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<\/p>\nIn the early stages of World War II, Winston Churchill declared that London was \u201cthe greatest target in the world.\u201d His assessment was strikingly accurate.<\/p>\n
Adolf Hitler wanted to destroy the British morale, so his air fleet (the terrifying Luftwaffe) launched a sustained bombing offensive that ultimately killed or seriously injured more than 80,000 and destroyed a million buildings in the London area.<\/p>\n
During the Blitz (meaning lightening war), September 1940 until May 1941, nightly raids by the Germans relentlessly pounded the city \u2014 30,000 bombs were dropped in a display of unstoppable air power.<\/p>\n
But Hitler failed to achieve his goal. The British developed a \u201cBlitz spirit,\u201d a defiant attitude in the face of massive adversity. They were more determined to stay the course after the assault than before it.<\/p>\n
This spirit is especially impressive because conditions on the ground were in disarray \u2014 even more unsettling during the air raids. There were public shelters and private shelters, but confidence in these structures was shaky.<\/p>\n
The public facilities were erected quickly and were, at best, satisfactory. They were never perceived as completely secure.<\/p>\n
The home shelters came in two varieties: \u201cMorrison\u201d assembly kits and \u201cAnderson\u201d bunkers (which were called concrete sandwiches). The Morrison kit, named for the then Minister of Home Security, resembled a large play-pen topped by metal. Inside was a space which contained a mattress upon which the occupants could rest. The Anderson was more of a traditional shelter, a semicircular corrugated steel design which could be buried in the ground. Its namesake was Lord John Anderson, an official in charge of air raid preparedness.<\/p>\n
The other alternative, initially opposed by the government, was to shelter in the subway system, the \u201ctubes.\u201d This quickly became a popular option with as many as 170,000 a night descending into the underground. The crowds began arriving around 4 in the afternoon; the trains stopped at 10:30 p.m. and the \u201ctubites,\u201d as they were called, retired shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
British officials had numerous concerns: disease (\u201cpersonal hygiene pretty well went out the window,\u201d one tubite said), panic, people unwilling to leave the subway during the day, and a group dynamic that might lead to poor morale. Finally, Winston Churchill intervened on behalf of the practice and government opposition disappeared.<\/p>\n
Len Phillips, who was a boy when he slept in the tubes, described the experience: \u201cIt was cold and there was always the fear that if they burst a water main, we might get flooded\u2026you could hear the bombs echo\u2026we got on fairly well and we mucked in together\u2026it was one of those things we had to put up with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Images of this \u201cmucking in\u201d have been memorably preserved in the work of two influential artists, photographer Bill Brandt and sculptor Henry Moore.<\/p>\n
Brandt, who had been a student of Man Ray, was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior to document sheltering in the tubes. These were places \u201cthat gave the appearance of death\u201d while having the purpose of saving life, Brandt later commented. Here is one of the 39 photographs he took:<\/p>\n
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The \u201chuddled intimacy\u201d in the tubes, as author Julian Andrews has pointed out, was a natural subject for Moore. The sculptor, one of the finest ever, was always focused on the human figure, usually reclining or seated and often in a family unit.<\/p>\n
An Official War Artist, Moore first saw the tube scenes when he and his wife were forced to stand on an underground platform to wait out a heavy night of Nazi bombing. \u201cIt was like a huge city in the bowels of the earth,\u201d Moore recalled. \u201cI was fascinated visually. I went back again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore had always been an excellent draftsman \u2014 he filled three notebooks with tube drawings. \u201cNaturally I couldn\u2019t draw in the shelter itself, I drew from memory on my return home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Seventy five finished drawings emerged from the sketches he made in the notebooks. They are, according to historian Kenneth Clark, \u201camong the most precious works of art\u201d in the twentieth century.<\/p>\n
These magnificent drawings convey what art dealer James Goodman called \u201cvulnerability and tenacity. The best drawings Henry Moore ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s difficult to equate the Second World War with our current Covid-19 woes, it\u2019s possible to learn some lessons from those sheltering in the tubes: they had hope and resilience, two qualities that are vital today.<\/p>\n
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\nOriginally written by https:\/\/blog.martinoakscemeteryandcrematory.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n