The Scars of The Blitz

The scars of the Blitz are everywhere in London, if you know where to look. Using maps that plotted the bomb damage across the capital during the Second World War, military historian James Rogers sets out to find evidence of the Blitz you can still see today.

The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, in 1940 and 1941, during World War Two. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term Blitzkrieg, the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
James heads to High Holborn, where entire neighbourhoods were destroyed by German bombing early in the war and by V2 rockets as it neared its end. Did you know the nation's songbird Vera Lynn had a close call when the venue she was meant to perform at, the Holborn Empire, was completely obliterated? He also investigates signs of damage in South Kensington, where the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum are still pock-marked by shrapnel and a red telephone box retains its scars from a German incendiary bomb.

James then heads to Bank tube station, where one of the most tragic incidents of the Blitz occurred as thousands sheltered underground.