Monthly Archives: September 2010

27.9.40

The News-Chronicle to-day is markedly defeatist, as well it may be after yesterday’s news about Dakar[1]. But I have a feeling that the News-Chronicle is bound to become defeatist anyway and will be promptly to the fore when plausible peace … Continue reading

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24.9.40

Oxford Street yesterday, from Oxford Circus up to the Marble Arch, completely empty of traffic, and only a few pedestrians, with the late afternoon sun shining straight down the empty roadway and glittering on innumerable fragments of broken glass. Outside … Continue reading

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21.9.40

Have been unable for some days to buy another volume to continue this diary because of the three or 4° stationers’ shops in the immediate neighbourhood, all but one are cordoned off because of the unexploded bombs. Regular features of … Continue reading

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17.9.40

Heavy bombing in this area last night till about 11 p.m……. I was talking in the hallway of this house to two young men and a girl who was with them. Psychological attitude of all 3 was interesting. They were … Continue reading

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15.9.40

This morning, for the first time, saw an aeroplane shot down. It fell slowly out of the clouds, nose foremost, just like a snipe that has been shot high overhead. Terrific jubilation among the people watching, punctuated every now and … Continue reading

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14.9.40

On the first night of the barrage[1], which was the heaviest, they are said to have fired 500,000 shells, i.e. at an average cost of £5 per shell, £2½ millions worth. But well worth it, for the effect on morale. … Continue reading

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12.9.40

As soon as the air-raids began seriously it was noticeable that people were much readier than before to talk to strangers in the street. . . . . This morning met a youth of about 20, in dirty overalls, perhaps … Continue reading

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