The Battle of Los Angeles took place on the night of 24 February 1942. It was more of a ‘battle’ than a battle: only one side did any shooting, and it’s not at all clear that there was a second side. The defenders of Los Angeles thought there was: they claimed they were shooting at […]
After Philip Noel-Baker’s opening speech on 21 June 1938, the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, replied for the government. He began by touching briefly on the Japanese invasion of China, in a way which interestingly foreshadowed something he said just over three months later: if it were not that China is so far away and the
Lead item in today’s Glasgow Herald is a report that ‘a German U-boat is believed to have reached waters somewhere off the North Atlantic coast of America’ (7). Slow news day? Not really; the real story is the way the war is creeping ever closer to America, and vice versa. The U-boat news was announced
The war news today is much closer to home for the Glasgow Herald than usual. A big air raid last night on ‘a Central district of Scotland’ (5) is vividly described, as though the reporter had witnessed it: readers would know for themselves just how far away it was. One Nazi ‘plane which appeared to
The big news today is that the latest Italian offensive against Greek forces in the Tepelini sector has been a disaster. War correspondents estimate 10,000 Italian casualties, including 2000 dead; yet ‘it was stated in authoritative circles in London yesterday that the Italians do not appear to have made any perceptible progress’ (5). This is
The Glasgow Herald today again leads with Lease-and-Lend, specifically the massive appropriation request made by Roosevelt to Congress — over half a billion pounds’ worth of ‘aircraft and aeronautical material, including engines, spares, and accessories’ alone (5). The Bill will be ready for debate early next week: the Speak of the House of Representatives, Sam
I’ve previously posted some of Gorden Cullen’s artwork for the Tecton Group’s 1939 book Planned A.R.P.. Here are some more of his cute drawings dealing with an awful subject. In this case, he is illustrating the ‘general agreement among experts’ on the threat posed by the bomber. (a) The range, speed, and carrying capacity of
The Manchester Guardian might have allowed itself a moment for self-congratulation here, as its previous call for compulsory fire-watchers appears to have been heeded (5). (Though it was not alone, as an article on page 10 quotes similar commentary from The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail.) The decision was
Cmnd. 124, Defence: Outline of Future Policy, is one of the most famous (and infamous) documents in British military history. It’s better known as the 1957 Defence White Paper, or the Sandys White Paper after the Minister of Defence responsible for it, Duncan Sandys. It ended National Service, committed Britain to nuclear deterrence, and foreshadowed
I was going to end this section of the post-blog with yesterday’s post, but who could resist a front page like this? It’s so emotive and manipulative. The scene itself is tragic enough: the mass burial and funeral of 172 men, women and children killed in the blitz on Coventry last Thursday night. Another seventy
