Bombs for Christmas

As we all rush about in the final week before Christmas looking for last minute bargains or buying the must have Christmas gifts the kids want, I would ask you to look back with me for a while to Christmas 1940.

Christmas 1940

By the end of 1940, 24,000 civilians had been killed in the Blitz and hundreds of thousands more had been made homeless. In November, German bombers had carried out particularly fierce raids on Liverpool in the days leading up to Christmas. The public were now mourning the loss of their loved ones on the home front and in combat, as well as praying for the 41,000 British soldiers captured on the continent.



In order to avoid the bombs, many families spent some of the festive period in air-raid shelters and other places of refuge and decked out their temporary homes with makeshift decorations. Very short Christmas trees, if you could afford or get one, were in demand because of the height of the shelters...



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