The Blitz Quotes

“I never thought I should live to grow blasé about the sound of gunfire, but so I have”
― George Orwell

“1944 - Exploring London in wartime, a city with stiff upper lip, gritted teeth, clenched fists, makes you realize that Paris is a bit of whore.

Every day and every night for weeks now, London has been bleeding and hiding its wounds with impressive dignity. A ‘don’t show off’ attitude prevails. From time to time a sputtering doodle-bug (a VI) shatters the torpor of the overcast sky. One second, sometimes two ... at most three ... of silence. Visualizing that fat cigar with shark fins as it stops dead, sways, idiotically tips over, then goes into a vertical dive. And explodes. Usually it’s an entire building that’s destroyed.

Apparently the Civil Defense rescue teams observe a very strict rule of discretion and restraint. You never see any panic. In this impassive city detachment is the expression of panic.”
― Jacques Yonnet, Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City

“[Churchill] stood. As he spoke, his voice shook and tears streamed. ‘In these days,’ he said, ‘I often think of Our Lord.’ He could say no more. He sat down and looked at no one – the great orator made speechless by the weight of the day.
Cowles found herself deeply moved. ‘I have never forgotten those simple words and if he enjoyed waging the war let it be remembered that he understood the anguish of it as well.”
― Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

“Britain and Germany thought they were winning World War II by trying to bomb the other into submission. In reality, they were destroying themselves as global powers, and (ironically, similar to one of the firestorms their city bombings caused), creating a vacuum on the world stage that the United States and the Soviet Union rushed to fill as superpowers in the post-war years.”
― Stewart Stafford