Post-blogging 1940-2

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The Times, 17 September 1940, 4

Sunday wasn't just Fighter Command's day -- Bomber Command was also hard at work, bombing targets in Berlin and western Germany and along the invasion coast, sinking three ships and losing no aircraft. And not just Bomber Command, either: The Times prints a message from the Air Minister to Coastal Command (4):

I have been asked by the War Cabinet to convey to all squadrons of the Coastal Command their admiration of the skill and courage with which they have carried out the vital and arduous but often unspectacular tasks allotted to them, and of the enterprise and success with which in recent days they have struck at the harbours, shipping, and coastal defences of the enemy.

Of course this is buried at the bottom of the page, whereas Churchill's message to Fighter Command gets a spot at the top of the page, with much bigger headlines:
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Daily Mail, 16 September 1940, 1

There's no doubt what's newsworthy today. The Daily Mail trumpets the big battle over the Home Counties yesterday, the 'most shattering defeat' the Luftwaffe has ever experienced (1):

The Air Ministry state that between 350 and 400 enemy aircraft were launched in two waves against London and south-east England.

Of these no fewer than 175 were shot down, four of them by A.A. fire. This is a proportion of nearly one in two destroyed. All these are "certainties," for the total does not include "probables."

The R.A.F. lost 30 'planes, and ten of the pilots are safe.

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Daily Mail, 13 September 1940, 1

For the last two nights Bomber Command has been hitting hard at both the invasion ports -- 'their heaviest blows yet' -- as well as Hamburg and Berlin, says the front page of the Daily Mail:

The Anhalter railway terminus was severely damaged following the previous day's attack on the Potsdam stations. These stations are the King's Cross, St. Pancras, and Euston of Berlin.

A.A. guns in the Tiergarten, the city's Hyde Park, were bombed, and the Templehof [sic] aerodrome, its Croydon, was damaged.

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The Listener, 12 September 1940

Today I'll take a break from the press and look at The Listener. This was a weekly publication of the BBC, a higher-brow companion to the Radio Times. Both carried listings of the week's radio programmes, but whereas these are the main focus of the Radio Times, The Listener confines them to half a page towards the back. The bulk of the magazine consists of the texts of some of the previous week's more intellectual broadcasts, as well as original articles, book reviews, recipes (I'll spare you the one for sheep's head curry) and a famously difficult crossword.
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Manchester Guardian, 11 September 1940, 5

I've noted that for the past two days two major London papers -- The Times and the Daily Mail -- have not led with the bombing of the city. I don't have today's Mail to hand, but it's the same for The Times today ('Fresh R.A.F. blow at Berlin', etc). But here is a provincial newspaper (albeit one with national influence), the Manchester Guardian, concentrating almost exclusively on the pounding the capital is receiving (5). I'm not sure what to make of this, or indeed whether to make anything of it all. Is it a liberal vs conservative difference (let's think about the wounded rather than focus on revenge) or a regional vs metropolitan one (Londoners don't need to be told what they are experiencing)? Or just small number statistics?
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The Times, 10 September 1940, 4

As with the Daily Mail yesterday, The Times doesn't give the bombing of London the biggest headlines (4). Those are reserved for the RAF's bombing of enemy shipping in the Channel ports, which the Germans are concentrating in readiness for the invasion, and this is the lead story along with Bomber Command's raid on Hamburg. There is, however, a column of news on the air war overhead: the Air Ministry reports that 47 enemy aircraft were shot down yesterday (2 by anti-aircraft fire, the rest by fighters), with 13 British losses. There was a daylight raid on London, beginning at about 5.10pm; there are gratifying accounts of bombers crashing onto roads or exploding in midair, as well as less happy ones of civilians killed by their deadly cargo. Part of the reticence to give over the main news page to the bombing may be explained by the leading article on page 4, which tries to downplay the extent of the raids somewhat:

Certainly the material damage done on Sunday was again extensive and the loss of life severe: but again this may be described as not serious when measured by the grand scale of the war [...] the raiders seem to have come over in small numbers at a time, and there was never a concentrated attack by so large a force upon a single localized objective as on Saturday had caused such damage by fire in the area of the Docks.

It is however accepted that 'these attacks will continue nightly for some time to come', and that London must therefore 'steel itself'.
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Daily Mail, 9 September 1940, 1

Saturday's bombing of London isn't quite as prominent on the front page of the Daily Mail as one might expect. There are a few small items about it (e.g. a panorama of London ablaze, taken from the top of Northcliffe House; a report from Italian radio that Londoners are 'absolutely terrified' by the raids) but there's actually more about the threatened German invasion (including a report of false alarms in Surrey, the south-west and Scotland). And the main article, by air correspondent Noel Monks, deals with both. It reports that yesterday was a fairly quiet day, and that London's casualties are around 400 dead and 1300 or 1400 wounded (presumably not including those from last night's raid). Monks gives much cause for optimism: the Air Staff believe that Germany has recalled aircraft from Norway to take part 'in the Battle of Britain', and that German bomber crews are making up to three sorties a day.

This seems to indicate that the German air force is not so great as Hitler would have the world believe, though it is still ahead of the R.A.F. in numerical terms.

When taken together with the RAF's belief that 'it is a case of "now or never"' and that

If Hitler has not gained aerial superiority by October 1, his invasion plans will be definitely postponed and possibly abandoned

then things are looking up.
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Observer, 8 September 1940, 7

'[T]he great daylight attack on London' (7) yesterday evening came at an awkward time for the Observer. It was too late to do the opinion page over, and so it features editor J. L. Garvin's thoughts on the destroyer deal and the battle of wills between Hitler and Churchill. So there is less than half a page on 'London's biggest daylight raid of the war', and much of that space is filled by official communiques. Here's the statement put out by the Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security last night:
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