Steering London Through - London's Road Services in the Second World War (Hardcover)

The London Passenger Transport Board had been in existence just over six years when Britain entered into war with Germany on 3rd September 1939. A year before, measures had been put in place to provide trench shelters, first aid points, and the adaptation of pits in garages to become shelters. Over twenty thousand male staff were called up during the war, and women joined the ranks to fill the void. One hundred and eighty one members of staff were killed whilst on duty, with over eighteen hundred injured. Heroic work, and the will to "get on with it" was the general way of getting things done, summed up by just one of many examples at Athol Street garage, nearer the end of the war. It was the Board's most bombed garage, due to the nearby docks, and after a rocket fell at 6am within 100 yards of the premises blowing out the windows of 25 buses, and causing considerable damage, the staff were able to get all of the buses out on time that day. This book is a largely chronological story of the period, focusing in particular on the behind-the-scenes planning by London Transport, both before the war and during it.