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Broadcasting the night before last. . . . Met there a Pole who has only recently escaped from Poland by some underground route he would not disclose. . . . He said that in the siege of Warsaw 95 per cent of the houses were damaged and about 25 per cent demolished. All services, electricity, water, etc., broke down, and towards the end people had no defence whatever against the aeroplanes and, what was worse, the artillery. He described people rushing out to cut bits off a horse killed by shell-fire, then being driven back by fresh shells, then rushing out again. When Warsaw was completely cut off the people were upheld by the belief that the English were coming to help them, rumours all the while of an English army in Danzig, etc. etc. . .
Lots of good stuff in the Spectator this week, so let’s get into it. The ‘News of the week’ section starts out on page 281 with a paragraph on the speech Churchill gave last Tuesday. Noting that ‘some 1,600 civilians have been killed [in London] and some 6,500 injured in the first half of September’, the Spectator goes on to argue that
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:
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