There have been a lot of stories in the press recently with titles like ‘Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show’. Actually, the TNA files — part of an ongoing series of releases of UFO-related files — don’t show this at all, as is clear if you read the article more closely. The cover-up is […]
In late August 1940, as the aerial battle over Britain intensified, the Manchester Guardian published a short, light-hearted account of how the war was affecting a cathedral town in the provinces. For example, a dogfight takes place overhead, and shelterers scatter outside to pick up bullet casings for souvenirs; four of the enemy raiders are
This photograph of Australian soldiers was taken during the First World War. It’s not particularly unusual: just a group of mates getting together to record a memento, perhaps after a weekend’s carousing in the fleshpots of Cairo or Paris. Mateship is a important concept in Australian culture. The OED defines it as ‘The condition of
I have written before about the widespread fear of German paratroops in Britain in May and June 1940. Here’s a sterling example from somewhere in London, as described in the Ministry of Information’s Home Intelligence report for 7 June 1940: A false alarm on a housing estate of parachutists occasioned by a flock of pigeons
Follow the events of 1940 day by day and week by week, seventy years later: Airminded – 7 October 1940 Battle of Britain Day by Day – 31 October 1940 Days of Glory – 31 October 1940 Duxford Operations Blog – 31 October 1940 Nick Cooper’s Random Blog – 31 October/1 November 1940 Orwell Diaries
Recently, Martin Waligorski contacted me to see if I’d like to collaborate with him in his post-blogging project, Battle of Britain – 70 Years. I had been thinking about doing some sort of post-blogging this year to mark the 70th anniversary of 1940, but probably not until later in the year, and for the Blitz
[Cross-posted at Cliopatria.] It’s Anzac Day once again. On Anzac Day, Australia remembers some things but forgets others. We remember the sacrifices of the original Anzacs at Gallipoli, but forget that it wasn’t only Australians who suffered. We remember the many thousands of young Australians who have fought in foreign wars since then, but forget
In the summer of 1940, strange patterns like these began to appear in the sky over southern England. Today they wouldn’t be thought so unusual (except that they are on the twisty side), for contrails are a common sight now, especially over London. Seventy years ago, however, they were a little mysterious, even to those
Compare and contrast. The Daily Mail in 2007: During the dark days of the Second World War, British children passed the time with marbles, hopscotch, tiddlywinks and, for a lucky few, a Monopoly set. But over in Germany, the amusements were far less innocent. In one version of bagatelle named Bombers over England, children as
I hadn’t come across this before. @ukwarcabinet recently linked to some informal notes of a War Cabinet meeting held on 8 February 1940. It was pretty quiet, even for the Bore War, and ‘Some of the subjects discussed were rather discussed by way of filling in time’. Including this: At the end of the Meeting
