Churchill toured the East End while fires still burned from the first great London raid, accompanied by Inspector Thompson and Pug Ismay. The destruction shocked Ismay, but the crowds welcomed Churchill rather than blaming him. Churchill openly wept at the devastation, then instantly stiffened when a woman demanded retaliation against Berlin, replying, “You leave that to me!” His mixture of grief and defiance visibly raised morale among people who had just lost homes and neighbors.

Churchill refused to leave even as darkness made the burning docks an obvious aiming point for another attack. When bombers returned and incendiaries fell near his car, Ismay warned that they were sitting in the middle of the target area. They eventually reached Downing Street late, where anxious staff and ministers had been waiting; Churchill said nothing, and Ismay was harshly criticized for letting the prime minister remain in such danger. At the same time, invasion fears stayed high, the Cromwell alert continued, and General Brooke reminded commanders that church bells should be rung only for a directly witnessed parachute landing.

The September 7 attack also pushed Beaverbrook into drastic action. Fearing that concentrated industry and aircraft storage were too vulnerable, he broke up major aircraft factories into scattered sites across the country and dispersed stored planes into garages and barns called “Robins’ Nests.” The policy provoked bureaucratic fury and slowed production, but Beaverbrook accepted those costs to prevent one successful raid from crippling future output.

In Germany, Rudolf Hess met Albrecht Haushofer to explore whether Britain might still accept peace. Albrecht bluntly told Hess that British leaders viewed Hitler as fundamentally untrustworthy and would demand guarantees no treaty could easily provide. They discussed using the Duke of Hamilton as an intermediary and sent a veiled letter proposing a meeting in Lisbon, but no reply came. Meanwhile, Mary Churchill begged to return to London and begin wartime service there, yet her parents decided instead to place her at Chequers, where she could work for the Women’s Voluntary Service in nearby Aylesbury; before leaving, she enjoyed a lively party and a romantic kiss from pilot Ian Prosser.

The Luftwaffe kept attacking London, hitting the West End, destroying Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury house, and dropping a bomb on Buckingham Palace grounds. Churchill then gave a radio address warning that invasion might come soon, while insisting Britain was stronger in spirit and defense than Hitler expected. More important for immediate morale, he ordered many more anti-aircraft guns into London and told crews to fire freely; although militarily inefficient, the barrage thrilled Londoners because it felt like fighting back. That same night, news arrived that the RAF had bombed Berlin heavily, reinforcing Churchill’s promise that Britain would answer the Blitz.