Ironically, the Blitz had the exact opposite effect on that morale, and the British populace only grew more determined and intransigent in their opposition to Hitler and his forces with each successive raid. Rather than drive a wedge between His Majesty's government and the country at large, the German air raids instead drove everyone together in common cause and purpose, which was particularly underscored on when Buckingham Palace itself was targeted and bombed on nine different occasions.

Against the advice of his prime minister Winston Churchill, King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth had refused to leave London. They instead often joined their subjects in their nightly treks down to London's subway tunnels to take shelter during the worst raids, and each following day the royal couple would then tour those areas of the city which had been targeted the night before to meet with and comfort the survivors, and direct aid to where it was most needed.

When questioned by the media after Buckingham Palace was substantially damaged, the Queen famously said, "I can now look the East End in the face," a remark which forever endeared her to British hearts. London's East End had been subjected to horrific incendiary bomb attacks, and much of it was burned. The personal decision by the King And Queen to stay with Londoners during the Blitz, so that they would all share and endure its dangers together, arguably did more to shore up British morale during those dark days of 1940-41 than any other single act of defiance to the German assault.

But most importantly, the Blitz on their cities by the Luftwaffe provided the British with the emotional incentive to respond in kind against German civilians later in the war, and they ultimately did so with much greater ferocity. The mass incendiary bombing of Hamburg by some 1,200 aircraft of RAF Bomber Command over a three-night period in May 1943 destroyed much of that city and killed over 45,000 civilians alone, which was more than was incurred by the British populace throughout the U.K. during the entirety of the Blitz.

As lamentable as these deliberate Allied air attacks on civilian targets were, it's also really important to discuss such raids not with today's moral compasses, but rather in light of their proper historical context. For as Prime Minister Churchill himself had promised in a December 1940 speech to Parliament at the height of the Blitz, after a Luftwaffe raid had destroyed the House of Commons, "They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."

Effectively, while the Germans threw the first punches which started the Second World War, the British (with their American and Russian allies) would throw the last ones to end it. It is always the height of folly to think that man can somehow dictate and control the course of subsequent events, once his decision to unleash the dogs of war has been reached. And it is to our collective discredit and eternal dishonor that we keep believing our next experience will somehow be different from our last.