Following on from the previous entry.. The news from the war years had me in tears at times. Not that it was grim - oh no! Perish the thought that any of our losses should be mentioned in detail. No body count like there is today as the soldiers come home in coffins from Afghanistan. The only casualties shown were the enemy and then they were mostly grinning with happiness at having been captured and therefore out of it all (honestly.)
It's just the hard fact of what people had to go through. There was a report of 130 people being killed in an accident that happened as folk lined up to get into the tube stations during the raids. A mother with a child tripped and fell and the people behind her toppled over her and all those underneath the resulting pile-up were crushed to death. It was claimed 'there was no panic' amongst those trying to get to safety so that panic wasn't the cause - a likely story. This was, strangely, the only report I found that could be in any way called negative.
On the whole, whilst feeling cynical about the gung-ho tone and determined emphasis on bravery, heroism under fire, and the Nelson's eye attitude to the pain and trauma of it all, I rather wish newspapers today would concentrate a bit more on the positive achievements of human nature.
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