“The Blitz (from German, “Lightning”) was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged, and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, half of them in London”. – Wikipedia

People sheltering in a tube train and on the platform at Piccadilly Tube Station, London, during an air raid. (Photo by Tunbridge-Sedgwick Pictorial Press/Getty Images). 1940

A milkman delivering milk in a London street devastated during a German bombing raid. Firemen are dampening down the ruins behind him. (Photo by Fred Morley/Getty Images). 1940

The debris of St Thomas's Hospital, London, the morning after receiving a direct hit during the Blitz, in front of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 1940

Workmen putting the finishing touches to an old tube station (King William Street) which has been converted into an air raid shelter holding 2,000 people. It has air-conditioning and a first aid station, all at a cost of about £20,000. (Photo by Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Getty Images). 16th March 1940

King George VI of Great Britain and Queen Elizabeth talking to a workman in a bomb damaged area of London. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images). 18th October 1940

Huge crowds followed Winston Churchill when he inspected damage and bomb craters in London. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 10th September 1940

A scene in central London, the morning after a bomb raid. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1940

A fireman attempts to check the flames from a gas explosion, after an air raid in Central London the previous night. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images). 1940

A view of devastation around St Paul's Cathedral in the City. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). Circa 1940

A homeless boy points out his bedroom to his friends, after his home had been wrecked during a random bombing raid in an eastern suburb of London. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images). 1940

Inhabitants of Kennington Road in south-east London gather to survey the damage to a blitzed building after a World War II German air raid. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 8th September 1940

East Londoners are made homeless during German air raids on London. (Photo by Fred Ramage/Keystone/Getty Images). Circa 1940

Mrs Bowley, the wife of a school caretaker, shakes the hand of her rescuer, Johnny Driscoll of an A.R.P. rescue team, as she is carried away on a stretcher. Bowley had been trapped in the wreckage of an air raid shelter for thirteen hours after a German bombing raid on London, 17th October 1940. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Londoners shelter from air raids in an underground station during World War II, 1940. (Photo by M. McNeill/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)