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Post-blogging 1940: final thoughts and conclusions

May 28, 2011 in 1940s, Blogging and tweeting, Periodicals, Post-blogging 1940-2, Reprisals by Brett Holman

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Post-blogging 1940: preliminary thoughts and conclusions

October 9, 2010 in 1940s, Blogging and tweeting, Civil defence, Periodicals, Post-blogging 1940, Words by Brett Holman

7 October was not the end of the Blitz or even of the Battle of Britain, but it is the end of my post-blogging of 1940, at least for now. The main reason for this is because I’m running out of primary sources, especially the Daily Mail. But as I think I’ve shown, in the preceding week or two the press (at least the parts available to me) seems to have decided that a turning point in the air battle had been reached: that the Luftwaffe had been decisively repulsed by day and that the invasion was not coming. Also, the early shock of the bombing of London had worn off — after three weeks or so it was clear that this was no knock-out blow — and the problems in the shelters were starting to be resolved by a number of well-publicised measures. So late September/early October turns out to be as good a place to stop as any.

That unanimity is actually a little surprising, given the lack of an agreed narrative earlier on. The newspapers didn’t always agree on what was ‘most’ important on particular day (as defined by the story chosen as the lead), nor did their opinion pieces focus on the same issues. A bit later on, while The Times and the Daily Mail featured extensive debates about whether Britain should initiate the bombing of German civilians in reprisal, the Manchester Guardian virtually ignored the issue. At times there seems to have been official pressure to promote certain stories, or at least to so lavishly provide reporters with access to government officials that they could hardly refuse to make it a big story. The Daily Mail‘s prominent coverage on 7 October of the past and future bombing of Germany would be an example of this — the map came direct from the Ministry of Information, along with the statistics. But it’s clear that the narratives produced at the time often don’t match the well-established narrative we now know and love. The periods which we remember as the Battle of Britain and the Blitz were much more tangled together than you might think from all the books you see written on one or the other (but almost never both).

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Post-blogging 1940: re-introduction

August 24, 2010 in 1940s, Blogging and tweeting, Post-blogging 1940 by Brett Holman

Tomorrow I’ll start post-blogging 1940. My starting point will be 25 August 1940 (the day after the first bombs fell on central London, one of the starting points of the Blitz) and will take it through to some point in October. As usual, I’ll be presenting the view from the press, using daily newspapers like The Times, the Manchester Guardian and the Daily Mail, and also a Sunday weekly, the Observer. I might also try complementing this with the view from home intelligence. Unlike my previous efforts I won’t try to cover everything that was going on; the basic facts are well enough known anyway. Instead I’ll take inspiration from Alan Allport’s now-completed post-blogging of British demobilisation and try to give a flavour, an impression of what was happening, how people felt and reacted. Of course it may evolve as it goes along.

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Post-blogging 1940

June 10, 2010 in 1940s, Blogging and tweeting, Post-blogging 1940 by Brett Holman

Follow the events of 1940 day by day and week by week, seventy years later:

Airminded – 1 September 1940
Battle of Britain Day by Day – 31 August 1940
Duxford Operations Blog – 31 August 1940
Orwell Diaries – 1 September 1940
Spitfire Site – 24 August 1940
World War II Day-By-Day – 1 September 1940
World War II Today – 31 August 1940
WW2: A Civilian in the Second World War – 31 August 1940

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Post-blogging 1940: introduction

June 10, 2010 in 1940s, Blogging and tweeting, Post-blogging 1940 by Brett Holman

Recently, Martin Waligorski contacted me to see if I’d like to collaborate with him in his post-blogging project, Battle of Britain – 70 Years. I had been thinking about doing some sort of post-blogging this year to mark the 70th anniversary of 1940, but probably not until later in the year, and for the Blitz rather than the Battle. But I would like to highlight Martin’s efforts somehow, as well a number of other 1940 post-blogging (and post-tweeting) exercises going on, some of which have a broad overview, while others focus on the experience from one perspective. So what I’ve decided to do is put up a sticky post which will stay at the top of Airminded for the duration, with links to the various blogs and the most recent posts (I won’t try do this for tweets as they come too often). I’ll try to keep it as up-to-date as possible, and will put a cumulative list in the sidebar. The initial list is below — if you know of any more, please let me know. Indeed, if you’re interested in contributing yourself, either at Martin’s site or your own, please do!

Blogs:
Battle of Britain Day by Day
Duxford Operations Blog – from the operations record books for RAF Duxford and 19 Squadron (Imperial War Museum Duxford)
Orwell Diaries – as in George Orwell
Spitfire Site
World War II Day-By-Day

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