The devastating raid resulted in some 1,500 fires, the majority of which were in the hardest hit area, the City of London, where the fires ravaged an entire square mile, destroying the Guildhall and damaging or destroying other famous landmarks. In the background of flames stood the magnificent backdrop of Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, which, although damaged, somehow survived the onslaught to become a symbol of Britain’s defiance and resilience. “The streets were lit up by fires,” recalled Major General John Kennedy, the army’s director of military operations. “The whole horizon was aglow over the City.” The Blitz would continue in full fury until May 11, 1941.

Subscribe Today

• Subscribe to Armchair General Magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!
 

* * *

As we look ahead to an uncertain 2009 in a very unstable world and an economy beset by recession, higher unemployment and more home foreclosures, we nevertheless have much to be thankful for. John Kennedy’s observations of the devastation wrought upon London and how valiantly people coped bears repeating. He witnessed the air raid from the roof of the War Office.

The dome of St. Paul’s was silhouetted against the sky. Next morning . . . many fires were still burning. The people of London had become hardened to bombing by this time, and no matter how bad the night had been, life always went on more or less normally the next day. I never ceased to marvel how the waitresses in the [United Service] Club, and the clerks and messengers in Whitehall stuck to their jobs and their routine with such wonderful spirit and phlegm. It was even more remarkable perhaps, that the staff officers in the War Office, many of whom knew full well how grim the military situation was at that time, were always full of fun and confidence. (The Business of War: The War Narrative of Major General Sir John Kennedy [London: Hutchinson, 1957], p. 70.)

As I was writing this piece, into my mailbox came a Christmas note from my friend, Patton’s daughter-in-law, Joanne Holbrook Patton. Her inspiring words are an appropriate message for all Americans in 2009:

“We know that we have more blessings than we can count. We are well aware that many others cannot say the same, especially in these difficult times. We will continue our prayers for peace and try to do our part to make a difference that matters. Always, we are conscious of the challenge Beatrice Patton, my mother-in-law, gave to her family, paraphrasing St. Luke:

"Of those to whom much has been given, much shall be required.”

A Happy New Year to All!

*One of the London churches destroyed that night was the Church of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, a Christopher Wren church that stood a few blocks from St. Paul’s Cathedral. After the war, the bombed out church was disassembled and moved to Fulton, Missouri, where it was reassembled, stone by stone, and restored to its original Christopher Wren glory. Since the 1960s, this “Blitz survivor” on the campus of Westminster College (the site of Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech) has housed the Winston Churchill Memorial & Library, a fitting tribute to Britain’s wartime Prime Minister who rallied the free world against Hitler’s tyranny. For more information, visit churchillmemorial.org.

Help Armchair General by bookmarking to