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It was an iconic image showing the devastation London sustained during the Blitz, an eight-month aerial bombing campaign carried out by the Nazis during World War II. But the photograph of the so-called London milkman navigating the rubble on foot to make milk deliveries was also, despite its frequent use to illustrate the resolute spirit of the Blitz ascribed to Londoners of the day, largely a work of fiction staged by the photographer himself. The picture, which Getty Images dates to Oct. 9, 1940, still turns up regularly on websites and social media accounts devoted to historical photographs: Although the photograph came to be used as propaganda, that wasn't necessarily the intention of the photographer, Fred Morley of Fox Photos. As the situation is typically explained, Morley wanted to capture the desolation he was witnessing with his own eyes but knew such photographs would likely be considered demoralizing and censored by the government. His solution was to introduce an element of normalcy: a milkman carrying on with his duties. Christopher Howse of The Telegraph wrote: As a footnote, the famous slogan Keep Calm and Carry On, along with the similarly themed Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution; Will Bring Us Victory, was coined by the British government in 1939, a little more than a year before the milkman picture was taken.
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