THE OCTOBER issue of Britain at War Magazine featured the Tip and Run raids endured by Britain's coastal towns and villages. This special section prompted a surprising amount of feedback from readers, a small part of which is reproduced in this month's Field Post. Such a response made me realise, or more accurately, reminded me, that during the Second World War everyone was in the front line, wherever they lived or wherever they fought. There is no doubt that for some the war was the most exciting time of their lives. Young men travelling to exotic locations at the government's expense, coupled with the camaraderie and the sense of purpose that warfare generates, may have made for a heady mixture. Similarly, some at home made a great deal of money out of the conflict. Always, though, there was danger, wherever a person might be. Nothing exemplifies this more than one of the articles in this issue about the saving of Norwich Cathedral in 1942 - see page 106. Everyday life in this lovely old building must have seemed as far away from the war as it was possible to be in Britain at that time. Yet one night in June 1942 the Luftwaffe came calling. With somewhere in the region of 15 to 20,000 incendiaries being dropped on the city in the space of just thirty-five minutes, fires spread everywhere.
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