What Living in London Was Like during the Blitz | Cities At War: London | Timeline

Aug 10, 2017 | This programme includes an award-winning trilogy whose theme is the miraculous resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

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What Living in London Was Like During The Blitz | Cities At War: London | Timeline

This programme includes an award-winning trilogy whose theme is the miraculous resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Blitz: London’s Firestorm
On 29 December 1940 Hitler hoped his Luftwaffe would create a firestorm to destroy central London and break the spirit of the British people. Tens of thousands of incendiary bombs were dropped on the heart of the city.

The story of that awe-inspiring night is told in a feature-length documentary that brings eyewitness accounts to life using dramatic reconstructions and CGI.

Firemen and heavy rescue workers fought desperately all night to control the burning buildings as the fire raged out of control. And in its path was the symbolic form of St Paul's, which Churchill demanded was protected at any cost.

Londoners had come to expect nightly raids, but this was on a different scale and they fled for the protection of shelters, uncertain if their home would still stand after the bombing. Many were to die.

The following morning the survivors emerged after a terrifying and sleepless night to face the smoking ruins of the city.

Watch the Channel 4 documentary here