Cartoon Review of the War
Louis Baratgin's World War II Album

Robert Bruce Henry

Watch the official book trailer for the Cartoon Review of the War in bookstores May 2010.

Directed by JC Little, sound design by Oisin Little.
Produced by Little Animation.

The Bombing of London (1940)

In May-June 1940 the blitzkrieg gave the Nazis control of western Europe; it is said that even
Hitler was surprised at the extent and rapidity of his victories. He expected Britain to surrender,
but Churchill refused to consider it. However, the roaring of the menacing British lion didn’t stop
the Germans from trying. The Battle of Britain began on June 10, 1940 with the bombing of
strategic military targets in Britain. It was fought in the air because the German command wanted
to neutralize the Royal Air Force before landing troops by sea on British soil. The air war was
two-way: the RAF had commenced bombing military targets in Germany in May. In August,
Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to attack British cities. There were months of bombing, with untold
suffering to many innocent victims. During “The Blitz”, Londoners would take shelter in the subway
as streams of incendiary bombs rained on the city. The onslaught proved unable to break the spirit
of the British, a spirit conveyed in this cartoon by the Cockney characters who blithely watch German
planes fly overhead and respond with characteristic stoical humour. These events affected daily life
in Canada because Britain called for tremendous industrial efforts on Canada’s part in the
production of war supplies. The industrial activity produced a marked improvement in Canadian
economic conditions, still struggling out of the aftermath of the Great Depression. Heavy German
bombing of London continued into May 1941. Between 1942 and the war’s end, RAF bombers
would destroy numerous military and civilian targets in Germany in the effort to cripple the Nazi war machine.