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The 70th anniversary of the day Nazi bombs dropped on London, starting the "blitz" that rocked English cities, was marked with veterans鈥� memorials and a Spitfire fighter plane parked at the steps of St. Paul鈥檚 Cathedral, whose towering dome survived months of aerial attacks that marked a new era in warfare.

Hitler鈥檚 air campaign, designed to psychologically devastate Britain before a planned naval and land attack on the island nation, began with 364 Luftwaffe bombers at tea time on Sept. 7, 1940, and lasted until May 1941. At one point, the Luftwaffe hit London 76 nights in a row.

The blitz killed 48,000 Londoners and wounded more than 71,000, but is remembered here for a spirit of resolve and endurance that thwarted Nazi plans, and impressed a US public deeply skeptical of joining a second Europe-wide war.

鈥淚 believe that without the spirit of Londoners at this time, we would have given in,鈥� says Cyril Bridge, a Royal Air Force veteran outside St. Paul鈥檚 in a jacket replete with medals. Remembering Sept. 7 1940 he said, 鈥淚 had never seen the sky so full of aircraft: German bombers, fighters, Spitfires trying to take them down. I suppose I was a little afraid.鈥�

Understanding the blitz

World War II has libraries devoted to it. Yet this 70th anniversary shows the blitz isn鈥檛 exhausted as a research topic. There are new books on diaries of Londoners living in the blitz, an exhibit on how civil and fire brigades managed, documentaries on the bombings of other cities like Birmingham, Plymouth, and Bristol 鈥� even works reappraising (again) Winston Churchill's leadership.

Mainly, the blitz was the first sustained use of one of modern warfare's most destructive weapons 鈥� the aerial bomb 鈥� to cow a civilian population into submission and destroy industry.

For this reason, the blitz 鈥渋sn鈥檛 somewhat meaningful, it is completely meaningful,鈥� says Michael Evans, at St. Paul鈥檚 with a group of war archive enthusiasts. 鈥淧eople will never forget. We have a certain pride in surviving. We may not talk about it, and the younger generation doesn鈥檛 know much about it. The area we are standing in was wiped out. Only St. Paul鈥檚 remained.鈥�

Accounts

Author Francis Beckett's new history 鈥淔irefighters and the Blitz,鈥� published here today, and other accounts by Angus Calder and Juliet Gardiner show that British authorities were worried about 600,000 casualties but hadn鈥檛 counted on the number of refugees created. There was great public anger at the British Home office, as well as at Adolf Hitler.

The blitz was a time of great heroism and sharing 鈥� but also unscrupulous looters roaming the city. Most remembrances are of fires that swept through the city and of the 鈥渞ed skies鈥� at night.

鈥淲e think of it as a time when cheerful cockneys defied the Nazi menace; and that鈥檚 not wrong, but it is a small part of the story,鈥� says Mr. Beckett. 鈥淧eople knew someone had blundered. Britain had plenty of time to prepare.鈥�

A special section in the The Guardian newspaper today carries interviews with a range of ordinary blitz survivors. Dorothy Roberts remembers after the bombs fell in Manchester: 鈥淚 had a brother who was too young to go in the army, so he鈥檇 joined the Local Defense Volunteers; his job was to dig people out. He was out all night, and we didn鈥檛 see him until well into the next day. He came home black鈥�The next day there was no transport, and I remember hundreds and hundreds of people walking to work. They were walking into sheer bedlam, but no one would miss work.鈥�

Alan Hartley, an aerospace factory worker at age 16, witnessed the bombing of Coventry in November of 1940: 鈥淭he Germans bombed Coventry very systematically. They bombed in straight lines from east to west, and then they started from north to south. It was like darning a sock.鈥�

Churchill's role

The blitz and its spirit is perhaps most synonymous with the character of Mr. Churchill, who had replaced Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain months before. In recent years scholars have turned to Churchill鈥檚 views of ethnic minorities, his disdain of Mohandas Gandhi, and his efforts to keep alive British Empire and colonial reach. Such work is countered by a new wave of more balanced biographies that focus on Churchillian virtues.

Churchill and the war cabinet members were sometimes the main British officials that would go out and greet ordinary people after a night of bombing. Many upper-crust Londoners sought shelter outside the city.

The German paper Spiegel last week described Churchill as 鈥渢he man who saved Europe.鈥� Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker last month, reviewing a new round of Churchill biographies, argues that Churchill鈥檚 spirit of defiance just prior to the blitz set a tone for England to endure, at a time when many in his party were willing to 鈥渟ettle for the best deal you could get from the Germans.鈥�

Mr. Gopnik argues of this period: 鈥淎t that moment when all seemed lost, something was found, as Winston Churchill pronounced some of the most famous lines of the past century. 'We shall go on to the end 鈥� We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.' Churchill鈥檚 words did all that words can do in the world. They said what had to be done; they announced why it had to be done then; they inspired those who had to do it.鈥�