As air raids strike nightly – and sometimes during the day - London of October 1940 needs all hands to cope. Women are taking on roles such as ARP warden. We follow Dot, Peggy and Vivian in HOPE FOR THE BLITZ GIRLS.
I’ve read several such tales about the wartime work of women, and never fail to be impressed by the way hardships are overcome. At this time, most of the men on the streets were older, often doing war work too, or else in reserved occupations, which can also be dangerous, for instance, dock workers. The news is far from good. The Nazis are trying to destroy civilian life as well as industry, bombing housing and factories indiscriminately.
This is the second book about The Blitz Girls, and to me, it seems to be a repeat of the themes of the first. Dot Simmonds has left her violent, manipulative husband, walking away from his mother’s house. She is persuaded to apply for a full-time warden job instead of her current volunteer role, as she’ll need an income. But Tommy is still up to his tricks, and is suspected of continuing the despicable looting he carried out during the earlier tale.
Vivian Howe, a driver with the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service, has taken Dot into her house since they work together anyway. Viv has a boyfriend who is a pilot, but he was injured, and Viv spends a lot of time travelling out to Sussex to visit William in the hospital for burned and wounded pilots. The pioneering medical work is well portrayed.
Peggy Miller meanwhile loves her warden job and making a difference, but she finds children who returned from evacuee housing and are now bombed out. They need to go to the countryside, and her mother’s large cottage would suit them. When they arrive, Peggy finds Mrs. Miller needs care too, and a dilemma presents itself.
I like the way that bravery is contrasted with villainy; and self-sacrifice, while often expected, does not go unrewarded. We can learn a lot about relationships today from Johanna Bell, who puts real people in terrifying, fatiguing, stressful situations and lets them find out who their real friends are. The cover photo is perfect – the first book The Blitz Girls shows the young women quite fresh-faced and as though they are trying on new uniforms for size, which they were at the start of the war. The cast already looks older and more professional in HOPE FOR THE BLITZ GIRLS.
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