London

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21.5.42 [George Orwell]

May 21, 2012 in London, Political, Russia, War-time, george orwell by orwelldiaries

Molotov is said to be in London. I don’t believe this.

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17.4.41 [George Orwell]

April 17, 2011 in Hampstead, London, Lord's, Political, St John's Wood, War-time, ambulances, bomb, guns, sleep by orwelldiaries

Very heavy raid last night, probably the heaviest in many months, so far as London is concerned…Bomb in Lord’s cricket ground (school-boys having their exercise at the nets as usual this morning, a few yards from the crater) and another in St. John’s Wood churchyard. This one luckily didn’t land among the graves, a thing I have been dreading will happen…Passed this morning a side-street somewhere in Hampstead with one house in it reduced to a pile of rubbish by a bomb – a sight so usual that one hardly notices it. The street is cordoned off, however, digging squads at work, and a line of ambulances waiting. Underneath that huge pile of bricks there are mangled bodies, some of them perhaps alive.

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1.3.41 [George Orwell]

March 1, 2011 in Cheltenham, London, Political, Tube, War-time, air-raids, blitz, evacuation by orwelldiaries

The B.s, who only came up to London a few weeks ago and have seen nothing of the blitz, say that they find Londoners very much changed, everyone very hysterical, talking in much louder tones, etc., etc.  If this is so, it is something that happens gradually and that one does not notice while in the middle of it, as with the growth of a child.  The only change I have definitely noticed since the air-raids began is that people are much more ready to speak to strangers in the street. . . .  The Tube stations don’t now stink to any extent, the new metal bunks are quite good[1], and the people one sees there are reasonably well found as to bedding and seem contented and normal in all ways – but this just what disquiets me.  What is one to think of people who go on living this subhuman life night after night for months, including periods of a week or more when no aeroplane has come near London? . . .  It is appalling to see children still in all the Tube stations, taking it all for granted and having great fun riding round and round the Inner Circle.  A little while back D. J. [2] was coming to London from Cheltenham, and in the train was a young woman with her two children who had been evacuated to somewhere in the West Country and whom she was now bringing back.  As the train neared London an air-raid began and the woman spent the rest of the journey in tears.  What had decided her to come back was the fact that at that time there had been no raid on London for a week or more, and so she had concluded that “it was all right now”.  What is one to think of the mentality of such people?

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21.9.40 [George Orwell]

September 21, 2010 in ARP, Dorset Square, London, Political, War-time, bombs, delayed-action bombs, gas, stationers by orwelldiaries

Have been unable for some days to buy another volume to continue this diary because of the three or 4° stationers’ shops in the immediate neighbourhood, all but one are cordoned off because of the unexploded bombs.

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26.8.40 [George Orwell]

August 26, 2010 in East India docks, Greenwich, Huesca, London, Monflorite, Political, Spain, War-time, air raid, alarms, bombs, newspapers by orwelldiaries

(Greenwich).  The raid which occurred on the 24th was the first real raid on London so far as I am concerned, i.e. the first in which I could hear the bombs.  We were watching at the front door when the East India docks were hit.  No mention of the docks being hit in Sunday’s papers, so evidently they do conceal it when important objectives are hit . . . . . . It was a loudish bang but not alarming and gave no impression of making the earth tremble, so evidently these are not very large bombs that they are dropping.  I remember the two big bombs that dropped near Huesca when I was in the hospital at Monflorite.  The first, quite 4 kilometres away, made a terrific roar that shook the houses and sent us all fleeing out of our beds in alarm.  Perhaps that was a 2000 lb. bomb[1] and the ones at present being dropped are 500 lb. ones.

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19.8.40 [George Orwell]

August 19, 2010 in America, Germany, London, Newcastle, Political, War-time, air-raids by orwelldiaries

A feature of the air raids is the extreme credulity of almost everyone about damage done to distant places. George M.[1] arrived recently from Newcastle, which is generally believed to have been seriously smashed about, and told us that the damage there was nothing to signify. On the other hand he arrived expecting to find London knocked to pieces and his first question on arrival was “whether we had had a very bad time”. It is easy to see how people as far away as America can believe that London is in flames, England starving, etc., etc. And at the same time all this raises the presumption that our own raids on western Germany are much less damaging than is reported.

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