend. Had heard the story of the poster, a simple message but one which can be used from a possible invasion, to your own personal struggle.
Connie Willis has an amazing ability to convey what life was like for average folks in different time periods. This is what I love the most about all of her historical books. Doomsday Book is another wonderful example of this, set in the same universe as Blackout/All Clear. I'd also highly recommend Passage, which is an amazing depiction of life during the Titanic's last days. Blows away that little James Cameron movie, IMO.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Farthing (other topics)World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (other topics)
I found myself taking breaks from reading Blackout to research and learn more about the Nazi bombings of England and London in particular.