The cultural memory of London in the Second World War hasn’t really changed since the 1940s. It’s all about the Blitz spirit, a people united in the face of adversity — grumbling a little, perhaps (this is Britain, after all), but stoic, resilient and mutually supportive. The pictures are of heroic firefighters, families sheltering from bombs in Tube stations, whistling milkmen picking their way through debris, and the indomitable city symbolised by the dome of St Paul’s rising through the smoke.
Those images were deliberately chosen, of course. This was a war of national survival. And in a world that was adjusting to the mass media, propaganda was key. Photographs, newsreels and reporting were expected to contribute to morale. The story they told was essential then, and proved useful to later politicians; Tony Blair was quick to evoke the Blitz in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. And in the public mind that story has proved remarkably durable, partly because it was true.
