Airminded» Pictures

Tuesday, 5 May 1942

Brett Holman — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:25:03 +0000

Some good news from Burma, or at least less bad than usual. The Yorkshire Post reports that, although still retreating, Allied forces 'have successfully evaded the enemy attempt to cut them off in the Mandalay area' (1). The British have been divided from the Chinese, however, with the former retreating up the Chindwin and the latter up the Irrawaddy. The paper's military correspondent gives credit to General Alexander's 'skilful manœuvring' in avoiding encirclement, but also praises the 'valour' of Chinese soldiers after the fall of Lashio, who 'got across the path of the [Japanese] armoured brigade and even drove its tanks back with losses' and thereby gave the British time to make good their retreat. But the task is before Alexander now, 'one of the hardest ever set before a commander', to retire northwest without being engaged by the Japanese, to link up again with Chinese forces in the north, and 'to avoid being driven on India'. The Manchester Guardian's first leading article today admits that 'Japan's campaign in Burma is now almost won', at least 'the fine delaying actions fought by our troops have given India a previous four months for making ready' (4).

Moving in the same direction as Alexander's army are Indian refugees. Between 250,000 and 300,000 people, about a quarter of the prewar population of Indian immigrants, have now arrived in India, and are still arriving at the rate of 2000 a day. According to the Guardian (6),

The whole organisation for the reception and dispersal of evacuees is non-racial in character. On the Indian side of the land border the elaborate arrangements made in organising food, water, and shelter along a difficult road were completed in a remarkably short time. Under the present arrangements no refugee need pay for anything from the moment he reaches Tamu, on the border, until he reaches the railhead in India.

In fact the Indian government has suffered accusations of 'racial discrimination and general inefficiency' in its handling of the refugee problem, from among others the Congress party. In its defence, the Overseas Department pointed out the huge scale of the problem and explained how cholera had threatened the evacuation route, and only 'drastic medical measures brought it under control'. But Congress itself is not immune to criticism. One of its key figures, Rajagopalachari, has resigned from the Congress Working Committee because it rejected his proposal that Congress 'acknowledge the claim of the Moslem League to separation'; in the words of The Times 'the most serious breach that has been made in the solidarity of Congress in recent years' (4). The same committee's support of 'non-violent con-cooperation' has led to concerns in the United States about 'the advantage [...] it may give to Japanese propaganda, not only in India but elsewhere in the Orient'. One suggestion is that 'a Pacific Charter' be drawn up (not withstanding the fact that India is nowhere near the Pacific!), apparently some sort of commitment to greater independence after the war since the reference follows a comment that 'the actions of the Japanese are in themselves a denial of the pretence of a war of "Asiatic liberation"'.

Where Japan will attack next is the question. The Yorkshire Post's New Delhi correspondent suggests it is unlikely that it will continue pressing overland in Burma, since 'the Japanese have rarely shown themselves in favour of long-strung-out land battles' (1). More likely it will turn to the sea. (Early this morning 'a combined British naval and military force' arrived off Madagascar 'to forestall a Japanese move', so it probably won't be there.) It could try 'to bypass India and to head for the Persian Gulf'; perhaps via Ceylon, which is 'determined to become another Malta'. But Australians in India all seem to agree that Japan will 'concentrate all available forces [...] for a full-scale attack upon Australia':

The attack upon Townsville [sic] is read as an augury of this. It is thought to indicate a projected land invasion.

That opinion is shared in Australia itself, according to the paper's 'Special Correspondent with General MacArthur' (3). In the six months since Pearl Harbor 'she has achieved miracles', not only in raising armies but in making 'changes in the social and economic order in the cause of total war which anyone who knew this tough and politically minded people before the war would find almost incredible'. For example, Australia has 'Ruthlessly streamlined her economic system, thus following Britain's example' in finding labour for factory work; 'Reduced her seven State Governments factually, if not theoretically, to one'; laid the foundations for a postwar economy 'comparable to that of Britain and America, despite her infinitely smaller population'; and

Finally, and this is an historic move, she has turned her thoughts and plans from the coasts which are highly vulnerable to enemy air and sea attack, and begun taming the interior. Much of this country can only be compared which such areas as the Sahara and Gobi Deserts. She has also found quite unexpected riches in her deserts.

While 'Australia is making the same mistakes as Britain', with 'the same wrangling among the Government departments, and the same threat of black markets',

if this country survives something new is coming out of all this. It will be similar perhaps to Britain's social revolution, yet in many ways it will be characteristically Australian. Rightly or wrongly, Australians believe that they will either go under or become a real nation, and they do not mean to go under.

I wonder how that's going to turn out...

After a lull of a few days, the bomber war has started up again, with a German raid on Exeter and a British raid on Hamburg. Exeter was the first city to be attacked in the Baedeker raids, though little about it reached the press at the time. There's no denying it this time: as the Daily Mirror has it (5),

7 HUNS DOWN IN 3RD TERROR RAID ON EXETER

That's an impressive result for the defenders, since there were only about thirty attacking aircraft. (Two were accounted for over France by Squadron Leader J. A. F. MacLachlan, DFC, who lost his arm flying in defence of Malta and now uses an 'attachment' to help fly his fighter: 'Flying with this new gadget is a piece of cake', 2.) The losses appear to have forced new tactics upon the Luftwaffe, as 'FOR the first time, fighters escorted night bombers', in 'short and fairly intense' raids on two (unidentified) south coast towns last night (Daily Express, 1). But regardless, 'The loss of life is likely to be heavier than in the earlier attacks' (Mirror, 5).

Waves of raiders swept low over the city machine-gunning streets. A number of people were killed. 'Military objectives' included a hospital and almshouses. At least five churches were destroyed, as well as a girls' school and a college. The shopping centre suffered severe damage.

Exeter took it: 'eye-witnesses said that they had never seen people people stand up to a blitz more splendidly', and firefighters and ARP workers all did their part. But the Daily Express's reporter in Exeter has written a blistering attack on the 'muddle' exhibited by the city's post-raid welfare services (4):

NO BUSES FOR EXETER VICTIMS
100 homeless 'forgotten' in rest centre

As of last night, 'NUMBERS of homeless in Exeter, including aged invalids and babies' were still waiting for the promised buses to take them to reception areas out of the city. 'Many had been waiting since dawn', and had arrived in their nightclothes and barefoot. The WVS and NFS had fed and clothed them, 'But at the central relief office I found they knew nothing about this rest centre, and did not know anyone was there'.

At another rest centre people were fed and told to go to the central office a mile and a half away if they wanted to be evacuated.

Some were so old and tired that they sat and slept on benches. Some women cried from exhaustion, but most of the people, even the children, endured muddle and delay stoically.

For its part, on Sunday night Bomber Command attacked the docks and shipyards of Hamburg, though reports in the press are strangely subdued, giving little more than a description of the value of the targets, an account of the flak and fighter defences, and the assertion that the RAF 'left great fires glowing through the cloud' (The Times, 4). For once, much more prominence is given to Coastal Command, which 'had a successful night' over Norway. For example,

An Australian squadron flying Hampdens attacked the aerodrome, troop barracks, and a strongpoint near Kristiansand, on the southern tip of Norway, with high-explosive and incendiary bombs. A few moments after bombs had been dropped in some woods near the barracks pilots saw a succession of green, blue and white flashes, suggesting that an ammunition dump had been hit, and big fires broke out. The next aircraft dropped a stick of bombs right across the barrack block.

Other targets bombed include another aerodrome, another strongpoint, and two 'medium-sized enemy merchant ships lying side by side in a narrow fjord, apparently refuelling'. Coastal Command suffered no losses; Bomber Command lost five aircraft.

The air correspondent for the Yorkshire Post writes that 'there is this contest in bombing' between Britain and Germany, which 'bears some resemblance to that of 1940 with the roles reversed':

At that time the R.A.F. would probably have preferred to make few or no bombing replies to the heavy and sustained German raiding. There was no illusion in the Service, which knew it was yet ready to strike hard at Germany with the bomb.

But the scale of the German raids was such that it demanded some reply by the R.A.F. The consequence was that, with the relatively small forces then available, counter-attacks were made. They were on a comparatively small scale, but they served to show that we were not entirely incapable of hitting back.

Now it is Germany which is being bombed heavily, and which needs to show it is striking back. In fact, this contest will probably escalate:

we must not suppose that we are to-day engaged in air warfare on the largest possible scale. It will certainly increase in intensity and probably soon. The Germans will certainly contrive to throw more bombers into their attacks on this country. The R.A.F. will soon be reinforced -- in accordance with the undertaking of General Marshall -- by units of the United States Army Air Forces working from bases in Britain.

Even if Germany were to redeploy bombers from Russia and Italy 'in order to strike at hated Britain', they are reaching 'the limit of their air power, whereas the United Nations are now coming to the point of greatest augmentation'.

Unless all calculations are proved false; unless every level of computation of productive power and productive resources is wrong, the United Nations should be able to bomb Germany before this autumn is out on a scale never before contemplated; on a scale which will make the German attacks on this country in 1940 and 1941 look comparatively small.

Finally, the Express has an update on the fortunes of 'Storm Troopers Over Perivale', the 'H.G.s invasion play'. The playwright and producer, P. B. Baker, says it has played to 'packed houses' in Basingstoke since the Express reviewed it, and has made more than £100, which isn't bad on a £20 investment. And the future looks bright. The play will have two performances at the Aldershot Theatre Royal next month, and may be staged by 'Army units in Blackpool'. More than that, London beckons: 'Mr. Clifford Hamilton, manager of the original "Journey's End" company [...] was impressed with its qualities and hopes it will be possible to stage the play commercially'.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Monday, 4 May 1942

Brett Holman — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:39:13 +0000

The front page of the Daily Mirror today is almost wholly given over to a story which the other papers are far less interested in. The recently-installed Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr William Temple (that's him on the left, though what is being done to him I have no idea; and that's his forehead on the right), used a speech in Manchester yesterday to give 'a new charter to Britain -- a charter of social reform which will bring happiness to millions of people if applied in post-war reconstruction' (1). Its nine points are:

1. Provision of decent houses for the people of this country;
2. Every child to have adequate and right nutrition;
3. Equality in education. There shall be genuinely available to every section of society the kind of education will develop their faculties to the full;
4. Adequate leisure for personal and family life. Where the family is separated because of employment, there should be two days' holiday each week;
5. Universal recognition of holidays with wages;
6. The application of science to discover labour-saving devices, to save labour instead of labourers;
7. Wide appreciation of the fact that labour is a partner in industry, just as much as management and capital;
8. Recognition by workers and employers alike that service comes first, and the opportunity to make profit comes afterwards;
9. The opportunity for all people to achieve the dignity and decency of human personality.

An accompanying article by A. W. Brockbank says that Temple also warned against yielding 'to the lure of people who try to persuade us that it would be wise to establish such a non-party State'":

'The minority must have the right to become the majority if it can. It must be lawful to be in opposition to the Government.'

Just who he has in mind here is not made clear.

Speaking of Manchester, the Manchester Guardian reports that in 1941, crime there increased by 20.1% over 1940 (6):

The principal increases are in theft of bicycles, simple larceny, house-breaking and larceny, and false pretences and fraud.

It's not all bad news: the number of shoplifting incidents decreased by 174 to 460, possible due to 'the Limitation of Supplies Order, which reduces the quantity of goods available for display'. Manchester's Chief Constable, Sir John Maxwell, suggested that the crime surge 'might reasonably be attributed to crime conditions, the extra duties imposed on the police, and to the great advantage to the felon operating in the "black-out"'. He didn't mention the opportunities created by air raids (though of course Manchester hasn't had a really heavy blitz since 1940). According to the Daily Mirror, 'the shattered streets of Bath' have experienced 'a wave of looting' since it was bombed (1). There are 'complaints that jewellery, money and goods had disappeared from ruined homes', and 'money boxes had been wrenched from gas and electricity meters'. In response, the Home Guard in Bath was been issued with live ammunition last night:

They patrolled in pairs, and had orders to take drastic action if they saw thieves robbing bombed buildings.

Another consequence of bombing is an increased traffic in rumours. Following an outbreak of them after the Norwich raids, the Eastern Regional Commissioner, Sir Will Spens, has asked the public not to believe or pass on rumours about air raids, (Guardian, 6):

There were rumours of heavy attacks on towns not attacked. Broadcasts were alleged to have been given which were not given. The number killed was in some cases multiplied tenfold.

Norwich and especially Bath have particular cause to thank the National Fire Service -- according to Herbert Morrison, Minister of Home Security, 'now the most powerful in the world' (Daily Express, 4). He said:

The Regional Commissioner has reported to me that the N.F.S. saved a great part of Bath. Under the old system the whole town might -- almost certainly would -- have gone.

Indeed, the NFS 'has justified itself in the concentrated air raids on British "Baedeker" towns', its first real test since '1,450 local fire brigades in Britain were telescoped in 37 fire forces', with a 'Fire Control Room in Whitehall'. This means that 'The question of "town boundaries," which often led to disastrous delays, has been eliminated':

When there is a raid on any part of the country firemen and appliances from surrounding areas concentrate their energies.

Nearly three thousand people attended York Minster yesterday for 'the special service of commemoration of the victims of the air raid on Tuesday night' (Yorkshire Post, 6). The Dean of York, the Very Rev. Eric Milner-White, gave the address, drawing upon 'the motto of the West Yorkshire Regiment, Nec aspera terrent' which is repeatedly inscribed on the walls of the Minster:

'It is a motto,' said the Dean, 'which might stand for York, which its citizens had proved on April 29, 1942, for ever. The desperate moment did not find them afraid, and the rough paths had not dismayed them. On that morning, dawning red before the dawn was due, York gave its toll in the defence of our England, our Empire and our race. We do not grudge it. We have not complained. We will be proud of it. But it is a heavy payment, and there is a sore pain at our hearts. I expect it is always so. The day of grandeur is always a day of suffering.

He predicted that York would one day raise a memorial to the dead, 'a new sort of memorial', dedicated not to 'sailors, soldiers and fighting men who made great sacrifices in far-off places', but to 'warriors like these':

These were the aged who died for children they would never see. These were fathers and mothers who suffered and hallowed England's homes under the ruins of their own; these are the children who gave their years of lovely promise that freedom might play for ever in our streets.

The Yorkshire Post reprints a letter from one of the children who survived the raid, Valerie Johnson, 15, 'a senior pupil at the Convent School' which was hit by at least two bombs, one a delayed-action one. She's far less sombre than the Dean, writing to her father that 'We're school-less! We woke up early this morning with bombs dropping quite close, so we all skedaddled down to the shelters'.

When the bomb fell, the lights went out, the whole place rocked, the gas pipes broke, and we heard debris falling -- it seemed on top of us but it wasn't quite. In the next cellar six lay mistresses and one nun were buried and both the entrances to our cellar were blocked [...] All the smaller children became quite panicky, but we managed to quieten them, while being nearly suffocated by gas and coal dust [...] It was horrid in there though by ourselves, with gas leaking and the air thick with dust and children screaming and black darkness, but we came through O.K.

After 'twenty minutes -- it seemed like twenty hours' the occupants of both cellars were rescued. Five of the nuns were killed in the raid; 'three day girls in our class alone are missing' (though obviously they weren't at the school when the raid took place). The school is ruined, though two rooms might be used to teach classes in turns. The boarders have been sent home: 'Mummy was very surprised to see me, as she didn't know York had had a blitz'. There was no blitz on Saturday night, by the way, yet German radio reported in Russian that Vichy French aircraft carried out reprisals for 'the British raid on Paris' (Express, 1). The translation reads:

Last night the first French reprisal raid was carried out on several towns in Southern Britain. French airmen dropped bombs and leaflets saying that every R.A.F. raid on France would be followed by a French raid on Britain twice or three times as powerful.

The Yorkshire Post's London correspondent suggests that this is 'a German attempt to scare Russia by the suggestion that the French Air Force can deal with Britain while the main strength of the Luftwaffe is concentrated on the Eastern Front' (2).

There's so much of interest today that I'll have to pass over -- I haven't even mentioned the continuing bad news from Burma, which dominates most of the big headlines; nor the Express's critique of Saturday's mock invasion of Westminster (much too unrealistic: 'EVEN FIFTH COLUMNISTS REFUSED TO BE "CADS"', 3); nor yet Sir Stafford Cripps on Britain's commitment to Indian independence after the war. But I must at least quote from two letters to the editor. The first, in the Guardian is from E. Lindsay, possibly Erica, the wife of A. D. Lindsay, Master of Balliol (the address is given as 'The Master's Lodging, Balliol College', 4). She says it is 'a terrible thing' in this just war 'to have one's single mind and purpose sullied and hammered from within':

Yet this thing happens when the B.B.C. offers us, as for our encouragement, the evidence of civilian refugees streaming out of a bombed German port.

Surely we are mature enough of mind and purpose to understand that there is a war to be waged involving mortal suffering which all must mourn and of which none need boast, sullying themselves and their cause. If those responsible for the presentation of news on the wireless could hear the comments of simple people who have already tasted the full horrors of bombing they would know how little such descriptions are in tune with the temper of our nation in its great crusade.

The second appears in the Yorkshire Post and is from R. A. Chadwick of Leeds, who urges that to preserve peace after the war the Allies should decree 'that no German, Italian or Japanese shall own an aeroplane, fly an aeroplane, make an aeroplane, operate an air line, or own, occupy, manage, or be employed on any aerodrome', and further 'that no aeroplane can be flown anywhere in the world unless both the 'plane and the pilot are licensed by Britain, the U.S.A., Russia and China (all four of them)' (2).

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Sunday, 3 May 1942

Brett Holman — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:50:57 +0000

The Observer reports that Japan now claims to have captured Mandalay, 'second city and former capital of Burma (5). This seems not to have been confirmed by official British sources yet; however

It was stated in authoritative circles in London yesterday that with Lashio already in enemy hands, it would not be worth while suffering great losses to defend Mandalay.

That fits in well with more official statements: New Delhi has 'admitted that British troops are being withdrawn from positions north of the Irrawaddy'; 'Two spans of the famous Ava bridge, about eight miles below Mandalay, have been successfully blown up' (by retreating British forces, it is implied); and

The great Yennanchung oilfield in West Central Burma has been completely destroyed in accordance with the British 'scorched earth' tactics.

This was the most productive oilfield in the Empire after Trinidad; it will take 'vast quantities of new equipment and machinery handled by experts' to get it working again. A Scot named Mark Grieve, twenty-five years chief engineer at Yenangyaung oilfield (possibly the correct spelling of Yennanchung) helped the military destroy his life's work; he told Daniel Berrigan for the British United Press that it would take the Japanese 'at least a year to get any production at all, and they haven't got them'. Berrigan also interviewed some British -- actually mostly Irish, it seems -- soldiers and from them gained some idea of the fighting on the Irrawaddy front. Some 'Traitor Burmans', for example, were fighting on the side of the Japanese, and 'Many of the Irish bore wounds inflicted by the favourite Burmese weapon, the dah, a heavy curved sword'. In one strange incident, a patrol spotted 'Over 100 Japanese wearing Burmese costume [who] came out from one village holding a big white flag with the Japanese flag in the corner'. The Allied troops were outnumbered, even with tank support, and so 'had to retire'.

A military correspondent thinks that the Germans have delayed their offensive in the east as 'a bait to the Russians or to us to encourage us to do something rash which would give him a chance to strike back' (6). It could be that this strategy is working, as a report on another page says that (5):

Marshal Timoshenko's army, striking hard to forestall the threatened Nazi offensive against the Caucasus oil region, have driven a deep wedge into the German lines south of Kharkov.

This means that any German offensive from Kharkov southwards 'will now be threatened from the flank'. There has also been activity in Libya recently, despite the 'gasping, choking' effects of a Saharan sandstorm in which 'Military operations are blotted out, aircraft grounded, and all movements paralysed save along well-marked roads'. In the last week the Germans have extended their flank southwards to Tengender, 'to prevent flanking incursions, which they dislike above all else'. The British are also 'deepening and consolidating their position, with the result that for the first time desert warfare has assumed an aspect of fixed-position war'. But this can't last: as General Ritchie said recently, 'the Libyan war won't be won "by sitting on our backsides"'. As an example of not sitting on backsides, a report from South Africa, unconfirmed by London, says that 'a long-range British patrol in the Libyan desert has raided the headquarters of General Rommel but [...] Rommel was not there'.

The King and Queen paid a 'surprise visit' to Bath yesterday, and 'surveyed the damage done in the Nazi raids last week-end'.

Quickly the news of their presence spread and hundreds of citizens gathered to cheer them. At the first point where they left their car the King and Queen climbed over heaps of stone from wrecked houses to talk to a group of women who survived the raid.

"It is very encouraging of you to come here, Your Majesties," one grey-haired woman said.

"We were anxious to come and see how you are all getting on," the King told here."

The Queen's reactions are emphasised: '"It is terrible," [...] the Queen shook her head sadly at the devastation [...] "It is splendid to hear that you are carrying on like that," [...] "It makes us very proud of you." She also 'gave the Mayor of Bath three big parcels [which] contained blankets and other comforts for the bomb victims', and saw in action 'a Queen's messenger food unit', one of a number of convoys 'sent out by the Queen from Buckingham Palace'.

A military exercise was held in Westminster last night, 'the greatest invasion test London has ever staged'. 'Violent air raids, aimed at causing panic and confusion, were imagined as a prelude to the real attack' and 'Fifth Columnists prepared the way for invaders'.

More than 1,500 'paratroops' and 'airborne' troops landed in the Westminster area. Fully armed and equipped with a large number of tommy-guns, the invaders caught the defence somewhat by surprise. Street fighting ranged over a wide area, particularly near Victoria Station. Where the defenders were outnumbered they used delaying tactics and retired behind smoke screens.

The fifth columnists planted a bomb in a government building and, 'entering a postal exchange in the guise of workmen, endeavoured to blow it up', while

Invaders captured a barge near Chelsea and sent a platoon to storm the Houses of Parliament from the river.

It all seems to have gone off very well, though official results won't be known for a while.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Saturday, 2 May 1942

Brett Holman — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:53:46 +0000

All the newspapers today carry news of the meeting between Hitler and Mussolini in Salzburg; only the Daily Express leads with it. Its angle is that there is 'STRONG evidence' that the two dictators agreed that Italy would sent 'a large part' of its army to Russia, while Germany would send 'thousands' of its soldiers to Italy (1). Two possible explanations are given for this apparently contrary strategy: 'A coming extension of the Mediterranean Front', or 'to prevent any chance of armed insurrection by the Italian Army'. The Italian people are said to be 'thoroughly discontented with their acutely depressed conditions' and so Mussolini has given his prefects 'supreme powers to deal with "possible future difficulties of an urgent nature"' (his own words), and the Gestapo is now in control of the Italian police. Where Morley Richards, the author of this piece, gets his information from is not clear; none of the other papers make the same claims. Indeed, the circumstances surrounding the meeting are rather 'mysterious'; the Yorkshire Press asks why Japan apparently was not represented and was not mentioned in the final communique -- even though the only public reference to the meeting beforehand was a garbled one in a Tokyo newspaper (1).

Most of the other newspapers choose to lead with the fighting retreat of the Chinese north of Lashio. Japanese forces are now 'within 20 miles of Mandalay, wartime capital of Burma'; there is a 'fierce battle raging on the Irrawaddy front South-West of Mandalay as British troops withdraw to the North bank of the river' (Yorkshire Post, 1). Elsewhere in the war against Japan, there was what is officially described (by MacArthur's headquarters) as a 'brilliant' attack on the Japanese airfield at Lae, 'scoring many direct hits on a line of 30 'planes' (Manchester Guardian, 7). The besieged fortress island of Corregidor suffered 12 Japanese air raids on Thursday as well as shelling from artillery; return fire hit 'enemy batteries, truck columns, and supply dumps'. There is apparently still resistance elsewhere in Luzon, since a radio broadcast from Tokyo says a 'smashing Japanese attack' on Mount Pinatubo 'compelled the enemy to flee in wild disorder' (The Times, 4). Allied political and military leaders have been talking up the Japanese threat. Prime Minister Smuts, said in Pretoria yesterday that 'we must prepare for the menace from Japan' (3). 'If that danger materializes and approaches our shores',

I hope that all sections will be united in facing that danger -- whatever colour of their skin -- rather than go under [...] I want the people of South Africa to go all out. I want to increase our defence forces on a basis that will make South Africa secure against any such menace.

Meanwhile General Blamey, in his first meeting with journalists since becoming commander of 'all land forces in the South-West Pacific area', claimed that 'the Japanese threat to Australia, far from diminishing, had actually increased', despite the buildup of Allied forces in Australia (Guardian, 6). He said that Japan has reinforced its forces to the north-east of Australia, and might attempt to take Darwin or Port Moresby, 'strategically important to either side [...] as jumping-off points'.

Whatever the Japanese plan affecting the Australian area may be, it would involve inevitably stretching and straining his communications. Our most important points are at least 1,000 miles from the enemy's. If a fight comes we will give a good account of ourselves.

The full moon helped RAF night fighters shoot down eleven German raiders on Thursday night, out of less than fifty total. Four of these 'fell to a Beaufighter squadron led by Wing Commander Max Aitken, D.F.C., Lord Beaverbrook's son', who himself got one of them (The Times, 4). Others were brought down by anti-aircraft guns, including two by a battery in the northeast. The battery itself was hit by bombs, and a number of papers today carry articles praising the bravery of its ATS members under fire: Gunner Edwina Mills, Lance-Bombardier Alma Wilson, and especially Gunner Emily Walcott, '22-year-old West Indies girl' and formerly 'a dancer in Lew Lake's "Junior Blackbirds"' (Express, 3). Gunner Walcott, a radio-location operator, was knocked off her feet by bomb blast.

While on the floor, badly shaken, she began to switch off the power, got to her feet, and, with her girl co-operator, switched off the voltage.

Said the battery commander: "By her action she saved the crew from being exposed to danger of being electrocuted."

None of the German raids were heavy; instead, The Times's air correspondent suggests,

the enemy resumed his old policy of scattered raids by one or two aircraft, probably with the object of allowing German propagandists to announce that widespread attacks has been made.

The Minister for Home Security, Herbert Morrison, spoke to Shoreditch civil defence workers yesterday, saying (2):

Now the Nazis are taking it. Not with the fortitude of our people, but with the whining which we are accustomed to hear from the bully who is given a taste of his own medicine. Our aerial counter-offensive has continued the attack on the heart of industrial Germany: the factories, the docks, and the shipyards. Now comes the Nazi answer -- Hitler's blow for blow -- Bath, Norwich, York. A gem of Regency architecture for a U-boat base, an ancient church for a shipyard, old and beautiful monuments for a Heinkel works. These are not the replies of a man who carefully plans a strategic campaign. They are the frenzied blows of a mad lout who, stung by the carefully timed and aimed blows of a cool and skilful opponent, loses all self-control and runs amuck.

An article in the Daily Mirror by E. H. Christian assesses the civil defence response to the recent German raids (2). In general the tale is a happy one, reflected in the headline 'Renewed air raids found us ready':

Every service that can be put on wheels has been rushed to the aid of stricken towns -- mobile Assistance Board units, mobile restaurants, post and pensions offices, and inquiry and advice bureaux [...] Stores of food and clothing -- held at strategic points in the various regions -- have been quickly rushed where they were required. Increased provision of surface shelters has proved invaluable.

However, outside the organised civil defence services, many people appear to have become lax:

volunteer firewatching, the provision of sand bins and buckets of water at each house, and the keeping of emergency kits are precautions that have been sadly neglected by far too many people.

Anderson shelters have not been maintained so are 'almost unusable'; gas masks are 'almost an unknown sight' in some of the towns recently blitzed.

The moral for everyone is not to feel too safe. Don't depend on the Civil Defence services until you have completed your own precautions.

The Mirror also has this little paragraph on the front page, with the headline '9th Day of Blitz':

But it's referring, not to the German blitz on Britain, but the British blitz on Germany (or northern France, rather). And it's referring to daylight attacks, for as The Times notes, 'For the first time since April 21 there was no night activity by our bombers' (4). It goes on to explain that

Decision as to whether bombers shall be sent out or kept at home on any particular night is a matter for the Commander-in-Chief, Bomber Command, and his decision may depend on any of a number of considerations. For instance, though the weather may be good over this country, it does not necessarily follow that it is good over Germany; or the weather forecasts may indicate early morning fog at the time our bombers would be returning to their bases. For that reason, the final word must be with the Commander-in-Chief and his staff, who are in possession of facts which cannot be known to anyone outside the command.

And that Commander-in-Chief is 'Air Marshal Arthur Travers Harris, who reached his 50th birthday a month ago, the man behind our attacks on Rostock and Lubeck, on Augsburg and the Renault and Matford works around Paris' (Express, 2). Basil Cardew paints a brief pen-portrait of Harris, who took over Bomber Command on 25 February this year, in today's Express:

He wants to be getting on with the job all the time, personally and by direct action. In an airplane he will not be piloted, but takes the controls himself. In his car he is impatient of being driven and takes over the wheel himself.

He has no time to waste, this shrewd dynamo of air strategy.

While allowing that 'His approach to a problem may seem disconcerting to the official mind' and 'So, too, do his abrupt questions seem unless the man he is talking to really knows his job', Cardew thinks Harris can 'bridge the gap' between the planners and the aircrew:

His decisions have a quality of action. You can feel the stamp of his mind on the dash across Germany to Augsburg. And there is no doubt that bomber crews feel this -- that their commander is mere figure spinning plans in an inaccessible headquarters. He is a man with the same cast of thought as themselves.

In Cardew's opinion, Harris 'is a first-class commander in a good English tradition, downright like Fisher, abrupt like Wellington'.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Friday, 1 May 1942

Brett Holman — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:55:16 +0000

This news has been coming for the last few days: Lashio has fallen to the Japanese. As the Daily Express reports, the town was 'pounded by artillery and dive-bombers before the final assault' (1):

Then large numbers of tanks and armoured cars rumbled forward into the inferno as a battering ram for the enemy.

General Stillwell's defending [Chinese] army was overwhelmed by the superior numbers and weight of metal in the Jap attack.

A spokesman for Marshal Chiang Kai-shek did little to disguise the seriousness of the situation, saying that 'the Chinese will be be compelled to abandon positional warfare and resort to mobile war' in Burma. He continued:

The enemy columns now at Lashio and Hsipaw could continue to advance northwards, cutting off first the Chinese forces in Burma from China, and, secondly, Chinese land communications with India by way of upper Burma, or they could turn westward with the aim of encircling the Chinese now fighting on the Mandalay and Irrawaddy fronts.

He paid tribute to the 'outnumbered' British forces defending Burma, saying they have 'heroically held out, winning the praise and admiration of their Allies'.

The East Anglian town raided on Wednesday night is now identified as Norwich (Manchester Guardian, 6):

Many shops were demolished and houses in several areas were destroyed or damaged. There were many casualties, and large numbers of people have joined the hundreds rendered homeless two nights before. In some cases raiders flew along roads of villas dropping high explosives and incendiaries. Several churches suffered from blast or fire. Two were totally destroyed.

Seven people were killed when two surface shelters 'received direct hits', and 'Three members of a family were rescued after three hours' digging; only one survived'. The Daily Mirror's headline about the Norwich raid reads:

Pyjama-clad girls fight 'Baedeker' fire bombs

These girls tried to defend the school at which they boarded (the name of which is not given), though ultimately unsuccessfully:

'There was no panic among the girls,' an official said. 'They put out several fires on the top floor and even tried to tackle incendiaries on the roof. We couldn't stop them. Only when the flames were beyond control did the girls go to their shelter trenches.'

There has been criticism from York of the BBC's announcement (repeated in the press yesterday) 'that York Minster had not been damaged in Tuesday night's raid' (Daily Express, 3). The Lord Mayor of York, Mrs A. Crichton -- who has complained via telegram to Minister of Information Brendan Bracken -- said yesterday:

I have received dozens of letters from citizens who think the information almost amounted to an invitation to bomb the Minster, especially after their avowed intention of attacking places of historical interest.

The Dean of York, the Very Rev. E. Milner-White, was milder, saying only that the announcement was 'an indiscretion'. The Yorkshire Post, while sympathetic, thinks these complaints are misguided (2):

To say that the Minster escaped damage would not convey anything to the enemy that he could not find out for himself [...] German airmen can take photographs just as ours can, and Germans can get information about York just as we can get information about Cologne. Nothing would be gained by making a mystery of whether the Minster had been hit or not.

The leading article ends by imagining 'that the Germans said not a word in public about Rostock and Luebeck', and asking:

What influence would that silence have on our plans? None whatsoever.

The Air Ministry has released statistics refuting 'German propaganda designed to show that the Luftwaffe is able to maintain simultaneously a heavy attack on Britain, Malta, and Russia' (The Times, 2). Just considering the period from the first raid on Exeter to the one on York (i.e. from the night of 23 April to the night of 29 April), the total number of German aircraft employed totalled 150, and never more than 50 in one night. The total tonnage of bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe on Britain in this period was around 225. Moreover,

During the same six nights the R.A.F. dropped on Germany alone over 1,300 tons -- as great a tonnage a night as the total tonnage dropped by the enemy on the four British cities in six nights.

Bomber Command's latest raid is on the Gnome-Rhône aero engine factory and the adjoining Goodrich tyre factory at Gennevilliers, 'a few miles to the north-west of Paris' (The Times, 4). For some reason this doesn't receive the same measure of attention as a raid on Rostock, say, does -- The Times gives it about half a column but very much buries the story, the section headline speaking only of 'SEVEN BIG R.A.F. SWEEPS OVER 400-MILE FRONT' and 'TARGETS ATTACKED FROM BRITTANY TO FLUSHING'. Similarly, a story that 'The big British air raids on Trondheim, in Norway have caused a mass exodus from the city' is given only two sentences in the Guardian (6).

Today's Zec (Mirror, 3) appears to be suggesting that Hitler, having committed 'MORE RESERVES FOR RUSSIA' for the forthcoming offensive, should keep in mind the 'POSSIBILITY OF A SECOND FRONT' to the west in this, 'The month of May-be!' Maybe. The Yorkshire Post's military correspondent says that 'To-day brings the first important month of the summer operations' in Russia, and wonders who will strike first? (1)

It may be Russia, as the Nazis have had to make drastic changes of plan at an hour when all should have been ready.

Waiting has cost Hitler the first round, as the R.A.F. has begun the British offensive, which demands the formation of a new German front in the West, and is the best kind of aid for Stalin.

Following 'the German Army's winter defeat', the Russians have acted offensively 'while still holding back the summer armies', causing the Germans 'to use summer troops prematurely and lose certain strategic positions'. The German positions in the north and centre now seem unfavourable for an advance.

In the South the Germans have a large group of armies destined to strike for the Caucasus. They have been deprived of a secondary route through the Crimea. From Kharkov to Taganrog the Russians have many wedges in the enemy's forward positions.

The stakes, of course, are extremely high, not just for the outcome of the war itself but for the fate of the people living under German rule. A note by Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, outlining 'Nazi barbarities' has been published in London (Guardian, 8). One extract from the Guardian's summary:

In two Ukrainian towns, Gadyach and Zenkovo, in the Poltava region, 280 citizens were dumped into a pit after having been tortured to death, and the Nazis then threw the living children of the victims into the pit.

Could it still happen here? A Basingstoke schoolmaster and Home Guard lieutenant, F. B. Baker, has written a play portraying a German invasion of Britain. It is called 'Storm Troopers Over Perivale' and Ernest Betts of the Express says it is 'a play of urgency, speed and courage' (3). Baker wrote it because he is 'worried about Britain's preparedness for invasion':

'They don't know there's a war on down here,' Mr. Baker said. 'I wrote my play in a fortnight after school hours, to show them.'

The setting is a Hampshire farmhouse, with 'the whole of England keyed up to invasion, church bells ringing, the guns going off'. The prime minister is heard broadcasting a defiant speech to the nation when he is forced off the air by German paratroops.

The play shows what would happen to you if the Germans were here. A German major tortures Englishwomen, strikes them brutally in the face.

Arrogant Huns become Gauleiters of English counties and pour scorn on the helplessness of the British Army, but in the end black-faced Home Guards (made up like Commandos) throw out the Germans in a joint scheme with the Army.

'This is the final battle,' says the Prime Minister in his broadcast. 'If we fall, the world will return to barbarism... all of us in this island would be better dead.'

Baker is staging the production himself at the Queen Mary's School 'at a cost of £20, with Home Guards, factory workers, farmers and schoolboys in the cast'. Only time will tell whether Betts is correct in his assessment that 'Storm Troopers Over Perivale' 'may well prove to be the "Journey's End" of this war'.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Thursday, 30 April 1942

Brett Holman — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:45:28 +0000

Most newspapers in my sample today lead with the further grim news from Burma (the Japanese army has now reached the suburbs of Lashio) but The Times chooses to go with the latest Bomber Command raids on Kiel and, for the second night running, Trondheim, both the locations of key German warships (4):

The heavier force was directed against the strongly defended naval base of Kiel, where the Scharnhorst is believed to still be in dock after her dash from Brest. The Tirpitz, Scheer, and Prinz Eugen are thought to be based on Trondheim, while a cruiser of the Hipper class has been in the locality, though she may not be there now.

These latter ships are 'a definite threat to our communications with north Russia and in the Atlantic'. While 'the Air Ministry makes no definite claim to have damaged the ships', in the case of Trondheim stronger than usual explosions were heard on the Swedish frontier, which suggests 'a bomb must have hit some explosive target; the explosion of even the biggest bomb could not in itself have caused such an effect'.

All of today's papers do feature prominently a couple of RAF reconnaissance photos of Rostock. The one above of Rostock's main railway station (6) appears to be that referred to in Tuesday's papers), which was interpreted as showing crowds of people trying to get out of Rostock, marked above at 2 (at the station entrance) and 3 (on the platforms). Also visible, at 1 and 4, is damage to the station itself. Reports from Berlin say that around 100,000 people have been evacuated from Rostock, 'virtually the whole pre-war population' (Manchester Guardian, 5). A Swedish newspaper says that

the destruction is estimated at 70 per cent of all buildings. Many trains with homeless refugees have already reached Hamburg. After the raids German propaganda cars travelled round the town exhorting the people through loud-speakers to keep up their spirits.

As for Cologne, 'None of the earlier raids [...] compares with the latest British attack for the amount of destruction caused'.

The latest victim of what the Daily Express refers to as the Luftwaffe's 'Baedeker raids' is an unnamed town in East Anglia (1). Last night, it was attacked by German bombers which 'swooped so low that their markings could be seen in the moonlight' and 'dropped high explosives and incendiaries, wrecking workers' homes and starting fires'. There was damage to churches and 'some of the town's historic buildings', but it is believed that 'the number killed may not be high'. York too has been bombed, by about twenty aircraft early yesterday morning. The Yorkshire Post naturally has the fullest coverage (though it is published in Leeds). Fortunately York Minster was 'untouched', but one unidentified 'historic building' was destroyed along with a church (1). Casualty figures are unknown at this stage, but a fireman was killed when a wall collapsed and the bodies two nuns were recovered from the ruins of a convent school this morning.

Most of the casualties occurred when houses were demolished in residential districts, and several working-class localities and rows of Council houses suffered very badly. To-day many of the citizens are homeless, their houses completely demolished and their belongings destroyed.

Commercial districts also suffered heavily, and the raiders machine-gunned an express train (luckily without killing anyone). The Yorkshire Post entitles its first leading article today 'York Ravaged By Vandals', though it is mostly a defence of British bombing policy (2):

Our policy is the only right and realistic one. It is true that the execution of it causes the destruction of a great many non-military buildings and brings death to a great many civilians. Night bombing is not accurate enough to pick out particular targets in crowded cities. It is true also that in total war there can be no precise definition of what is and what is not a military objective. As soon as a country's total energies are devoted to war, any blow which weakens or diverts those energies, or puts a new burden upon them, may be considered to have military value.

But Hitler has chosen to ignore these 'principles of air policy'. This seems to be a strategy born of weakness: the Luftwaffe appears not to have 'immediately available the large bomber forces necessary for heavy raids on big industrial centres'. Instead he wants to inflict 'obvious damage on residential towns, thus ensuring some lurid stories with which to satisfy an insistent reprisals demand from the German people'. But Hitler also seems to have some strange ideas about this country:

He may really believe that Britain has been forced reluctantly into the war by a clique of plutocrats, old-school-tie die-hards and Colonel Blimps, and that places like Bath and York are where these gentry live. By raiding their stately homes he may hope to frighten them into agreeing to some kind of pact which would rule out the night bombing of towns.

In the end, it doesn't matter what the Germans do, for Britain will 'remain sober and steadfast alike in our resistance and in our aims':

Wherever and however they strike, they will find that the spirit of the British people is the same. At Bath [...] it is the same as it was at Coventry. It is the same at York; the same front-line spirit rising up, cool and undaunted, in face of Nazi hate and Nazi savagery.

In similar vein, The Times urges that the RAF policy of attacking military objectives not be 'deflected by the transparent tactics of terror' currently being carried out by the Luftwaffe (5):

The only price too high to pay for safeguarding our visible historic heritage would be a betrayal of the cause to which the British people are committed. It would indeed be a betrayal if the British were for a moment tempted to moderate the onslaught of their Air Force upon the focal centres of German war production and transport in the vain hope of purchasing immunity for their cathedral cities. The anger and pain caused by these blows should not blind us to the spirit of methodical calculation in which the germans have decided upon this campaign.

Herbert Morrison, Minister of Home Security, has released a statement on 'The Nazi crocodile tears over the destruction of certain old German buildings in British raids', recalling 'how those same Nazis openly boasted and gloated' over the destruction of historic buildings during the Blitz (2):

In the raids of last year Nazi bombs destroyed the House of Commons, Guildhall, 19 historic churches in the City, the Temple Church and buildings, many of the famous old halls of the City Companies, Coventry Cathedral, lovely old churches in Bristol, Plymouth, and Southampton, and other splendid monuments of the past in all parts of the country.

Some solace from this sombre list may be taken from the suggestion made in the House of Commons yesterday by Sir William Jowitt, 'charged with planning the [postwar] reconstruction', that 'Possibly many of the bombed areas in cities will be kept as permanent open spaces' after the war: 'Green belts to grow in bombed cities' as the Daily Express puts it in its headline (3). However, no policy has been decided on yet.

Speaking of Parliament, the Express reports that the President of the Board of Trade, Hugh Dalton, 'is astonished at the poor reception his fuel rationing scheme has received' (1). He won't drop it, but 'he will modify it to the point where its reluctant father, Sir William Beveridge, will not recognise it'. The major change is that only solid fuel (i.e. coal, coke and anthracite) will go on ration. The Guardian's London correspondent suggests that Dalton is getting no support from the surprisingly non-committal War Cabinet, and is being left to fend for himself (4):

If he succeeds, well and good. On the other hand, if the opposition is as strong in the debate as it is to-day, then the Government will drop the plan.

I must sadly omit any discussion of the results of the Cripps mission to India (yet again), and the rumours noted in the Guardian of 'three separate peace feelers' from Germany (6) and of 'a complete reversal of Italian policy, some of them even going so far as to prophesy the downfall of Mussolini and the accession to power of Marshal Badoglio' (4). But I can't resist quoting a proposal for large-scale climate engineering made in the Deutsche Volkswirst, reported by The Times (3). The idea is that

certain steps could be taken as a means of providing Europe with a more settled and reliable climate and an adequate and regular rainfall. The channel between Dover and Calais, it says, could be widened and deepened to admit a great volume of the warm Gulf Stream which at present banks up at the mouth of the Channel. A broad and deep channel could be cut between the North Sea and the Baltic so as to admit the Gulf Stream to the Baltic. The Gulf of Finland, Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, and the White Sea could all be connected by a broad, deep bight so that the warm waters of the Gulf Stream should reach North Europe.

Furthermore, the northern end of the Caspian should be drained 'thus recovering an area of arable land as large as Hungary', and 'The Urals, from farthest north to farthest south, should be reafforested as a bulwark against the Siberian climate'. The headline is 'GERMANY COVETS THE GULF STREAM'.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Wednesday, 29 April 1942

Brett Holman — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:39:19 +0000

The situation in Burma is getting worse, as the Daily Mirror (above, 1) and most other papers note in their lead stories.

The whole length of the vital Lashio-Mandalay railway is in grave danger as five Japanese divisions, totalling 100,000 men, supported by panzers and bombers, are storming the southern edge of the Upper Burma plateau.

With Japanese ground forces only 110 miles away, Lashio itself is being evacuated of civilians and supplies; it is burning following a raid by twenty-seven Japanese bombers (eleven of their escorts were shot down by the Allied defenders). Writing in the Daily Express, 'Military Reporter' Morley Richards writes (4) that 'The Battle for the Burma Road seems at the point of being lost':

If the Japanese reach Lashio and subsequently force the British north of Mandalay they will have achieved one of their major strategical objects: the temporary isolation of China.

The omens are not good: dispatches from the American Volunteer Group, for example, are coming from Kunming, indicating that its headquarters (and presumably the bulk of its aircraft) has moved back north into China.

Bomber Command has finally given Rostock a break, on Monday night instead attacking Cologne, the 'fourth largest city in the Reich [...] an important industrial target' (The Times, 4). Docks at Trondheim in Norway (where the Tirpitz is based) and at Dunkirk were also bombed, as well as aerodromes in France. But Rostock's agony continues. According the Daily Express (1),

Tens of thousands of the 116,000 inhabitants of the Baltic port are fleeing to surrounding villages and towns. The roads leading south are choked with refugees.

Practically all the women, children and old people are being evacuated, as well as many men who are not now needed in the city because the factory plants are flattened.

The refugees 'say our pilots dropped tins of phosphorus, which are a thousand times worse than incendiaries'.

The R.A.F. raiders flew low over the houses and made machine-gun attacks to stop the work of extinguishing the fires, says the German Air Ministry.

Berlin is 'unable to deny that looting broke out immediately the population's flight began', but reports that police are 'rounding up dozens of looters hiding among the smouldering heaps of rubble'. One presumes they will be executed. Under the headline 'NATURAL SELECTION BY AIR ATTACK', The Times quotes an article appearing recently in Alfred Rosenberg's Archiv für Rassen und Gesellschaft-Biologie which suggests that 'the Nazi mind' considers that the British air raids will actually help improve the Aryan race (3):

'During air attacks', says the [unnamed] writer, 'the thickly populated areas of towns and cities are bound to suffer most. These areas are inhabited by people who are usually poor, and who are no great asset to the community. Their loss is therefore not to be unduly regretted. On the other hand, continuous explosions of heavy bombs are bound to unhinge mentally those whose nervous system is not as strong as it should be.

'Aerial bombings should therefore enable us to discover a number of incipient neurasthenics who, in the interests of race selection and social hygiene, should not be permitted to reproduce their kind. After they have been sent to institutions their offspring should be sterilized.'

Be that as it may, German propaganda continues to decry the British raids, or 'express indignation' as the Manchester Guardian rather mildly puts it (5):

One published report complains that it is an 'unfair' (using the English word) blow aimed at Germany's cultural monuments, and adds that Germany has historians who know just where Britain's most-treasured monuments stand, as marked in Baedeker with three stars -- for instance, Canterbury Cathedral and other cathedrals, Tudor houses, Windsor Castle, and so forth, and that German bombers will take reprisals for British terrorist bombings.

One of the Guardian's leading articles quotes the 1925 Baedeker, 'written and printed in Germany', to show that Lübeck is a city of 'great commercial and industrial importance' as well as 'picturesque' (4).

We must regret the destruction of the older parts of these two towns [Lübeck and Rostock], a piece of the European inheritance which is lost to our children as well as to Germany's. Yet when we consider the sufferings of Russia and our own duty to lessen what more is threatened her no one can deny the necessity of our attacks. Our targets were military; it was by chance that their surroundings were historical.

This is not the case with Norwich, the latest victim of Germany's 'retaliation raids', though the Yorkshire Post reports that it is 'Unbowed' with 'the proud spirit of a city that in 1,300 years has survived many ordeals' (1). Fortunately, 'many ancient buildings were unscathed, although among the chief objectives of the Luftwaffe's vicious attack'. But the city still suffered 'heavy casualties and widespread damage', mostly in working-class areas; a hospital, churches, schools and pubs were hit.

A centenarian in a bombed area, who refused brandy, said that the raid had not upset her. Another elderly woman, removing what could be saved from her demolished home, expressed her views of Hitler and added: 'I suppose this is what he calls a surprisal.'

Other women are striking back directly at the raiders: the Mirror reports that a mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery near Bristol has been credited with shooting down one of the German bombers which raided Bath. Lance Sergeant Merion Teit, a '21-year-old warehouse assistant' from Glasgow, said that (8):

'When I knew we had got that raider, I was so excited I forgot all about the special leave which we had been granted as a reward

Oldest (probably, the age of one isn't given) of the eight ATS women serving in the battery is Lance Corporal Amy King, aged 25, formerly 'an assistant house mother in a children's hospital'; it was her first night in charge of a team.

Most newspapers today feature heavily the news that the government will adopt the proposals contained in the Beveridge Report released yesterday, but only the Guardian leads with it. Sir William Beveridge believes that his proposals are the fairest way ('the most important consideration in any rationing scheme', 5) to ration fuel, such as coal and coke for home, commercial and industrial use (rather than petrol, which has long been rationed). This is because:

It takes account:

1. Of present needs rather than previous consumption;
2. Of all important kinds of fuel;
3. Of all substantial kinds of stocks, which must be brought against the ration; and
4. Of exceptional circumstances making extra fuel necessary.

The north will get a higher ration than the south, presumably being colder and requiring more heating.

The special problem of the aged and the sick is regarded as solved with perfect simplicity by allowing them to surrender clothing coupons which they do not need (as the young and the hale do) for additional fuel coupons.

MPs in the House Commons were not impressed by the revelation that the Beveridge scheme would initially require '10,000 to 15,000 temporary clerks' to administer it; one asked whether 'it would not be better to instead release another 15,000 miners' from the armed forces. The Express claims that 'Beveridge admits scheme is full of snags' (3).

Some good news to end on: Dr Benes, 'the Czecho-Slovak President' (in exile, obviously) yesterday predicted 'Nazi Defeat in Six Months' (Guardian, 8):

He was sure the German people would not stand up to a second winter of war with Russia. The next six months, in his view, would decide the war, and Germany would be beaten.

While he looked forward to a postwar Europe where 'the smaller nations would combine in confederated blocks' which in turn might be members of 'a new European or world organisation', possibly based on the United Nations, Benes insisted that 'There could never be a United States of Europe which would resemble the United States of America'. At any rate, 'It would be a mistake to create large inorganic and purely mechanical units which would be dismembered at the first unexpected international conflict'.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Tuesday, 28 April 1942

Brett Holman — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:00:32 +0000

The Yorkshire Post, (above, 1), again leads with Rostock, which has been bombed by the RAF for the fourth consecutive night. The city 'is a heap of smouldering ruins, crushed by nearly 800 tons of British bombs. Its population is fleeing in panic. Its war production has ceased':

PHOTOGRAPHS taken after the third night's raid show swarms of people flocking towards the battered station to join crowds already waiting there for trains to take them away from what Berlin describes as 'terror raids.'

The paper's military correspondent claims that 'NO town has ever been battered so fiercely, even over weeks of cannonading, as Rostock':

Rostock is burning out, and losing all its usefulness in the process. Heinkel factories are a sorry wreck, and it must be assumed that many completed machines were destroyed.

Our assault on this arms town ranks second in R.A.F. achievements to the Battle of Britain. It has cut off supplies from two German armies, one in Finland and the other round Leningrad.

German newspapers do not deny that Rostock has suffered great damage, but do deny that it was a military target. The Times quotes the Börsen Zeitung at length, which speaks of 'the culture-raping barbarity of the British airmen' (4):

Pilots of all countries are accepting highly paid jobs in the British Air Force to render menial service in the destruction of German shrines of culture, and now Rostock's turn has come. Probably British agitators will again assert that the airmen attacked only military targets; but the real purpose, to terrify the German population, is too clear to be denied.

Dwelling houses, buildings of cultural value, and the centres of the welfare organization were hit. The Church of St. Nicholas, the old Grammar School, the municipal theatre, and the Guild House were damaged. This account also will one day come up for settlement.

There is also much publicity today for the heroes of the 17 April low-level raid on Augsburg, who yesterday were awarded between them one VC, one DSO, eight DFCs and ten DFMs. This coverage is clearly orchestrated by the Ministry of Information -- the Times carries (4) a photograph six of them with Brendan Bracken, the Minister of Information. The operation was carried out by twelve Lancasters, four of which were shot down en route and another three were lost on the way home. The South African winner of the VC, Acting Squadron Leader J. D. Nettleton, spoke to the press about the raid (The Times, 2):

The British airmen were surprised at the number of German people who waved to them as they flew just over the house-tops, but he did not think the people knew what the aircraft were. Firing at such low targets, the Germans hit houses with a number of their shells, and he believed that these caused considerable damage.

The target was the MAN factory which 'turned out half the engines used by the German submarine fleet, heavy tanks, and engines for armoured fighting vehicles'. Intelligence shows that the factory was 'badly damaged' in the raid. Nettleton believes that the results 'Absolutely' justified the losses of the 'splendid chaps we left behind'.

Yesterday, Fighter Command's Spitfires once again escorted Bostons and 'bomb-carrying Hurricanes' in raids on targets (mostly airfields) in Belgium and northern France (Mardyck, Le Touquet, St Omer, Lille, Ostend). German fighter defences were stronger than before: the RAF lost two bombers and sixteen fighters to the Luftwaffe's eleven fighters. The 'First American Eagle Squadron' had the most success in its 'exciting battle with F.W.190's' (Manchester Guardian, 5), claiming five -- 'Altogether it was a very satisfactory party', said one of the (presumably American) Eagles.

Less satisfactory is the continuing blitz on Malta: the Times uses the word 'devastation' in its headline (3). The Luftwaffe is bombing the island day and night, and is apparently deliberately attacking non-military targets. 'A woman correspondent of Reuter' reports from Malta that 'There is not a single building of the Knights of St. John which has not been destroyed or damaged. The palace of Grand Masters and the Auberges, or Inns of the Knights, have been completely or parly destroyed'. Eight churches have been destroyed or damaged; the Knights' military hospital, with its 520 foot ward 'stated to be the longest unsupported hall in Europe' is 'badly damaged'. Many people are sheltering in tunnels dug by the Knights under Mount Xiberras three centuries ago: there are now streets down there with regular (well, perhaps irregular) postal deliveries, and a chapel where Mass is said:

I was there this week during benediction, and shall never forget the echoing and re-echoing as hymns were sung by huge hidden crowds. The terrific barrage overhead failed to drown their voices. Even when bombs shook the shelter and blast caused some to lose their equilibrium, they remained undisturbed in silent prayer.

Bath was attacked for the second time early Monday morning with incendiaries and high explosive (other west and southwest towns, unnamed, were also raided). The above photograph appears in the Daily Express and shows the ruins of a street of houses. Montague Lacey reports from Bath that 'Serious damage has been done. The death roll is feared to be heavy. A large number of people have been injured' (4):

There are many homeless, but lodging is being provided for them as rapidly as possible. Historic buildings, churches -- two more were blitzed last night -- workers' houses and business premises have suffered severely. Two hospitals and an hotel got direct hits. The facade of one crescent, a Georgian gem, was badly damaged.

Post-raid relief services are operating effectively, but the public has been asked 'to refrain from travelling to and from Bath for the moment'.

According to the Yorkshire Post, Berlin radio has described Bath as the 'spa of plutocrats' (1):

"These raids are hitting the right people. Bath, as a place for people with rheumatism, sciatica and gout, has for centuries been the fashionable British resort but you could only go there when you had plenty of money.

"It is clear, then, that our raids have hit British plutocrats exclusively, with disastrous results. Those who have ordered the attacks on Germany are responsible for the reprisal raids."

The paper's London correspondent ridicules this, suggesting that 'Goebbels and his advisers have secured an old handbook on Bath, and are basing their radio talks, perhaps designedly, on information a century old' (2):

The announcer talked of Bath as though that stately city were still the fashionable resort of the days when Beau Nash, Jane Austen and Mr. Pickwick took the waters, and visited the pump and assembly rooms for social functions. Half the leaders of London's political and fashionable life, he implied, are in the habit at this time of year of retiring to Bath -- and it is they, and not the working classes, who are now being bombed.

The Express's leader writer is confident that, just as the great German air raids of a year ago 'did not cow the British spirit', neither will these (2):

It is no use pretending that Bath is not hurt by the raids -- even though they are small by comparison with those of the Luftwaffe last year and the R.A.F. this year -- that are now visited upon her citizens.

But we know that Bath will relive the spirit of sacrifice of the rest of Britain in 1941.

Those raids only created 'The will of a people that now rises up and demands assault on German power'; and in turn

THE bombing policy of the R.A.F. helps to rouse and sustain the British mood of attack.

[...]

These raids [on Rostock] are the pointer to the second front. They anticipate land-sea-air attack against Hitler for which Britain has armed itself. That way can come the speedy victory that bombing on its own cannot give.

Maybe so, but it appears that 'the raids of the R.A.F. raids are having a tremendous effect on the German population', as a Times report (based on 'persistent and trustworthy' information reaching neutral Turkey from Germany) says (3):

The bombing of Lübeck, in particular, has made them realize what is coming to them and has created real panic. German refugees, especially from western Germany, are fleeing to Austria, and even to Hungary, and in Vienna the authorities are being compelled to commandeer rooms in private houses because hotels and boarding-houses are overcrowded.

The prospect of 'at no distant date' feeling the full effects of America's entry into the war is also causing anxiety, as is of course general war-weariness in this, the third year of the war. But perhaps most important is the fact that 'the truth about the appalling losses in Russia has become gradually known'. People who used to become 'enraged at the slightest criticism or disrespectful reference to Hitler [...] now do not mince their words in accusing him of sacrificing German youth to his mad ambition'. For this reason there is pressure from 'Nazi -- and also Fascist -- leaders' to launch 'an immediate offensive in Russia or elsewhere to obtain some military successes which would calm down popular discontent'. But the military 'insist on waiting till preparations have been completed and until the weather makes operations on a big scale impossible'. This disagreement 'has lately taken a very acute form'.

There's a lot of other things going on today: further reactions to Hitler's speech, Russian claims of German atrocities, Japan's continuing advance in Burma. Gandhi has called for Indian soldiers to defend India, not foreigners -- especially not Americans: 'We know what American aid means. It amounts in the end to American influence, if not American rule added to the British' (Guardian, 5). And Roosevelt has announced a series of austerity measures, including heavy taxation: no individual should have an annual income larger than $25000 (£6250) after tax. In fact, this is the lead story in both the Times and the Guardian today.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Monday, 27 April 1942

Brett Holman — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:38:04 +0000

Just at the moment, this war seems mainly to be an air war. The main news today is that Rostock has been bombed for the third night in a row. In addition Stirling bombers carried out a low-level raid on the Skoda works in Czechoslovakia, and six targets in northern France were were attacked by bombers with strong fighter escorts. As the Yorkshire Post reports on its front page:

ROSTOCK has become symbolic of our new air offensive. On Saturday night and yesterday morning the harbour and aircraft works were attacked for the third successive night, by a strong force of bombers, with great results. That was not all. The famous Skoda armament works in Czechoslovakia were the target for the R.A.F. on an all-round flight of 1,400 miles.

Yesterday more attacking flights crossed the Channel for various destinations in this great opening of the Allied offensive.

The damage done to German war production by the Rostock raids is confidently predicted to be enormous:

The Heinkel aircraft factory would turn out many squadrons per week in an effort to overcome the Luftwaffe's shortage of fights. The factory is now a heap of ruins. The shipyard is badly damaged and the Neptune submarine construction slips are broken up [...] The output must have ceased. The attack was heavier than at Luebeck, where production has entirely stopped.

A German communique claimed that Friday night's attack on Rostock was 'directed against residential districts'; of the one on Saturday night the German News Agency said that 'There was considerable damage to houses and losses in dead and injured' (Manchester Guardian, 5).

This offensive combined with the RAF's attacks on the coast of occupied France is forcing Germany 'into depleting the Luftwaffe strength in Russia':

Our air initiative is imposing defence on the enemy and may impose limitations of a serious nature on Hitler's coming blow at Russia.

The Guardian's air correspondent detects a significant weakening of Germany's air defences. The operations over France are like a reverse Battle of Britain, only the British are losing far fewer aircraft, which 'shows plainly that the German intercepter-fighter is insufficient to combat the powerful British forces'. So too the 'small ratio of losses' suffered by Bomber Command in the Rostock raids 'points to a similar dwindling strength of the Luftwaffe in Germany herself'. With its 'commitments on Germany's Eastern front and in Libya' the Luftwaffe is being stretched too thin.

'WE are opening a second front in the West', says the leading article in the Yorkshire Post today (2), 'a second front in the air'. What are the broader effects of the RAF air campaign against Germany? In his big speech yesterday, Hitler gave himself supreme legal powers 'which set him above the law courts and place every German citizen completely at his mercy' (Daily Express, 1). 'At such a time', he said, 'no one is entitled to talk of his rights. Today only duties exist'. There will be no more holidays. Lenient judges will be dismissed. Guy Eden, political correspondent for the Express, believes Hitler has had 'to display the iron hand' like this largely because of Bomber Command:

Smashing air raids on German towns -- so heavy that it was not thought prudent to conceal from the German people the damage done -- has increased depression and discontent.

RAF air raids are also given by Morley Richards as one reason for the renewed German peace feelers rumoured to have been put out in Stockholm and Ankara in recent weeks.

Further testimony to the effect which Bomber Command is believed to be having on the war comes from the way it has been enlisted in the Express's anti-waste campaign. The objective is 'to save ten million tons of coal, without rationing' (3). On this 'Fuel Front', people are being encouraged to share their neighbours fires for warmth rather than start their own, or go to bed half an hour earlier each night. Another example is that 'Mothers are going to appoint one of their children "Family Light Switcher-off"'. To remind people to switch off lights and heaters when not needed the Express has provided some little labels to stick above their light switches, with slogans (sent in by readers) such as 'WASTE delays victory' and 'Careless GAS helps the enemy'. The one shown above reads:

LUBECK'S lights are out 40%
WHAT ABOUT YOURS?

This is a reference to the 40% of Lübeck's old town which was destroyed by Bomber Command last month.

But otherwise, apart from a RAF 'offensive' in the Middle East (including a night raid on Benghazi harbour) which the Times reports (3), most of the running in the air war seems to be being made by the Axis. Unusually, after the string of raids on unnamed southwest towns in recent days (and there was another one yesterday just before dawn, which did 'Considerable damage' in a working class area, along with another town in the west of England and one in Scotland's northeast, where a four-year-old girl was killed; Guardian, 5, and a fighter-bomber attack on a south coast town) today's papers have a named target to focus on. As the Daily Mirror's back page headline screams (8):

BATH GUNNED BY HUNS IN NIGHT BLITZ

BATH, quiet residential city, home of invalids and evacuees, suffered heavily as Luftwaffe dive bombers roared down on Saturday night and early yesterday releasing bombs on churches, historic buildings and houses.

The former mayoress of Bath, Mrs J. L. Langworthy, was one of the victims; she was due to marry on Wednesday next. (Her trousseau was also destroyed.) A nine-year-old boy tunnelled to freedom from the ruins of his home while singing jazz songs. Four churches were hit and a row of Georgian terraces destroyed; 'loss of life is feared' after hits on shelters and houses.

Why Bath? Berlin radio claimed that 'high British staffs are stationed' there, but it also described the attacks as 'continuous reprisal raids' for the bombing of 'residential quarters, cultural monuments and welfare establishments in old German towns'. That Bath was attacked in reprisal is commonly accepted (though the Yorkshire Post calls it a 'Spite Raid', 1). Montague Lacey in the Daily Express sees the Bath blitz as Hitler's attempt to create maximum terror with limited means (1):

1. -- He did not expect the old watering place to be so well defended as an industrial city.
2. -- He went after a city with many evacuees, hoping that his blow would resound through England.
3. -- He selected a small, compact city with the idea that there the limited number of bombers he could spare would do most damage.

In fact he counted on causing massacre in a city unprepared.

In fact, though admittedly 'Casualties are rather heavy' Lacey contends that both civil and air defences did well. That's reassuring, as it must be difficult for be prepared for air raids when they so rarely come these days, the more so in a town with little experience of bombing. (The Yorkshire Post, 5, reports that 'Yorkshire Towns Will Stand a Blitz').

The bombing doesn't end there. There's a litany of air raids: German air raids on besieged Leningrad; Japanese air raids on Darwin (where eight out of twenty-four bombers were shot down), Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomons. 'Malta and Corregidor, the two most-blitzed islands in the world, have exchanged messages telling of their defiance and hope' (Express, 1). According to the Times's Mandalay correspondent (4):

To-day many of the cities, towns, and villages of Burma are blasted by Japanese bombs. Misery and desolation have spread through lower and central Burma, while the shadows of war ever lengthen over the country.

Refugees -- and now they are not only Indians -- stream along the road leading out of the country, taking with them only the barest necessities.

It's a bomber's war.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.

Sunday, 26 April 1942

Brett Holman — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:55:48 +0000

The Observer's lead story (5) is about Japan's continuing advance in Burma. It's very hard to work out what exactly is going on based on the summary report: there are at least three fronts, their relation to each other is not stated, and the map provided is too small-scale to be of much use. The analysis by the Observer's military correspondent is much more helpful:

The Japanese are practising the advantages of mobility which they enjoyed in Malaya, and getting full benefit of the lead which it gives them over our more cumbersomely equipped forces. They have been switching their attack from the east to the west and back again to the east, looking all the time for our weak spots. They found one at Taunggyi, ninety-five miles south-east of Mandalay, and they are now throwing their heavy forces into this railway terminus, which gives them a valuable springboard for the decisive attack on Mandalay.

And after Mandalay, Lashio, where supplies bound for China have been building up for three months. But the Japanese need to hurry, as the monsoon season is only a week away. It is argued here that Japan's objective in Burma is essentially defensive, to forestall an Allied offensive 'against the Malayan and Indo-Chinese bulge on which all their Southern Pacific offensive action depends'.

The raids on Germany and the American raid on the Philippines must have added to the Japanese determination to remove the threat even at great cost.

There doesn't seem to be much else going on in the war against Japan: a Japanese raid on Port Moresby yesterday by low-flying fighters, an Allied raid on Lae, 'artillery duels continue at Corregidor'.

On page 4, G. M. Young responds to a recent call by Sir John Wardlaw-Milne MP for an inquiry into the fall of Singapore. Young is sympathetic, saying that 'the present war has seen an accumulation of unexplained reverses, Norway, Dakar, Crete, culminating in a stupendous disaster' (i.e. Singapore) which might indicate some systemic failure in the way Britain is conducting its war. His own preliminary conclusion is that Singapore was sacrificed for Russia:

We are left therefore with the conclusion that the defence of Malaya was postponed to the more urgent necessity of sustaining the Russian Front. Not having sufficient aircraft for all the fields of war, we decided, in agreement with one another, to run the risk of losing our main supply of rubber -- and theirs -- in order to keep the Russian line unbroken [...] The only alternative is to suppose that after two years of war, after all that had happened in every field from Poland to Pearl Harbour [sic], the vital significance, offensive and defensive, of air-power was still not recognised.

He doesn't dismiss this alternative but does find it hard to believe, as 'the whole experience of the war should have taught us that an army sent without its proper concomitant of aircraft was being sent to its destruction'.

The Observer's leading article today begins by noting that the world is waiting to see where Japan will strike next 'after four months of spectacular achievement [...] India, Australia, China, and Russia may each and all become the scene of determined military action in the next few weeks, for Japan's resources are still most formidable and she can strike where she wills'. But it argues that this a secondary theatre: 'It is not, however, in Asia that our future will be determined'.

The issue of the war, let us have no doubt about it, will be settled by events in Europe, and during the present war. With that power of concentration on the chosen goal which her strategists have always displayed, Germany has been producing, organising, training and planning throughout the winter months to make an end of Russian military power. She must achieve this in 1942 if she is to achieve it at all [...]

The new German offensive will come within four or five weeks. As the Soviet Union is now much better prepared than it was last year, Germany may aim to cripple rather than to destroy:

To do that Germany must isolate Russia by cutting the northern routes which bring her reinforcement from her Allies and also the southern routes which connect her military centre with the Caucasian sources of oil. Japan may well attempt to complete the isolation by blocking the Far Eastern gates of the vast Russian world.

Apart from providing the best hope for Allied victory, according to 'an air correspondent' the Russians have also prevented a renewal of the Blitz (6):

It is evident from Britain's immunity from heavy air attacks since the Nazis became embroiled with Russia that the Luftwaffe is not big enough to carry on two full-scale offensives simultaneously.

This appears to be due to lack of aircrew rather than aircraft. The unnamed writer estimates that the Luftwaffe has lost 35,000 aircraft from all causes in the war to date ('A modest estimate'), with aircrew losses at 90,000 ('a conservative estimate'). But it is 'doubtful' whether Germany can train more than 20,000 pilots a year (nb. pilots, not aircrew). Germany has recently claimed to have destroyed no more 8,612 British aircraft so far ('it would be exceptional for Goebbels to be accurate') and the Air Ministry claims that there are more than replacements for RAF aircrew losses; indeed, 'we have trained crews for which aircraft cannot at present be provided'. Most of these are trained in Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme, where year-round flying is possible and there are no blackouts or enemies to endanger novice flyers.

It may well be that the Empire Scheme will prove the decisive factor in the air war, giving us an overwhelming strength over the enemy, and allowing the combined forces of the British Empire and the United States to sweep the air menace of Germany, Japan, and Italy from the skies.

On Friday night Bomber Command again attacked Rostock. It was still burning from the previous raid; 'the pall of smoke was so dense that searchlights could not penetrate it' (5). Over the two nights the city received 400 tons of bombs.

The Nazi war industry has been badly dislocated by these two raids. Workmen's dwellings and public utility undertakings have been put out of action and the enemy use of this port interrupted for some time to come.

A Reuter message from Berlin contains a German admission of this second raid, and claims that one British bomber was destroyed, adding that 'the attack, which was directed against residential districts, caused damage to houses. There were dead and wounded among the civilian population.

Finally, the Observer reports on recent German air raids on Britain. It provides some further details on the 'south-west town' bombed early yesterday morning: a German communique claim this was Exeter. Casualties don't sound very heavy: two dead, two seriously wounded, two with light wounds; four houses destroyed. However, there are seven people 'believed to be missing'. As on Friday, just after dawn yesterday there was a dramatic low-level attack 'on a south coast town' by German fighters bombing and strafing. This time the damage sounds much worse: 'Ten people are known to have been killed. Streets in thickly populated areas were heavily damaged [...] Numerous small business premises were reduced to ruins. Humble homes were wrecked and it is feared that loss of life and casualties in this district may be high'. At least ten people are reported to have been killed; 'Evacuated school teachers' are among the wounded.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the Baedeker Blitz. See here for an introduction to the series.