The Blitz

It looks like it is going to be one of those years without snow until January. At the moment, snow is not in the forecast until December 22, but that is so far out so as not be taken too seriously. It is colder, about 19 degrees F tonight and 16 degrees by tomorrow morning.

We just got home from FHE. We had quite a communte, from our door to the Nearons...about 3 feet!! It was nice not to have get out in the cold weather. We had a white elephant gift exchange. Chris got a stuffed animal that was pretty cute and I got a ceramic chicken in a Santa Claus outfit!

Brother Curbishley told us about one his most memorable Christmases. It was December 1940. The Blitz was in full throttle. London had been bombed for 57 nights in a row. Now the Germans were bombing the town of Sheffield, where he lived. Sheffield was strategic because of its steel mills. He was just 3 1/2 years old, but he has many images that are still quite vivid in his memory. Sheffield took over 800 bombs in an area the size of a circle with about an 8 mile diameter. They bombed civilians not wanting to destroy the steel mills. Sheffield was one of the mostly heavily bombed areas in England up to that time. Many of his neighbors lost their homes, spouses and children. One neighbor brought over his mother who had a compound fracture to her leg. She had just lost her husband, a son and three grandchildren. George's father broke down a dining room chair to use as a splint and with that and the help of a few others, set the leg the best they could and wrapped it up in torn pieces of sheets from the Curbishley's bedding.

George's mother had been baking when the sirens went off. She stayed in the home until the bread was cooked. Then they shared what they had with their neighbors...the warm bread and a can of Spam. Make all the jokes about Spam you want; there was nothing funny about Spam as he told his story.

That year there were no Christmas presents. England was all alone against the Germans. They had no allies. They were convinced that the Germans were just moments from making the invasion. Yet they knew, that if they did, they would have to kill all the British people, because they were determined to never, never, never give up! George said that this Christmas was special to him because he and his family were involved in giving not receiving.

Ultimately, the will and determination of the British people forced Hitler to give up on his plan to evade the British Isles. Then in 1941, Hitler made one of his biggest mistakes by attacking Russia. At that point the British knew they had saved their island. They had less than 40 planes left in Royal Air Force (RAF) at the time of the attack on Russia. By the end of the year, the United States entered the war. Britain now had the two strongest nations on earth as allies. At that point, they knew it was only a matter of time, until victory would be theirs.