After the war however, the real truth started to be released as detailed in source A, showing the ob ious previous censorship. Source C also tries to lift morale by the end of it, where it states that the majority of homes damaged have been repaired to a ‘first aid’ level, with some having reached ‘second stage’ repair. The article also covers other bombs, dropped. It states that since august 15th 1940, when the blitz on Croydon started, 2,272 bombs have been dropped of 500 pounds or under, 44 bombs of over 500 pounds, 9 landmines, 94 oil bombs and 202 unexploded bombs. It goes on to state that these bombs killed 734, badly injuring 1,535, injuring 2,908, minor injuries reaching 5,177. The source is very hard hitting, showing the huge devastation and destruction of homes and lives the bombing caused. This typifies the change in style of reporting towards the end of the war, when the allies knew they were going to win. Censorship relaxed, in order to win the countries hearts and minds over the serious destruction and killing that would go on in Germany as the allies advanced. For reliability, source A is likely to be more reliable. Source 2, a newspaper report from the Croydon archives shows an undated map of London, showing a rough amount of bomb attacks per borough in London, showed by pictures of planes. It is clearly seen that Croydon has by far the most attacks of any other London borough at the time of the map being printed, and shows the huge amount of bombs that must have dropped on Croydon. Source 3 from the Croydon archives is from the national newspaper, The Daily Mail and is undated. It states that 3 out of every 4 houses in Croydon have been more or less damaged. It goes on to state that that it is the worst hit borough by the V1 missile, with 8 bombs in a single day, 15 on one weekend. It compares the attacks to those on Coventry, although percentage figures for destruction of houses in Croydon are even worse than in Coventry. It goes on to report eyewitness’s accounts of devastation that they experienced and finishes with a table of worst hit boroughs in London, with Croydon at the top of that list. These news stories detailing the devastation the Germans had caused to Croydon would justify the inevitable retaliatory strikes the allies would make on Germany and Japan now they were in control of the war.
To stop bombers from hitting their targets the black out was introduced. Source E, Air Raid Precaution information, details this and was shown in ‘permanent and prominent positions’ throughout the borough. The source has a very serious and factual tone, full of commands and instructions. It is produced by the government and gives details on the black out. It states that all windows, skylights, doors or openings must be screened and no lights can be used in rooms unless they are screened. In addition to these measures car headlights must be taped over except for a slit of light, the same applying to streetlamps. These measures obviously increased road accidents at nighttime due to poor visibility.
Many stories ran in newspapers to try and increase morale during the air raids. Source 52 from the Croydon Library Archives is a newspaper article from 1945. It shows a picture of homeless people bombed out after a flying bomb attacks in Croydon. A caption displays an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth attitude as it tells of German refugees made homeless by the allies advancement, and how they were justified due to these types of attacks. Although during the main bulk of the war the government tried to cover up these woeful tales in order to keep morale high, towards the end of the war, when it was clear the allies were going to win, these type of articles were not censored as the government felt they would justify in peoples mind the heavy bombing of the German cities. Therefore it is likely that source 52 was printed towards the end of the war. Source B also tries to boost morale by showing the 345-year-old Almshouses in Central Croydon, which survived a bomb blast, even when surrounding more modern shops did not. A picture shows it’s roof being repaired with a headline ‘345 years old – can still take it’, which shows a positive outcome of an otherwise devastating bomb attack. The caption is vital as otherwise the picture would not have been allowed to be printed by the censors as it painted such a grim picture.
Some attacks also took place in the daytime as detailed in source 49 from Croydon archives, which shows a newspaper article. It details wounds in the first headline, but only states fatal injuries further into the article after writing a lot about bombs rather that the actual injuries and deaths caused. This could be because of the censor, trying to win justification from the people for the allied bombing of it’s enemies or just the newspapers attempt to boost morale, but it shows the devastating affect of daytime unprepared for attacks nonetheless. As the article is so twisted in it’s report of the affair, it may not contain accurate death figures, and again, there may be differences between views of injuries, minor injuries and major injuries. Therefore, it would not be reliable to take specific data from it. Instead, to gain a more accurate picture, you would use a source published after the war such as source A published after the war, but detailing an event on August 15th 1944.
From the careful analysing of sources, I have been able to build up a picture of the devastation that bombing caused to Croydon. Evaluation of the sources allowed me to gain an accurate insight into the way bombing affected the local area, carefully taking evidence from the most reliable type of source for the information needed, documents/newspaper articles published during the war, confidential documents, official documents and documents/newspaper articles published after the war. Many lives, homes and businesses were destroyed and everyone was affected in big ways. It was not only Croydon, which suffered but cities and towns across the country, although from my research, Croydon suffered very badly. Air Raid attacks brought Croydon to the frontline in a way that never occurred in World War 1, and brought with it devastation, death and carnage, which newspapers tried to show the bright side of. After looking behind the headlines however, it is very evident that this bright side hardly did exist.
