Saturday is the day that the new New Statesman and Nation comes out. (The Spectator comes out on Friday, but I missed that yesterday. Not to worry; there’s always next week.) It’s a ‘week-end review’, not a newspaper, but inevitably has much commentary on the war, generally from a left-wing perspective. Indeed, this week it opens (197) with an editorial comment (probably by Kingsley Martin) entitled ‘The war in the air’. This war is evolving, from mass daylight raids to small night raids:
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Air-raid warnings, of which there are now half a dozen or thereabouts every 24 hours, becoming a great bore. Opinion spreading rapidly that one ought simply to disregard the raids except when they are known to be big-scale ones and in one’s own area. Of the people strolling in Regent’s Park, I should say at least half pay no attention to a raid-warning . . . . . Last night just as we were going to bed, a pretty heavy explosion. Later in the night woken up by a tremendous crash, said to be caused by a bomb in Maida Vale[1]. E. and I merely remarked on the loudness and fell asleep again. Falling asleep, with a vague impression of anti-aircraft guns firing, found myself mentally back in the Spanish war, on one of those nights when you had a good straw to sleep on, dry feet, several hours rest ahead of you, and the sound of distant gunfire, which acts as a soporific provided it is distant.
Battle of Britain Day 53. By heroic effort overnight, Biggin Hill is made operational. From 11 AM to 7 PM, Luftwaffe makes concentrated attacks on RAF airfields, repeating yesterday’s exercise of flying large formations up the Thames Estuary which then split up to target multiple airfields. Radar stations on the South coast are also hit. Yesterday’s hero Tom Gleave of 253 Squadron is shot down but survives with terrible burns. RAF loses 41 fighters & 9 pilots. RAF still has 613 Spitfires and Hurricanes but pilots are exhausted and many airfields are out of action or badly damaged, combining to limit severely operational effectiveness. Germans lose 56 fighters, 29 bombers. Their pilots too are disillusioned & exhausted. Overnight, Liverpool is heavily bombed for the fourth night and other cities in the Midlands are also targeted. http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/phase2ofthebattle.cfm
24 August – 6 September 1940 Phase two of Adlerangriff did not immediately follow the first because of additional concentration of German fighter forces into the Pas de Calais, in an effort to strengthen the fighter protection of the bombing raids. Fighter escort presented an compelling dilemma for the Germans. On the one hand, the [...]
Battle of Britain Day 52. Fine weather allows sustained and concerted attacks on RAF airfields (Luftwaffe flies 1,310 sorties). Between 10.30 AM and 6 PM, almost all airfields in Southeast England are bombed and there are continuous dogfights. 6 radar stations are down for 3 hours when a power line is hit. Biggin Hill is bombed twice and put out of action (39 killed, 35 wounded). Squadron Leader Tom Gleave of 253 Squadron downs 4 Bf109s in 1 dogfight. AVM Park’s Group 11 is badly let down when fighters from Group 12 (commanded by his rival AVM Leigh-Mallory) do not arrive to cover the airfields. RAF loses 39 fighters, 8 pilots. Germans lose 33 fighters, 30 bombers. Overnight, Liverpool is heavily bombed for the third night, as well as London, Portsmouth, Manchester, Worcester, Bristol and the Vauxhall Motor Works at Luton (where 50 are killed). RAF Bomber Command again bombs Berlin as well as oil refineries near Rotterdam (4 RAF bombers lost). http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0031.html
Weather: fine but with some cloud and rain.
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours:
Air-raid alarms during the last 3 nights have totalled about 16-18 hours for the three nights. . . . . . It is perfectly clear that these night raids are intended chiefly as a nuisance, and as long as it is taken for granted that at the sound of the siren everyone must dive for the shelter, Hitler only needs to send his planes over half-a-dozen at a time to hold up work and rob people of sleep to an indefinite extent. However, this idea is already wearing off. . . . . . For the first time in 20 years I have overheard bus conductors losing their tempers and being rude to passengers. E.g. the other night, a voice out of the darkness: “’Oo’s conducting this bus, lady, me or you?” It took me straight back to the end of the last war.
Battle of Britain Day 51. Low clouds and rain give way to sunny intervals in the afternoon. German reconnaissance flights are mostly left alone by RAF. However, Luftwaffe tries a new tactic at 3 PM and 7.15 PM, sending large groups of fighters across the English Channel with no bombers. RAF initially goes up to intercept but No. 11 Group commander Air Vice Marshal Keith Park sees the German ruse. He withdraws RAF planes to avoid being drawn into a battle of attrition between fighters. Both sides lose 9 fighters. Luftwaffe again bombs major industrial and shipping centers (Portsmouth, Tyneside, Hartlepool, Swansea, Manchester and Liverpool). Decoy fires are lit in the countryside (‘Starfish’ sites), fooling German bombers into dropping their bombs away from the cities (as shown by German air photos).
Since May, the Home Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Information has been preparing daily reports on the state of British morale: what people are talking about, what they are worried about, what they are happy about, and what are thought the government should do. A wide variety of sources is used for this, both formal and informal: BBC listener surveys, Mass-Observation reporters (AKA ‘Cooper’s snoopers’), overheard conversations on buses or in pubs, gossip from friends and relatives. Each region of the country has its own information office which sends data in to London; and London itself has a more extensive (but still somewhat informal) network of informants reporting on what is going on in their part of town. The resulting reports are, of course, secret.
Today’s report begins with the following general remarks:
Weather: fine but cloudy in the Channel.
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours:
Battle of Britain Day 50. With fine weather, Germans mount 4 raids of 60-100 aircraft bombing RAF airfields in Southern England, from 8.30 AM to 7 PM. Most are turned back by RAF fighters and little damage is done to airfields. Germans lose 19 Bf109 fighters, 8 bombers and a WWI-era Gotha biplane bomber which crash lands on Lewes racecourse. RAF loses 20 fighters, including 3 Defiants of 264 Squadron which are still easy prey for Bf109s. Overnight, there is the first concerted heavy bombing of industrial centers in the Midlands (Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Sheffield, Manchester and South Yorkshire).
19 August 1940 Luftwaffe activities between the Adlertag and 18 August, which marked the end of the first phase of their assault, followed essentially the same pattern. While attacks were directed against Fighter Command sector airfields and supporting bases, usually only limited damage was inflicted with most facilities back in service within a few hours. [...]
Statistical summary, Week 7:
- Total Fighter Command Establishment: 1558 planes
- Strength: 1377 planes
- Balance: understrength 181 planes
- Losses: 20 Hurricanes (+ 1 damaged), 23 Spitfire, 4 Defiants
- Aircraft Production: 5 Beaufighters, 8 Defiants, 64 Hurricanes, 44 Spitfires
Post-tweeting 1940
If you want just a little bit more, check out our new Storify piece remixing some key events of May 1940 http://t.co/alkpygoj7 months ago
I'm confident @ukwarcabinet will return. This after all is not even (quite) the end of the beginning. Thanks for reading.7 months ago
I've certainly developed a new appreciation for their work during the war and hopefully you have too.7 months ago
Before I go I'd like to take a second to pay tribute to all the ordinary people doing extraordinary things captured in these records.7 months ago
...and that's it from me. I'm starting a new research role here at the Archives. Wish me luck. It's been a fascinating few years.7 months ago
Chiefs of Staff: Considerable reinforcements have reached Australian forces in New Guinea. Japanese withdrawn 10 miles http://t.co/sG3eEdGX7 months ago
Chiefs of Staff: Road blocks "and now rain" holding up UK advance in Madagascar but civilians friendly and co-operating http://t.co/vytOZfVV7 months ago
Chiefs of Staff: Germans well established in Stalingrad city centre and may hold substantial part of southern suburbs http://t.co/ZS0Au7y57 months ago
Bomber Command: Karlsruhe and Bremen attacked with good results. More than half of Dusseldorf "effectively devastated" http://t.co/zpruoCro7 months ago
India Secretary supports dismissal of the Prime Minister of Sind after he publicly criticised "British Imperialism" http://t.co/IEf8sQc37 months ago
UK to admit only Jewish refugee children with parent "already in this country" from Unoccupied France. Over 60s refused http://t.co/ixfrn46O7 months ago
Cabinet approves celebration on 15th November of 2nd anniversary of Defence of Great Britain from "blitz" of 1940-41 http://t.co/ttl1WTW97 months ago
PM: Situation in a fortnight's time will "make it very much easier to reach a decision as to the proper line of action" http://t.co/idWX9al97 months ago
General Wilson asks permission to establish advanced bases in North Persia to meet a possible German advance http://t.co/XVIEkjtZ7 months ago
Cabinet rejects offer from General Chiang Kai-shek that 8,000 Chinese troops could be flown into India http://t.co/6dCHu9tb7 months ago
General Brooke: We have made successful attacks on Benghazi and Tobruk. UK forces have entered Tananarive in Madagascar http://t.co/HX1RfuZq7 months ago
Air Chief: Bad weather has restricted bomber operations but Gestapo HQ at Oslo has been bombed by 4 Mosquitoes http://t.co/6HJ3NpdQ7 months ago
UK continues to plan for evacuation of Soviet fleet from Black Sea. "Not an appropriate moment" to raise this with USSR http://t.co/VWcq0mcS7 months ago
Lord Cherwell: Agent has obtained German army casualty figures: 1m in first 6 months of 1942, 3.5m since start of war http://t.co/DdxuKxrd7 months ago
Eden: German morale "has risen only slightly this summer and remains spiritless" but morale of armed forces "high" http://t.co/FVBgg4Y57 months ago