London, the capital of Britain, had once been the most prosperous city in the world. As the capital of the world-dominating British Empire, London could rightly be called the center of the world.
But regrettably, those days were gone forever. The mighty British Empire had come crashing down in this war, and London itself had lost its former splendor. With war about to erupt here, the whole city had already become a place where every rustle of wind and cry of a crane put people on edge.
The residents of London had long since fled. Other than those who truly had nowhere to run, everyone who could escape had already done so. Those left behind were almost all elderly, weak, sick, or disabled.
More than a million troops had entered London and its surrounding areas. Every day, they worked with blazing enthusiasm to build defensive fortifications, turning nearly all of London into one enormous construction site. The labor of more than a million soldiers had produced considerable results. At the very least, under their efforts, London had been completely transformed.
The bustling streets had been dug full of potholes, with barricades and firing positions everywhere. Sandbags had also been piled up in the windows of many buildings. If these buildings were not destroyed by enemy artillery during the fighting, they would become commanding heights. A single machine gun could seal off a vast area and inflict tremendous casualties on the enemy.
It could be said that London had now been completely transformed into a city of war, a city of soldiers. Everyone here had only one thought: defeat the Germans in the coming great battle and hold London. Of course, whether that could be achieved was another matter entirely.
Buckingham Palace, Britain's most magnificent royal palace, was likewise gripped by