Post-blogging 1940-2

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Daily Mail, 7 October 1940, 1

'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.

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"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."

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Observer, 6 October 1940, 7

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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Daily Mail, 5 October 1940, 1

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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Daily Mail, 4 October 1940, 1

Politics intrudes onto the front page of the Daily Mail today, in the form of a Cabinet reshuffle. But this being wartime, people are perhaps more likely to invest these normally mundane ministerial changes with great significance. The Mail certainly does, leading with the story that Sir John Reith, former Director-General of the BBC (and more recently chairman of Imperial Airways, Minister of Information and Minister of Transport) has been given the job of planning for the post-war reconstruction of Britain, or at least its buildings -- though the 'large-scale slum clearances' envisaged would certainly have a social impact. Reith will also be looking at more immediate repairs for those buildings which can't wait, and 'in all probability start[ing] an immediate investigation into the question of providing more and better air-raid shelters'. But it's the optimistic 'Planning now for day of victory' angle which the Mail plays up.

The other big change is probably the promotion by Churchill of Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, into the War Cabinet in order to 'represent the trade unions'. The reshuffle was occasioned by the resignation of Neville Chamberlain as Lord President of the Council, on the grounds of ill health. He may be up for a peerage.
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Let's look at how the British aviation press is covering the air war, by way of today's issue of Flight, its longest-running periodical (and official organ of the Royal Aero Club). The front cover, along with the first and the last few pages, carry advertisements for various aviation-related products. Here Titanine Ltd is promoting 'the world's premier dope', cleverly incorporating an appropriate and patriotic symbol in the form of an RAF roundel.
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Times, 2 October 1940

The Times reports (4) that Monday night's raids on Germany included one on the railway yards at Mannheim, where aircrew reported seeing 'a terrific explosion, "the biggest we have seen on any raid so far"' after dropping their bombs; and a long raid on Berlin:

An Air Ministry News Bulletin says that the West power station in Berlin, badly damaged in previous raids, was clearly identified by flares, and a few minutes after the first stick had fallen there was a large explosion and numerous fires marked the success of the attack. The Klingenberg power station was also heavily bombed. Railways were hit, and a factory was set alight.

By contrast, damage caused by German bombers that same night included: houses around a famous square in Central London', a 'girls' prepratory school, in use as a stretcher party station', a laundry, a church hall, shops, a number of houses, and, in 'an industrial town in the East Midlands', a factory (though the fires were quickly put out) and three pubs (2). In daylight attacks on London yesterday, the Luftwaffe did even less damage. A solitary early morning raider, a Ju 88, machine-gunned a train as it was pulling out of a station in 'a populous area south-east of London', though there were no casualties. It then proceeded to fly over nearby streets and machine-gun them:

One local resident said: -- "The bomber swooped right down and raked the streets with heavy machine-gun fire. No one was hit, for the only person in the street was a milkman, and he saved his life by dashing for the shelter of a house. Every bottle in the front of the milk van was smashed by bullets. The horse had a remarkable escape."

A Hurricane shot down a lone bomber in Surrey shortly afterwards, which may have been the same machine.
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Manchester Guardian, 1 October 1940, 5

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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Daily Mail, 30 September 1940, 1

Noel Monks, air correspondent of the Daily Mail, is in a confident mood today (1). He is essentially declaring victory for the RAF in the Battle of Britain:

THE R.A.F. have weathered with the passing of September, the "crisis month" of the war. On the first of the month that ends to-day a high Air Ministry official said to me: "As far as the R.A.F. are concerned, this is the critical month of the war: I will be glad when it is past."

Now it IS past. And the R.A.F., who have hurled back every attack made on them, the airmen who have destroyed more than 1,000 German aircraft for the loss of only 286 of their own fighters, have come out on top.

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Observer, 29 September 1940, 7

Friday witnessed the signing of the 'Axis-Japanese Pact' in Berlin. The Observer's diplomatic correspondent believes the pact is 'chiefly aimed at the United States', and 'is intended to steal a march on what is regarded as the inevitable alignment of Britain, America, Russia, and China' (7):

Under it, the Axis and Japan pledge each other military aid should any of them be attacked by a Power not at present involved in the European or China wars.

The belief that America will eventually enter the war is a common one (and reflected here by the claim that the likely American response to the pact will be to step up aid to Britain). But I'm surprised to see Russia being thought of in the same way; it's not so long ago that British men were volunteering to help defend Finland against the Red Army.
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Daily Mai, 28 September 1940, 1

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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