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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.

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.

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.

Friday, 24 April 1942

Brett Holman — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:22:47 +0000

Yesterday's muted announcement of a British retreat in Burma is followed today by more prominent headlines of a further withdrawal, albeit this time in the Taungdwingyi sector. But while the front page of the Yorkshire Post (above) grimly declares that

OUR retirement through Central Burma is bringing us nearer the plains of Mandalay and the defence of Northern Burma

it immediately goes on to find hope in yesterday's revelation that US Army troops were already in India. It is suggested that this may in time develop into one of America's major fronts against Japan. In the meantime, though, hard fighting will be necessary to protect the Burma Road which is threatened by 'a Japanese force of tanks, guns and infantry', though on the Post's analysis this is to stop Chinese reinforcements reaching Burma rather than Allied supplies reaching China. Further withdrawals are likely British troops will likely have to fall back on Meiktila.

Present policy is to deny the enemy the high ground in the North and keep him on the lower flats until the rain breaks and floods the river valleys.

The Times notes that Japan has been aided by 'traitorous Burmese' (5) and has the advantage of being able to use two good roads from the east, whereas communications between India and Burma are poor. Still,

In difficult circumstances our troops have never weakened, whatever the strain. Whenever the call has come, fatigue has been forgotten. Gurkhas, Baluchis, Frontier Force Rifles have vied with British units in courage and resolution. No finer fighting has been seen in this war. Coolness allied with determination has extricated the force or portions of it from many ugly situations, though not always without regrettable loss in men and material.

It's probably easier to forget the fatigue of the troops in Burma from the vantage point of London than it would be on the spot!

The Manchester Guardian relays a report from the Swedish press that Germany is fortifying 'from Norway to the coast of Spain' against 'a British invasion', 'a formidable chain of reinforced concrete barricades, heavy batteries, and aerodromes' (8). A Norwegian correspondent reports that the headquarters for the occupying forces there are moving north from Oslo, presumably to be closer to any landing.

Rumours of an imminent British invasion are circulating through Norway, and some 'optimists' are expressing the conviction that the British 'will come on May 1.' German defence moves have strengthened the rumours and the Quisling regime is faced with growing hostility. Panzer vehicles were seen in Oslo for the first time on Monday during a Nazi review of armoured cars and tanks.

Indeed, Lord Beaverbrook (until recently Minister of Supply, now out of government), in a New York speech last night which was broadcast across the United States, advocated Britain 'setting up somewhere along the 2,000 miles of coastline now held by the Germans a second front in Western Europe' (Daily Express, 2). He professed himself inspired here by Stalin's aggressiveness in launching a counteroffensive even while German forces were at the gates of Moscow, but he also believes that the war in Russia is in the balance:

[...] Russia may settle the war for us in 1942. By holding the Germans in check, possibly even by defeating them, the Russians may be the means of bringing down the whole Axis structure down.

That is a chance, an opportunity to bring the war to an end here and now. But if the Russians are defeated and driven out of the war, never will such a chance come to us again.

There was also talk about invasion in the House of Commons yesterday, though it was about an invasion of Britain, not by Britain. A. P. Herbert, the independent member for Oxford University, complained that 'some confusion and ignorance prevailed concerning the duties of citizens' in event of invasion (Manchester Guardian, 6). According to Sir Percy Hurd, Conservative member for Devsizes, some local defence committees were issuing instructions 'to households to dig 'slit' trenches in their gardens, an instruction which, he said, householders were refusing to take seriously'. Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, seems to have done little to assuage the concerns of MPs, apart from telling them that 'the Government was determined to carry out the "stand-fast" policy'. When told, by Conservative MP Sir Stanley Reed, 'that local authorities were "seriously perturbed" at the possibility of an exodus from London and other large towns', all Morrison could say was that 'his department was in touch with all the authorities concerned'. Perhaps he was taken by surprise by these questions, as with German forces tied up in Russia an invasion of Britain hardly seems likely. Then again, as Beaverbrook said, the Soviets could still collapse and the bulk of German forces would then be free to turn west (again).

The Yorkshire Post's air correspondent claims that Bomber Command has tacitly adopted a new policy (2):

There is greater concentration of effort. Fewer scattered targets are chosen, and the ones that are selected are given a considerable weight of bombs at every visit.

That is all to the good. Bombing has a cumulative effect. A single, short, sharp raid does not do much more than give the populace some excitement. A series of raids of equal or mounting intensity beats down the excitement and, in the end, produces fatigue, worry and nervousness.

Bomber Command seems to now be following 'the lines that some of the critics suggested long ago'. These critics are not named, but they wondered why oil targets were top priority one moment and dropped the next, for example. They also drew upon the experience of the Blitz:

When there was bombing in this country it was often urged that only sustained and concentrated bombing could hope to bring about massive results, and that the R.A.F. ought to concentrate more and readjust its list of priorities so that fewer targets were selected but those few thoroughly hammered.

There is evidence to suggest that this new policy is working already:

Such raids are also liable to cause large population movements, and these are seriously hampering to the war effort of any nation. There is some evidence that considerable population movements followed the R.A.F. night raid on Luebeck. These must to some extent have embarrassed German communications, and must have dislocated their transport of war materials.

A stop-press on the back page of the Post (6) reports that

Incendiary and H.E. bombs were dropped in a South-West district of England early to-day. Three fires which were started were quickly brought under control. Damage was caused to a row of cottages in a rural area.

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, 23 April 1942

Brett Holman — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:23:51 +0000

Most newspapers today lead with the story of a successful Commando raid on the French coast near Boulogne early yesterday morning -- though only the Daily Mirror (above), rather bizarrely, focuses on the fact that 'All wore gym shoes' (1) (apart from the ex-Limehouse police inspector who wore slippers). More colour is provided by the dashing Lord Lovat who led the raid wearing 'the bonnet of his own Lovat Scouts, a body of Highland deerstalkers [...] whose training is ideal for Commando work'. The purpose of the raid is not clear -- the official communique only says it was a reconnaissance mission -- so it's hard to say if it achieved its objective. Perhaps the aim was to tie up German cement supplies:

SO greatly do the Germans fear Commando raids and invasion that they have earmarked more than half the French production of cement -- about one and a quarter million tons a year -- for use on new defence works along the coast.

But in purely operational terms the raid seems to have been a success (8):

Remarkable from the military point of view was that, after spending two hours on enemy-occupied territory, every man was withdrawn with arms. Our casualties were negligible.

The Navy, which delivered and retrieved the Commandos, also got away largely unscathed, and damaged two armed German trawlers in the process.

There is plenty of other war news, of course, but nothing nearly so spectacular. The Times actually leads with the announcement in Delhi by Colonel Louis Johnson, President Roosevelt's personal representative, that 'United States troops are already in India and that more will be coming' (4). Reading more closely, however, these 'troops' appear to be only a 'technical mission', the functions of which are

to collect data, to make industrial explorations, to furnish technical experts if wanted, and to make recommendations to President Roosevelt, and to assist in applying these recommendations in India to the extent that Indian industries desired.

Johnson didn't disparage Indian production but did say that it was still on a peacetime footing. Since British forces are still retreating in Burma -- today it is announced that they have 'completed their withdrawal across the river Pinchaung, "not without some loss of personnel and equipment"' -- that will obviously have to change.

The Russian front is largely quiescent, the Times reports, as 'operations have been brought to a standstill by the vast mudfield, which, like so many things in Russia, is easily the largest in the world'. Germany is however still attacking on the Leningrad front,

where the [German] soldiers in some parts are obliged to stand in flooded trenches with water up to their hips, and where during the nights their coats freeze into a sort of ice armour as the soldiers frequently sink into the water breast-high. It is obvious from such descriptions that little progress is possible at present even along the railways, as troops and arms crowd to them.

The main activity is in the north, where a Russian offensive against the Finns is reportedly 'continuous and heavy' and in the south, where it is thought that the 22nd Panzer Division has been redeployed from France to the Crimea.

Much further south (and east), in New Guinea, it's a lot warmer. The Times relays a report from Allied headquarters in Melbourne that a Japanese air raid on Port Moresby, the twenty-sixth so far, was carried out by 'eight enemy bombers with a fighter escort on Tuesday morning':

Our fighters 'intercepted the enemy brilliantly,' and destroy four '0' type aircraft. We had no losses. Our air force attacked wharves and buildings at Rabaul on Tuesday, starting numerous fires.

A recent article in the Times on the growing closeness between Australia and the United States seems to have provoked some reaction in Australia -- well, at least from the Times's Canberra correspondent, who asserts that this is 'dictated primarily by the facts of world geography [...] Australia is America's obvious base for an ultimate counter-offensive' against Japan (3). The correspondent seeks to reassure British readers that Australians still retain 'ties of sentiment and culture with the Mother Country', as well as 'an economic bond', but pleads for Britain to do more to cultivate the relationship:

The United Kingdom has a tremendous stake in this country, not the least important in which is the affection and gratitude of millions of the best Australians. Every day there is more and more evidence of the wisdom of doing something to protect it if only it be by keeping Australians supplied with facts which would enable them to get a balanced picture of the world scene. A word in season now and then from people in high places addresses directly to Australia is greatly needed. The job should not be left exclusively to Australians who realize this need.

A number of newspapers today carry a story presenting an overview of the bomber war -- no doubt derived from the same Air Ministry briefing. The one in the Yorkshire Post opens by noting that in the period 20 March to 20 April (it actually says 30 April, which still is in the future, but the Manchester Guardian says 20 April), 'under 200 enemy aircraft crossed the coasts of Great Britain by night, and the tonnage of the bombs dropped was nearer 250 than 300' (3).

In the same period we dropped on Germany in one week more than 1,000 tons of bombs, and there were at least six nights on each of which the tonnage dropped there exceeded the Luftwaffe's 'British' total for the month.

Bomber Command has 'suffered some regrettable losses in our European attacks this year', but 'our wastage is not unduly heavy when the scale of recent attacks in taken into account'. Indeed, during the same period 'the Axis' lost more aircraft in its attacks on Malta than the RAF lost in its attacks on Germany, 140 to 112. It is suggested that the the efforts of the 'New British Broadcasting Station' (which pretends to be a British radio station but is actually German black propaganda) to deny the damage done to Germany (as well as in the recent American raid on Tokyo) rather suggests the opposite:

'We should know better than anyone,' said the station after the attack on Tokyo, 'that the bombardment of towns cannot bring the end of the war nearer. London withstood about as heavy a bombardment which could be launched, something compared with the raid on Tokyo cannot have been more than a pinprick.

'The proper use of aircraft is to support land forces in the actual battle zone, and as the R.A.F. is not large enough to fulfil all its tasks, it should be reserved for this purpose only. A daylight raid on Augsburg, for instance, may be spectacular but its practical value is negligible.'

While the Post allows that it can't be assumed that Germany 'could not concentrate a fairly heavy attack on some British target',

There is no evidence, however, that the Luftwaffe is being strengthened at present on the Western Front, and sensational stories which have gained currency concerning big reinforcements of air-borne troops and so forth are known to not have any basis of truth.

On that note, the Guardian reports (5) that

Nazi raiders dropped bombs last night near a town in South-west England. They fell in open country and there are no reports of casualties or damage.

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.

Anxious nation? -- IV

Brett Holman — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:20:36 +0000

The title of this little series is a nod to David Walker's Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850-1939. As the title suggests, Walker argues that Australia's relationship with Asia in the decades before and after Federation was largely characterised by fear about immigration, imports and invasion. Peter Stanley, in Invading Australia: Japan and the Battle for Australia, 1942, fleshes out the last of these fears through a discussion of novels and books from the 1930s which discussed the prospect of war with Japan (or at least an unnamed or Ruritanian Asian enemy). For example, in Erle Cox's Fool's Harvest (1938/1939), Australia is attacked and invaded by 'Cambasia' in September 1939, beginning with a massive air raid on Sydney which causes 200,000 civilian casualties. Britain is unable to help, as it has been attacked by Germany, Italy and France; a British fleet at Singapore is sunk. The Australian armed forces are ill-equipped to defend the nation, and after a month Cambasia is victorious at the last battle of the war, at Seymour in central Victoria. A resistance movement is eventually suppressed after increasingly brutal reprisals. The south-eastern part of Australia eventually regains a limited independence in 1966, but the majority of the population still labours under the Cambasian yoke.

But I've also been reading Augustine Meaher's The Australian Road to Singapore: The Myth of British Betrayal. Meaher argues that Australians were not in fact particularly concerned about Japan in the 1930s. The few attempts at warning the public and the elites were confused and ineffectual; the armed forces were too busy fighting with each other to seriously think about fighting Japan. Even the start of the Sino-Japanese war and events like the Nanking Massacre didn't seem to cause any great alarm. And it must be said that Walker's account of the 1930s doesn't do much to contradict this. He focuses on the increasing interest of Australian elites in closer ties with Asia and the Pacific, rather than the fears which had preoccupied earlier generations. At the risk of caricature, Meaher's thesis is that Australians weren't too worried about the Japanese threat; and Stanley's is that they were too worried.

Meaher is convincing on his core argument: that Britain never promised it would be able to defend Australia under all circumstances and that Australia misunderstood the consequent need to invest in its own defences. But I do wonder if he is too quick to dismiss those efforts which were made to warn Australians of the Japanese threat, though. For example, I don't think he discusses the famous refusal of dock workers in 1938 to load iron onto ships bound for Japan, explicitly for the reason that it might come back in the form of bombs. This idea must have come from somewhere. He argues persuasively that the press and the ruling elites were ill-equipped to provide cogent analyses of Australia's strategic situation; the few attempts which were made were usually simplistic where they weren't plain silly. The depth of debate about strategic affairs does seem very poor when compared with Britain.

Still, that doesn't mean such debate as existed was without effect. Stanley describes Fool's Harvest as 'hugely popular' and notes that it was first serialised in the Melbourne Argus, one of the nation's leading newspapers. It also seems to be a good example of a novelist popularising the ideas of more serious thinkers, as Thomas Blamey advised Cox on the military side of things. Blamey had been Monash's chief of staff in France during the last war and at this time was in charge of recruitment for the Citizen Military Force (i.e. the Militia) and a regular commentator for the ABC on military and foreign affairs. The same sort of nexus between next-war novelists, military intellectuals and the press could be found in Britain, though by this time such blatant le Queux-like propagandising was no longer common. It looks to me like there was at least a nascent next-war literature by the late 1930s.

On the other hand, I put that that question mark in the title of these posts before I read Meaher's book. That's because I was concerned that I was projecting forwards my (not particularly deep) knowledge of the fear of Japan in the first decades after Federation, and backwards my (also not particularly deep) knowledge of the fear of Japanese invasion in 1942, as exemplified by the wonderful piece of scaremongering at the start of this post. But it's also because it didn't look like the mystery aeroplane sightings I'm looking at here can simply be put down to fear of Japan. I'll tackle that in a final post in this series.

The successful start which ended in failure

Brett Holman — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:11:52 +0000

A common complaint about this blog is that it doesn't feature nearly enough pictures of airships. So here's one, a 27-metre long non-rigid which belonged to Henry Spencer, scion of a remarkably airminded family (sixteen aeronauts across four generations). Indeed, he built it with his brothers. The photograph was taken on 16 February 1909 and apparently shows the first ever powered flight from Hendon aerodrome, though neither Spencer nor his airship are mentioned in David Oliver's Hendon Aerodrome: A History (Shrewsbury: Airlife Publishing, 1994).

But much more interesting than the airship itself, it must be said, is what it was used for. The clue is the slogan emblazoned on the side of the envelope: 'VOTES FOR WOMEN'. Spencer had hired his airship out as a propaganda platform to Muriel Matters, an Australian-born suffragette who was very active in the Women's Freedom League (a non-violent breakaway from the better-known WPSU). Matters had won some publicity the previous year by chaining herself to the grille of the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons. Her airship flight was also designed to make Parliament take notice of the suffragist cause: the new session was opening that very day and it was her intention to fly over Westminster and drop Votes For Women leaflets on it. In the end Spencer and Matters didn't make it there, having been blown off course into a tree in Coulsden, well to the south. Three decades later, Matters herself gave a wonderful account of her flight to the BBC, which can be heard online here. (Ignore the photo there, which is of the Army airship Baby.)

The photograph above is from a scrapbook belonging to an American women's suffrage organisation, so the message did travel quite some distance, albeit to a receptive audience; I couldn't find any mention of Matters' flight in a quick search of the British press. It took nearly a decade for the WFL's demand to be partially fulfilled. And it's nice to see that the part Matters played in using airpower for progressive causes is still remembered in her native South Australia.

Saturday, 17 May 1941

Brett Holman — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:02:01 +0000

Without even waiting for a response to Eden's warning, on Thursday RAF aircraft bombed three Vichy aerodromes in Syria, as The Times reports (4). According to RAF HQ, Middle East Command:

At Palmyra three Ju90s, two other German aircraft, and one Cr42 were machine-gunned. At least three of these aircraft were severely damaged and one other was burnt out.

General Dentz, the French High Commissioner in Syria, protested these raids, saying that they had killed a French officer. He further claimed that the German aircraft were there due to 'forced landings' and that his officials, 'according to the terms of the Armistice, procured their most rapid departure'. The diplomatic correspondent to The Times comments that Syria 'must now be counted an important arena of war'.

So far the Germans appear to have sent few aeroplanes across Syria to Iraq. They are exploring the road in a manner which seems almost tentative; but it would be unwise to expect them to draw back.

The reason is Iraq's oil, which Germany needs not so much for petrol as for lubrication, especially for the Luftwaffe. The quality of lubricating oil produced by its own plants is 'good but by no means perfect', and while the Soviets are willing to supply Germany's needs, they 'are hard bargainers, and they insist upon prompt German deliveries in return'.

Possession of Iraq would greatly lessen the German anxieties over supplies. Out of the total Iraqi production of 4,300,000 tons of oil a year (to quote the 1938 statistics), about 3,000,000 tons have been of the heavy type from which lubricating oil is derived.

The Turkish government is reportedly worried by the prospect of German encirclement (Manchester Guardian, 7). This is mainly because of the German involvement in Syria and Iraq, but also because of a reported buildup of the Luftwaffe in Greece 'with a view to attacking in Crete, Cyprus, and in the Middle East, and possibly to support a renewed push in Libya' (where British forces have just recaptured the frontier village of Sollum).

It is supposed that German assurances to Turkey will hold good until Germany has completed the encirclement of Turkey by getting a footing in Syria and Iraq, or, alternatively, until Germany has attempted such an encirclement and failed.

A bob each way, then. The German army is also massing on the 'Moldavian frontier', which 'points to the imminence of German-Russian negotiations'.

The question is whether Hitler will demand only economic concessions or demand Soviet military co-operation in the Middle East in return for a promise to recognise the Persian Gulf as a Soviet sphere of influence.

Turning to the home front now, 'air raids on Britain during Thursday night were on a comparatively light scale' (4). The official Air Ministry/Ministry of Home Security communiqué states that

Bombs were dropped at several scattered points, mostly in coastal districts. Some damage was done at one or two places on the coast and at one point there was a small number of casualties.

Last night, 'A west Midlands town was one of the targets for the enemy bombers', according to The Times (4). During daylight hours, German fighters ineffectually attempted to attack RAF aerodromes, and also strafed civilians:

Six Messerschmitt 109s attacked a south-east coast town from 400ft. last evening. Many people caught in the streets had remarkable escapes as bullets spattered everywhere. One man was hit by splinters of a cannon shell and taken to hospital.

The Home Security Minister, Herbert Morrison, gave a speech on the BBC last night on winning the 'battle of the flames'. In the Guardian's paraphrase (4),

Having been cushioned for hundreds of years from the worst shocks of war the British people were not always quick enough to recognise imminent danger. They found it difficult to give up their ordinary ways. The house-holder who wanted to stop in his own street, the business man or the worker who wanted to argue about rights and wrongs while the bombs fell -- well, the time come when we must get beyond all that.

"At this moment," he said, "there is no room for private selfishness, no room for sectionalism of any kind. This is total war. We need the whole population to wage it -- 40,000,000 fire-fighters."

Private selfishness? There is evidence both for and against this in today's Guardian (8). Last night the list of awards for gallantry in civil defence work was announced. For example Post Warden Robert Leslie Platten and Warden Thomas Edgar Davis, both from Croydon, receive the George Medal for saving thirty people trapped in an air raid shelter. After they got them out,

Davis found a baby buried under wreckage. He placed himself in such a position that no more would fall on the child while Platten and the child's father worked to release it.

At the other extreme is Edward Jonas Osman, 47, of 'no settled address' (but who was arrested in Salford), who was convicted of passing rumours about the war 'likely to cause alarm and despondency'. On the night of 9 May he engaged in conversation with three young women in a supper bar.

He told them that London was "finished" because it had been "laid flat by air raids," and added, "I have just come from Liverpool. The people of Liverpool have let us down. They have surrendered, and have started parading the streets carrying banners. They have also put white sheets on all the buildings [...] Liverpool is under martial law. No one is allowed near the place."

Overhearing this, a soldier went outside and notified police, who arrested him. Osman admitted that 'I know it is wrong, but I wanted to look big. I only repeated what other people told me'.

Men born between 1 January and 31 December 1902 inclusive must register at their local Ministry of Labour and National Service office today, unless they are seamen in which case they should register at a mercantile marine office. They may express a preference for service with 'the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, the Police War Reserve, and the Auxiliary Fire Service' (7).

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, 16 May 1941

Brett Holman — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:48:46 +0000

There have been alarming developments in the Near East, reports the Manchester Guardian today (5). Syria, a Vichy French possession, is being used as a staging post for German aeroplanes on their way to Iraq, where an anti-British coup recently took place.

About thirty have already crossed Syria, it is authoritatively stated in Cairo. Their markings are believed to be French. It is understood that the 'planes are not troops-carriers but are transporting technicians.

According to the Associated Press most of the 'planes landing in Syria are understood to be bombers.

The paper's diplomatic correspondent says that

Germany is preparing to dominate Syria with a view to using it as a base for operations intended in the first instance to help Rashid Ali and the usurpers in Iraq who have made war on this country. At the same time Iran is being pressed to allow Germans to infiltrate there.

What isn't mentioned here, but is clear from an accompanying map, is that Iraq and Iran have oil, which would be of great value to Germany, if it can eject Britain from the area. It does seem to be trying; although 'The latest German "blitz" [into Egypt] seems to have gone off at half-cock' (8), thanks to the RAF, reports in Istanbul (also under German pressure) suggest 'the imminence of an attack on a big scale against Crete with combined operations by the Luftwaffe, Italian Navy, and land forces' (5). Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, has effectively given Vichy an 'eleventh hour warning' to 'stop the Germans, but it is running out'. It seems unlikely that it will be effective. In what The Times describes as a 'surrender by Pétain' (4), Vichy has

decided definitively on political agreement with Hitler, and henceforth the whole French political, economic, financial, and colonial policy will conform with that of the Axis. This includes the placing of the French African Empire at the disposal of the Axis for common development.

Hitler has apparently already demanded 'as of right the abandonment by the French of the Cameroons, the occupation of which by the Germans would involve an open march across Morocco'.

The Hess affair is still attracting comment, again much of it of a contradictory nature. A leader in the Guardian says 'its military significance is small' (4):

It does not weaken German military power; it will not cause any slackening of German arms; if anything, it will only increase Nazi fanaticism.

By contrast, The Times's military correspondent is of the opinion that (4):

To have at our disposal in the midst of war not simply a man who knows a great deal but actually a man who knows everything about the enemy's policy, plans, weaknesses, hopes, and fears is a unique experience [...] It is the wildest dream of the intelligence services come true.

Berlin, of course, wants to downplay any such notion. The Guardian reports that German 'officials' yesterday claimed that 'Military and diplomatic action of such magnitude can be expected in the near future that Hess will be completely eclipsed' (8).

Readers of The Times don't seem too impressed by Hess's defection, or whatever it is (Churchill still hasn't made his expected statement on the matter, although he did answer some questions in the House of Commons yesterday). Beatrice Brownrigg writes in to say (5):

From the tone of smug complacency in which the announcer of the B.B.C. gave out the news this morning, he must have thought it would bring infinite satisfaction to the suffering victims of the bloody savagery of the enemy, of which Rudolf Hess is one of the most guilty, to know that Rudolf Hess is "very comfortable." Shall we next have our day made sweeter by being assured that, in spite of the treachery of his friend, Hitler has passed a good night!

Not there is much 'bloody savagery' to report in the way of air raids: 'little damage and no casualties' were reported yesterday (4). However some censorship restrictions on discussing previous air raid damage to London have been lifted. The Guardian's London correspondent (4):

the destruction by German raiders of more precious churches and Queen's Hall -- now indeed a ruined choir -- and damage to St. James's Palace and Lambeth Palace and the Old Bailey and Shaftesbury Theatre. St. Clement Danes, whose bells had rung out Oranges and Lemons ever since Covent Garden Market existed near by, was a Wren church with a Gibbs tower and one of the two island churches that formed the chief beauty of the Strand. Johnson worshipped there and his statue still stands with its back to its blackened apse. The Old Bailey has a huge rent in its façade and its library lies beneath tons of wreckage. Thousands of pounds' worth of instruments belonging to the London Philharmonic Orchestra were destroyed at Queen's Hall. At Lambeth Palace, too, many valuable books were destroyed and the Chapel roof was burned out.

The Times belatedly welcomes the centralisation of Britain's fire-fighting services, which its leading article reports 'has given wide satisfaction' (5). But it wants more. It endorses an article by 'a special correspondent' which calls for more thoroughgoing centralisation of civil defences . The time has come, the correspondent writes, 'for radical change':

Air attack has come to stay. For months, years perhaps, we have to face the prospect for our cities of ordeal by fire and high explosive. The present writer has seen at close quarters the consequences of bombing in many of our large towns. The tragedy follows much the same lines whatever the locality: destruction of public buildings and commercial houses by fire and high explosive; shattering of private homes, temporary breakdown of communication by road, rail, telegraph, telephone; cutting off of gas, water, electricity. It is a pattern common to all.

Thus it is urgent 'that the defensive machinery should be made at once more simple, flexible, and authoritative. The tangle of competing local bodies and their officials must be cut away and power concentrated on one responsible unit', namely the Regional Commissioners who are to have great powers in the event of invasion. 'But invasion tarries [...] the situation in a bombed area brooks of no delay if human suffering is to be mitigated'.

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.