Quote Mintball="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Look at how the Daily Mail reported it: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... pirit.html Loose women, looting and murder. Of course the Daily Mail ranks loose women as the main problem there.... Quote MintballSexual desire, especially in women, was much intensified during the Blitz. A number of men complained to me about their wives making excessive demands, and I know of very many who were unfaithful to their husbands'" Disgraceful women wanting sex during the war. "Broken Britain" in a nutshell. Quote MintballLooting was the shameful antithesis of the Blitz spirit about which very little was reported at the time, so detrimental was it thought to be to the nation's morale - and it was widespread. 'I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941. Some looters were bomb-chasers: when a raid was on, they would converge on a target area and smash shop windows as the bombs fell and official attention was distracted and the streets empty. The Blitz, like the blackout, provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activities - in one case, a murder was passed off as a death in an air raid: pickpocketing was rife and racketeers charged exorbitant sums for 'reserving' a place in a shelter. People made false claims for the loss of ration books or ID cards, or said they had been bombed out when they hadn't: one Wandsworth man claimed to have been bombed out 19 times in five months before the authorities realised his game and he was sent to prison for three years in February 1941. Many looters were petty criminals who found the Blitz provided unprecedented opportunities. Others were in the right place at the right time, pouncing when they saw watches, jewellery, radios and cartons of cigarettes spilling out from the windows of a bombed shop.'" Sounds like August 2011 riots to me I wonder if these were a result of genuine concern about mass immigration?

Quote Mintball="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Look at how the Daily Mail reported it: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... pirit.html Loose women, looting and murder. Of course the Daily Mail ranks loose women as the main problem there.... Quote MintballSexual desire, especially in women, was much intensified during the Blitz. A number of men complained to me about their wives making excessive demands, and I know of very many who were unfaithful to their husbands'" Disgraceful women wanting sex during the war. "Broken Britain" in a nutshell. Quote MintballLooting was the shameful antithesis of the Blitz spirit about which very little was reported at the time, so detrimental was it thought to be to the nation's morale - and it was widespread. 'I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941. Some looters were bomb-chasers: when a raid was on, they would converge on a target area and smash shop windows as the bombs fell and official attention was distracted and the streets empty. The Blitz, like the blackout, provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activities - in one case, a murder was passed off as a death in an air raid: pickpocketing was rife and racketeers charged exorbitant sums for 'reserving' a place in a shelter. People made false claims for the loss of ration books or ID cards, or said they had been bombed out when they hadn't: one Wandsworth man claimed to have been bombed out 19 times in five months before the authorities realised his game and he was sent to prison for three years in February 1941. Many looters were petty criminals who found the Blitz provided unprecedented opportunities. Others were in the right place at the right time, pouncing when they saw watches, jewellery, radios and cartons of cigarettes spilling out from the windows of a bombed shop.'" Sounds like August 2011 riots to me I wonder if these were a result of genuine concern about mass immigration?

Romantic? Seriously? I'm sure you would agree, that only a complete cretin would suggest that the courage and resolve shown by a deeply traumatised civilian population, who were subjected to an unprecedented nightly campaign of terror, could be described in any way as "romantic"



I would have thought also, even the most blinkered can appreciate the difference between the stoic British response, and the entirely predictable antics of the criminal elements who took advantage of the situation.



Churchill called it right...."They have sewn the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind".... As Dresden typified later.

You are aware that romantic doesn't just mean Mills & Boon?

I'd be very surprised if he had any concept of what romantic means whatsoever. Or any direct experience either.

Quote Mintball="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Those events did of course occur as you correctly point out. Though not an everyday event. People caught doing it were kicked the f**k out of. Another piece of Blitz spirit This may be of interest to some. The records of strikes on the first day of the blitz. I know so many of those places: www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... -1940#data If anyone is a member of the Guardian and Observer digital archive, could you kindly let us know the Guardian's report on that night. It's online, and you can get to it through that link.

Quote Mintball="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Those events did of course occur as you correctly point out. Though not an everyday event. People caught doing it were kicked the f**k out of. Another piece of Blitz spirit This may be of interest to some. The records of strikes on the first day of the blitz. I know so many of those places: www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... -1940#data If anyone is a member of the Guardian and Observer digital archive, could you kindly let us know the Guardian's report on that night. It's online, and you can get to it through that link.

He doesn't even appear to comprehend that I was not referring to those who lived through the Blitz, but to a subsequent perception of it.

"I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941."



From Sally's quoted and linked-to story.

Said ONE london trader. I already said it happened, what more do you want?



Did you look up to see if where you live got pummelled.



One of the more interesting stories I was told by a Lewisham resident many years ago was that Lord Haw Haw announced on the radio that they knew a downed Messerschmitt was being displayed in Chieseman's window. That night Lewisham and Chiesman's were hit.



Are you signed up to Guardian archives? I'd love to know how t was reported.

I know that you said that it happened: I did not dispute that.



I was attempting to comment on the issue of frequency, after you said that looting etc was not "an everyday event".



[url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/3149/nation-looters-it-even-happened-blitzAnother interesting piece here.[/url







I haven't – yet – but then I know that this area took very heavy damage: it's the westernmost edge of the East End. The park directly behind us was only subsequently made a park because it was smashed up badly – had formerly been a combination of industrial and residential.



We're also only a short walk from Shoreditch Park, which had been totally residential. [iTime Team[/i did a dig there a few years ago to see whether they could actual evidence of how bombs hit. They did: they also found a number of weapons, including (but not limited to) a number of knuckle dusters. IIRC, the programme also mentioned the looting – the City, for instance, is just a short walk away.







I'm not – didn't know they had any online, frankly.

Admittedly I have been ignored by many females throughout the World,....I even received a knock back in Hull, which by any standards is a low point! However, as we travel hopefully down life's highways, you never know what's waiting around the next bend in the road.



Do you have a sister by any chance Kosh......?

Quote Mintball="Mintball"I know that you said that it happened: I did not dispute that. I was attempting to comment on the issue of frequency, after you said that looting etc was not "an everyday event". [url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/3149/nation-looters-it-even-happened-blitzAnother interesting piece here.[/url'" Yep. You only have to talk to Londoners who were around at the time. People did stick together in the blitz, but then, in a time of rationing and poverty, nicking what you could get would make ends meet. There were loads of stories censored for years not to alarm the public, like the tube station in the East End where people were crushed to death. I don't have access to the Guardian archive but here's them having a go at the Daily Worker newspaper. www.theguardian.com/politics/194 ... ndworldwar It would be fascinating to see how the papers reported things in the days of war time censorship as opposed to now. Do you remember the story of the chap who set the Telegraph Crosswords during the War. By pure co-incidence, every now and then the answer to clues were words like Juno, Sword and Omaha.

Quote Mintball="Mintball"I know that you said that it happened: I did not dispute that. I was attempting to comment on the issue of frequency, after you said that looting etc was not "an everyday event". [url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/3149/nation-looters-it-even-happened-blitzAnother interesting piece here.[/url'" Yep. You only have to talk to Londoners who were around at the time. People did stick together in the blitz, but then, in a time of rationing and poverty, nicking what you could get would make ends meet. There were loads of stories censored for years not to alarm the public, like the tube station in the East End where people were crushed to death. I don't have access to the Guardian archive but here's them having a go at the Daily Worker newspaper. www.theguardian.com/politics/194 ... ndworldwar It would be fascinating to see how the papers reported things in the days of war time censorship as opposed to now. Do you remember the story of the chap who set the Telegraph Crosswords during the War. By pure co-incidence, every now and then the answer to clues were words like Juno, Sword and Omaha.

I used to live near Shoreditch Park, Pitfield St in Hoxton, I was living (illegally) in a halls of residence, a whole year unnoticed, Plenty of blitz spirit going on then