1944 December

December. Fred Andersen in Italy. Readying flagpole. Bryant killed. Battle of Bulge. On the goose standard. Trouble in Greece. Relieving senectitude.

Saturday, Dec 2^nd

              Heard from air force officer Fred Anderson, last time reading Trollope on the Euphrates, this time a life of Disraeli on the coast of Italy.

              It seems likely that we shall have a general election next summer. Great pity that Churchill ever became chairman of the Conservative Party as now every nincompoop like our appeaser M.P. will be able to say a vote for me is a vote for Churchill.

              The Germans have been forbidden by Goebbels to express doubts about the final outcome of the war or to discuss in public shortages caused by bottlenecks, and again a policy of silence on air raids has been held up to them.

Sunday, Dec 3^rd

              Bought some cord for the flagpole so that I could fly the flag on Armistice Day, but did not get the pole down to put it on and don’t think I shall be needing it before next summer anyway.

              The difficulties in liberated Belgium, Greece and Italy are beginning. The Belgian government from London is unpopular with the resistance movement, which still has arms. In Greece there has been fighting in Athens between the police and left-wing demonstrators. Not only are the restored governments unpopular because they contain conservative elements and have been “exile” governments, but because they cannot deliver the goods. “Liberation” does not look as good as it did. Food is short, fuel is short, there are unemployed. Our military authorities cannot have civil war in their rear and will naturally come down on the side of the official governments.

              A new unnamed battleship launched by Princess Elizabeth, one of her first public appearances. Apparently it is designed for use in the tropics and is the largest built so far. Why its name has been kept secret cannot imagine, unless it is associated in some way with the place of its building.

Wednesday, Dec 6^th

              To-day heard that Toby Bryant, my history master, killed in Holland. Time passes so quickly that only four children in the school had been taught by him. The first of the five staff (in the forces) to lose his life.             

    Real trouble in Greece. Firing on left-wing demonstrators in Athens appears to have been preceded by the resignation of the left-wing members from the coalition government, the marching of left-wing armed forces towards the capital, and the declaration of a general strike. Clearly the whole thing an armed attempt to overthrow the government. P.M. said yesterday that we are not going to clear out to allow a Communist dictatorship to be established.

Friday, Dec 8^th

              Mrs Bryant came to see me to-day. A Pole on her way to Sweden, she was caught here by the war and married Bryant after he joined up. Apparently he had been in the air defence of G.B. but when things got slack volunteered for an infantry regiment, for, as he said, he had talked a lot against fascism and he felt it was hit duty to fight it. He went to Holland without embarkation leave and was killed after 20 days.

Sunday, Dec 17^th

              News to-night that the Germans have staged a comeback and made an armoured thrust against the American 1^st Army using paratroops. A bigger attempt than anything since the fighting at Avranches in the summer.

Thursday, Dec 21^st

              Foggy at home and at the front! No news for security reasons and what has come through is 48 hours old. Von Rundstedt has collected a reserve of picked divisions, armour, infantry, paratroops, assembled them in secrecy and cut right through the allied line between the northern offensive in the Rhineland and the southern offensive in the Saar. Faced with an attack on all fronts and the slow wearing down of his armies by an enemy in every way superior, he has chosen to attack himself. He hopes for a victory that will dislocate plans for two or three months, keep the west quiet, and allow his crack troops to move east to meet the Russian offensive. It is a supreme gamble, perhaps the last. Meanwhile the impetus of the attack appears to have taken the Germans forward about 30 miles towards Meuse and Liege….. Our intelligence appears to have been foxed and the attack came as a complete surprize.

Christmas Eve, Sunday

              Spent the day sawing logs and listening to music. Alexander Weiss came up and he and Hilary had a conversation on Dr Barnado’s Homes and what you would do if your parents died. Hilary said he would go to his uncle. He would earn his own living. The conversation then passed on to religion, instinct. “What’s instinct?” “Well instinct is what you know,” said Hilary. “You must listen to a well brought up person,” “Well I am a well brought up person.” “No, I mean a well brought up grown up person. You’ll learn a lot that way.” Unfortunately Nora only heard part of this very abstruse conversation as bombers were going over and much of it was lost.

              The news is a bit more reassuring to-day. The flanks are holding and both sides are regrouping for a second round. To-day was a lovely winter’s day with a white frost and then sunshine and a pale blue winter sky against which the tits flew from branch to branch. There is snow in the Ardennes and the trees are white like a Christmas card…

              In a way this is a rather disappointing Christmas. The great German attack in the Ardennes in full swing….. when we imagined they had no kick left in them. At the same time great difficulties between ourselves and Russia and the U.S.A. over Poland and Greece, a growing feeling in the U.S. that the Atlantic Charter has been thrown overboard and Europe is returning to the game of power politics. Rifts between the allies appearing even before the enemy has been defeated. Civil war in (?some of) the liberated countries and our men fighting and being killed by the people they came to liberate. All this combines to produce a mood of disillusionment, weariness and pessimism.

              To offset this (query), meat ration increased from 1s 2d to 1s 10d – Christmas week only. Debate continues whether to open Sauterne or not. Only N, H and myself can hardly do justice to a whole bottle….

Christmas Day

              A frosty Christmas. The ground white and the frost only melted a little while in the sun at midday. As Hilary and I went over to get a plant and flowers from the school we saw the sun rise. I gave him a copy of Treasure Island and he gave me Trevelyan’s Social History. Among other presents he had a saw, a hatchet and some wire cutters.

              We spent the morning doing housework and getting dinner ready. For dinner we had goose, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, Christmas pudding and brandy butter. In the end we did not open the Sauterne a there were too few of us to drink it. After washing up the dinner we heard the King’s speech. He spoke fairly well, for him, but there was one long and painful pause while he tried to get a word out. After this N and Hilary went for a walk. We had tea late and then lit the Christmas tress. This year, as I was able to borrow some candleholders, it had 15 candles, more than we had been able to raise for a war Christmas. One of the things we promise ourselves after the war is a tree with lots of candles, which we can burn as long as we like instead of blowing them out soon because there are no more and we want them to last.

              Hilary announced in the course of his walk that he wished to be a scientist.

              There are more sweets this Christmas than I have known since 1940 as the ration for children has been increased.

Boxing Day

              The frost still holds, “earth hard as stone”, the fields, trees and hedges covered in white. In the afternoon we walked along the towpath, difficult to keep warm, but the red winter sun cast lovely green shadows on the river. After tea read Hilary some Treasure Island.

Wednesday, Dec 27^th

              A very severe frost continued, but started off for Exeter at 8.30. The train at Henley 20 minutes late starting and got to Paddington 40 minutes late at 10.40, when train for Exeter should have been moving out. However, I need not have worried. It was 50 minutes before the Exeter train even came into the platform. During this time walked up and down in vain endeavour to keep warm. I have never been so cold for 20 years. It was the coldest Christmas since 1872. The train however was not crowded and was well heated. It was an hour late starting and an hour and a half late arriving at Exeter.

Thursday, Dec 28^th

              Went down to the front at Exmouth this morning and walked out towards Orcombe. Lovely day and much warmer, but a mist over the water so could not see very far. About half the tank obstacles have been cleared and the wire on the promenade removed. The A.A. Bofors guns have gone, but the heavy coast defence battery was still there looking very clean, oiled and wrapped up. In this small hamlet only two spectators turned up to stand down the Home Guard. Now project is coming forward for a tea next week as a mark of appreciation! Beer and cigarettes have been promised as well!

              Churchill and Eden back from round table conference with Greeks in Athens. No agreement has been reached except that all parties want a regency. The P.M. has said that we intend to clear the capital of armed forces with the surrounding districts of Attica. As the party were leaving the British Embassy they were fired on by a sniper, but no one was hit.

Friday, Dec 29^th

              Went into Exeter to-day. Much impressed by the appearance of the early 19^th century market, which now filled with the stalls of shops which have been destroyed. Went into the cathedral. Organ dismantled and people not admitted to choir. The damaged aisle was closed and red cassock of choir hanging in racks in the nave. Met a woman in Exton who said it was the spiritual side of Christmas that counted. Felt inclined to so say that with drinks so short she was lucky – but didn’t.

Sunday, Dec 31^st

              Yesterday walked from Exmouth to Budleigh, but had to make two detours, one round range newly established on Straight Point, the other round some gun sites on the cliff above Budleigh. The weather was cloudy and turned milder and for a time it rained. to-day went down to look at the estuary. In the morning the tide was beginning to ebb and there were many waders, redshanks and ringed plover, to be seen quite near.

              Have been reading the Bp of Durham’s autobiography and came across this passage: “When after my marriage, my wife an I had for a while reason to hope that we too might have been granted the privilege of parenthood, I allowed myself to indulge in the fancy that a narrative of personal experience and activity might interest a child of my own.” I still indulge the fancy. However the Bishop goes on to explain that he was careful to write in a bold, clear hand that might be read without difficulty, and for this purpose used specially cut quill pens. No one has ever said that my writing was easy to read. In this I agree with him for in middle age I find it difficult to decipher myself, so whether, in the Bishop’s phrase, it will “relieve the tedium of senectitude” I do not know.

1944 November

November. Roosevelt again. V2's. 107,000 houses destroyed, 870,000 awaiting repair. Destructive as Germans? Bumf crisis. GB's war contribution. Farmers' efforts

Wednesday, Nov 1^st

              Went to Young Farmers Club brains trust at Town Hall with Donald McCullough (as) question master and sundry agricultural experts, including our representative at the Hot Springs Conference. He said Norwegian representative had remarked, “What! No meat to-day – only turkey, chicken and lobster!”

1944 September

September. Rolling back barbarians. De Gaulle in Paris. Wartime restrictions to go (slowly). Term starts with "Now thank we all our God". Arnhem.

Wednesday, Sept 6^th

              On the last Sunday of peace Billy Temple, Archbishop of York, said, “Crisis is the Greek word for Judgment…. every emergency which is fitly described as a crisis tests the character and faith we have so far acquired and throws light on the course of events, including our own conduct, which led up to that emergency”. The light thrown on our own conduct of affairs was lurid enough!..… But we came through the judgement until now with powerful allies and immense resources we are rolling back the dark barbarians from the face of Europe.

1944 August

July. George Dunn on D Day. Six years to get Europe on its feet. Sir Henry Wood dies. Paris free! Lorry-load of landladies.

Friday, Aug 4^th

              The war is showing signs of age. Since I last wrote the Russians have reached the boundaries of Prussia and the outskirts of Warsaw. The Americans have broken out of the Cherbourg peninsular and are into Brittany as far as Rennes. Our men on the left are keeping pace with them through the thick Bocage of the Normandy hills. The fighting is confused as the tanks have thrust ahead in long tongues. In front of Caen we are still where we were, but Rommel cannot let go there even though his left flank is in danger of encirclement.

              Had visit from George Dunn on leave from Normandy. Said casualties of landing craft from mines and obstructions very heavy, clearing impossible under fire from snipers, coast batteries had been silenced from sea and air and nothing to worry about from beach, but below tide mark a different story. His own craft blown up, but got ashore. Many men drowned. Once ashore he became a “beach master” where he found great use for strong language. Loading much hampered by bad weather, which Army seemed to think the Navy could control. Said French civilians tended graves of British and brought flowers. Two old ladies placed flowers on July 5^th on blanket-covered corpses of two Americans who killed themselves with naval rum on Independence Day!

Tuesday, Aug 8^th

              Very busy over Bank Holiday as house full of visitors and occupied in extracting honey.

              The news excellent. The blitzkrieg model of 1940 has been carried out on our side, and better. American armoured columns are turning west into Brittany and east towards Paris….. This is the Twilight of the Gods. A fight to the end has begun in the West and will not cease until the German armies are destroyed…. There is it seems a marked difference between the S.S. and the ordinary army units. The former are Nazi fanatics who fight until they are killed regardless of what is happening to the right and the left of them. The latter are often foreign soldiers who are quickly losing any hope of a German victory and are bewildered, frightened and disorganized, ready to surrender. If the Germans are hit much harder by our armour the war may end in a general catastrophe of the enemy much sooner than we think.

              A great controversy in The Times as to whether Jones did or did not bowl through W. G. Grace’s beard!

Friday, Aug 11^th

              Nora asks when shall we be in Paris, I say in a fortnight. Reflect that last time I was studying the map of France so carefully was in the summer of 1940 – now the same but with what a difference.

Saturday, Aug 12^th

              The Promenade Concerts have had to be given up because of the bombs (I object to the name doodlebug) and took place instead in the studio, the on top of this Sir Henry Wood got jaundice and was unable to be present at the anniversary concert on Thursday. An appeal for a Henry Wood Hall to replace Queen’s Hall. Shall send a pound and hope Hilary will enjoy concerts there is years to come.

Sunday, Aug 13^th

              The events which are taking place in France to-day are so far reaching one can hardly grasp their significance. There is in effect no force adequate to oppose us south of the Loire. It looks in any case as though an invasion of south France is imminent. In a few days two thirds of France will be in our hands. The Vichy government has moved to the Vosges. The Algiers government is preparing to cross to France. That means that France will take part once again as a great allied power in the final battles and the peace negotiations.

              To-night heard that the retreat has begun. German transport streaming east from the Mortain-Vire pocket through the Falaise bottleneck…. 40 German divisions have been in the Normandy pocket. It looks as if they are facing complete disaster…

              Met a Ministry of Food official who is going to Germany when occupied to control German food supplies. Says they will go very short and come last on the list. They will lose their butter, cheese and bacon from Holland and Denmark, grain from central Europe, dried fruits from the south. It will be a case of autarchy [autarky, surely!] by necessity, not choice this time. I asked him how long it would take to put Europe on its feet from the food point of view. Said six or seven years would be needed before the number of cattle reached pre-war figures.

              Negotiations between Russia and Poland off for the time being. Poles at odds among themselves. Polish resistance movement says let down by Russians who have left the Polish rising in Warsaw to the fury of the Germans.

             

Tuesday, Aug 15^th

              A fourth front. Landing on south coast of France with fleet of 80 ships. No opposition from air and not heavy from land so far.

              Not much news of battle in Normandy. Correspondents insist there is no rout. Order of the day issued by Eisenhower calls for an all out effort to seize a fleeting opportunity of destroying Normandy army in the course of the next week. Hope they don’t get away, but feel a bit doubtful.

              Fascists in Florence dispersed pictures etc and dumped them in country villas round Tuscany. There they remained without special protection. Five of the villas were in the middle of the battle zone. An American professor went to rescue them and was able to draw the attention of the military authorities to them through two war correspondents, who were amazed to find the Primavera lying amid dust and broken glass in a villa which was then under shell fire. A piece of luck for posterity. Not all pictures left the Pitti and the Uffizi. Wonder where the Venus is. Nora says some pictures left for Hilary to see.

Thursday, Aug 17^th

              Paris has heard the distant rumble of the guns of the army of liberation. We are beyond Chartres…. Germans are in retreat from their positions in front of Caen, but elements of 14 divisions are said to have failed to get out in time….. The railwaymen on the Est and Nord systems have gone on strike and the Paris police are reported to have done the same.

              Went through London to-day to visit Aunt at Watford. Short alerts all day but heard no bombs. London seemed to have emptied considerably and very hot and very dirty.

Saturday, Aug 19^th

          The enemy say our patrols are on the outskirts of Paris and have reached Mantes and Vernon on the Seine itself. In the south we have closed in on Toulon. The men of the Maquis have already placed the Tricolour on the Swiss frontier in Savoy… Laval has left Paris with the German officials.

Sunday, Aug 20^th

About 2.30 this afternoon there was a loud explosion. It was a flying bomb. The weather was cloudy and the siren had only just begun to wail before it went off. Hilary was up in his tree hut but came back to the house to ask what it was. The horses in the field opposite were frightened and started galloping around.

                 The question is will the war be over this year! That was what we wondered in 1918 at this time of year and our plans were going forward for 1919 when the Germans gave up….. Doubt from the military point of view whether we can get into Germany from the west before November.

              Very sorry that Sir Henry Wood died yesterday a few days after his jubilee Prom Concert that he was too ill to attend. Bad luck that the flying bombs made it impossible to use the Albert Hall, but I heard him conduct Beethoven’s 7^th on the wireless, the last concert he ever conducted.. What tremendous pleasure and satisfaction he has given to many thousands over the last 50 years, a good life in every way, but I am sad that it could not have lasted a little longer. He was 75.

            

Monday, Aug 21^st

              Paris is in insurrection against the Germans. The Americans are at Versailles…. The battle of Warsaw is reaching a climax. The city is burning and our pilots who flew from Italy to drop arms to the Polish underground army fighting inside say they see the flames from 50 miles away and smoke filled the aircraft 10 miles from the city. The Germans will destroy what they cannot hold. The Russians say the rising was too early and ill timed, and the Poles, or some of them, think the Russians have not done enough.

              Far away in Washington, removed from the hunger of Paris and the fires in Warsaw, the representatives of G.B., the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. met to-day to discuss the international organization of peace and unity after the war.

Tuesday, Aug 22^nd

              “Victory has been definite, complete and decisive. The end of the war is in sight. Let us finish off the business in record time,” Montgomery in message to the troops…. German losses in Normandy said to be 300,000 since June and 1,200 tanks destroyed or damaged…. This tremendously swift advance to liberate France once more is exciting and dramatic, but we were expecting it. It has not that quality of surprize and shock of France’s collapse that summer four years ago when our whole world seemed to be falling about our ears. This news is fulfilling all our hopes; that stunned us by its utter unexpectedness.

Wednesday, Aug 23^rd

              Paris is free! to-day at one o’clock told that the F.F.I. are in control of the city. France has her capital again. The Marseillaise was played. Hilary and I had a talk about Paris, the buses, the metro, cafes etc, and how he would one day learn French so that he could visit France..… To entertain the idea of going to Paris once again is so marvellous and gives one such a peculiar feeling – Europe seems to be born again, to have come alive, to have come back – though in fact it may be some time before we can go there again.

              To the east of the city the Marne has been crossed at Meaux where in 1938 sat in the archbishop’s garden and watched the fountains play…The Germans in northern France are in a dilemma: either they have to clear out now eastwards or fight on with their backs to the sea. Tales from the Normandy battlefield are grim. On military maps it is said to be marked simply as a killing area and to be full of German dead.

Thursday, Aug 24^th

              The Festung-Europa, is breaking up badly. To-day Roumania gave up and accepted the allied terms, Bulgaria is waiting to do the same. Soon the iron ring will be drawn round the Reich itself and all the conquests of 1940 and 1941 will have been lost.

              Paris is the first of the allied capitals to be freed from the Germans and her liberation by herself and by Frenchmen will make a tremendous impression everywhere. “France has lost a battle: she has not lost the war,” said de Gaulle in 1940. His prophecy has now come true.

              Where the German garrisons are small they have been captured by the F.F.I., for instance Limoges last night was observed to be relaying programmes from London. Many high German officers captured have no idea that American columns are between them and Germany and are quite ignorant of what the real situation is.

    To-day Hilary reported a lorry full of landladies (an awful thought), but it turned out he had seen a truck with some land girls in!

1944 July

July. Evacuees again. Streaming out of London. De Gaulle's government recognised. K. Hunt on Italian experiences. How the cats do it. Hitler escapes assassination.

Saturday, July 1

              I never thought I should have evacuees in the house again, but they arrived again to-day. Brother-in-law and sister-in-law and baby aged six months from Wimbledon.

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 4^th

              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!

1944 May

May. Councillor Hamilton on a point of grammar. German refugee with no wish to go home. American soldiery on edge. Frost destroys fruit crops.
Sunday, May 7^th

              Another week – and the air is full of the sent of lilac and the laburnum tree is in bloom. There have been some high winds of gale force in the middle of the week, but they have dropped now and the channel is calming down.