THAMES AT WAR: Saving London from The Blitz

During the Blitz, the very familiar sinuous shape of the Thames under moonlight directed waves of bombers to valuable targets like warehouses, industries, power stations, offices, docks and the associated housing. From 1940 to 1945, the German Airforce (the Luftwaffe) inflicted 101 daylight and 253 night-time air raids on London causing more than 80,000 fatalities or serious injuries and extensive devastation. In all that mayhem caused by high explosives, incendiaries, parachute mines, rockets and fire storms, the city was also faced with the very real possibility of major flooding whenever bombing seriously breached the river wall and its defences. This superbly researched and illustrated book describes the vital role and unsung achievements of the London County Council Emergency Repair Team, ably led by Chief Engineer Thomas Peirson Frank. Three rapid response units were formed and in the event undertook repairs to over 100 breaches of the flood defences. We also learn of the fate of London's docks and bridges, and of the ships, boats and barges lost in the estuary and tideway and the fieldwork of the Thames Discovery Programme, the community-based archaeological team working on the foreshore. The book catalogues incidents dealt with by each of the four regional T-F depots, located on the Isle of Dogs, in Southwark, Battersea and Greenwich, the work of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) later the National Fire Service. Some 80 years on the book pays tribute to the non-combatants who kept the major port running and saved London. 208pp, very well illustrated with hundreds of archive and modern images.