Liverpool and the Merseyside area was the most bombed area outside London during 1940 and into 1941. Indeed, there are still, over eighty years later, parts of the city where the bomb damage is clear to see: as buildings left standing alone, street-level car parks built on the cleared rubble, or as the bricks and stones still visible on Crosby Beach where they were abandoned.
The German Messenger is a work of fiction, but I have tried where I can to show the horrors of the blitz for the people of Merseyside and be as accurate as possible in representing their story. When the first bombs started to fall in August 1940 many children had returned to the city, often called back by their parents who thought that as nothing had yet happened they were now as safe as they were going to be. They were not to know how devastating the Luftwaffe’s bombing of the city would be, and this culminated in May 1941 with several consecutive days of bombing that flattened parts of the city.
During the course of the blitz, over 3,800 people were killed in the area, with at least a further 3,400 seriously injured. Many thousands of people lost their homes, as Anthony did, with nowhere else to go. The volunteers worked incredibly hard to keep the city going, and there are many stories of bravery and sacrifice throughout the area. The blitz spirit itself is open to discussion with much of our present-day perspective being influenced by the propaganda that was necessary at the time to keep morale up and prevent, as much as possible, the Luftwaffe’s terror tactics having their desired effect. However, people did not always pull together. There are a number of reports in local newspapers of people ignoring the blackout and other rules designed to protect each other, most likely through being paralysed by their own fear or through acts of self-preservation.
The internment camp at Huyton existed, and many German, Austrian, and Italian nationals were kept there in awful conditions, with other similar camps around the country. Many died in these places, with others becoming seriously ill. Only later in the war were they released when the government realised they were no longer a threat to national security.
The blitz was a horrible time for the people of Merseyside, and I hope to have shown you that throughout the novel. Whether it was the lack of appropriate shelter or rationing, everyone faced struggles. Each of the bombing raids in the story is based on an actual raid, with many of the situations being fictionalised versions of true events. But I also hope to have shown that through kindness and love, many people managed to make it through together.
I hope you enjoyed reading.
M.J. Hollows – October 2022