Shattered city: the Halifax explosion and the road to recovery

Description

Map : Plan of the City of Halifax, c.1910 -- Shattered city, shattered lives. Prelude -- A new day -- The nightmare begins -- They're all gone -- The road to recovery. Initial rescue, initial relief -- No rest for the battered city -- Relief from near and far -- What about the children? -- Identifying the dead -- Christmas -- Medical-social service -- The Relief Commission arrives -- One apartment every hour -- Appraisals and claims -- It must have been the Germans. Fixing responsibility -- Sabotage? -- The return to normal. Relief, not compensation -- Breaking new ground -- Guardians of the pension -- Epilogue.;In December 1917 Halifax was alive with excitement. The streets were filled with troops, and the city, far removed from the bitter fighting in Europe, was reaping all the advantages of war. On the morning of December 6, however, the bloodshed came to Halifax with a vengeance when a French munitions ship and a Belgian relief vessel collided in the harbor. The munitions vessel drifted into the North End and exploded, killing more than sixteen hundred people instantly, wounding more than nine thousand others, and damaging or destroying approximately twelve thousand buildings. The complete devastation covered an area of 325 acres, and hardly a window in the city was left intact. The statistics are astounding enough, but the testimonies from survivors are even more astonishing. - Back cover. Map : Plan of the City of Halifax, c.1910 -- Shattered city, shattered lives. Prelude -- A new day -- The nightmare begins -- They're all gone -- The road to recovery. Initial rescue, initial relief -- No rest for the battered city -- Relief from near and far -- What about the children? -- Identifying the dead -- Christmas -- Medical-social service -- The Relief Commission arrives -- One apartment every hour -- Appraisals and claims -- It must have been the Germans. Fixing responsibility -- Sabotage? -- The return to normal. Relief, not compensation -- Breaking new ground -- Guardians of the pension -- Epilogue.