The opposition in the room let their concerns be known that an attack on Berlin could change everything, and only encourage Hitler to hit back harder. And was it worth shaking the hornet’s nest like this? Another member of the war cabinet argued once again that maybe they should have negotiated peace with the Germans, but Mr Churchill was clear: surrender was not an option.
The meeting went on for a long time, with both sides’ arguments being weighed heavily. In the end, Churchill could not be swayed from his conviction. British bombers would attack Germany. They would send fifty planes to Berlin, and they would strike targets in the capital that night. Even though some members continued to protest, the decision was made, the majority agreeing with Churchill that something serious had to be done, and the orders were put in place for the raid that night.
As Julia walked back to her desk, she felt a similar feeling as she’d felt the day war had been declared, as though something big had just happened and she’d been a part of it at the inception. Things were about to change. It wasn’t that she had feared the progression of the war. They’d been preparing for Hitler’s attack for months. But she couldn’t help thinking that in retaliating in this way with the Germans, London, her London, and home, would become the trained mark for Hitler’s anger. Even so, she actually sided with Churchill. They didn’t really have a choice any more. The Germans were going to come no matter what, whether it would be by air or by sea. The only way to defeat a bully was to attack.
She realized as she started to type up her notes that peace was a fantasy, that the war would have to escalate. Carol must have noticed her ashen face as she sat at her typewriter. ‘Is everything okay?’ she asked in a whisper. ‘What’s it all about?’
Julia shook her head. ‘You know I can’t give you details, Carol. But I can tell you this,’ she said, ‘that I think things are about to change in this war.’ She read over the notes, her thoughts across the sea. Things were going to change tonight. Civilians were going to die. And she was a part of it.
The next night she sat down in her armchair and put on her radio to hear the news report about the attack that she had recorded for history, and felt the weight of that bearing down on her.
17
7 September 1940
Everything changed on 7 September 1940, the day that history would record as the first day of the Blitz. It was a Saturday, and Diana had been in London doing some clothes shopping and had the afternoon off. It was a gorgeous day. Everybody was out in the city; on her way in on the bus she had been struck by how normal everything had seemed. Friends eating in restaurants or sitting picnicking out on blankets in the park, young children playing, old men reading newspapers or passing the time of day on warm wooden benches, everyone just taking the time to enjoy the weather.
Coming out of a department store with a bag containing a new hat clutched under her arm, Diana noticed that everybody was frozen, staring up at the sky, shielding their eyes from the sun. She looked up to follow their gaze and what she saw made her heart want to skip a beat. Hundreds, too many to count, of German bombers were making their way up the Thames. She’d never seen planes over London like this before, and never in broad daylight. The sound was ominous, like a million insects, their engines buzzing, the sound reverberating around the streets with a deep humming resonance.
Diana clutched her bag to her chest and swallowed down hard. Surely so many bombers weren’t just coming to hit their airfields. Surely, they were going to hit targets here in the heart of London. She thought about what the newspapers had said after the Berlin bombs had been dropped and how some people in the government were concerned about retaliation. As she shaded her eyes, peering up at the sky, it felt unreal, unbelievable, something from a film, and deep in the pit of her stomach she had the sinking realization that this was very significant. This felt like the beginning of something and she knew it wasn’t going to be good. Why would Hitler send over so many planes if he