Post-blogging 1940-2

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Manchester Guardian, 16 May 1941, 5

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.

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Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1941, 5

The remarkable flight to Scotland of Rudolf Hess still dominates the headlines today, though much more so in the Manchester Guardian (5) than in The Times, it must be said. More details are emerging. It now seems that Hess was trying to meet with one specific person, the Duke of Hamilton, whose seat is at Dungavel, just a few miles from where Hess landed by parachute.

The Duke is on active service, and was not at Dungavel on Saturday night. The Duke, who is the premier peer of Scotland, is 38, and succeeded to his title last year on the death of his father. He is best remembered for his boxing and flying achievements as Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale, and he has met Hess through his sporting interests.

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The Times, 14 May 1940, 4

If there was a surprising absence of speculation yesterday about the reasons behind Hess's flight to Britain, that omission has been handsomely rectified in today's newspapers. The Times even goes so far as to declare in its headlines that Hess, 'essentially an idealist', was 'disillusioned' (4).

Why? He is believed first to have become more and more disgusted by the trickery and shamelessness of Hitler's entourage. More than that he is believed to have become horrified by the bloodshed which he saw around him and by the prospect (held out in Hitler's last speech) of still further bloodshed "wherever and whenever I command the German soldiers to march." In all his speeches Hess has glorified the power of the German Army, but always (much more than any other German leader) he has insisted that the true aim should be a final peace.

A further report (from the German frontier, based on 'Current gossip in Germany'!) notes that during Hitler's speech in the Reichstag on 4 May, Hess 'appeared detached, expressionless, and almost bored, and contrasting this with his habitual and profoundly devotional attitude towards Hitler' (3).
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Manchester Guardian, 12 May 1941, 5

Saturday night's heavy air raid on London damaged some of its greatest buildings. Parliament were hit hard: the House of Commons is 'wrecked', in the words of the Manchester Guardian today; Westminster Abbey is 'open to the sky' (5), though its structure is still intact. Other historic buildings were hit too. From The Times (4):

What some consider the most magnificent roof in the world -- that of Westminster Hall, with its soaring arches and sweeping beams of oak -- has been pierced by bombs, and damage has been done to the interior. The hall was started by William Rufus in 1097 [...]

Big Ben's face was blackened and scarred, but although the apparatus which broadcasts the chimes was for a time put out of action, the hands of the clock continued without interruption telling the time to Londoners.

The Deanery of Westminster, one of the best examples of medieval houses in England, has been destroyed [...]

The British Museum was set alight by a shower of incendiaries, which burnt through the roof and set fire to the back of the building [...] Fortunately most of the treasures had been removed to safety, and the damage was comparatively light.

Is it a sign of increasing indifference that the human cost of the raid is relegated to a few paragraphs at the end of the article, or is just that the destruction in the heart of London was something that could not be underplayed?
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Observer, 11 May 1941, 5

The lead story in the Observer today is one of those not-yet-news stories: an 'important pronouncement' on 'a more active policy' from President Roosevelt is 'expected' (5) on Wednesday. The implication is that this will bring America closer to war one way or another, something 'more than moral encouragement and material aid' for Britain. But it's just speculation, apart from some aggressive speeches made by his secretaries of state and of the navy, though perhaps it is based on some insider information. Who knows? The suggestion is that April's jump in Allied and neutral shipping losses (488,000 tons total), the highest monthly total for the war so far, has 'dispelled any possible illusion about the Battle of the Atlantic'. However, the Admiralty points out that 187,000 tons of this total was lost in the recent Mediterranean operations, much of it Greek shipping sunk in Greek ports. So it's not actually clear that this does represent a new stage in the Battle of the Atlantic. (Still, sunk ships are sunk ships.)
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Manchester Guardian, 10 May 1941, 7

Ten aircraft failed to return from Bomber Command's operations over Germany on Thursday night. Those losses are quite small in relation to the number of British aircraft involved in the raids on Hamburg and Bremen, between three and four hundred, 'certainly the largest number ever used in one night' according to page 7 of the Manchester Guardian.

Moon and weather favoured the attack, and the submarine and shipbuilding yards of both ports were heavily damaged. Pilots' individual reports speak of areas a mass of flames, in which it was impossible to distinguish separate fires, and of great explosions caused by our most powerful bombs being dropped into the heart of the fires.

The report in The Times (4) is more vivid and evocative, which seems to have inspired even the subeditor ('cities seared by fire').

In other industrial quarters of both towns there were widespread fires as well, and many other marks of devastation. At Hamburg a whole wharf was blazing as a single stick of bombs was seen to split open a row of buildings. Here smoke was rising to 10,000ft., and in another part of the town smoke rolled in black eddies and suggested the destruction of great stores of oil.

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Glasgow Herald, 19 March 1941, 7

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 shortly after Churchill's speech in honour of the new US ambassador, John Winant. Churchill said that

Not only German U-boats but German battle cruisers have crossed to the American side of the Atlantic, and have already sunk some of our independently routed ships not sailing in convoy. They have sunk the ships as far west as the 42nd meridian longitude.

Even more, he played up the significance of Lease-and-Lend, describing it as 'an ocean-borne trumpet-call [which tells us] that we are no longer alone'. Churchill's conclusion:

You, Mr Ambassador, share our purposes. You will share our dangers. You will share our interests. You shall share our secrets. And the day will come when the British Empire and the United States will share together the solemn but splendid duties which are the crown of victory.

It sounds like US entry into the war is a mere formality. Of course, Churchill would very much like it to be.
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Glasgow Herald, 18 March 1941, 5

By recapturing from Italian forces Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland, a small part of the British Empire has been restored. Royal Navy warships landed Army troops at the port, suffering 'negligible' (Glasgow Herald, 5) casualties. RAF armoured cars assisted too.

This adds to the Allied offensive against Addis Ababa: 'British Empire troops are now steadily closing in on the heart of the Italian Empire from 13 points', according to a military representative in Cairo. The Herald noted that when the Italians attacked British Somaliland, they spoke of 'the "expulsion of the British from the Western shore of the Red Sea," and of the "enormous effect" it would have on the Arab world'. That was just seven months ago, so this effect didn't last very long.
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Glasgow Herald, 17 March 1941, 5

Today the Glasgow Herald returns to what has been the predominant theme of the last week, America's increasing commitment to the Allied cause, here represented by a 'world broadcast' made by Roosevelt on Saturday (5).

Fearlessly he castigated the Axis partners -- "these modern tyrants" with their "stuff and nonsense" about the master race. Their "new order," he said, was neither new nor order -- it was a system imposed by conquest and based on slavery.

Roosevelt says that the Nazis are not looking for 'mere modifications in colonial maps or in minor European boundaries'; they instead wish to 'eliminate all democracies'. But they've miscalculated, because 'democracy can still remain democracy and speak and reach conclusions and arm itself adequately for defence'. Presuming referring to Lease-and-Lend, he added that

This decision is the end of any attempt at appeasement in our land, the end of urging us to get along with dictators, the end of compromise with tyranny and the forces of oppression.

Certainly, these are strong words for a non-belligerent.
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