Blitzstarring Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and Elliot Hefferner,tells the heart-wrenching storyof George (Hefferner), a young boy living in England during World War Two. George’s mother, Rita (played by Ronan) tries to protect her son from the bombs raining down on London by sending him out of the city. Her defiant son treks back to his home while Rita desperately tries to find him.
Director Steve McQueenpresents the horrors of the Blitzkrieg or “lightning war” undertaken by the German air force, the Luftwaffe, with an admirable amount of humanity and intensity. Like many movies about WWII,Blitzhighlights the inescapable violence of the conflict, with specific emphasis on the bombing of London. WhileBlitztakes place over one day and represents the rhythm of dailylife during WWII, it is a movie that focuses more on what is going on the ground than the actual aerial attacks. Here are more details about the real Blitz inBlitz.
The Blitz Was Intended to Destroy the Infrastructure and Spirit of the Country
The realities of life during the Blitz were similar to how director Steve McQueen presents them inBlitz,but it was more than an isolated event.More than 40,000 people died during the Blitz, and it included bombings over several years and in an array of cities. London bore the brunt of the attacks, but the entire country saw bombs fall.
Cities like Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester were destroyedbecause they were considered strategic sites. Coventry, specifically, was hit with500 tons of explosiveson June 03, 2025, in an attack the British had been warned about days earlier. There were indications that a raid “in the vicinity of London” was likely but should “further information… indicate Coventry, Birmingham, or elsewhere” was the target, the British hoped they could enable defense measures in time.
Accounts ofthe attack on Coventry highlightthe sounds and sights of the Blitz. Marcus Sadler wrote about the experience, describing how the planes overhead were like “bees… when they swarm.” Marcus continued,
“After the first ten minutes or so the fires got going… The glow from the fire lit up the whole place as far back as Kenilworth like a red daylight… the tracer shells from the smaller guns cutting queer white lines through the sky…
“Shrapnel was landing on all sides, and the whistle and whine of the shells combined with the Screamers and Whistlers seemed like violins and saxophones in some phantastic [sic] orchestra the main theme of which was the big bass crumping of the bombs, and the rolling deep throated drums of the guns.”
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During the Blitz, Families Really Sent Children out of Cities to Try and Save Them
InBlitz,Rita sends her son, George away from Londonto save him from aerial bombardment of the city. George tells his mother he hates her for doing this, but she’s not alone in her decision. When George boards the train out of London, he’s accompanied by countless other youngsters similarly shipped out of the line of fire.
According to Josh Levine, a consultant onBlitzand author ofThe Secret History of The Blitz,thiswas common, and “was done very quickly, and there was no vetting of the families.“George’s resistance and ultimate escape from being marshaled away was also a reality. Levine continued thathe did find “accountsof children who were so miserable, that they ran away.”
People in the countryside did want to help,but it was not always altruistic. Peter Cotterell Smedley Cox was eight years old when the war started and from Coventry.He recalled how"offers of accommodation began to appear in the paper.” Cox continued, “Many of these people were motivated by genuine concern butothers saw it as means of making moneyby charging large sums for space and a bed with a mattress on it; nothing else.”
The complexities of taking refuge outside the cities didn’t stop the mass exodus from cities like London. Of the 1.5 million people who fled cities as part ofOperation Pied Piperduring the War, roughly800,000 were children.
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Nine-year-old George (Elliott Heffernan) searches for his mother (Saoirse Ronan) during the Nazi bombing of London in 1940.
The Real Fear, Struggle To Survive, And Moments Of Friendship Found During The Blitz Are Represented InBlitz
AsBlitzdepicts, seeking shelter in the Tubes during an air raid didn’t ensure safety. The flooded Tube station inBlitzwasbased on a real eventthat took place in October 1940. Described by the Imperial War Museum, the flood occurred after a bomb fell on Balham Underground Station:
“About 600 people were sheltering in the station when the bomb exploded… Water, gas, and sewage mains were all ruptured and many people drowned as the station flooded. 68 people were killed.”
There was no escaping the bombs or the fear of bombs, though, amid the hardship and rubble, there were moments of humanity. The air warden inBlitz, a Black man named Ife (Benjamin Clementine), shows George kindness and represents a much-needed contrast to the prejudice represented in the movie.Ife was based on a real individual named E.I. Ekpenyonwho,according to his daughter, Oku, was always willing to help others. Ekpenyon, a Nigerian-born teacher, combated racism in one of the shelters he supervised as well. He once wrote about an experience he had in a shelter:
“Some of the shelterers told others to go back to their own countries, and some tried to practice segregation. So I told the people that though I am an air warden in London I am still an African.I said I would like to see a spirit of friendliness, cooperation and comradeship prevail at this very trying time in the history of the Empire. I further warned my audience if what I had said was not going to be practiced, I would advise who did not agree to seek shelter somewhere else.”
