Loretta reports from London:
Fairly early on in our time in London, we visited the
Churchill War Rooms. This happened a few days after the attack at London Bridge, and made perfectly clear, in case we hadn't already realized, what it
really means to be a "city under siege." As in, when bombs are falling and invasion is a definite possibility.
"The story of the Churchill War Rooms is ... one of brilliant improvisation in the face of deadly necessity," according to the guidebook. You can read a short history of its creation
here, and learn more about it on the website. I'm going to do my usual while abroad with extremely low speed internet and alien computer technology, and offer pictures.
What I will point out is, not until you get down into this claustrophobic space, think about the numbers of people working here every day and night in secret, read the signs, see the working conditions, and so on, do you have the beginnings of a clue about what it might have been like to get through that war. I choked up more than once, thinking about the courage and endurance of these heroes.
All images: Photo copyright © 2017 Walter M. Henritze III
One of us -- 
5 comments:
I visited this some years ago. Yes, amazing and touching, for exactly the reasons you describe. Great post, thanks!
I think it was in 1999 or 2000 that I visited, and it was truly fascinating.
I went many years ago and hearing the recording of Churchill speaking was very emotional for me.
Those pictures give a powerful sense of immediacy that somehow the black-and-white war photographs often fail to provide. Thanks for sharing, and for passing on the informative links.
There is a line of telephones, each a different color, that made it come to life for me.
A friend's mother worked in a different underground war office and said they would get to the end of their shift and go up to the surface and sometimes be surprised that it was daylight. Being underground would throw off their sense of day and night when the shifts were long.
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