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1.7.42 [George Orwell]

July 1, 2012 in bombers, orwell, Political, war, War-time by orwelldiaries

At Callow End, Worcs. (staying on a farm). [1] No noise except aeroplanes, birds and the mowers cutting the hay. No mention of the war except with reference to the Italian prisoners, who are working on some of the farms. They seem to be considered good workers and for fruit-picking are preferred to the town people who come down from Worcester and are described as “artful”. In spite of the feeding difficulties, plenty of pigs, poultry, geese and turkeys about. Cream for every meal at this place. [2]

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19.4.42 [George Orwell]

April 19, 2012 in Churchill, military, orwell, Political, Russia, Stalin, Tokyo, War-time by orwelldiaries

Tokio bombed, or supposed to have been bombed, yesterday. [1] Hitherto this comes only from Japanese and German sources. Nowadays one takes it so much for granted that everyone is lying that a report of this kind is never believed until confirmed by both sides. Even an admission by the enemy that his capital had been bombed might for some reason or other be a lie.

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6.4.42 [George Orwell]

April 6, 2012 in Denham, george orwell, orwell, Political, War-time by orwelldiaries

[Yesterday had a look at the bit of the by-pass road which is being built between Uxbridge and Denham. Amazed at the enormous scale of the undertaking. West of Uxbridge is the valley of the Colne, and over this the road runs on a viaduct of brick and concrete pillars, the viaduct being I suppose ¼ mile long. After that it runs on a raised embankment. Each of these pillars is 20 feet high or thereabouts, about 15 by 10 feet thick, and there are two of them every fifteen yards or so. I should say each pillar would use 40,000 bricks, exclusive of foundations, and exclusive of the concrete running above, which must use up tons of steel and concrete for every yard of road. Stupendous quantities of steel (for reinforcing) lying about, also huge slabs of granite. Building this viaduct alone must be a job comparable, in the amount of labour it uses up, to building a good-sized warship. And the by-pass is very unlikely to be of any use till after the war, even if finished by that time. Meanwhile there is a labour shortage everywhere. Apparently the people who sell bricks are all-powerful. (Cf. the useless surface-shelters, which even when they were being put up were being put up were pronounced to be useless by everyone who knew anything about building, and the unnecessary repairs to uninhabited private houses which are going on all over London). Evidently when a scandal passes a certain magnitude it becomes invisible.]

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