Bombings in London
An incredible interactive map of the bomb sites in London during WWII that I used for reseach
In Rose of Anzio Book 1 - Moonlight, the opening scene of Chapter 7 showed Tessa passing by a newsstand on her way to school:
𝘖𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭, 𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘚𝘵. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘺'𝘴 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺. 𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺'𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵-𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦, "𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘮𝘣 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘌𝘯𝘥." 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘢𝘨. 𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘣 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴. 𝘈 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥.
I always try to make my scenes realistic by looking for visual aids in forms of photographs or videos. My description of the magazine cover was inspired by this photo of a collapsing building on Queen Victoria Street during the blitz, 1941. But since this photo was taken in 1941, I also verified that there were bomb sites in the vicinities of where Tessa's parents might be on the map on the website https://bombing.org, which shows the sites of the buildings that fell from night time bombs between Oct. 7, 1940 and June 6, 1941.
What was even more incredible was the site’s interactive map. The red dots show ALL of the bomb sites. You can zoom in to get a closer look at a particular area, or zoom out to see a sea of red dots practically covering the whole city. It's an amazing miracle to think that the British people had survived that. It really puts into perspective the kind of dangerous world that people had lived in during WWII.
Backstage is the Supplemental Edition to WWII historical fiction author Alexa Kang’s Substack newsletter. The Supplement offers a behind-the-scene look at historical details in her novels.
You can find our more about Alexa and her books at:
Website: https://alexakang.com
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