|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 11:45:19 GMT 8
July 10, 1940 1st group of British children evacuated to USa- to escape Nazi bombing & invasion- arriving safe in New York Harbour.  ----------------- Queen Consort Elizabeth refuses to evacuate her daughters from UK: "They won't go without me. I won't leave the King. & he will never leave" ------------------ Luftwaffe pilots are preparing for a major raid on Britain's south coast- to tempt out Royal Air Force & destroy them.  ------------------ Heavy cloud of last 10 days has lifted, allowing 1st mass air attack on UK: 120 German planes are heading out over Channel to bomb a convoy. -------------------- 5 RAF squadrons (~60 planes) have scrambled to fight off Luftwaffe bombing a British convoy; massive aerial dogfight.  ------------------- German bomber pilot Lt. Bechtle (safe away from fighters): "Magnificent dogfight! From a distance, the aircraft look like bunches of grapes" ------------------- In their 1st major clash, RAF have lost 3 planes (but only 1 pilot) to the Luftwaffe's 4; 1 British man: "We have the measure of the enemy." ------------------ French Parliament have voted to abolish democratic Third Republic & confer supreme authority to war hero Marshal Pétain ----------------- French national motto Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, now replaced by Travail, Famille, Patrie: Work, Family, Fatherland.  ---------------------- UK govt, scared of popular unrest, criminalising "alarm & despondency"; 1 Irishman given 14 day's hard labour for calling English "traitors" -------------------- Public angry at UK government? Clerk sentenced to 12 months in prison for saying "We are fighting to provide dividends for the ruling class" ---------------- Aristocrat: "Rich suffer- must live in hotels" George Orwell: "Nothing will ever teach them that other 99% of us exist" orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/3-6-40/------------------ Churchill to Cabinet: Little risk of Nazi invasion; but let people fear it, to stiffen UK resolve. ww2today.com/10th-july-1940-churchill-considers-the-prospects-for-invasion------------------- New UK bans on "luxury eating": restaurant meals (still not rationed) must have only 1 meat/fish course; no iced cakes. ---------------------- Luftwaffe General Johannes Fink is toasting the 1st serious clash with RAF in champagne; his officers are convinced British will soon crack |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 14:24:54 GMT 8
July 11, 1940 UK War Cabinet now hearing summary of this week's events; Nazi bombing raids & inconclusive clash with Italian navy: ww2today.com/11th-july-1940-weekly-resume-the-mediterranean-war-hots-up--------------------- The City of Baghdad is being attacked by Atlantis- a German warship, which has sunk the City (a British steamer) & captured her crew. ----------------------- Hitler now meeting military & naval chiefs (incl. Admiral Raeder, R), to discuss Operation Sealion: invasion of Britain  ----------------------- Admiral Raeder reports: "Britain can be made to ask for peace by submarine & air warfare. The Führer views invasion as a last resort." ------------------- Bishop of Tolouse blames French defeat on "perversions of modern ideas"- "We must repent for 60 years of national apostasy & anarchy." -------------------- Everyone living in the UK must give guidebooks & large-scale maps to the police; for fear of Nazi spies, permits now required to own maps. ------------- Romania's King Carol, unpopular for ceding land to USSR & facing protests from Fascist Iron Guard, has imprisoned their leader Ion Antonescu ----------------------- After years of rationing, lean Germans now enjoy fruits of conquest: vegetables from Holland, fish from Norway, meat from France flooding in --------------------- Belgian Dr. Paul Dunner: "Today I saw our astonishing tribute: a convoy of 40 trucks, heading for Germany, loaded solely with pots of jam." ---------------------- Continuing mass raids, Luftwaffe now attacking Portsmouth- but they've overshot the docks, bombing the Blue Anchor Pub. |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 14:31:41 GMT 8
July 12, 1940 Bowing to Japanese demands, British authorities have closed the Burma Road- free China's lifeline to desperately-needed fuel & ammunition. ----------------------------------- Lord Halifax, UK Foreign Secretary: "We should tell the Japanese to go to the devil; but they've threatened to seize Hong Kong if we refuse" ------------------------ Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek outraged by UK's refusal to help vs Japan: "You people are counting beads!"  -------------------- Free China's capital, Chungking, heavily bombed. German embassy painting swastika on roof to warn off Japanese bombers  ---------------------- Germans now bombing Scotland; 1 blast "blew a piano through a house where 2 ladies were having pre-lunch sherry, shocking both." ----------------------- Britain launching a "Pots into Planes" program, asking for donations of aluminum cookware for recycling into aircraft.  ------------------------ Roosevelt asking for huge US military budget increase of $4.8 billion; but only for defense: "Your boys will not be sent to foreign wars" ------------------------- Midnight. 3rd Republic of France officially dissolved. Marshal Pétain now supreme authority; he boasts: "I have more powers than Louis XVI" |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 14:43:40 GMT 8
July 13, 1940 Huge response to UK's scrap aluminium for war drive. Donated so far: 10,000s of pans, a racing car & an artificial leg. -------------------- Duke of Windsor, ex-King Edward VIII (photo: 3 years ago), has been ordered to Bahamas due to suspected Nazi sympathies  ----------------------- Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop cables Duke (now in Lisbon): "Hitler wants peace with England- hold yourself ready for future developments" ------------------ Spanish friend of Windsors: "The Duke is a firm supporter of peace- he definitely believes that severe bombing will make UK feel the same." ------------------ Fascist authorities banning Italians from using the blackout to "indulge in frivolous actions- petting parties & couple's carriage rides." -------------------- From today's New York Times: A comparison of the lands conquered by 2 great dictators- Hitler & Napoleon.  ------------------------ German Gen. Halder: "Why is England still unwilling to make peace? Führer thinks they hope that Russia will intervene to save them." --------------------- UK ship Dunera, bound for Australia with 2000+ interned Germans & Italians (almost all anti-Nazi refugees) has been hit by a German torpedo. ----------------------- It's only a glancing blow. Dunera continues on- but conditions onboard are horrific. Ship's carrying more than double maximum passengers. -------------------------- Walter Zion, Jewish refugee on Dunera: "It's an overcrowded hell-hole. Hammocks almost touch, many men sleep on the floor or on tables." ------------------- Walter: "Before we set sail, our possessions were dumped in a huge pile on the dock. Soldiers picked from them, openly looting." |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 14:56:36 GMT 8
July 14, 1940 Today's Bastille Day- French national day of celebration. In Vichy France, it's been declared a day of mourning over national decline. ---------------------- In London, General de Gaulle & Free French forces celebrating Bastille Day in defiance of Nazi victory; watch them now: www.britishpathe.com/video/14th-july-1940-frances-national-day---------------------- Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania- all occupied by USSR- holding elections on whether to accept Soviet occupiers. All non-Communist parties banned --------------------- By accident, Communist officials in London have published results of Soviet-organised Baltic "elections"- not due to finish until tomorrow. ------------------------- Warship HMS Esperance Bay, carrying £10 million Bank of England gold to Canada, just bombed- 8 dead. Sinking, she's trying to get back to UK ----------------------- Luftwaffe now bombing UK convoy. 1 of Göring's Kanalkampf- "Channel Battles" to draw out & destroy RAF- about to begin  ----------------------- BBC radioman Dean Sumner, watching- & reporting- the dogfight from cliffs of Dover: "You can see German bombs actually leaving the planes!" ------------------------ "There’s 1 going down in flames. Somebody’s hit a German- now a man’s baled out by parachute. SMASH! Into the sea!"  ------------------------ "German pilot still has his parachute. No boat going out to him, so he’ll have a long swim ashore!" In fact, he's a badly wounded RAF man. ------------------ In homes across Britain, listeners sit by radios entranced by 1st "live" broadcast of aerial warfare. Listen in now: www.bbc.co.uk/archive/battleofbritain/11431.shtml--------------------- Unfortunately, Sumner's "football-style" battle commentary wrong: badly outnumbered RAF lose 1 plane, Luftwaffe none. www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Information/Articles/Incidents/Flames.htm--------------------- Correction: Charles Gardner, not Dean Sumner, was BBC's radio correspondent. --------------------- Churchill now on worldwide radio broadcast: war will last 2 or more years. "We shall seek no terms; we may show mercy- we shall ask none." -------------------- "This is no war of chiefs or princes; it is a war of peoples & causes. This is a war of unknown warriors." Listen now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YILU8NlAn8U |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 15:01:02 GMT 8
July 15, 1940 HMS Esperance Bay limping back into Plymouth harbour with her cargo of gold; so badly damaged she'll from now be used as "floating fortress" --------------------- Overnight, new UK "Commandos" launched their 2nd mission: raid on isle of Guernsey. They couldn't find any of 469 occupying German soldiers. -------------------- 1 commando boat crashed, another landed on wrong island, & 3 men had to be left behind because they couldn't swim. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ambassador------------------ Elections in Soviet-controlled Lithuania, Latvia, & Estonia show unanimous support for USSR's occupation- some regions report 120% turnout. ------------------- At Churchill's insistence, RAF reducing pilot training time from 3 months to 1: "The final polish will be given against the enemy." -------------------- Gen. Alan Brooke, frustrated by Churchill's ignorant suggestions: "The more you tell him about the war, the more you hinder our winning it!" ------------------- Italian bombers are now attacking Haifa, in the British Mandate of Palestine, aiming for pipelines carrying Iraqi oil.  --------------------- US oilman J. Flannigan: "Yesterday, Arab & Jewish workers spat at each other; today, they go calmly to air-raid shelters, side-by-side." -------------------- Nazi propaganda ministry: as Churchill yesterday said UK will fight "street by street" London is now a military target, to be bombed at will |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 15:07:19 GMT 8
July 16, 1940 MP Cuthbert Headlam reports: "London is rapidly become like a besieged town- barbed wire & machine-guns in Whitehall."  ------------------ "I don't know if defences are to cover Winston's last stand against invaders, or to stop parachutists capturing govt."  ----------------- Hitler signing Führer Directive 16: Operation Sea-lion. "I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England" ww2db.com/doc.php?q=316------------------- German invasion- ready by mid-August- will be "a surprise crossing on a wide front from Ramsgate to the Isle of Wight." --------------- 1st prerequisite for German invasion: "English Air Force must be so reduced morally & physically it cannot deliver any significant attack" -------------------- George Orwell: "I rather hope the invasion will happen. At any rate we'd get rid of the gang who got us in this mess." georgeorwellnovels.com/letters/letter-to-james-laughlin-16-july-1940/--------------------- Hugh Dalton, Labour minister, is forming new secret anti-Nazi British guerilla organisation: "comparable to Sinn Fein movement in Ireland." ----------------------- Dalton: "This 'democratic international' will use sabotage, strikes, propaganda, terrorism for traitors & German leaders, boycotts & riots" |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 23, 2012 15:13:29 GMT 8
July 17, 1940 Percy Tibble, pub landlord, commended for "quick thinking & courage" after capturing 4 German airmen with a toy pistol.  ---------------------- Another batch of British children arriving in New York- an evacuation opposed by UK government- shows fear of invasion. -------------------- British troops now closing the Burma Road to China, cutting off fuel, guns & ammo from anti-Japanese fighters.  ------------------ Announcement of closure- & face-saving Japanese promise to "inquire into peace with China"- has left British MPs shouting "Shame!" at govt. -------------------- "Spontaneous" demonstrations by workers in Soviet-occupied Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania demanding USSR absorb them. -------------------- Nazi cartoon this week: time is running out for Churchill; like other (former) enemies of Germany, he'll soon fall.  ------------------------ US Democrat convention opening- still no word from President Roosevelt whether he'll break 150 year tradition & run for 3rd term in office. |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 28, 2012 16:36:34 GMT 8
July 18, 1940 UK War Cabinet now hearing this week's military summary- light bombing only, but war against Italians is heating up. ww2today.com/18th-july-1940-mediterranean-fleet-bombed---------------------- French pilots, ordered to attack Royal Navy in retaliation for UK sinking of French fleet, are deliberately dropping bombs in water. ------------------------ Americans waiting to hear if Roosevelt- who favour arming UK to fight Nazi Germany- will be nominated for Presidency.  ----------------------- Democratic Party has announced their Presidential candidate will run on "strict non-interventionism"- no US troops sent to foreign wars. ---------------------- "Radio Caledonia" now on air, calling for Scots independence & end to "English war". It's a Nazi propaganda broadcast from a Scotch Fascist. ----------------------- Germans celebrated their victorious soldiers today- & heard Goebbels promise after "1 more battle", they'd enjoy peace.  ----------------------- Goebbels: Once the imminent invasion of England is complete, "we will build a better Europe." Berlin crowds cheering.  -------------------------- American Democratic Party have chosen a Presidential nominee. Franklin Roosevelt will run for an unprecedented 3rd term ------------------------- Roosevelt in late-night speech; says he wants to retire- but duty he feels "as Commander in Chief" compels him to run for President again. -------------------- Roosevelt: World faces "no ordinary war- but a revolution which threatens all men everywhere with slavery." Read more: www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15980 |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 28, 2012 16:42:11 GMT 8
July 19, 1940 Japanese government has fallen. Cabinet of Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai- opposed to alliance with Nazi Germany- has resigned  ------------------- Japanese Army has forced government out- they're demanding a more "vigorous foreign policy"- especially towards colonies of stricken France. ------------------- Germans & Italians interned in UK now being moved to prison camp on Isle of Wight. Appalling conditions; little food or shelter. ------------------ British commandant of Isle of Wight camp, to interned civilians: "Do not complain of hunger; it's all I can do to prevent you from starving" ------------------ Churchill notes many internees are anti-Nazi refugees: "It shames us to treat our friends like enemies; why not form a Foreign Legion?" ------------------- Hitler now addressing Reichstag, appealing to Britain for peace: "I am the victor speaking in the name of reason."  -------------------- William Shirer, US reporter: "Of course it's peace with Hitler sitting aside the Continent as a conquerer. But the speech is a masterpiece." ----------------- "Hitler's a superb orator- I've often admired how he uses his hands, which are quite feminine & artistic. He's the finest lier in history." ------------------- Hitler's promoted 12 of his victorious Generals to Field-Marshal, & Göring "beaming like a fat child" to Reichsmarshal.  ------------------ BBC Radio: UK rejects Hitler's "peace offer". Announcer didn't bother to wait for government response- he knew the only possible answer: no. |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 28, 2012 16:54:11 GMT 8
July 20, 1940 German occupiers starting to settle in to Paris; this officer kindly fixes spelling of a café sign: "Tips not included"  ----------------------- Germans ordered not to visit French shops, restaurants, brothels & risk "racial pollution"; army canteens being set up.  ----------------------- German Lt. Hans von Bittenfeld: "France is wonderful! We barely had to fight, & now we only have 2 hours of duty a day; then we go swimming" --------------------- Unoccupied France embracing fascism of Pétain: "Our defeat was due to our laxity: paid holidays, 40-hour work weeks, afternoon liqueurs!" ------------------ French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "I will never reject France. If they shame me, I'll lock my heart & be silent" -------------------- "Can a husband preserve honour by denouncing his wife as a strumpet? No, for he is one with her. I am part of France & France is part of me" ----------------------- University of Rome is demanding, as reparations from defeated France, "a stolen Italian treasure": Da Vinci's Mona Lisa  --------------- Let's forget the war for a minute. Top of Billboard Magazine's new-fangled "Music Charts": Glenn Miller, The Woodpecker www.youtube.com/watch?v=FynFKr9izA8------------------ British & German air forces exchanged blows today, with convoys in English Channel & factories in Ruhr Valley both heavily bombed. ----------------- Nazi occupiers in Holland arresting Dutch military leaders; they're to be tried in retaliation for refusal of Dutch colonies to surrender. |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 28, 2012 16:59:58 GMT 8
July 21, 1940 German radio: UK rejects Hitler's "generous offer of peace, with 95% of British Empire intact." General feeling: "stubborn fools". --------------------- William Shirer reports from Berlin: "This is Hitler's masterpiece. From now on, the German people will say war is the fault of the English." --------------- Hitler, to his Generals: "England's situation is hopeless. The war has been won by us. A reversal of our successes is impossible." ------------------- With UK "almost defeated", Hitler is advocating an invasion of Russia this autumn: "It will be an easy victory, compared to France." --------------------- 5000 children evacuated from seaside town of Eastbourne. Parents forbidden to say goodbye at station- fear of bombing.  ---------------------- Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania have been annexed by the USSR- they are now part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Reublics  ------------------- J.B. Priestley on BBC: Postwar world will change; "Stop thinking of property & power; think of community & creation." specialcollectionsbradford.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/postscript-sunday-21-july-1940/ |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 28, 2012 17:02:26 GMT 8
July 22, 1940 Hideki Tōjō is Japan's new Minister of War. He's a radical proponent of allying with Germany & expanding Japan's empire  ------------------ UK Foreign Sec. Lord Halifax on radio, rejecting Hitler's peace offer: "We won't stop fighting until freedom, for us & others, is secure.” ------------- UK creating new, secret Special Operations Executive (SOE). In Churchill's words, their mission: "Set Europe ablaze" with anti-Nazi terror. -------------------- Labour minister Hugh Dalton put in charge of SOE- to practice "those un-gentlemanly means of war which come so easily to the Nazis." ---------------------- Luftwaffe planes attacking Scotland- including Duff House, a prison camp for captured Kriegsmarine submariners. 6 Germans dead. ----------------------- Prisoner Paul Mengelberg: "1 German, named Ackerman- his torso's ripped in 2. Utterly sane & clear-headed, even though he's only half a man" ------------------- Paul: "A British Captain- a Jew- he tended the dying. 6 of my crewmates escaped a sinking submarine, to die to German bombs. Hard to take." --------------------- Estonians, Latvians, & Lithuanians who didn't get a passport stamp by voting for Communists in last week's elections being arrested by NKVD. ----------------------- Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov explains to Lithuanian government: "Understand that in the future small nations will have to disappear." |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 29, 2012 17:03:04 GMT 8
July 23, 1940 British civilian militia, Local Defense Volunteers, renamed to be more "stirring"- they are now the Home Guard.  ----------------- Germans warning that any UK civilians they capture fighting against them- incl. Home Guard- will be "treated as terrorists & summarily shot" ------------------ British government are announcing an emergency budget to fund war: income tax rises & big taxes on luxuries like furs, tobacco, & makeup. --------------------- Marshal Pétain, premier of unoccupied France, orders trial of his political predecessors for their role in defeat. --------------------- US Secretary of State Sumner Welles has issued a bitter denunciation of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welles_Declaration |
|
|
|
Post by Pumba on Aug 29, 2012 17:05:26 GMT 8
July 24, 1940 French liner Meknes is in the Channel- taking home 1277 French soldiers who refuse to fight for General de Gaulle. --------------------- Meknes- a neutral ship, carrying soldiers loyal to Vichy France (ally of Germany)- has been torpedoed by a German warship. 383 men are dead. -------------- City of Haifa, Palestine is being attacked by Italian bombers, aiming at British oil refineries.  ---------------- 46 people- mostly Arab & Jewish civilians- are dead in Haifa bombing. Italian planes, flying high to avoid flak, missed military targets. ---------------- Today in Parliament, UK MP Will Thorpe used Minister's Question Time to suggest the war might be solved if "Hitler married a sensible woman" |
|
