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| A 1939 precursor to the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters. |
Ah, nostalgia. Ain’t it great? There’s nothing quite like recalling World War II to convince ourselves that we’re somehow better than the rest of the world. Let’s plaster everything from socks to keyrings to tea-towels in ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ slogans (interestingly, not mass-produced until 2008), and invoke a bit of ‘Blitz Spirit’ whenever things get tough. The big band I play in is regularly booked for 1940s-themed gigs, where people dress in WWII uniforms, deck the place out in Union Jack bunting, dance to Glen Miller (an American, incidentally) and even subject themselves to eating SPAM to round off the nostalgia-fest. From the Independent declaring, “London Can Take It!” following the 7/7 attacks, to the time we all stood in the street to applaud the NHS and took lockdown in our stride – there’s nothing that ignites our national pride like a good old reference to ‘Blitz Spirit’.
But did the British really keep calm and carry on? And should we really be harking back to a time when tens of thousands of people were killed and millions of homes destroyed? The Blitz (short for the German ‘blitzkrieg’, or ‘lightning war’) was the name given to the continual German bombardment of British cities for eight months from September 1940 to May 1941. During that time, London was bombed for 57 nights straight. Over 40,000 civilians were killed, with nearly half those deaths occurring in the capital. The Nazis eventually abandoned their campaign, partly because they were preparing for their invasion of Russia and needed their forces elsewhere, and partly because their attempt to demoralise the British public and hamper the war effort simply hadn’t worked.
Score one for those who support the idea of Blitz Spirit. And sure, there were examples of stoicism and humour amongst those living through the bombardment. People got up each morning and went to work, even if they had spent all night in an air raid shelter (perhaps one of those famous images of strangers crammed together in a tube station). Shopkeepers swept away the broken glass and rubble and were open again by midday.
But quite apart from the fact that the stiff upper lip masked private grief and crippling fears revealed in letters and diaries from the 1940s, the population wasn’t entirely so wholesome as those Churchill-loving patriots might have you believe. Looting was rife during the Blitz – thieves would target houses during air raids, whilst the owners were in air raid shelters, or sift through the rubble of freshly-bombed buildings. Rationing led to the introduction of coupons and ration books, which were routinely sold on the black market for profits in the tens of thousands, making certain gangs and individuals very rich indeed. Pickpockets worked their way through the occupants of those tube station shelters. Working class communities – where overcrowding was common and access to shelters more limited – suffered disproportionate losses. Any discontentment or inequality was glossed over by government propaganda. Blitz Spirit was little more than a myth.
The crucial thing about ‘Blitz Spirit’ and our love of all things World War II is that the Nazis were undeniably evil. To suggest that we shouldn’t have stood up to Hitler is ludicrous. (Though perhaps ignoring some of our own atrocities and dubious moral acts along the way.). Therefore, the logic appears to be that if you don’t think Churchill was our greatest PM and you don’t want to wave Union Flags at every VE Day celebration, you’re pretty much a Nazi yourself. Ironically, of course, the most vociferous Blitz-spiriters are the ones now spouting the intolerant rhetoric and outright racism that Britain fought for during its alleged finest hour. But Reformers don’t have too keen a sense of irony, it would seem.
It's certainly not a new take to suggest that Blitz Spirit is a myth. Amongst those with basic critical thinking skills, it’s widely accepted, but there’s no denying that the concept is intrinsically tied up with our sense of national identity. What’s worrying is how easily some politicians are able to manipulate our history so that vulnerable voters buy into the idea of our country’s superiority; the idea that we are better alone, without those meddlesome foreigners; that we should yearn for a time when we had the military might to stand up to any enemy in the world. Problem is, it’s not clear just who the enemy is anymore. And no one taught us how to stand up to the enemy within: our own jingoistic nostalgia.
Further Reading:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11213968
https://theconversation.com/how-the-myth-of-blitz-spirit-defined-and-divided-london-after-7-7-259948
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Blitz-Spirit/
