The Second Great Fire of London
On the night of 29/30 December 1940, London was consumed by a massive blaze for the second time in its long and storied history. But unlike the so-called ‘Great Fire’ that had torn through the capital in 1666, this was no accident. Instead, the devastating inferno – far larger in scale than that seen during the 17th century – was the handiwork of the German Luftwaffe, which had been hitting Britain’s cities with near-constant bombing raids since September.
Dubbed the Blitz (derived from the German word , meaning ‘lightning
