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Friday 2 July 2010

1944 June

June. Troops enter Rome. D Day. Address to school; Drake's prayer. Distinguished visitor in Normandy. Lower Fifth on Germans. Buzz bombs.

Sunday, June 4th
              Fighting in the Alban Hills about 19 miles from Rome and news that Rome has been entered expected any time now. People there must be starving as all railway lines broken long ago. Pope says he is doing what he can for them as their Bishop!
              Weather has broken again and though we don’t have any rain a gale blowing.
              Two American soldiers in Reading yesterday, after tickling girls chests, then fell down flat on their backs in the middle of the road. Last saw them helping each other unsteadily to their feet.
              Later: troops in suburbs of Rome. The Germans fighting delaying rearguard actions not only locally but in the continental sense, holding off the land war from German soil and trailing the “red hot rake” of war over the Ukraine, Italy, France, making the destruction of these countries the price of their defeat and hoping that sooner or later the horror of this slow devastation and destruction will be too much for the allies. Germany a kind of Sampson making sure that if she is destroyed then Europe will be destroyed too.
              Much criticism of Churchill’s warm references to Spain compared with his silence about France, for, as The Observer says, “by the success or failure of our first steps on French soil may depend the fate of Europe for generations.” One stumbling block believed to be the State Dept of the U.S.A. Churchill can speak and has spoken for France and to France as in the summer of 1940. I hope he will speak again. The French are our allies and our soldiers will go there not as conquerors but as liberators and comrades.

Monday, June 5th
              Entry of allied troop into Rome, which was captured practically intact, population delirious with joy, fêting the soldiers and thronging the streets: funny chaps, the Wops – all for Musso, now all for Churchill.
              Well, Rome our first European capital and glad have survived to see it in our hands – Oslo, Copenhagen, The Hague and Paris to come. Am keeping my bottle of Sauterne to drink when France is free but wonder at what point it will be fair to start on it. Can’t help thinking all the time what a road we have travelled from 1940. “I don’t think we shall be beaten, but I don’t see how we are going to win the war,” I used to say, and I certainly didn’t, anymore than anyone else either, not even Churchill, since I suppose his decision to fight alone one of the sublime acts of faith in history. It was just 10 days later than this in 1940 that the Germans entered Paris.

Tuesday, June 6th – D Day (D = Disembarkation)
              The day we have been so long awaiting – invasion! Heard that a landing had been made at dawn to-day in Normandy between the Seine and the Orne in front of Caen. This on eight o’clock news and I think reported from German wireless. News amplified during the day: about one o’clock a most interesting account of marshalling the troops in England, moving forward area by area towards the coast until finally they reached the point of splitting into landing barge units. At six o’clock a speech by P.M. in House and at nine o’clock a speech by the King followed by the longest news we have ever had, which went on to 9.50.
              The B.B.C. made every effort to cover the various stages: airfields in England, parachutists, gliders, naval work, landing on the beaches, bombing, pushing inland. Altogether got a picture so varied and complicated that the mind found it difficult to grasp an operation of such complexity. The most telling report was a description of the invasion barges in the rough sea rolling broadside on against the mines hung from steel scaffolding which guarded the beaches, having their sides blown in and sinking as the crews scrambled out and the Bren gun carriers sloshed into five feet of water. How at first the survivors felt they were the only men ashore but soon realized more had got through than they thought. The recording correspondent sounded tired, all his notes had been lost and he had been twice in the water. The casualties have been less than expected, but we know very little so far. Caen is in our hands to-night.
              After breakfast just had time to think what I should say to the senior school at prayers, though in order to be free I had to retire into my lavatory!
              “Nothing I can tell you can add to the importance and the seriousness of the events which began to-day.  Just four years ago the battles began which led to the complete destruction of the French armies, but by what seemed to our friends to be an insane act of faith we made the decision to go on – if you have faith you can move mountains. Now we have come in four years to the inevitable end of that decision, the picked minority of people – the cream of our men – have been chosen to break open the continent of Europe. This is the greatest endeavour we have ever made in the long history of our nation. We, you and I, must try to understand this and to place ourselves in imagination and feeling with them, for they represent us, and we can do that through our prayers here, for that is the meaning and purpose of prayer.”
              We sang Oh God our help and the Pilgrim’s hymn, and I used Drake’s prayer: “Oh Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour in any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldith the true glory.”             
              The day was quiet here. Very cold for June with N.W. wind, the sky was overcast most of the day with a low grey cloud ceiling, but no rain. On the domestic front it was marked by the arrival of four goslings and the confusion of the woman who brought them with the examiner in oral French. To-night 150 tug aircraft with gliders went over in wave after wave.

Thursday, June 8th
              To-day we entered Bayeaux and the inhabitants came out with flags and wine they had hidden to welcome us, in spite of the fact that soon I suppose the Germans will try to blow the town to hell. It looks as if we got into the outskirts of Caen and then were driven out again as to-day the Germans are bombing it. There have been plenty of news stories of heroism on the beaches and among the airborne troops, but it is difficult at present to make out much of our objectives. It looks as if we intend to seal off Cherbourg and get hold of the port, but very little indeed has been said on this side of the airborne landing at the base of the Cotentin peninsular (Apparently I acted on a German report of airborne landings which was not admitted officially until some hours later. Luckily the Germans were right! But it is popularly considered by the boys that I had inside information).
              A warning against undue optimism was given to-day by the P.M. and needed, I should imagine too, for the armoured clash has begun and for several weeks it will be touch and go. The great asset to counterbalance the enemy’s superiority in armour while we build up is our air superiority. We have 11,000 first line planes and they must not only give tactical support to the beachheads, but also hinder and delay the German concentration for the inevitable counter attack. When all is said and done the struggle will be dangerous, critical and bitter.
              Montgomery has been over to the beaches and has landed on the soil of France for the first time since he left it at Dunkirk in 1940. It is like entering an unknown country for all Europe has been for four years an unknown world. In 1925 I bicycled in Normandy from Caen to Bayeaux and then to St Lo; we also visited Mortrain, Vire, Domfront, Falaise, Lisieux and Argentan. Clear white stone structures and undulating wooded country, comfortable inns, good food with sweet, heavy cider.

Friday, June 9th
              The news is full of nice touches – such as the man embarking on a glider with a newspaper to read on the journey, paratroops going off singing the Horst Wessel Song (not serious, the English) and the speech of an airborne colonel to his men: “We are history.” One man who had been evacuated from Dunkirk said, “The people cheered us then, now they just watch us go by. Do you suppose the English ever cheer their victories?” To-night we have heard recordings of shells falling around gilders as they come in, machine guns firing on the battlefield and have heard a Frenchman speaking broken English - the first voice from occupied France – Spitfires taking off from an advanced fighter station and so on. But for news of where things are taking place we have to rely almost entirely on German communiqués. They put the bridgehead as 36 miles wide and give Montgomery 10 divisions in the Bayeux sector…..

Saturday, June 10
              S.W. from Bayeux the Germans say an allied tank force is striking towards St Lo. More troops being poured in by air. The bridgehead is 40 miles wide and 10m deep. St Mere l’Eglise on Cherbourg peninsular is in our hands..… The airborne landings seem to have been very successful and surprized the enemy by their extent. Gliders were smashed but there were few casualties among the men considering the risks. Men of various nations have been found in the covering screen, including a few Japs! Rommel seems to have been a frequent visitor to the Norman coast and his face became familiar to the inhabitants.
              Henley Home Guard not yet called out, but told by C.O. last night that an airborne invasion by Germans quite certain in next few weeks. This Len Hayes does not believe. Told at end of last week that lectures on searchlights temporarily postponed. When I bicycled past the Harpsden site on Wednesday I saw why! Place empty and lamps disappeared.

Sunday, June 11th
              There is a passage in Churchill’s World Crisis which foreshadows the strategy from 1940 - 44. From 1915-18 “successive half-sharpened, half-tempered weapons were made, were used and broken as soon as fashioned and then replaced by others similarly unperfected, but suppose that the British Army sacrificed on the Somme, the finest we had, had been preserved, trained and developed till the summer of 1917, till perhaps 3,000 tanks were ready, till an overwhelming artillery was prepared, till a scientific method of continuous advance had been devised.” This time we have not made either mistake. The clamour for the second front has not been allowed to make our leaders disclose their strength prematurely before the weapons has been forged and tempered and the greatest possible resources in men and materials have been assembled – but the waiting through the defeat and disappointment of 1941 and 1942 and the long year 1943 and the longer spring of 1944 has been hard on us, and much more on him, for he had to persuade the U.S.A. to put Europe first and Russia to wait alone for help to come from the West.
              Descriptions appear to-day of the German defences: deep dugouts with mess rooms with pianos, well-stocked bars and officers’ quarters with dressing tables, curtains and comfortable beds; underground kitchens, offices and so on. Above were the officers’ dogs in neat kennels, some dead, others in a coma of hunger and thirst; horses were roaming loose, some with the carts still harnessed to them, some wounded; the birds from the trees were lying dead on the ground, many killed; many cattle killed in the first rush are swollen to double their size and lie with the legs pointing grotesquely in the air. The orchard trees are scorched and bent into weird patterns. All the countryside, say the correspondents, is a horrible example of the power of modern explosives.
              This week the jubilee of the Promenade Concerts and we hard part of the first one, Sir Henry Wood conducting, on the wireless yesterday. Hilary home for weekend and spent most of his time constructing a house of bits of wood and wire.

Monday, June 12th
              The front is now 50 miles long and the Americans tanks are in Cotentin and their troops are within 16 miles of Cherbourg. The Germans are adopting a more cautious attitude to the landing and admit that between 350,000 and 400,000 have been put ashore. One of our secret weapons was a glider that held a light tank, which could be started up while airborne and run right out of the fuselage, which sank into the ground, as the glider touched down.
              The Germans seem to be reacting slowly. The Luftwaffe is not in evidence and the all-out counter attack has not come. Possible explanation the havoc to railway and road transport. There are no trains and no electricity. All the railway bridges over the Seine have been destroyed. The forbidden Tricolour is flying again and everyone in the freed areas are wearing tricolour ribbons.
              The war in Italy has become a pursuit…..

Wednesday, June 14th
              A distinguished visitor to Normandy. Old Churchill has been over. I thought he would, and so did an M.P. who asked for an assurance before the weekend that he wouldn’t. The last time he was in France was in 1940 when he visited Reynaud at Tours when French resistance was nearing its end in defeat. Then he wept.
              The Americans were unlucky enough on D Day to hit on field division in the Cotentin peninsular which was there to reinforce the coast defences and for 24 hours they were got stuck on the beaches. Eisenhower has said the first week has exceeded his brightest hopes….. German broadcasts admit that we have won the first round, that Germany is facing the supreme crisis of the war and that they must use the utmost caution
              In Henley things are very quiet and few Americans about. Apparently the West End of London has emptied out too and Piccadilly has once more been ceded to the British Commonwealth!
              A description of landing by glider in one of the first descents. Seasick tablets issued to crews. No noise of engines, just the soughing of the wind. They hit a telephone pole and broke their back in two places. The writer got out and went to a dressing station where he was patched up by a man who suddenly said, “I don’t approve of all this”. A C.O. (conscientious objector) who had volunteered for work as a parachutist orderly. About half the medical orderlies who jumped with him were C.O.s. Transport planes have been used to bring back the wounded and the first women have gone out in them. As the planes are carrying stuff out they are not marked with the Red +.
              Stalin has congratulated us on our masterly execution of a great undertaking, which for two years the Germans could not carry out – not to mention Napoleon!

Friday, June 16th
              Main interest to-day on home front. It began last night about 10 o’clock and for about half an hour there was very heavy gunfire, doors rattling and windows shaking, then at midnight another alert lasting half an hour, then another, during which I went to sleep so I did not hear the end of it. Apparently it did not come off again and there was more gunfire this morning at about breakfast time. All rather queer and unusual. Blow me if it wasn’t another of Hitler’s secret weapons! A pilotless airplane. There has been news of planes crashing. This afternoon a man down from London said one had come down at Kentish Town and another at Rickmansworth. Mr Morrison announced in House use of this pilotless plane, said no need to exaggerate its importance, no news of future place of landing except “south of England” – a big enough target..…Various rumours and theories about them….. From news descriptions to-night clear they have been seen flying in daylight with a light on them and puffs of smoke coming from the tail. Rather like medieval stories of the appearance of dragons. At present gunfire is to be used against them and people are warned to get under cover when the barrage starts. I had planned to go up to London to-morrow so all rather a nuisance.
              To-night at nine Big Ben sounded a bit off colour and suspiciously like a recording. Wondered if Hitler’s secret service had landed on clock tower. However, told that direct broadcast to be discontinued and programmes subject to interruption, so conclude they may be giving help to wireless-controlled planes. Have to find a way to turn it round and send them back again with our compliments…… Germans apparently told this marvellous new weapon the most important discovery of the war.
              Objector to P.M.’s visit to France told doubtful if anyone in H of C had any full knowledge of the appaling burden of work borne by the P.M. He laboured for 16 hours a day. His daily routine was more dreary and arduous than had ever fallen to the lot of man. Working long hours in a frowzy office was much more dangerous to a man’s health than going to sea under the protection of the Royal Navy. His colleagues were always pleased when he got out in the fresh air and gladdened his heart by contact with the fighting men. There was no sacrifice he would not make in health and comfort for the service of the Britain.

Monday, June 19th
              The Cherbourg peninsular has now been cut off and a large force has been trapped. The front is now 116 miles long based on 52 miles of beaches after 12 days fighting!
       It seems fairly certain the flying bombs are not radio controlled but work by jet propulsion. They appear to be about the size of a spitfire and are painted black or dark brown. They have a long pointed nose and short waspish wings
              Nora very worried about Hilary as bombs within five miles of the school at night. After we thought it all over, this starting up again very sickening, and just like the Germans for as pointless from a military point of view as the shelling of Paris by Big Bertha in 1918. They are making the most of it for propaganda purposes – “Fires over the whole of England, London ablaze, equivalent of 1,000 bomber attack” and so on
              Toilet paper crisis again acute. Soon we shall be like the Mongols and neither wash nor wipe!
              An old lady reported to have said she liked the Americans very much, but did not care for the white men they had brought with them!     
              Salute the Soldier Week in Henley. Prize offered for poems by school children. This asking for trouble and bad enough, but hear now prize winners are to read them aloud at school concert!                                              

Tuesday, June 20th
              Asked Lower Fifth what emotions they felt about Germans. Among others, dislike etc, some said admiration for their soldierly qualities and cleverness as inventors. This war not marked as the last by the working up of hatred of the enemy. The Germans planned their rocket plane attack long ago. Their experimental stations on the Baltic were working last summer and their channel bases were bombed last December. It is calculated that their attacks are only on a quarter of the scale originally planned. Large numbers are believed to have been shot down over the sea or open country. They have a range of about 150 miles, a speed of 300 – 350 m.p.h. and their bomb, carried like a torpedo in a pointed head, weighs about a ton. It is operated by a petrol engine and an automatic pilot.
              I had a telephone message from the D.S. examiner to ask if the school was closed or still carrying on, so evidently some schools have closed. Some people turned up, so Nora said, from Esher to-day with some children who were hysterical from lack of sleep owing to constant alerts and gunfire.

Wednesday, June 21st
              More excitement last night. About one o’clock the siren went and almost immediately afterwards heard a high-pitched buzz or ziss growing steadily nearer and apparently quite low. It travelled rapidly and seemed to go right over the house. As it died away there was a bright flash and then some seconds later a heavy explosion. Later in the night there were two more sirens following by the buzzing note, but not so near, followed by explosions. The ones after the first one were the most unpleasant, for you lay waiting to see whether the engines would carry the bomb over you or fail and let it drop on top of you. The one which went over the town could be clearly seen by the light of its rocket engine, which is fastened above the tail. It fell at Swyncombe, about 8 miles away. Heard that one fell at High Wycombe in the grammar school playing field and another at Early just outside Reading. This last one fell in a field of corn about 10.30 when it was quite light. After it had exploded the trees round it looked quite like winter for there was not a leaf on them! These are merely odd ones. 36 are supposed to have fallen at Staines and 60 are supposed to have been shot down over Croydon. A church was demolished, said it was the Guards Chapel at Wellington - ?Wellington Barracks – and many soldiers killed. The Times to-day published a photograph of one brought down in a field, a dud, a sectional drawing showing the compass, charge, compressed air bottles to drive the gyroscopes, the automatic pilot and jet propulsion engine. It starts from a guide rail on a ramp. The description that it was the size of a Spitfire was off the mark; it is only about 20ft long.

Friday, June 23rd
              On fire watching last night and went out about 2.30 a.m. when an alert went to see if I could see a P or bumble bomb. Our own heavy bombers were coming back and the air filled with their thunder, but when they had all passed I saw nothing but a distant bomb flash.
              The assault on the port of Cherbourg about to begin. The Germans are beginning to dwell on our superiority in men and materials, especially in the air. “Our lives have been turned sour by the hundreds of enemy bombers…. which are constantly attacking us. All the hounds of hell have been unleashed.…. This mighty steamroller…. Immense forces, etc." They are paying the price we paid in France, in Greece and in Crete. France is said to be in a state of war behind the lines and artillery, tanks and aircraft have had to be sent against the maquisards.
              There has been a naval action in the Pacific and only night saved the Japanese fleet from destruction. 14 ships were sunk or damaged.
              There are some photographs of Norman towns, mere heaps of bricks and rubble through which bulldozers are clearing roads. There is a ruthless efficiency about American methods as the Germans are finding.
              They retain there own characteristics; 47 officers of the R.A.F. who made a mass escape were shot. They built a tunnel and got out; those captured were handed over to the Gestapo and taken away to a special camp where they were brutally treated. Those murdered were taken away from the camp and just disappeared. Later their ashes were returned to the prison cemetery. We shall find and execute the murderers. One thinks of the shootings of Roehm and his friends, the same methods, cremation to cover the evidence of the bodies and so on. The closing net of doom.
              It seems that the hitherto mythical oil shortage in Germany is really becoming a fact
             
Saturday, June 24th
              Received a typewritten letter from Hilary, rather a good effort.

Sunday, June 25th
            A poor day: one goose died and was eaten by rats and things generally more than usually frustrating. An alert about 12.30 in the middle of our planes going over in strength, but did not hear any P. Bombs. Cloudy to-night so probably over again.
              Announced on German news that Cherbourg captured. Not announced on our radio yet, but earlier said that was only a matter of hours. The first deep water port; once it has been cleared troops can sail directly there form the U.S.A.

Monday, June 26th
              Nora went to Harrow to-day and had two flying bombs near and two further away. Five came down in Hammersmith this afternoon and they say there were streets down in Wimbledon and Croydon. People are coming into Henley as in the Blitz days and heard of a family at Banstead whose house was destroyed and they had only the clothes they stood up in.
Thursday, June 29th
              The flying bombs are causing great worry in London. The weather yesterday was cloudy and we had two alerts here. Nora went to-day to Harrow, alerts, but no bombs near. The doctor [Ed: woman psychiatrist, Dr Saul] at the clinic was interviewing a headmistress and a parent. She heard a buzz getting steadily nearer, the conversation continued, finally she said, “I think it’s one of these….” “Will you make up your mind!” said the headmistress and rushed out of the room and down the stairs. Doctor and parent followed to find the headmistress, a huge woman, down in the hall in an attitude as though about to start a game of leapfrog! The bomb went over and exploded not far away. One visitor to the school to-day said she had been held up by tube shelterers.
              As Hitler has said this is only the beginning, people are wondering whether he will use these new methods for gas attacks or what is coming next…. rockets or what all!

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