Description
Numerous eyewitness accounts, survivor testimony, and previously classified documents inform a close-up look at a devastating bombing raid by the Luftwaffe on London on May 10, 1941, revealing the near catastrophoic results of the raid in terms of the ultimate fate of the British during World War II.
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Seven months after the Nazi blitz began in September 1940, London remained the center of the free world's resistance to Hitler's Germany but - contrary to popular belief - its "all-in-together" camaraderie was disintegrating. Two devastating Luftwaffe raids in April, 1941 killed more than 2,300 Londoners. The city's civil defenses were chronically undermanned as the breezy enthusiasm of those who volunteered in 1939 cracked under the incessant bombing. Newspapers reported looting, petty crime, and price-gouging.But there was reason for optimism. Churchill remained unfailingly belligerent as he rallied the English. London hadn't been bombed in three weeks, while the RAF shot down ninety German bombers over Britain. It began to appear that the worst could be over.So, when the first notes of the air raid siren sounded on the evening of May 10, 1941, few citizens even bothered going into the shelters. A similar nonchalance prevailed among the defenders of the nation's capital. It soon became clear, however, as the bombs began to rain down that this was no ordinary blitz but a Luftwaffe raid so devastating that it would eclipse all others...The Longest Night tells the untold story of the horrific raid of May 10, 1941 - and how it almost brought Britain to military collapse. Using extensive survivors' testimony and previously classified documents, it reveals just how close the Luftwaffe came to total victory. This account depicts how fate shifted based on Hitler's mistaken belief that he'd actually lost the air war of Britain - and dramatically portrays the unsurpassed; "we-can-take-it" bravery of the British people when they'd been pushed beyond all human endurance.
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