Up to the time of the last war, civilians were exempt from the worst perils of war. In the next war,

you will find that any town within reach of an aerodrome can be bombed within the first five

minutes of war to an extent inconceivable in the last war. And the question is, whose morale will be

shattered quickest by that preliminary bombing? I think it is well also for the man in the street

to realize that there is no power on earth that can protect him from being bombed, whatever people may tell him.

The bomber will always get through.

Stanley Baldwin, in a speech to the House of Commons, November 10, 1932.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Episode 284.

The bomber will always get through.

The last time we looked in on the UK, we examined developments through the general election

of October 1931. Briefly, the labor government elected in 1929 became divided over austerity

measures recommended by the May Commission report and imposed by U.S.

bankers as a condition of lending badly needed funds to the British government.

With his Labor Party badly split, Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald offered his resignation to the

king, who asked him to form what was called a national government of all

parties to lead the nation through the economic emergency caused by the Great Depression.

The Labor Party refused to participate in the national government and expelled those of its members

who did, including Prime Minister McDonald, one of its founders.

The conservative and liberal parties did join the new government, which accepted the austerity

measures and took the pound off the gold standard.

This new national government was envisioned as a temporary measure, but it soon became obvious

...