London: Bombed, Blitzed and Blown Up

When it comes to being bombed, London is unique. Although it cannot claim to be the most bombed capital city in terms of the weight of explosive detonated it has endured the most varied and unrelenting attack since the discovery of explosives.

From the first Irish Republican bomb in 1867, London and its population have been under almost constant assault. Terrorism features in virtually every decade from the 1860s to the present and has caused much damage, particularly during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, by far the greatest destruction was from the air. The Zeppelin and Gotha bomber raids in the First World War being but a foretaste of what would happen in the Second. Then the capital was devastated, firstly by the Luftwaffe’s aeroplanes and then Hitler’s ‘vengeance’ weapons, the V-1s and V-2s. After the Second World War the bombers returned, in the form of the IRA and then the homegrown terrorists of 2005.

Written by a former Explosives Officer who worked for the Counter Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police, this is the most comprehensive record of Britain’s capital under attack that has ever been compiled.