JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 384

This set of drawings displaying a plan for the protection of the people of London is simple, elegant and brilliant–accessible without speaking down to the readership, complimentary from one image to the next, cohesive, and pretty.  The series was put together for The Illustrated London News for 9 April 1938 in anticipation of bombing that was sure to come, the war clear and visible on the horizon.  (Hitler was in his fifth histrionic year in power,The Berlin Agreement that sacrificed the  Seudetanland to the Nazis would come in September, Hermann Goering calling the Czechs a “miserable pygmy race” who are “harassing the human race.” , Kristallnacht was not far behind.) So.  The wonderful G.H. Davies, the prolific graphic designer (for decades) at the ILN, produced this work, showing the available acreage for digging trenches in and around London.  There wasn’t much outdoor space, as he takes great pains to show, but there was enough to hide and protect tens of thousands of citizens for bombs that would come in 18 months.  Davies also points out the relevant parts of the protective structures–issues that could be found and understood by anyone should the average person decide to build a shelter for themselves.