never voted for her anyway. So it's been quite a whirlwind this last six months. I can't quite remember when I last saw you.
I have to say that actually being here is something else. I know fieldwork isn't your thing, but I think even you would marvel at being one of the first to be allowed to walk the streets of London again after fifty years. Despite the risks. I know you said that no amount of money would get you to wear one of the radiation suits and how you didn't trust them, but to actually walk there among the ruins! I honestly don't care if I have to wear a clunky suit or if there is risk. There is nothing like it for an archaeologist, actually being there, and you as a historian ought to appreciate that.
I will try my best to tell you what it's like. Every day we suit up below decks, check all the seals and our rad meters over and over, and board the helicopters for the hour and half flight from the ship. Flying over the south coast of England you wouldn't think anything was wrong with it. You must have seen the satellite pictures; it all looks green and healthy from the air. That is until you reach the outskirts of the city. At first you can see some buildings still standing or the shells of burnt out buildings, but then they gradually disappear to be replaced by unbelievable grey wasteland the nearer you get to the epicenter; ground zero. Still no discernible life there, not from the air anyway. The biologists argue that insect life is probably pretty abundant on the ground, cockroaches and other hardy specimens.
The scientists here say that the first rocket was aimed directly at Westminster, supposedly hitting at eleven in the morning. The measurements they have now taken from the air say that it probably hit south of the river Thames about half a mile from its target. We know that the rockets and warheads were obtained by the Germans as part of their secret pact with the Soviets, but we also know that the guidance systems were pretty primitive, so not entirely accurate. Not that it matters, they fired another two rockets later that day, just to be make sure, as well as those that hit Paris.
Of course the biggest problem in understanding exactly what happened has always been that fact that the Russo-Germanic pact broke down so quickly and within a matter of days after they bombed London they were firing nuclear rockets or dropping bombs on each other and over most of Europe. So many millions obliterated in such a short space of time.
It always seemed odd to me, as I was growing up, that there are thousands of miles of the planet that we could not go to; a contaminated vast land, from Ireland in the west to the Russian steppes in the East. But then perhaps it is me that is odd. Most people wouldn't want to go to any of those places if you paid them. Me? I always thought of it as a treasure trove, like someone had preserved the past in jello. Stopped time, so someone like me could go and study it. And now it's come true, that someone is me! What an opportunity...
The helicopters mostly fly quite high especially near ground zero. The radiation levels, they say, are still too high right in the center of the city, even with rad suits and protection. So the plan for our archaeology teams is to scout any remaining buildings around the periphery, looking primarily for signs whether people survived the initial blasts and shock waves. And any things of interest that might help us piece together the human stories of that terrible war.
The first time our helicopter touched down it was unreal. There was a whole street of houses and shops that, apart from being dirty and slightly blackened around the edges, seemed perfectly normal and intact. Not even all of the windows were broken. But then you walk around the corner at the end of the street and suddenly all you can see is rubble and wind-blown wreckage for as far as the eye can see. It is really surreal Nancy, I've got to say. Like being on an alien planet or something.
Why the effects of the blast should leave some things intact whilst others are so utterly destroyed is a mystery. Some things are so destroyed you could never hope to know what they were in the first place. I don't understand it and neither do the scientists. I asked one of the physicists but she said they didn't have a clue, and that frankly she hoped that we would never find out because the only way to find out about the pattern of destruction for sure would be to blow up one of those damn things.
I have to say I agree with her. I hope that those teams sent into Germany and Russia can make any bombs or rockets they find safe. Or better still that there aren't any left. We have been so right to ban any country from ever having them again. The sooner we are sure there are no atomic weapons left the better.
Anyway Nancy, I guess you are wondering what kind of things we have found. Well, that's one of the main reasons I am writing to you, although when I get back we must catch up. Have a glass of red or a coffee or something?
I found something during our second week here that I thought you would be really interested in. In fact I would go so far as saying that this could be a true gem of a find. Perhaps it could be a breakthrough for both of us! It's so exciting. I hope you agree about it. I wish you could be here Nancy, it is an astonishing place to do archaeology.
I found a set of letters between a soldier at the front and a girl who worked in a munitions factory in North London. I have attached scanned copies of these letters and when I finally hit American soil again I can bring you the actual letters in person.
I think you will find them fascinating because I know that you are trying to write a history of the Great War from the perspective of the ordinary people, especially the women and the feminist angle; something that is so difficult when so few personal accounts are accessible.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of your proposals that the burgeoning women's movement in England was much closer to overthrowing the government than we previously thought? Well these letters appear to show this may well be true. Of course you will need to corroborate them and have them verified and we may need to seek more evidence; maybe if there is second expedition in the coming years.
I want you to read the letters carefully and tell me what you think. Send me an email at the above address. I don't want to describe what I think until I know what you think about them if you know what I mean. I have a hunch that you will come to the same conclusions as me!
Yours
Jo Tyler.
Email:
[email protected] 31st October 2012
Dear Jo,
Thanks so much for your email. You are right, this is so exciting! I printed the letters and sat up at least half the night reading and re-reading them and making notes. I will get straight to the point and tell you what I think:
A.The soldier in these letters, 'Jimmy Fitzpatrick', is possibly the son of Evelyn Fitzpatrick. I think that is a certainty. Birth records would help confirm it, but I suppose data like that may not have survived or at the very least be hard to recover.
B.Evelyn Fitzpatrick was reported to be the leader of the women's underground movement which organized protests and demonstrations and made connections with feminists both in France and here in America in the second half of the fifties and into the early sixties until the rocket attacks. She was also rumored to be involved in terrorist activity and a founder member of the Women's Resistance Army, although there wasn't much evidence of this until now. She was possibly involved in organizing terrorist bombings, like the fertilizer bomb we know of that killed eight civil servants and a general outside the Ministry of War in the summer of 1959.
C.The girl in these letters, Esme Wilbraham, talks of her 'Aunt Mathilda' - this could possibly be one 'Mathilda Courtney' - we don't think this was her real surname - who acted as a 'go-between' between the women's underground in England and the American Embassy between 1960 and 1962. Effectively she passed information and messages to the American government asking for their support. To our everlasting shame we did not give it. We know she had links to the WRA as well. She was also responsible for distributing fake American passports that the embassy supplied to some of those lucky few women and men who escaped through the Irish network. We don't know if she was involved with the underground network of letters between France
and England that is clearly described here. The letters also imply that Mathilda and Esme were partially instrumental in helping to organise a mass demonstration against the war on October 17th 1962 in Trafalgar square. This is a truly remarkable piece of evidence of an event which we knew nothing about. Corroboration of this would be great.
D.Jimmy Fitzpatrick gives us astonishing well written accounts of his life on the 'Wall' in that last year of the war. Of particular interest are his accounts of the German use of rockets and how they broke through and overran the front at the end. There is so little detail of this. Did the Germans really need to use nuclear weapons? Would they have won the war anyway? We have always speculated about this. When the Wall was breached did they have the manpower to take France and England? What was the German High Command's motives for the nuclear strikes? Could it really have been simple revenge? Hopefully the teams exploring Germany will find some answers.
E.Esme Wilbraham also gives fascinating accounts, particularly of ordinary life on the home front. Some very interesting descriptions of the social mores of gender in the home and the workplace. From a history perspective the norms and values displayed are stilted and