There’s a book by Kate Atkinson called Life After Life that describes what life during the Blitz was like and also what life in Berlin when the Sowjets arrived was like and what life as an RAF pilot was like. All stripped of patriotic nostalgia. It’s horrifying but really good.
Showing us that attempting to bomb a civilian population into submission doesn’t work. The only people who think it will work this time do it on the premise that “those people” are fundamentally weaker. You know - racists.
When the Allieds flattened numerous cities in Germany they already knew this. They just did it because they were pissed off.
Are you calling the English and Americans racists now because they did this tactic on a much larger scale during this war? People are still dying from American warheads in Germany.
That’s part of it, but it’s also just a fundamental misconception it seems everyone shares, that making life horrible will force surrender.
And in fairness, there is a level of destruction that will do that - ask Japan about that.
This might be a controversial opinion and I am open to anyone disagreeing with it
"the German bombing campaign, which killed around 40,000–43,000 British civilians and devastated parts of London and other cities was a brutal and inhumane event but at the same time if we look from an anticolonial lens , it was a “necessary” catalyst for decolonization because it exposed Britain’s vulnerabilities, drained its resources, and eroded the psychological and moral foundation of its empire.
World War II massively accelerated the end of the British Empire. Britain emerged from the war economically shattered ,got deeply in debt (especially to the US ), with its cities bombed, its military overstretched, and its global prestige damaged.
The 1945 Labour government under Clement Attlee faced huge domestic pressures and couldn’t afford to hold onto colonies. Pakistan and india gained independence in 1947; African decolonization followed rapidly in the 1950s–60s (e.g., Ghana in 1957 under Kwame Nkrumah).
The war exposed the hypocrisy of Britain fighting for “freedom” while denying it to its colonies. The Atlantic Charter (1941) by Roosevelt and Churchill promised self-determination for African countries if they help allied troops, but after the war Churchill resisted applying it to the empire.
Figures like Nkrumah or those in the Pan-African movement drew inspiration from the war because hundreds of thousands of Africans fought for the Allies,many african revolutionaries viewed london blitz and further weakening of britian as an opportunity to gain freedom and have self determination . Many african men returned home radicalized (having seen whites fighting whites for preserving sovergnity), and cited the Atlantic Charter promised by Churchill and Roosevelt in return for independence from British empire. rising global anti-colonialism (US and Soviet pressure) further helped decolonisation.
I can find parallells in blitz and the American Civil War (1861–1865), where massive loss of life (over 600,000 dead) is sometimes necessary as the price for ending slavery. Lincoln framed the war as preserving the Union first, with emancipation evolving as a war aim. Abolitionists saw it that way, but it came at horrific cost of over 600000 deaths
Holy US centred bullshit, Batman.
If united States have not intervened, british and french forces would have recolonised egypt during suez crisis
Comparing fascist nazi to american civil war is crazy , imagine how fucked up would be the world if nazi’s took over the world . I can understand from an anticolonial view that colonialism is very exploitative and ww2 drained British empire but at the same time imagine how fucked up would be if world have takeovered by nazis
Colonialism is indeed bad , exploitative and many case brutal as nazissm . British empire had concentration camps in africa . Also I no where claimed nazis were good , the only thing I claimed was the role of london blitz and destruction of British economy in accelerating decolonisation, after the WW2 all european powers like france , uk tried to recolonise colonies but because of pressure from United States and in many cases soviet union prevented it.
Abolitionists saw it that way, but it came at horrific cost of over 600000 deaths
a substantial number of those were slaveholders and their military, so fuck 'em. but shame about the innocents.
let me guess, your mind went: Artemis > Apollo > Von Braun > V-2
Artemis has a bleached ya-know-what.
