These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings
With London being attacked again, I am heartened to see that the attacks were (apparently) less effective, and otherwise defer to the wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill:
These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, a part of Hitler’s invasion plans. He hopes by killing a large number of civilians, women and children, that he will terrorize and cow the people of this mighty imperial city and make them a burden and an anxiety to the government and thus distract our attention unduly from the ferocious onslaught he is preparing.
Little does he know the spirit of the British nation or tough fibre of the Londoners whose forebears played a leading part in the establishment of the parliamentary institutions and who have been bred to value freedom far above their lives.
This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous Island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction.
What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed.
He has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe, until the Old World – and the New – can join hands to rebuild the temples of man’s freedom and man’s honour, upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown.
Winston Churchill, Sept 11, 1941
(The version above is taken from Mike Campbell.net, and is the most complete version I can find.)