7 October was not the end of the Blitz or even of the Battle of Britain, but it is the end of my post-blogging of 1940, at least for now. The main reason for this is because I'm running out of primary sources, especially the Daily Mail. But as I think I've shown, in the preceding week or two the press (at least the parts available to me) seems to have decided that a turning point in the air battle had been reached: that the Luftwaffe had been decisively repulsed by day and that the invasion was not coming. Also, the early shock of the bombing of London had worn off -- after three weeks or so it was clear that this was no knock-out blow -- and the problems in the shelters were starting to be resolved by a number of well-publicised measures. So late September/early October turns out to be as good a place to stop as any.
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Civil defence
Monday, 7 October 1940
'RAF PREPARING A GREAT NEW BOMBING OFFENSIVE', Daily Mail, page 1:
POWERFUL new R.A.F. bombers now being produced in great numbers and an amazing new long-range fighter are likely to be used, in the immediate future, for a greatly intensified bombing offensive over Germany.
Hitler's people can look forward to more than a taste of the medicine their Luftwaffe is administering over here.
'Shortest Raid. LONDON ALERT LASTS 20 MINS.':
LONDON had its usual air-raid warning half-an-hour than usual last night. It proved to be the shortest after-dark "Alert" since the blitzkrieg began, lasting barely 20 minutes.
And it was followed by the longest period of quiet.
'2-TONS OF BOMBS RAIN ON KRUPPS':
TWO tons of bombs were rained on the great Krupps arms works at Essen during a lightning high-altitude attack by the R.A.F. in Saturday night.
[...]
They started a trail of fire across Germany's oil plants and railway yards, blasting the docks in Holland, and set the French coast aflame from Dunkirk to Boulogne.
'Nazis Lose More Than They Kill':
LORD CROFT of Bournemouth, Under-Secretary for War, revealed yesterday:
"It is believed that ten days ago a single British submarine sent more German soldiers to their doom than all the British deaths caused by German airmen in the whole month of August.
[...]
"It is highly probable that far more German war factory workers have lost their lives than the total losses inflicted on our civilians from air attack."
Sunday, 6 October 1940
For the third week in a row the Observer reserves its biggest headlines for a story about diplomacy rather than war -- here the Hitler-Mussolini Brenner Pass meeting and subsequent threats made against Britain in the Axis press. This is deemed by the diplomatic correspondent to be a 'bogy-war' aimed at European neutrals, an 'elaborate propaganda designed to persuade the victims that Germany and Italy will win the war, and will show no mercy to those who oppose them' (7).
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Saturday, 5 October 1940
The Daily Mail today leads with changes at the top of the RAF. The Chief of the Air Staff, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Cyril Newall, has been kicked upstairs to the Governor-Generalship of New Zealand. His replacement, Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal, has come from commanding Bomber Command; and his replacement there will be Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse. Noel Monks emphasises the relative youth -- 47 and 48 respectively -- and experience of both Portal and Peirse, and is confident that they are the right men for the job (1):
Both men are great believers in offensive operations. Both strongly maintain that the winning of the war will be greatly assisted by large-scale bombing offensives against the Nazis in their own territory
Newall's retirement should not be seen as a disgrace, as it comes 'at the moment when the R.A.F. are universally acclaimed the saviours of Britain'.
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Tuesday, 1 October 1940
The Luftwaffe launched several large air raids in daylight hours yesterday. They had little success, and lost 47 aircraft. Fighter Command lost 22, but 12 of the pilots are safe (though the category 'safe' includes those alive but maimed, alive but burned, alive but psychologically scarred). Night attacks took place on London and the north-west of England; Bomber Command raided 'war industries' and aerodromes in Germany and occupied Europe. The Manchester Guardian reports that 'Houses on the Kent coast were shaken by the explosions' of bombs falling on Calais harbour and 'gun emplacements near Cap Gris-Nez' (5).
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Saturday, 28 September 1940
The Luftwaffe launched mass daylight raids against London and Bristol yesterday, 'the most widespread of the war' according to the Daily Mail (1), and with the largest losses since 15 September, too. German losses are reported to be 130 aircraft and about 300 aircrew, while the British lost 34 fighters and 19 pilots. Many people watched the battles from the ground, and 'cheered as raider after raider fell'.
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Friday, 27 September 1940
The Daily Mail has some good news to splash on its front page today. (The Times dourly leads with the story of yet another record air raid on Berlin.) Another 46 survivors have been rescued from the lost liner SS City of Benares, which was reported as sunk last Monday. They drifted in the Atlantic for eight days before being spotted by a Sunderland flying boat. As well as 'British and Lascar seamen' there were six boys, aged between 9 and 16, along with two adult minders, who were being evacuated to Canada but are doubtless quite happy to have fetched up in Scotland instead. That still leaves 77 dead child evacuees.
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Wednesday, 25 September 1940
Berlin has had its longest and heaviest raid of the war so far (the lengthening nights would be making it easier for the RAF to get there and back under cover of darkness). The Air Ministry reported the raid as follows (as reported by the Manchester Guardian on page 5):
Throughout last night [Monday] strong bomber forces of the R.A.F. delivered a heavy attack on military objectives in and around Berlin. This attack was on a much larger scale than any yet carried out, and preliminary reports show that extensive damage was done.
Among the targets selected by our aircraft and heavily bombed were Rangsdorf railway station and several goods yards, including that at Grünewald; the west tower of Wilmersdorf electric power station; gasworks at Dantzigerstrasse and Neukölln; factories at Charlottenburg and Spandau, including Brandenburg motor works, and other objectives.
Tuesday, 24 September 1940
Things are on the move again, at least in French West Africa. De Gaulle's Free French, assisted by the Royal Navy, are attempting to wrest control of Dakar from their Vichy brethren. A naval battle was raging there yesterday afternoon, though presumably it is over now. According to the Ministry of Information, this action was necessary because the 'Germans were making were making persistent efforts to bring Dakar under their control' (4). According to the Vichy foreign minister, M. Baudoin, this is worse than Mers-el-Kebir, as it is 'not simply a question simply of ships, which might be taken by Germans or Italians, but of a British desire for French property'.
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Monday, 23 September 1940
There is tragic news today. Not that there has been any shortage of that lately, but this is on a different scale, at least qualitatively. A British passenger liner has been sunk by a U-boat in the Atlantic, with heavy loss of life. The ship -- its name has not yet been published -- was evacuating children to safety in Canada: eighty-three are reported lost, and only seven rescued. Two hundred and eleven others also perished, including seven other children not part of the official evacuation programme. The Daily Mail reports (1) that:
Some of the children were trapped in the ship or killed by the explosion.
Others suffered from exposure in life-boats and on rafts, which were swept by wind, waves, rain, and hail for hours before they could be picked up by a British warship.
A full list of the lost children is given on page 5, and stories from the survivors on page 6.
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