TODAY is the 70th anniversary of the start of the Blitz - the prolonged Nazi bombing raid on London which left thousands dead and many homeless.
Night after night the bombs rained down on East London forcing people to take cover in cramped air raid shelters to try and avoid the worst of the raids.
When they emerged they often found a transformed cityscape with few of the buildings they knew left standing.
The King and Queen and Churchill inspected the heavy damage in the East End and encouraged Londoners to try and follow that wartime maxim of keeping calm and carrying on.
We are marking the anniversary with a special supplement in the newspaper on Thursday which includes memories of some of the East Enders who were there and lived through those dark days and pays tribute to all those who lost their lives in the Blitz.
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