1940 - October - December

October. First daylight raid. Trousers for women. Bombing casualties to date. A party under the table. Father's funeral. 
November. Planes and pilots lost so far. Bombs near Henley and at Hambleden. Chamberlain's death. George Dunn reports from Tooting. Coventry raid. No flies on Major McKenzie. Shipping losses. 
December. Shipping war. Groceries harder to get. Lord Haw Haw. Mr Horowitz's history. Desert victory.  Arsenal of democracy.

Thursday, Oct 3^rd

On Monday night a stick of bombs dropped across Reading and children arrived with stories of how school bus had to go round edge of crater in the Caversham Road. Windows broken but no casualties. Today low mist and driving rain. About 3.30 some bombs were dropped fairly near. No siren went. I brought the children down to the ground floor, but as the other school did nothing, some confusion was caused! As there was no warning there could be no all clear. The plane circled a little while, but after a bit I sent the children home. Very difficult to know what to do in the circumstances.

[Ed: "The other school..." A London school was evacuated to Henley at the beginning of the war, so two schools cohabited at HGS]

An interesting talk tonight by Air Marshall Sir Philip Joubert. Said air defences must be concentrated on vital points and enemy aircraft flying over other parts of England left unmolested, though they might drop bombs on such dangerous characters as the vicar, country doctor, etc (we live in such an area in this part of Oxfordshire). No solution to the problem of the night flying bomber had been found, either by our own scientists or the German scientists. The chances of a single bomber being picked up in mist when visibility a few yards, as today, was nil, though if any aiming was to be done he (the enemy bomber) must come low, when light A.A. got a chance. We had broken up all the massed attacks on this country by our fighters and artillery and in the future we might be able to curtail the activities of small raiding parties. For the present we could improve out shelter system, though our present mole-like existence did not suit our national temperament.

Today Chamberlain retired owing to ill health. Don’t think he will last long and many people believe him suffering from cancer. In the shuffle Tommy Inskip also went. Most of the worst of the old men of Munich have disappeared into harmless jobs or retirement – Hoare, Simon, Inskip, Chamberlain, but Halifax still remains and the F.O.

On Monday at tea time we had our first daylight raid. I was drinking tea when the siren went. Later we heard the drone of aeroplanes very high up, but when I went out to look the tiny specs of glinting metal were disappearing into the cloud. Apparently the bomber formations were seen clearly, pursued by fighters, but so high up that difficult to distinguish for long. Two were shot down and one fell in Windsor Great Park. Henley went into the street to look and took no notice of the siren, so I asked Miss Hunter to speak to the children about this. I did so, but Mr Brophy said I would have been amused to see him rushing down the garden with an American machine gun (by appointment of the Chicago gangsters) hoping to shoot something down.

Friday, Oct 4^th

Went into Reading today for lunch with M and heard for the first time of a bouncing bomb, which explodes above ground and does not expend a good deal of energy in a crater. She said one had been dropped in Reading.

Wondering today how different the streets looked from peacetime. S + arrow signs to show where there are public shelters; sometimes these indicate the number the shelters will hold. Soldiers with white armlets and with slung rifles directing traffic, auxiliary territorial women in khaki, soldiers, airmen and WRAFs (Women’s Royal Air Force) – these look by far the smartest in their blue uniforms and rather full-peaked caps. Also they seem better turned out than the A.T.S. [Auxiliary Territorial Service]. The shop windows pretty much the same as in peace time, but note the seedsmen have no hyacinth bulbs for sale, with the exception of Suttons, who are selling them for 1s each, and butchers and fishmongers have not much on display. There are not many cakes in the windows of the confectioners, and though you see chocolate éclairs, there are no iced cakes of any kind and the sugar on the Bath buns is scanty. No lack of private cars. There seem to be more than ever, and people use them for short distances back and forward to local centres. The buses are very crowded.

The general conclusion that compared with two years ago there is really very little difference beyond the general crowding that results from evacuation. Trousers for women are certainly commoner and worn more freely in and about town. These make unnecessary the wearing of a belt and stockings and for this reason are favoured where dressing quickly at night may be necessary. They are also warmer. Women are also beginning to appear on the buses and trams as conductors, and they wear trousers. We are imitating the Chinks.

Saturday, Oct 5^th

Con sent me a letter from her charwoman in London. Extract: “We were in a shelter in Vauxhall Bridge Road when the bomb dropped in the road and caught the side of the shelter. It was awful with all the bricks and mortar falling on us. We could not see one another for dust. And Mr Petter laid on Ronnie and I, so he really saved us from being hurt. When I saw the roaring flames I never thought we would get out alive…. There was no panic, but I am sure some poor souls must have been killed. There was about 500 people in there. My married sister with three little children are living with Dad and she has lost her little home in Bermondsey and most of the windows in Dad’s new flat are broken. But never mind, they are all keeping their chins up. Bermondsey is dreadful. Lipton’s and nearly all the big firms are down to the ground and Alma School, near your school, is down too.”

Sunday, Oct 6^th

“Dictators on the Brenner”. Sounds like the title of a detective story, but it was the headline in The Times yesterday. General opinion that Africa was discussed … Garvin in The Observer, and he has several times been right recently, thinks an attack on the Sudan and then along the railway to Khartoum will develop first….. then when the Sudan has been taken a blitzkrieg with the aid of the German air force will drive towards Alexandria. The ultimate object the control of the Iraq oil fields and pipeline and elimination of the British fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean.

A very bad week with the submarines. Sinking of ships nearly up to peak levels of 1917. Due perhaps to the shortage of escorts, which American destroyers will help to rectify, but largely to use of Atlantic ports by Germans – no passage through the straits or north round Scotland now necessary.

Monday, Oct 7^th

A good article on East London in the New Statesman. “Everything done to prepare for death and injury. Tens of thousands of papier maché coffins were ready; excellent hospital arrangements were made; first class ambulance and first aid and nursing arrangements were ready. But no thought had been given to the living and uninjured homeless….. The shelters have stood up well to blast and splinters. But where a surface shelter is turned into rubble by a direct hit, everyone sees it and no one will enter what is afterwards regarded as a tomb.”

Sir John Andersen has been proved wrong about there being no need for deep shelters. He has been replaced by Herbert Morrison, who may not have been governor of Bengal but does know London. Let’s hope he provides more basement shelters and opens up more Tubes and tunnels from the Underground system.

An interesting letter from Liddell Hart in the N.S. He has been accused of misleading opinion on the strength of defences and writes a reply. In the course of this he points out that 1) The offensive needed a 3 to 1 superiority in men and materials – this the Germans had. 2) The defence must have sufficient planes to hold their own. This the French had not. The Germans actually had a 4 to 1 superiority in planes and tanks. By directing the first attacks against Holland and Belgium they lured the French and British out of their defensive line and extended their front from 200 to 500 miles, thus obtaining room for manoeuvre against the French rear. 3) A new weapon, heavy tanks and parachute troops. 4) Extraordinarily bad generalship – e.g., 20 of the best French and British divisions on the 60 miles Antwerp – Namur, while a single division left to hold 20 miles near Sedan. After nine months of war the French still had only their three mechanized divisions, and not a single British mechanized division was in France ready to take part in a counterstroke.

Tuesday, Oct 8^th

The governors met today and debated what was to be done with children who travelled by public buses if those buses ran when there was an air raid warning. Were they to be sent home from school to join their buses or not? Finally decided parents to be asked to make the decision.

Walked up valley today looking for mushrooms and reflected that the countryside with so much plough land will look, in these parts, vastly improved in wartime, with a varied patchwork instead of continuous grass fields.

Wednesday, Oct 9^th

Bombs fell this morning at Emmer Green between here and Reading at 5.45 a.m.

In his speech to the House of Commons last night the P.M. said no respite from bombing to be expected through bad weather in winter. He ended: “Because we feel easier in ourselves..… do not let us dull for one moment the sense of the awful hazards in which we stand. Do not let us lose the conviction that it is only by supreme and confident exertions that we shall save our souls alive. No one can predict, no one can even imagine, how this terrible war against Germany and Nazi aggression will run its course, how far it will spread or how long it will last. Long dark months of tribulation lie before us…. Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valour our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible. Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the gloom of Europe until they become the veritable beacon of its salvation.”

What a long way we have come from last winter when another Prime Minister could stand up and say, “Hitler has missed the bus.”

The figure for bombing casualties… So far since the beginning of the war, 8,500 have been killed and 13,000 injured. Since heavy raiding began on September 7^th, the figures for killed and seriously wounded have declined from just under 6,000 in the first week to under 3,000 in the fourth week. Last week 251 tons of high explosive was dropped on London and 180 persons were killed.

Dakar was the result of mistakes. Information that the cruisers from Toulon were approaching the Straits did not reach London until it was too late, and though some were forced back to Casablanca, others got  through.

Thursday, Oct 10^th

Bad news tonight on staff front. Brophy is going off to edit a London weekly paper and Owens is called up for next Thursday.

Night under present conditions rather reminds me of a Channel crossing. The passengers expect rough weather, but are falsely cheerful and reassuring, or effect to ignore the possibility of a bad crossing altogether. Everyone hopes for a quiet night, and if sirens, at any rate no bombs; daylight fades and soon the broken drone of high flying aeroplanes begins.

Today M sent me a box of lovely little blue gentians as fresh and blue as spring sky.

Germans are now in Rumania, though how many is not known, believed they hope to pass Bulgaria without fighting and reach the Straits, threatening Egypt by a pincer movement through Turkey and Libya. Rumours that a German general has replaced Graziani in Africa. But Egypt a hell of a long way and Asia Minor difficult to cross in winter, not to mention the inhabitants.

Sunday, Oct 13^th

Priestley called Goering “a star spangled thing” and the Dictator a “screeching, chest thumping lunatic” – he was in good form.

Tuesday, Oct 15^th

Bumps in the night now frequent. One big bang on Sunday night and many lesser bangs; bangs last night and much zooming. This reminds me of the dentist’s drill – oom, oom, oom. Sometimes it seems to circle and almost remain stationary for minutes at a time, at other times it reaches a peak and rapidly dies away. You lie in bed wondering if they are crossing the house and waiting for the crash. There is no gunfire and one feels very defenceless. By daytime the wide expanse of fields and woods makes the house seem very small and hidden away, but when night falls the universe contracts and the zoomers seem very much in the zenith. People from London say they miss the reassuring bangs of the barrage; here one’s only defence is protective colouration (!) and the odds in one’s favour. Our own bombers are passing, too, but it is impossible to distinguish engine sounds, so if pessimistic one fears they are Germans, and as they tend to be lower they certainly make more noise. In the last two nights, in spite of the bangs, we have had no sirens.

There is a training station near and today I should think a heavy bomber circled the school about a dozen times. I nearly gave up teaching altogether as I could not make myself heard.

Some time ago we sent some money to China Relief. Today the Chinese in Chungking are sending money to help London’s air raid victims. At the time I said to the VI Form, some day we may need their help. This was believed to be one of my jokes. It was in fact a true prophecy!

Thursday, Oct 17^th

Things are getting difficult to get in the shops - many things are “extinct”, such as double saucepans! Tonight padlocks were not easy to find. Some people say this is because goods are being held up until the purchase tax comes into force on Monday.

N’s mother in a letter described a party to which she went in this year of grace 1940. As it was what she called a “gunny” afternoon, they sat on a feather bed placed under the dining room table, which had been fitted with an electric light.

Germans now using very fast, light, high flying fighters for day raids on London; their losses and ours yesterday about equal. Bomb loads must be very light. Brophy says his club in London destroyed, the Savage, together with the Carlton. Leicester Square bombed. Wonder if the Brasserie of the Marble Halls still there. (Added later: Yes, it survived).

A good story tonight of Italian hospital ship being guided to rafts and boats of sunk Italian destroyer by British Sunderland flying boat. Italians have not copied the German practice of machine-gunning pilots coming down by parachute but have waved to them, in one case at least.

Friday, Oct 18^th

Timothy in today. Says there are now underground brothels in London! Silk stockings no longer to be manufactured. Six thousand people killed in air raids in September. Letter from Con, says devastation in London very depressing.

Monday, Oct 21^st

Trafalgar Day – read an account of battle in assembly. A dull damp day with rain early, cloud and a stormy sunset. Rather depressing. Margaret Burton was here for the weekend and found her depressing, too – everything from unions to J. B. Priestley wrong. She is now working in Censor’s Office. Still in “pre-fire” house in Red Lion Passage. Sleeps in cellar because of noise, though it is not reinforced in any way. One night they had to go to a shelter as fires were started by incendiary bombs, but they did not reach “pre-fire” house. In the shelter there was a most extraordinary collection of animals and birds. These are not ordinarily allowed, but as there was a fire danger they were brought that night, canaries, budgerigars and so on.

It seems now that by chance or good intelligence the R.A.F. attack on invasion ports on Sept 16^th caught the troops embarked in the flat bottomed barges and fearful destruction took place. The men were heavily equipped and many were drowned. The bodies were washed up all along the coast for weeks afterwards. Whether a genuine attempt was in contemplation or whether it was a practice embarkation we are not told. The first German to be washed ashore had been in the water for three weeks and was very dead.

Listened to W.S.C. broadcasting in English and French tonight to Frenchmen on the B.B.C. foreign programme. He spoke the kind of French I can understand. Wondered how many Frenchmen were listening to him in occupied and unoccupied France, and whether we car rouse Europe against these evil men.

The great news today is that the American Pacific fleet is at Manila in the Philippines. This will make the Japanese think again.

Tuesday, Oct 22^nd

Reading article today on London Zoo in blitzkrieg. Bombs have fallen there but no casualties except sum escaped humming birds. The monkey hill was hit, but the monkeys were all in their deep shelters and suffered no ill effects apparently. The polar bears, lions and tigers are shut in their underground dens at night. “Numbers of visitors have testified to the feeling of escape into a saner and more agreeable world that accompanies an afternoon’s visit to the zoo.”

Thursday, Oct 24^th

Laval has been to see Hitler and there are rumours (query wild) that Vichy France is to declare war on Britain….

More news is coming out about the German invasion preparations in September. Hundreds of barges were assembled at Antwerp, Calais, Dunkirk, Ostend, Nieuport, and Le Havre. The barges were about 150ft in length and capable of carrying about two trainloads of men and materials. It was known that Germany had commandeered every barge over 500 tons and armies of workmen were altering the bows to allow tanks and guns to be embarked and landed….. Great railway activity between Germany and the Low Countries…. The attack of the R.A.F. began on September 5^th and has continued since. … Yet after six weeks the invasion threat still persists, the ships, the men and aircraft are still there – waiting.

Friday, Oct 25^th

Margaret Burton remarked that it was funny to see foreign relief organisations like the American Red Cross running about London since we are so used to relieving other people.

Saturday, Oct 26^th

Bombs last night about eight, flares dropped; Hilary, who was in N’s room, not frightened very much.

Went down to Exeter as Father very ill. Travelled via Bristol, but no air raids while I was there. Took from nine to 5.30 to get home. Father unconscious when I arrived and died at 11.30 on Sunday morning. He was 83.

Monday, Oct 28^th

Italy invaded Greece, who appealed for help from us. Hitler and Mussolini met in Florence today….

Coming home after interviews with bank and lawyers, went to look at the burnt out and blackened tower of Clyst St George Church. All the outer walls were standing, though the building dangerous in parts, and the debris had all been cleared away.

Ruth Brown’s brother (Commander Brown, R.N.) and two others got ashore from crashed seaplane in a rubber dinghy and are now in an Italian prison camp in Libya. As he is senior officer he holds an inspection and Church Parade on Sundays. There are only 3 caps among them and they look like a line-up of tramps. One he wears. The reconstruction of morning prayers and hymns from memory also presented some difficulties, but they have got most of a hymn by now.

Thursday, Oct 31^st

Father’s funeral yesterday, a very nice village one at Shillingford. Came home very comfortably by afternoon train from Exeter to Reading, but during tea the geyser blew off the chef’s eyebrows!

Father’s old friend Treharne turned up on Tuesday night for funeral, full of tales of the Battle of London. He had not slept in a bed for two months, but only in a chair. His family sleep in the garage with bags packed beside them. The barrage makes it impossible to go out after about six o’clock. Time bombs, incendiary bombs, etc…. 278 Hoe St, Walthamstow, where we lived from 1901 – 1921, demolished (Added later: This proved to be wrong).

Saturday, Nov 2^nd

Went over to Watford to see Aunt today. Trains so likely to be delayed that went by London coach to Slough. There waited for 1¼ hours for local bus to Watford. This took 1¾ hours so got to Watford at 12.0 to start back at 2. Travelling in wartime! But was determined not to waste petrol ration on a business trip and to keep it for pleasure.

Saw some demolished houses with red notices on them, “Looting is a criminal offence”; also bomb craters in fields and a good many smashed windows.

Sunday, Nov 3^rd

Sunday papers seem to think Greek islands, especially Crete, will be of great value as naval and air bases, but that we cannot divert many troops from Egypt to fight on the Greek mainland. Italians pushing down Greek western coastline, weather reported bad.

A good speech by Morrison, the new Home Secretary, on shelter policy. Apparently about 85% of Londoners still sleep in their houses or flats with local protection – not in shelters…. He warned his listeners against the communists and their policy of making capital out of deep shelters (or lack of them). The only party they have benefited is the fascists. He ended up, “Men and women of London, I salute and am proud of you.”

Monday, Nov 4^th

Our half term holiday, but rainy and wet and generally depressing. A short air raid warning at tea time.

Since August 8^th, when the first big air battle was fought (the day we walked to Cranmere Pool) 2,433 German aeroplanes have been destroyed and over 6,000 airmen killed or taken prisoner, we have lost 353 pilots in Fighter Command. Now bombers have been practically abandoned for day raids – since the end of September that is. Fighters carrying a small bomb load used instead, but 33 of these shot down last Tuesday.

Letter from Helmi Archer at Wareham. “It is awful not seeing any of our old friends. We all live in a little world of our own now. Ours is quite a pleasant one, as far as the people round are concerned, but I do miss not seeing any of our real friends.” Travelling difficulties have altered the lives of people like us, who used cars and trains so freely before the war, very much. Our friendships under these conditions tended to be non-local. One would gaily travel long distances by road to see people. Now have 5 gallons a month!.

“I think your Diary is a very good idea and I don’t think your descendants will have difficulty reading your handwriting once they have got the hang of it, so to speak!”

Tuesday, Nov 5^th

Guy Fawkes night! Wonder if the Germans will celebrate the occasion. Started at 7 o’clock with two distant bombs and much droning.

Lt. Davies, who extracted the time bomb from in front of St Paul’s, has been presented with a stethoscope by the medical staff of a hospital as he frequently borrowed one when at work there to listen to the mechanisms.

Greeks seem holding their own. Crete occupied by British forces.

14,000 civilians killed in air raids, most of them in London, the P.M. told us last night. He also spoke of the war in 1942 and 1943! If the enemy do not collapse.

Polling in U.S. presidential election today.

Wednesday, Nov 6^th

Roosevelt in all right. A bad night last night. Very heavy rain. Bombers came very low and engines very loud. A salvo fell just as I was falling asleep at about 11 0’clock, another one at one o’clock and another lot at six o’clock in the morning.

“I don’t like bangs,” said Hilary today, “I don’t mind funder, but I don’t like bangs!”

Thursday, Nov 7^th

Another bad night. A very loud and whistling bomb at the top of St Mark’s Road at about 11 o’clock and another lot at Hambleden near the lock. Much zooming around. This reminds me of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, where the life of day and night quite separate. Life in daytime is happy and sunlit, but as soon as night falls creatures of prey come up from the ground (or in this case down from the clouds) and hunt and kill the inhabitants.

Sunday, Nov 10^th

Apparently about 20 bombs fell in the Henley Police District on Wednesday night, or 40 including those at Hambleden.. A Messerschmidt was on view at the Red Lion Yard, but it seems that it was not worth paying much to see it as the R.A.F. took all the canon and machine guns and the visitors everything else that could be detached or removed!

There are persistent rumours that a British convoy was attacked and sunk in mid-Atlantic by surface raiders. The submarine problem is difficult as the craft now start from the French bases at L'Orient and Brest, while our destroyers cannot use the S.W. Irish bases which were open to them in the last war. Nor will De Valera consider any lease.

P.M. in Mansion House speech: “It is lucky we did not make any optimistic promises because a succession of melancholy disasters and terrible assaults and perils have fallen upon us. We have had to face these great calamities…. We have surmounted the perils so far, but the fact remains that at the present time all that we have got to show is survival and increasing strength and an inflexible will to win. The outside world, which a little while ago took only a moderate view of our prospects, now believes that Britain will survive.”

I suppose that after the fall of France most outside opinion gave us about six weeks!

Monday, Nov 11^th

The news of Chamberlain’s death was published yesterday, only a month or so after his retirement, and the papers are full of leading articles and obituary notices on his career. His policy I hated and distrusted. It is the fashion now to excuse “appeasement” on the ground that Chamberlain inherited a situation where appeasement was the only course. This ignores the fact that he was a leading member of the government and party that neither made collective action nor rearmament a reality. He seemed to me a conceited man who, with no real knowledge of foreign affairs, took them as his province. “How, P.M., can you possibly believe Hitler’s assurances?” he was asked. He is reported to have replied: “Ah, you see, this time Hitler has promised me.” He was fond of accusing his critics of living in an unreal world, but both Dictators took him in. In defending his course of action, he was obstinate, mean, and lacking in generosity or imagination. He prided himself on his judgement of men, but his choice of ministers was appalling and made even the House of Commons gasp. No one, Eden, Churchill, Duff Cooper, who was not a yes man, however distinguished their careers or obvious their capabilities, was allowed in office. Accusing those who wished to adopt a stiffer attitude to fascist evasions and aggressions of being “war mongers”, he guaranteed the frontiers of Poland with a levity that seems inexplicable. He was aloof and without humour. He brought us to the edge of defeat, yet he was probably genuinely surprised when his appeal to his “friends” failed to keep him in power. He was sincere in his desire for peace. He was upright, conscientious, hardworking and courageous, yet these qualities were not enough, without imagination, to raise a small man, the product of a party machine, near those figures that have been recognised as national leaders.

Wednesday, Nov 13^th

Dunn, late head boy, now a policeman in Tooting, came down yesterday. Although not in the worst part of London, he has seen some gruesome sights and been busy helping to get out the dead and seriously injured pinned under wreckage. The Balham Tube is in his division. This runs about 30 feet below the surface and the roadway above received a direct hit. The sewers and water mains burst and the unfortunate people who were sheltering there were buried in mud or drowned. The police are continually receiving letters about husbands or wives who just disappeared and were probably entombed there. A bus was standing in the roadway and sank up to its roof in the crater formed by the subsistence when the water mains went. A crane had to brought from the north of England to get it out, as there was not anything that could do the job in London.

Much naval news today. Out of six Italian battleships, three have been put of action by the Fleet Air Arm in Taranto harbour. A moonlight raid.

A convoy was attacked by a pocket battleship in mid-Atlantic (see Sunday’s entry), but the armed merchant cruiser, Jervis Bay, sacrificed itself to allow the convoy to scatter into the gathering darkness and the greater number have escaped.

Reading the diary of a journalist called The Last Days in Paris, running from May 10^th till he landed in Falmouth from Bordeaux on June 20^th. …. interesting on the reasons for the French collapse. First he puts the pacifism of the French, their dread of war, anything but war, and when it was started il faut en finir – not always meaning what we thought. France had lost 1½ million men in 1914-18. When the Rhineland was occupied Frenchmen said, if we don’t do anything about it, there will not be war for another two years anyway. Then the Maginot Line and the defensive nature of the French war machine lost France her eastern allies. The army was bored and fed up with nothing to do and poor pay by comparison with the British. The Bonnet, Flandin group of politicians did not think it was worthwhile going on. In fact Bonnet was in favour of a super Munich when the Germans had already invaded Poland in September. The equipment was inadequate, especially in the air. The French machines were out of date, and as late as 1938 France was unable to turn out mass produced modern planes. Strikes under the Popular Front government further reduced output of tanks and planes.

Friday, Nov 15^th

Last night was a full moon. A perfect night, clear, not a cloud in the sky, with the brighter starts glittering in the frosty air. After supper I persuaded Nora to walk round the grounds to see the pattern of the trees by the light of the moon. It was a dream of beauty. As we stood on the terrace in front of the house, we felt the distant vibration of a bomb strike in the building behind us. We saw the A.A. shells bursting away to the south, tiny and momentary points of light.

About eleven o’clock the sound of the engines began. It was different from any night before, for the roar did not get louder from a barely perceptible hum and then reach a peak and die away in the distance. It was continuous and seemed to come from all directions. As soon as one lot of bombers passed over, their note was taken up by the succeeding wave. I found it impossible to sleep, so lit my candle. After a time it burnt out and I had to go down to the kitchen to get another. This went on from eleven to midnight, from midnight to one, from one to two o’clock. Then I think it must have slackened for I fell into an uneasy doze. A continuous stream of bombers was passing overhead for three hours. Where?

The eight o’clock news told us that an exceptionally heavy and vicious attack, comparable with the first attacks on London, had been concentrated on Coventry. I took a map and placed one end of a ruler on Coventry, the middle on Henley, and the further end led directly to Rouen! The Cathedral has been destroyed, hospitals and many houses. The A.A. fire kept the raiders too high for accurate aiming. From preliminary reports it is likely that a thousand people have been killed and injured. The people of Coventry are said to have faced this ordeal with great courage.

Gosh! It was grim to hear the continuous procession crossing the sky. It reminded me of the flight of massed aeroplanes in Wells’s film The Shape of Things to Come

Saturday, Nov 16^th

More news of Coventry. About 500 bombers are believed to have taken part in the raid. The centre of the city looks like Ypres in the last war and the cathedral a heap of rubble. Yet with 500 bombers, 200 people were killed and 800 seriously injured. It is amazing that, frightful as the destruction was, that there was not more loss of life. The German communiqué says this raid was a reprisal for the R.A.F. raid on Munich at the time of the Nazi celebrations of the 1923 Putsch and boasts that the fires could be seen from the Channel coast.

Drove over to see Con at Rickmansworth today. She seemed very depressed. Is now living in a first floor room of a small house in a row. The house two away from her was reduced to a heap of rubble one night about one o’clock and three people killed in it. She was asleep and woken by the whistle of the bomb. It had made her jittery, and no wonder. She crawled around the room and was unable to find the switch for the lamp for some time. There was a child under the wreckage and its cries were very painful. Also hearing the rescue party working in the dark was grim. I said anyway the mathematical odds of them hitting another house in the same row were small.

Coming back burst a tyre at Hambleden just as it was getting dark. Fortunately had a torch with me, as should never have been able to get the jack under, a bad enough job by daylight.

Con said that anything like the state of the shelters at Charing Cross Station was hard to imagine. They were shepherded into (one of these) these at eleven o’clock in the morning, and they had been vacated at six, but they were still full of urine and covered in excrement.

Raids on London bad last night. Con showed me a diary kept in 1931, which had been at the bank. It looked like a medieval document, all soaked, stained and creased and the pages stuck together. The ink remained pretty good, but the lines on the paper had been completely washed out. When she went to her bank, it just wasn’t there, but instead a notice to say call at some other branch.

Sunday, Nov 17^th

More bombs at 7 0’clock this morning when, owing to the keeping of summer time through the winter, it is still quite dark. Beethoven’s 7^th symphony this afternoon and Cesar Franck’s Violin Sonata in A this evening, but latter rather spoilt by wavering that comes on in evening to prevent bombers getting direction.

Monday. Nov 18^th

A good deal of activity last night from eleven onwards….all clear about 6.30. About five o-clock two land mines were dropped at Frieth. They went off with a very heavy and sharp explosions and one heard no whistle, for they came down on parachutes…. There seem to be two levels of flying, one low down (our bombers going over?) and the very high chug-chug by the Germans. Sometimes both levels are going at once. There are also two types of engine, the heavy zoom of the bombers and much more high pitched noise of the fighters. Boulton-Paul fighters are supposed to be the ones used for night work with a crew of two and a power operated gun turret – the Defiant. “Give us more Defiants” was the message of the Ministry of Aircraft Production to the industry. Wonder if the unholy mess at Coventry has hit them much….

The Greeks are still doing well…. The communiqués from the BBC are becoming more cautious. Tonight they said the Italian counterattack would be heavy… The R.A.F. are muscling in and have destroyed important bridges….

Tuesday, Nov 19^th

Tonight I went to the cinema at six o’clock. After about half an hour the siren went. We heard it distinctly, but a message was superimposed on the film: “Patrons are informed that an alert has been sounded.” It film did not stop. When it was over at about eight, I came out and the bombers had started passing over and there was a continuous roar of engines, as on the night of the Coventry raid….. A terrific raid seems to be developing on the Midlands.

The House Committee of the Governors provided a little comic relief today. Mrs D. protested strongly against the provision of air raid shelters on the grounds that they would make the children nervous. Major McKenzie said had offered his ancestral mausoleum in the churchyard at Fawley to the school there. (Later addition: The children slept on the shelves holding the ancestral coffins!). It is a hideous erection of granite, but many feet thick. There was some discussion of the removal of the lodgers (the North Kensington School) to Phyllis Court. Some one said soldiers should be quartered there as the men were living in very bad conditions and some were reported to have mutinied on being quartered on Lord Nuffield’s tennis courts. However, Major M has avoided soldiers in his spacious mansion by evacuating butterflies and beetles from the Natural History Museum! So much less trouble than human beings. Though he has lepidoptera, you might justifiably say he has no flies on him!

Heavier air attacks are developing on the Greeks. We are doing what we can, but will that be enough? The Bulgarians and the Hungarians have been summoned to confer with the Fuhrer….

Wednesday, Nov 20^th

Another bad raid on the Midlands. 170 bodies at Coventry buried in a huge common grave.

Hilary very busy building an air raid shelter of bricks liberally cemented with nice thick mud. The technique of the bricklayers has been observed and is carefully followed with much slapping and sloshing of the “cement”.

British fighters have arrived in Greece and are in action against the Italians with good results. They seem to be rather obsolete biplanes.

An excellent broadcast tonight on the struggle of William the Silent and the people of the Netherlands against the Spaniards with topical references to our struggle, the people of Coventry, the people of London – part of a series called These Men Were Free.

Thursday, Nov 21^st

Raid on Tuesday on Birmingham began soon after darkness and lasted for nine hours, described officially as “on a very heavy scale.” Five bombers were destroyed.

Wardens killed on duty may now be buried under a Union Jack, but as one wrote to the paper to point out, they are more interested in measures to keep them alive.

The Greeks still doing well in spite of dive bombing. Hope to goodness they can keep it up. The King opened Parliament today. Churchill spoke. Very cautious on the help that can be given to the Greeks….

Friday, Nov 22^nd

“Up to now this was has been engaged between a fully armed Germany and a quarter or half armed British Empire. We have not done so badly. I look forward with confidence and hope to the time when we ourselves shall be as well-armed as our antagonists and beyond that, if need be, I look to the time when the arsenals, training grounds and science of the New World and the British Empire will give us that material superiority which, added to the loyalty of constant hearts, will surely bring victory and deliverance to mankind.” P.M. at opening of Parliament.

Eighty per cent of the oil refineries in Germany have been bombed. …. Germany believed to be using more oil than can be replaced by her current supplies…

After the Coventry raid, the people from the centre set out by all the roads from Coventry to the open country with anything they could collect. It was more like what happened in Belgium and France than anything up to now in England. Although some came back in the day, they would not sleep in the city. “Every time,” said a man with a wife with two months baby and 10 children, “we struggled off the floor, we were flung flat on or faces again by the force of another bomb.”

To encourage us we have been told that our bombing of Germany does more damage than theirs of us – in spite of the fact that a) they have more planes than us and b) have to fly shorter distances!! Quod est absurdum!

An excellent talk last night be newspaperman called (query) Coote on why the French collapsed. The fearful losses of the war of 1914 – 18 followed by the peace that gave France neither the Rhineland nor the British American guarantee. The French convinced that Germany bent on revenge. Britain had her own Maginot Line, the Channel. Through the disagreements between Britain and France, the French were left to face Germany alone and they felt they were unable to do it. They were convinced that France must lose. These men were not necessarily dishonest or traitors. Laval had never concealed his views. Pétain and Weygand honestly believed that the collapse of France would be followed by the collapse of Britain. Without industries or munitions factories, the French African empire could not survive the fall of France. The condition of French politics caused the Frenchmen to distrust his politicians as much as he distrusted the British. The defeat of the French armies largely due to the lack of an air force and tanks. “For 10 days we have not slept; we have no food except what we can find in the bombed villages; we have not enough guns; our shells are running out; we have been perpetually on the move and our petrol supplies have come to an end. We have been continually bombed and have seen none of our own fighters.” Yet the food was there, the shells were there, and there were more guns, but they were separated from the front by the masses of refugees and through this wall no communication was possible. What was the good of going on? At any rate some of the youth of France might be saved from the wreckage if fighting stopped. So France went under. Yet we must remember Napoleon’s saying: “France and England! There are only these two!”

Sunday, Nov 24^th

It seems clear that the Germans consider that in night attack they have found the weak spot in our defence and intend to exploit it to the full. Our scientists have to find the solution to which will give our aircraft works greater security. But any solution to the problem is likely to be utilized by Germany. Hence to offset their superior strategic position, our technicians here and in the U.S.A. must give us superior performance so that we can raid the enemy by day and night. If the war simply goes on as a bombing match on a “we smash Munich, you smash Coventry” basis, some people think the civilian population will not face another winter.

One other weak spot at the moment is the submarine warfare against shipping. Our naval resources are strained to the utmost and the 50 destroyers came only in the nick of time.

Greeks continue to pursue Italians.

Monday, Nov 25^th

Today Hilary and Peter built an air raid shelter. At night Hilary’s (toy) dog Turnip was put in the shelter with a small electric torch switched on because Turnip was afraid of the dark.

Wednesday, Nov 27^th

Explosions last night during supper. Bombs on Caversham, but no one hurt I believe, though some houses down. Birmingham, Bristol and Southampton have now been the target of concentrated attacks as in the case of Coventry.

Our shipping losses since the start of the war about 20,000 tons a week and since June 60,000 tons a week. The building rate does not now appear to make up for losses, even though orders in U.S. shipyards will be delivered next year. Will U.S. merchant ships, at present excluded from the war zone by the “cash and carry” policy, be made available to us? Dollar resource also getting very low. Talk of financial help from U.S.A. – obviously necessary. Apparently Kennedy, returned ambassador, spreading very gloomy reports of our chances in U.S.

Sunday, Dec 1^st

A bad time with lumbago. Still, got me out of going to Town Hall basement! Telephone no good if unable to rise from the bed. Gets me down badly in the mornings, but slackens up a bit during the day.

Our shipping losses are due to the lack of craft for convoy escort, and this lack is due to the defection of the French Navy, the threat of invasion and the entry of Italy. If we can produce more escorts we can cut down our losses and raise the number of German submarines destroyed, which is now less than the building rate.

In the air Germany is attempting by attacks as those on Coventry and Bristol to stave off a gigantic aerial offensive next year. Damage to factories works with a time lag and affects air strength later…. We don’t know how much damage the night raiders have done. It is, we are told, “appreciable” but “less serious than was thought at first.”

On Friday night, which was quiet here, Germans claim to have dropped 400 tons of H.E. and 36,000 incendiary bombs on London

On Friday we had a wing commander to talk to the boys on joining the R.A.F. air crews. No one over 17, so rather premature, but they listened with interest and asked questions. A nice man, once air attaché in Finland, from which he had learnt to drink milk.

The Greeks meeting with increased resistance from fascist militia, who are apparently trying to put heart into the Italian troops…. If Hitler takes a hand against the Greeks in the spring, perhaps he will try and squeeze out Yugoslavia.

Although tea, sugar, fats, bacon, butter, margarine, meat and petrol are officially rationed, a lot of other things are very hard to obtain as the retailers are rationed, e.g., marmalade, chocolate, biscuits, onions, lemons, bananas, treacle of all kinds, cheese, cake. You could extend the list indefinitely because it applies to most things, including such things as stockings. Turkeys will also be very scarce this Christmas. The only imported ones are coming from Eire…. The food controller has asked people not to make more Christmas puddings than are needed for Christmas itself.

Wednesday, Dec 4^th

The Germans have announced that a new phase of the Battle of Britain has begun with the night bombing of cities and submarine warfare. The say the attacks on Coventry, Liverpool, and other cities are to be followed by others on new targets. London’s staying power has been too much for them, but they hope the moral in smaller communities will be lower. Hitler out to destroy what he cannot conquer. He has said he would “obliterate” the cities of England and he is using his bombers without mercy or scruple to this end. The pretence of seeking “military objectives” has been dropped out of the propaganda, which is now, in the German English broadcasts, becoming “You’re next on the list.”

The Germans say they made 23 big scale attacks last month and dropped 5,000,000 bombs of H.E. Have just switched on to Lord Haw Haw, “Gairmany calling, Gairmany many calling. You will now hear a talk.” The talk consisted of a gloating account of the hospitals of Great Britain full of maimed, disfigured and mutilated children, whose injuries were particularly described. This “hell on earth” was caused by Churchill, who stood been the working classes and the Fuhrer’s offer of peace. It ended, “Thank you for your attention,” to which I politely replied, “Shove it up your….!” Funny chaps, the Germans, to think that gloating over wounded children would do anything but exasperate hearts and strengthen resolution of their English listeners. For something really evil, switch on to Bremen!

Thursday, Dec 5^th

Everything seems to suggest that Hitler, having failed in his diplomatic offensive in Spain, France and the Balkans, is now going to throw everything into an attempt to bring off “the blockade of Britain”. Up till now he has not been ready, probably has not had enough night flying bomber crews trained or submarines available. He hopes perhaps to break down our resistance and attempt invasion in the spring

Hilary came in to tea today very worried about “Jerries”. He was not sure whether they were real or imaginary, but seemed clear that they were malevolent beings. The groundsman, Len, always speaks of Jerry, and he seems to have been told things which worried him by other small boys.

Friday, Dec 6^th

We are all very noise conscious now. Even the wing commander, getting into his car, said, “What’s that?” It was the little girls doing their P.T. in the hall and drumming on the floor with their feet. A heavy lorry the other day produced the same effect in the barber’s shop, and anything whistling gives me a turn.

The Commons have debated a resolution for a conference to bring the war to an end. The motion defeated by 361 to 4 votes.

Some suggestion that bells should be rung on Christmas Day only and rule relaxed; turned down by P.M. As Nora says, “Churchill is taking no chances.”

Con had a letter from a soldier saying, “I have been sleeping on the floor, but now my wife’s here I am more comfortable.”

A harrowing talk tonight by a Pole, who was in Warsaw till last September, on conditions in German occupied Poland, the systematic destruction of all the cultural and educational institutions above the elementary schools - libraries, art galleries, universities, the deportation of whole districts eastwards and removal of boys and girls to work as serfs in Germany. As Nora said, the Dark Ages humane in comparison to this.

Sunday, Dec 8^th

Today Mr Horovitz, a parent with four children at the school, paid me a visit. A Frankfurt lawyer, and a Prussian officer in the last war, he had been forbidden to practice under the anti-Jewish laws, but had left not because of that but because of the arrest, torture and suicide of the director of a company for which he acted because he refused to resign his directorship. He was a Jew, but married to a lady of the Prussian nobility. “My family,” he said, “have lived in Frankfurt for 400 years!” A distinguished looking man with a pointed beard and a strong resemblance to General Smuts. When he left, his Prussian training reasserted itself and there was some clicking of heels and bowing from the waist. I bowed as far as my lumbago allowed!

A broadcast by A. P. Herbert tonight in which Mussolini called the Top Wop.

Reading another book on the French collapse by [illegible]. Lack of discipline in French life, especially important in dealing with refugee problems and local defence by civilian population in, for instance, blocking roads and so on, which was not attempted. Civilians not encouraged to be anything but refugees by giving them a job to do. Financial instability. Failure of General Staff to learn lessons from Spain, Poland, “Maginot-itis” and lack of mobility, no second defence line organized after break through. No belief in avoiding possibility of defeat after break through on the Meuse. No one allowed by censorship to learn of the gravity of the situation until it was too late. They were not allowed to be their own leaders, but had to obey the orders of an incompetent G.H.Q. and a peace at any price government.

“It is the machines that win.” In 1914 the Germans advanced by 5 – 10 miles a day. In 1940 they were advancing by 18 miles a day and only held back by rearguard actions….. The French needed leaders, the men of the International Brigade as a rallying ground to recover the fighting spirit. Leaders more afraid of a popular uprising than Hitler…

Last night the first night since August 8^th that bombers have not crossed the coast….. However raids again tonight

Tuesday, Dec 10^th

And a very bad raid, too, one of the worst of the war. Very big fires and much damage.

General Wavell has used the moon, which is growing to the full, to start an offensive in the Western Desert. We were told yesterday evening that our patrols were in contact with the enemy all along the front and that a surprise attack has been made on the Italian right.

Have got so used to bad news that when Greeks seem to be winning a war feel there must be a snag somewhere and news to good to be true!

Two spies executed at Pentonville. One a German, the other a Dutchman. Landed secretly and posed as refugees. Equipped with wireless transmitters, which they hid in quarries, empty houses etc, during the day and erected at night to report to German secret service news collected in pubs, trains, buses etc. Both young men of about 25.

Friday, Dec 13^th

Brilliant work by Archie Wavell. 20,000 prisoners reported today and five generals…. Rumour says the Mussolini, mad at Hitler’s refusal to allow him to occupy the French Riviera, determined against Hitler’s wishes to attack Greece in order to show his independence. This gave our navy Crete, led to Taranto and the Albanian defeat. Now on top of this the capture of 3 divisions at Sidi Barani. This has been in Italian hands for about three months…..

A good many bombers passed over last night on their way to Sheffield.

Saturday, Dec 14^th

Filthy weather and little air activity last night….Prisoners tonight risen to 26,000; generals still five. Not clear how far along the coast our advance forces have gone, but the area inside the net is so wide that it will take some time to sort things out…. Excellent co-operation between R.A.F., fleet and army. The lessons of the blitzkrieg put into operation on our side this time, fighters guarding the head of the columns and dive bombers harrying the retreating army, navy bombarding the coast route and ports.

Admirals to be younger and picked on merit from the senior captains instead of in turn. The Times rather disapproving of this tampering of the tradition of 200 years, Nelson’s band of brothers, etc.

Cabinet reported to be giving some attention to war aims, certainly difficult to see how our propaganda can be effective or indeed coherent until this little point is settled. Some broadcasts by Foreign Office officials suggesting that the Germans have always been the disturbers of European peace and that now is the time to settle the final account with the German people. If the feuds of Eastern Europe simply to be started on a new life with King Log instead of King Stork, and the ground sewn afresh with Dragons’ Teeth and prepared for a new Hitler, it’s a poor look out. In his last speech, Hitler said the German people are in peril of destruction. Can we counter this by saying No! the Nazi Party is in peril of destruction and until it is destroyed there will be no peace in Europe.

Monday, Dec 16^th

Slept at Town Hall last night. Warning when I arrived at nine o’clock, fortunately all clear went at 10.30, so slept fairly well and not quite so cold in vaults. During warning number of special constables, demolition men etc, there. Spent most of time playing darts. Mayor came down, very convenient back entrance giving access to pub, so mayor in at front door but soon out at back for a quick one. Tin hats of various branches painted different colours, police blue, demolition white, and so on, and ranks indicated by diamonds painted on front. More experience for the country, said the rather boozy telephonist.

Laval dismissed from Vichy government by Pétain and Flandin substituted. Explanations various…. Flandin no friend of ours, so whether much influence don’t know.

Tuesday, Dec 17^th

Account this morning of Laval’s dismissal reads like a scenario for a gangster film. Apparently Hitler wished to use Toulon for embarking German troops for Libya. This Pétain refused on grounds that it would involve France in war with Britain. Thereupon Laval plotted a coup d’etat. Pétain was to be invited to Paris for ceremonies connected with the return of ashes of Napoleon’s son from Austria and Hitler was supposed to be present, making Pétain’s presence necessary as a gesture. Once there, Pétain was to be caught and the Vichy government overthrown. While Pétain’s visit to Paris was being discussed, it became plain from Laval’s attitude that some sort of plot was in his mind and he was arrested.

A year ago today we were listening hourly to hear whether the Graf Spee had left the shelter of Montevideo harbour. Outside there were waiting the three light cruisers, Ajax, Achilles and Cumberland…The combined broadside of the three English cruisers was about two thirds of that of the German. Where the decision to scuttle the battleship was made is not known yet – perhaps most probably at Berchtesgarten – nor the circumstances which induced the commander to commit suicide.

Wednesday, Dec 18^th

Papers today contain a good deal of matter about invasion in 1941… Lord Beaverbrook’s speech on the wireless warning us that we were over confident and that Hitler was making an immense effort to bring out a large air force by the spring. The U.S.A. Foreign Secretary issued a warning to the press apparently based on the information that Germany is trying to substitute France for Italy as an ally in order to use the French bases and Navy for invasion on a grand scale. Reports that manufacturers have been told Britain cannot hold out unless she receives immediately increased aid. These are crucial months all right!….

Read today in the papers of the death of my Tutor at Keble, the Crab - A.S. Owen. One of the kindest of men. I first stayed with him at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1918 during the German offensive in 1918 and repeatedly between then and 1922. In the spring of 1922 we went to Northern Italy, Milan, Pavia, Cremona, Mantua, Venice, Vicenza, Ravenna, Florence, Lucca, Pisa. He paid all my expenses.

Air raid casualties for November 4,488 compared with 6,300 in October and 6,900 in September.

Friday, Dec 20th

Came to Exeter by 2.17. It was about an hour late arriving….Lucky to get a seat as corridors full of soldiers standing.

Sunday, Dec 22^nd

Bitterly cold east wind. Both last night and the night before a good deal of flying up estuary and warning all night. Liverpool and Mersey attacked both nights….

Con had one of the National Savings Christmas cards to send to her nephew. It contains 30 spaces for 6d stamps, 15/- in all, and you get the card for nothing if you buy a stamp. Inside it has these lines by Owen Seaman:

Rejoice, whatever anguish rend your heart,

That God has given you, for a priceless dower

To live in these great times and have your part

In freedom’s crowning hour.

On the other side: “Of course I want to send you a Christmas present. But this Christmas I think the presents we give each other ought also to be a help to the country in winning the war. That is why I am sending you these National Savings stamps.

“We speak of being 'at war'. We are really engaged in the greatest crusade the world has ever seen against the greatest evil that has been brought to destroy the souls of men. That is why I think you will like to keep the front part of this card to remind you in years to come of the steadfast spirit of the British Commonwealth at Christmas 1940.”

The outside design has a hand holding a Union Jack with a fiery cross tied to it.

Monday, Dec 23^rd

Went into Exeter today to do some shopping. All very full and crowded like other evacuee areas. On the way we saw housing estate on outskirts where a land mine came down. The rafters stripped of tiles sagged and buckled like bones of a dismembered herring and many houses uninhabitable through blast…. Friend, Dr Huxley of Leicester, researching on blast, reported that anyone encased in a suit of rubber 15 inches thick immune from effects!

Molly went to work at communal feeding centre in Exeter at midday. They came in as if they hadn’t had a bite for months, 3d one course, 6d two courses, and very cantankerous about where they should sit. Many ate in their caps!. They were divided by tables of 30 and altogether there were over 200.

Tonight Churchill was to speak at nine o’clock. Instead however of a speech for home consumption he addressed the Italian people…. Waited to hear Gestapo pronounced Jesta Po, but this pronounced the conventional way, but Duce pronounced Juicy with great relish.

Wednesday, Dec 25^th

Christmas Day. Past bad, future uncertain! Where shall we be next Christmas? War or peace? Victory, defeat or stalemate? No aeroplanes over on Christmas Eve. … In the afternoon Molly and I walked up the lane to Black Hill and looked for flowers. We found (? dog mercury), dandelion, buttercup, gorse and strawberry in flower! The primroses beginning to show but there were no buds as yet. Con went up to bed with a portable wireless to hear the King’s speech. Molly and I had a bet that she’d go to sleep and not hear it. Con did listen to the speech, so won a penny, though her account of what he said was a bit hazy!

We had our Christmas dinner in the evening at about 7.30. No turkey this year, but chicken and tongue, Brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, Christmas pudding and brandy sauce, sherry, champagne, port, cointreau and coffee. Some discussion as to whether we ever missed having turkey during the last war. General opinion was that we always had one from 1914 to 1918 though not absolutely sure.

Friday, Dec 27^th

Came home with Daddy Pussy in basket, rucksack, cuckoo clock and suit case. Train 2¼ hours late but only six in carriage. (I was not left anything in Father’s will, hence this entry).

Saturday, Dec 28^th

Went to tea with Mrs Peach. Usual crop of rumours….

Instructions issued for dealing with bugs and lice in shelters and also distribution of any literature forbidden to prevent communist propaganda. In some shelters wardens are not to be elected as communists have brought been brought in to vote their own agents to this position (this in Tubes I fancy).

Sunday, Dec 29^th

Exciting news tonight of attack by surface raider on convoy in N. Atlantic on Christmas Day. H.M.S. Berwick was engaged, and when raider found convoy was escorted made off at high speed in gathering dusk, though not before struck amidships with shell.

General impression that a lot of things are happening in France, if only one knew what! De Gaulle broadcast last night to the French and said now the time had come to draw the sword again and regain control of the Mediterranean., i.e., to hit the Wops from Tunis to and finish Italy in N. Africa. “If our Africa, our Syria and our fleet were fighting for France the great battle of the Mediterranean would end at once in a great French victory.” The French are asked to remain indoors for an hour on New Year’s Day to show the enemy he is still their enemy, “a plebiscite of silence.” Interesting to learn how many in occupied and unoccupied France do this.

Monday, Dec 30^th

Last night a new kind of attack was made on the City London in an attempt to destroy it by fire. The raiders carried incendiaries and oil bombs and these were dropped in great quantities to the practical exclusion of high explosives. It was a futile and barbaric act, for up till now, although both sides have used incendiaries at the beginning of an attack to light the way for the later arrivals to selected targets, arson on a grand scale has not been the aim of a raid. It may be a good sign, for it may show that the Germans are getting rattled and just hitting blindly. Not many were killed and the military damage was negligible, but the Guild Hall, where the Graf Spee celebration lunch was held about this time last year, was burnt out…. (St Paul’s) was ringed with flame and the Dome outlined in the glare, but suffered little damage. In the morning Ludgate Hill was still filled with smoke, but shining through it could be seen the fairy lights of the Christmas Tree standing beneath the portico of St Paul’s.

Tuesday Dec 31^st

Had a little supper tonight. Sylvia Cole came up and we drank the health of France in Haut Sauternes

We have extracts of an important speech by Roosevelt. He explained with force and unanswerable logic why the U.S.A. must send “every ounce and every ton of munitions and supplies we can possibly spare” and must apply themselves to this task with the resolution and energy as if they were at war. “If Britain goes down, the Axis would be in a position to bring enormous naval and military resources against this hemisphere. We would enter a new and terrible era wherein the whole world would be run by threats of force. The British people are conducting an active war against this unholy alliance and our future security is greatly dependent on the outcome of that fight….. We must get those weapons to them in sufficient volume and quickly enough…. Britain and the British Empire are putting up a fight which will live forever in the history of human gallantry. We must be the arsenal of democracy.”

Sylvia believes that if we can hold out for another three months the Germans will crack; in her view they have as a people no stamina and are hysterical in temperament and are now very badly strained. Hope they are.