Backs To The Wall: The Heroic Story of the People of London During World War II

“LONDON CAN TAKE IT,” said the slogans on the gutted tenements of the East End. And take it she did, for five cruel years of onslaught which all but shattered her magnificent spirit. This is the story of how London lived during World War II, and of the agonies, privations, pungent humor and bravery of her citizens, ordinary people leading extraordinary lives in the most dangerous city on earth. It didn’t seem dangerous at first, however, and during the period of the “phony war,” the capital’s mood was carefree. But soon there came Dunkirk, the ouster of Chamberlain and the long months when Britain, undermanned and unequipped, stood alone against the Axis powers. It was then, during the Blitz, when the Luftwaffe concentrated the full fury of the world war into a few square miles of London, that the leadership of Winston Churchill and the dogged courage of his people became an inspiration to the free world. After the companionship of the Blitz came the doldrums of the war, when drabness and scarcity combined to slow the pulse of London, and life was measured in ration points, queues and exhaustion. But the city became a cosmopolis again with the arrival of the Americans and the colorful forces of the European governments-in-exile, as Britain girded itself for the liberation of the Continent. There was one more agony to endure, however, for with the end in sight Hitler retaliated with his cruelest weapons: the buzz bombs and rocket-powered V-2s. London under fire comes vividly to life again in Leonard Mosley’s masterly recreation of a pivotal moment in history. Skillfully he mingles the experiences of influential residents of the great city-Churchill and his immediate circle, General de Gaulle and a backbench MP, among others-—-with those of ordinary people. These include a fighter pilot, an East End slum family, a bomb-disposal expert, a-rich young widow in Mayfair, two American GI’s, a conscientious objector, a tart, a social worker, a police superintendent-—and a score of others. From extensive interviews, and the diaries, memories and notes of this human kaleidoscope, Mr. Mosley has woven a brilliant portrait of London under siege. Backs to the Wall reads like a novel but has the shattering impact of truth.