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Archive for the ‘1940’ Category

Churchill broadcasts to the Italian people

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

The Italian Offensive 1940 - 1941: British troops, sitting on captured Italian motorcycles, read copies of the congratulatory telegram sent to all units after their victory by the Secretary of State for War, Mr Anthony Eden.

Your aviators have tried to cast their bombs upon London. Our armies are tearing - and will tear - your African empire to shreds and tatters. We are now only at the beginning of this sombre tale. Who can say where it will end? Presently, we shall be forced to come to much closer grips. How has all this come about, and what is it all for?

Posted in 1940, Churchill, December 1940 | No Comments »

Manchester Blitzed

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

A building crashes to the ground at Deansgate in the centre of Manchesteron the 22nd december 1940. Firefighters can just be discerned at the bottom right.

 The following morning I cycled to work, arriving on time at 8 o'Clock and went straight to the roof to join most of the staff who had managed to get to work, enjoying the best view of the biggest fire ever seen in Manchester. Climbing on to the letter H, you could see the whole of the centre of Piccadilly ablaze from Mosely street to Portland street.

Posted in 1940, bombing, December 1940 | No Comments »

Liverpool Blitzed

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Liverpool after the raids in 1941. No city outside London suffered from the attentions of the Luftwaffe as much as Liverpool

Liverpool was probably the most important, wartime mercantile port, the destination of many convoys from America. Furthermore it was easy to locate by air, with the lights of Dublin burning across the Irish Sea. It had already received much attention from the Luftwaffe. On the night of the 28th November one direct hit on a shelter at Durning Street had killed at least 166 people...

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North African campaign is morale booster

Monday, December 20th, 2010

An Italian position destroyed during Operation Compass. The military success was welcome news in Britain.

What made people happiest was the perfect timing, slickness, and coordination of the attack, showing that the bitter lessons of France and Flanders have been well and truly learned. "Speed" and "brilliance" had been ruefully looked upon as exclusively Nazi nouns for so long that it was certainly heady to find them back in the British vocabulary again.

Posted in 1940, December 1940 | No Comments »

The Italian base at Bardia besieged

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

A Matilda II tank of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment in the Western Desert, 19 December 1940.

With each passing second we drew closer to the defences, and what an opportunity this was to penetrate them before the 'gate' was closed. I gave the order to advance with all speed and as my tank was on the road, I was soon well in the lead. We could not have been more than half a mile from the barrier when the whole desert seemed to erupt about me.

Posted in 1940, December 1940, tanks | No Comments »

Hitler gives the order for Barbarossa

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

And even today the unified racial core in Germany remains the largest by far; not only in value, in itself highly significant, but also in numbers, it is the greatest. By contrast, if we compare the percentage of Lebensraum occupied by the German Volk to that of the earth as such, then we must remark that our Volk is one of the most disadvantaged peoples of the world. ... In other words: the German Volk, in terms of the space it occupies, is by far the most modest there is on this earth

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Roosevelt explains the need for ‘Lend-Lease’

Friday, December 17th, 2010

The United States had already agreed to supply Britain with 50 old destroyers in exchange for use of Naval bases in the Caribbean. Roosevelt's proposal now went a lot further.

Suppose my neighbor's home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire. Now, what do I do? I don't say to him before that operation, "Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it." What is the transaction that goes on? I don't want $15—I want my garden hose back after the fire is over.

Posted in 1940, December 1940 | No Comments »

RAF bombing raid starts fires burning in Mannheim

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Aerial image of effects of bombing on Mannheim

'the sole objective was the industrial centre of Mannheim on which 108 tons of highexplosive and over 13,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. Countless fires were started and aircraft which arrived late in the night reported that many blocks in the Western and South-Eastern areas were ablaze. Aircraft visited the town on the two following nights and reported many fires still burning after the previous attacks, and smoke hanging over the town.'

Posted in 1940, bombing, December 1940, reconnaissance | No Comments »

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