Norman Longmate > Quotes

“Later that afternoon with the Germans already in Trafalgar Square and advancing down Whitehall to take their position in the rear, the enemy unit advancing across St. James 'Park made their final charge. Several of those in the Downing Street position were already dead... and at last the Bren ceased its chatter, its last magazine emptied.

Churchill reluctantly abandoned the machine-gun, drew his pistol and with great satisfaction, for it was a notoriously inaccurate weapon, shot dead the first German to reach the foot of the steps. As two more rushed forward, covered by a third in the distance, Winston Churchill moved out of the shelter of the sandbags, as if personally to bar the way up Downing Street. A German NCO, running up to find the cause of the unexpected hold-up, recognised him and shouted to the soldiers not to shoot, but he was too late. A burst of bullets from a machine-carbine caught the Prime Minister in the chest. He died instantly, his back to Downing Street, his face toward the enemy, his pistol still in his hand.”
― Norman Longmate

“For her the war came suddenly closer when, on Wednesday 23rd August, she received a telephone message from the local police that the factory hooter was not to be sounded again except as an air raid warning. The following Sunday, she remembers, she managed to stay dry-eyed through prayers for peace at church, only to weep right through the sailors’ hymn, Eternal Father, Strong to Save, which reminded her of her brother at sea somewhere in the Persian Gulf. The government’s announcement,”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A

“The motto of the Housewives Service, attributed to Saint Augustine, was ‘A little thing is but a little thing but faithfulness in little things is a very great thing’.”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A

“One result of the book boom was the growth of new publishers, who could use any paper they could find—they often advertised for ‘free’ supplies—and were not rationed to a fraction of their pre-war consumption. Lacking ‘back lists’ they specialised in new books and the public found it bewildering that new titles should constantly be published while textbooks and classics remained unobtainable.”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A

“Is it, one wonders, only nostalgia that makes the music of the popular songs of that time seem more tuneful, the words more comprehensible, the feeling behind them more genuine than of any since? Certainly the dance music of the war years was enjoyed by all age groups, and respectable middle-aged citizens were not ashamed to be caught humming the hit tunes of the moment in those years when ‘popular’ music was truly popular.”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A

“. We now know that in life no obstacle can block, it can only impede; that tiredness is an incident not a finality.”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A

“One A.F.S. man wrote bluntly: ‘Everybody loots . . . The A.R.P. Wardens, Demolition Men . . . the Police.”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A

“After lying uncollected for weeks the whole heap of broken bicycles, dented petrol cans, and the rest, was taken back to the same dump where, I suspect, it remains to this day.”
― Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, A