Archive for the ‘Churchill’ Category

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6.7.41

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Several of the papers are growing very restive because we are not doing more to help the U.S.S.R. I do not know whether any action, other than air-raids, is really intended, but if nothing is attempted, quite apart from the military and political consequences this may have, it is a disquieting symptom. For if we can’t make a land offensive now, when the Germans have 150 divisions busy in Russia, when the devil shall we be able to? I hear no rumours whatever about movements of troops, so apparently no expedition is being prepared at any rate from England. [1] The only new development is the beginning of Beaverbrook’s big drive for tanks, similar to his drive for planes last year. But this can’t bear fruit for some months, and where these tanks are to be used there is no hint. I can’t believe they want them for use against a German invasion. If the Germans were in a position to bring large numbers of armoured units here, i.e. if they had complete command of the sea and air, we should have lost the war already.

No talk of any formal alliance with Russia, nor indeed anything clarifying our relationship, in spite of more or less friendly utterances on either side. We can’t, of course, take any big risk until it is certain that they are in firm alliance with us, i.e. will go on fighting even if they have succeeded in beating back the invasion.

No reliable news from the fronts. The Germans are across the Pruth, but it seems to be disputed whether they are across the Beresina. The destruction claimed by both sides is obviously untruthful. The Russians claim that German casualties are already 700,000, i.e. about 10 per cent of Hitler’s whole army.

Examined a number of Catholic papers, also several copies of Truth, [2] to see what their attitude is to our quasi-alliance with the U.S.S.R. The Catholic papers have not gone pro-Nazi, and perhaps will not do so. The “line” apparently is that Russia is objectively on our side and must be supported, but that there must be no definite alliance. Truth, which hates Churchill, takes much the same line but is a shade more anti-Russian, perhaps. Some of the Irish Catholic papers have now gone frankly pro-Nazi, it appears. If that is so there will have been similar repercussions in the U.S.A. It will be interesting to see whether the “neutrality” that has been imposed on the Irish press, forbidding it to make any comment on any belligerent, will be enforced in the case of Russia, now that Russia is in the war.

The People’s Convention have voted full support for the government and demand “vigorous prosecution of the war” – this only a fortnight after they were demanding a “people’s peace”. The story is going round that when the news of Hitler’s invasion of Russia reached a New York café where some Communists were talking, one of them who had gone out to the lavatory returned to find that the “party line” had changed in his absence.

[1] From the moment the Soviet Union entered the war on the same side as Britain there was constant agitation for the opening of a second front. Much of this was promoted by Communists and Communist sympathisers.

[2] A journal of the extreme right. Peter Davison


Posted in air-raids, Beaverbrook, Beresina, Catholic, Churchill, communists, England, Germany, Government, Hitler, invasion, Ireland, neutrality, New York, newspapers, People's Convention, planes, Political, Pruth, Russia, tanks, Truth, U.S.A., U.S.S.R., War-time | No Comments »

3.7.41

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

Stalin’s broadcast speech is a direct return to the Popular Front, defence of democracy line, and in effect a complete contradiction of all that he and his followers have been saying for the past two years. It was nevertheless a magnificent fighting speech, just the right counterpart to Churchill’s, and made it clear that no compromise is intended, at any rate at this moment. Passages in it seemed to imply that a big retreat is contemplated, however. Britain and the U.S.A. referred to in friendly terms and more or less as allies, [1] though apparently no formal alliance exists as yet. Ribbentrop and Co. spoken of as “cannibals”, which Pravda has also been calling them. Apparently one reason for the queer phraseology that translated Russian speeches often have is that Russian contains so large a vocabulary of abusive words that English equivalents do not exist.

One could not have a better example of the moral and emotional shallowness of our time, than the fact that we are now all more or less proStalin.° This disgusting murderer is temporarily on our side, and so the purges, etc., are suddenly forgotten. So also with Franco, Mussolini, etc., should they ultimately come over to us. The most one can truly say for Stalin is that probably he is individually sincere, as his followers cannot be, for his endless changes of front are at any rate his own decision. It is a case of “when father turns we all turn”, [2] and Father presumably turns because the spirit moves him.

[1] The direct avoidance of the word ‘allies’ at this stage was significant. On 12 July, an Anglo-Russian agreement was signed in Moscow by Sir Stafford Cripps and Vyacheslav Molotov. This declared that each party would support the other ‘in the present war against Hitlerite Germany’ and would not sign a separate armistice or peace agreement. The distinction between being an ally and being a ‘co-belligerent’ was pointedly made in commentaries. Thus, Vernon Bartlett, News Chronicle political correspondent, wrote, on 14 July (the day the agreement was announced), under the heading ‘Moscow Not and Ally But a “Co-Belligerent”’: ‘People were asking yesterday whenever the Soviet Union is now to be looked upon as an allied or an associate Power. Such questions are…foolish.’ As to the phrase ‘Hitlerite Germany,’ he said it suggested that ‘the Russians still hope to split public opinion inside Germany.’

[2] Perhaps more commonly known as ‘There were ten in the bed and the little one said, “Roll over”’ (from a popular song). Peter Davison


Posted in Britain, Churchill, Franco, Mussolini, Political, Popular Front, Pravda, Ribbentrop, Stalin, U.S.A., War-time | No Comments »

23.6.41

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Churchill’s speech in my opinion very good. It will not please the Left, but they forget that he has to speak to the whole world, e.g. to middle-western Americans, airmen and naval officers, disgruntled shop-keepers and farmers, and also the Russians themselves, as well as to the leftwing political parties. His hostile references to Communism were entirely right and simply emphasised the fact that this offer of help was sincere. One can imagine the squeal that will be raised over these by correspondents in the New Statesman, etc. What sort of impression do they think it would make if Stalin stood up and announced “I have always been a convinced supporter of capitalism”?

Impossible to guess what impression this move of Hitler’s will make in the U.S.A. The idea that it will promptly bring into being a strong pro-Nazi party in England is a complete error. There are no doubt wealthy people who would like to see Hitler destroy the Soviet regime, but they will be a small minority. The Catholics will certainly be among them, but will probably be too acute to show their hands until Russian resistance begins to break down. Talking to people in the Home Guard, including Blimps and quite wealthy businessmen, I find everyone completely pro-Russian, though much divided in opinion about the Russian capacity to resist. Typical conversation, recorded as well as I can remember it: -

Wholesale poulterer: “Well, I hope the Russians give them a bloody good hiding.”

Clothing manufacturer (Jewish): “They won’t. They’ll go to pieces, just like last time. You’ll see.”

Doctor (some kind of foreigner, perhaps refugee): “You’re absolutely wrong. Everyone’s underrated the strength of Russia. They’ll wipe the floor with the Nazis.”

Wholesale grocer: “Damn it, there’s two hundred bloody millions of them”.

Clothing manufacturer: “Yes, but they’re not organised”, etc., etc., etc.

All spoken in ignorance, but showing what people’s sentiments are. Three years ago the great majority of people above £1000 a year, or even about £6 a week, would have sided with the Germans as against the Russians. By this time, however, hatred of Germany has made them forget everything else.

All really depends on whether Russia and Britain are ready really to cooperate, with no arrière-pensée and no attempt to shove the brunt of the fighting on to one another. No doubt a strong pro-Nazi party exists in Russia, and I dare say Stalin is at the head of it. If Russia changes sides again and Stalin plays the part of Pétain, no doubt the Communists here will follow him and go pro-Nazi again. If the Soviet régime is simply wiped out and Stalin killed or taken prisoner, many Communists would in my opinion transfer their loyalty to Hitler. At present the British Communists have issued some kind of manifesto calling for a “People’s Government”, etc. etc. They will change their tune as soon as the hand-out from Moscow comes. If the Russians are really resisting it is not in their interest to have a weak government in Britain, or subversive influences at work here. The Communists will no doubt be super-patriotic within ten days – the slogan will probably be “All power to Churchill” – and completely disregarded. But if the alliance between the two countries is genuine, with a certain amount give-and-take, the internal political effects on both sides must be all for the best. The special circumstances which made the Russian military assistance a bad influence in Spain don’t exist here.

Everyone is remarking in anticipation what a bore the Free Russians will be. It is forecast that they will be just like the White Russians. People have visions of Stalin in a little shop in Putney, selling samovars and doing Caucasian dances, etc., etc.


Posted in blimps, Catholics, Churchill, Communism, England, Germany, Hitler, Home Guard, left, nazi, new statesman, Petain, Political, Russia, speech, Stalin, U.S.A., War-time | No Comments »

18.5.41

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Irak, Syria, Morocco, Spain, Darlan, Stalin, Raschid Ali, Franco – sensation of utter helplessness.[1] If there is a wrong thing to do, it will be done, infallibly. One has come to believe in that as if it were a law of nature.

Yesterday or the day before on the newspaper placards, “Nazis using Syrian air bases”, and reports in the paper than when this fact was announced in Parliament there were cries of “Shame!” Apparently there are people capable of being surprised when the armistice terms are broken and the French empire made use of by the Nazis. And yet any mere outsider like myself could see on the day France went out of the war that this would happen.

Evidently all chance of winning the war in any decent way is lost. The plan of Churchill and Co. is apparently to give everything away and then win it all back with American aeroplanes and rivers of blood. Of course they can’t succeed. The whole world would swing against them, America probably included. Within two years we shall either be conquered or we shall be a Socialist republic fighting for its life, with a secret police force and half the population starving. The British ruling class condemned themselves to death when they failed to walk into Dakar, the Canaries, Tangier and Syria while the opportunity existed.

[1] Orwell’s ‘sensation of utter helplessness’ seems to be expressed by his running together the names of Nazi and Communist leaders opposed to Britain and territories which might be vulnerable to attack and which might provide the means of encircling Germany and Italy. However, Britain’s resources in men, ships, and planes were severally strained, making takeovers of Dakar, the Canaries, Tangier, Syria, Morocco, and Iraq impracticable. Nevertheless, the troops already in Iraq were reinforced from 24 April, Baghdad was occupied on 1 June, and a pro-British Iraqi cabinet was appointed on 5 June. On 8 June, British and Free French troops entered Syria, and French troops loyal to Vichy accepted an armistice on 11 July. Given these operations, the fighting in North Africa, a spring bombing campaign against Britain, the disasters in Greece and unfolding in Crete, to take such a plum as Dakar, with its Vichy warships, was beyond Allied hopes. An attempted assault on Dakar on 24-25 September 1940 had not been continued when it was realized how effective and determined the defences were. Peter Davison


Posted in America, Canaries, Churchill, Dakar, Darlan, France, Franco, human nature, Iraq, morocco, Nazis, newspapers, Parliament, Political, Rashid Ali, socialism, Spain, Stalin, Syria, Tangier, War-time | No Comments »

28.4.41

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Churchill’s speech last night very good, as a speech. But impossible to dig any information out of it. The sole solid fact I could extract was that at the time of his offensive in Libya Wavell could never concentrate more than 2 divisions, say 30,000 men. Heard the speech at the Home Guard post. The men impressed by it, in fact moved. But I think only two of the ones there were men below the £5-a-week level. Churchill’s oratory is really good, in an old-fashioned way, though I don’t like his delivery. What a pity that he either can’t, or doesn’t want, or isn’t allowed ever to say anything definite!


Posted in Churchill, Home Guard, Libya, oratory, Political, War-time, Wavell | No Comments »

22.4.41

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Have been 2 or 3 days at Wallington. Saturday night’s blitz could easily be heard there – 45 miles distant.

Sowed while at Wallington 40 or 50 lb. of potatoes, which might give 200 or 600 lbs. according to the season, etc. It would be queer – I hope it won’t be so, but it quite well may – if when this autumn comes those potatoes seem a more important achievement than all the articles, broadcasts, etc. I shall have done this year.

The Greek-British line seems to have swung south, hingeing on Janina, to a position not far north of Athens. If the newspaper reports are truthful, they got across the plain of Thessaly without being too much damaged. The thing that disturbs everyone and is evidently going to raise a storm in Australia, is the lack of real news. Churchill in his speech said that even the government had difficulty in getting news from Greece. The thing that most disturbs me is the repeated statement that we are inflicting enormous casualties, the Germans advance in close formation and are mown down in swathes, etc., etc. [1] Just the same as was said during the battle of France… Attack on Gibraltar, or at any rate some adverse move in Spain, evidently timed to happen soon. Churchill’s speeches begin to sound like Chamberlain’s – evading questions etc., etc.

British troops entered Irak° a couple of days ago. No news yet as to whether they are doing the proper thing, wiping up German agents etc. People on all sides saying, “Mosul will be no good to Hitler even if he gets there. The British will blow up the wells long before.” Will they, I wonder? Did they blow up the Rumanian wells when the opportunity existed? The most depressing thing in this war is not the disasters we are bound to suffer at this stage, but the knowledge that we are being led by weaklings…It is as though your life depended on a game of chess, and you had to sit watching it, seeing the most idiotic moves being made and being powerless to prevent them.

[1] Orwell’s suspicion that German troops had not been ‘mown down in swathes’ was well founded. For details of losses, see War-time Diary 3.5.41. Peter Davison


Posted in Athens, Australia, blitz, Chamberlain, Churchill, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hitler, Iraq, Janina, Mosul, oil wells, Political, potatoesjournalism, Rumania, Thessaly, Wallington, War-time | No Comments »

20.3.41

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

Fairly heavy raids last night, but only 1 plane brought down, so no doubt the rumours about a “secret weapon” are all baloney.

A lot of bombs at Greenwich, one of them while I was talking to E[ileen] over the ‘phone. A sudden pause in the conversation and a tinkling sound:

I. ‘What’s that?’

B. ‘Only the windows falling in.’ [1]

The bomb had dropped in the park opposite the house, broke the cable of the barrage balloon and wounded one of the balloon barrage men and a Home Guard. Greenwich church was on fire and the people still sheltering in the crypt with the fire burning overhead and water flowing down, making no move to get out till made to do so by the wardens.

German consul in Tangier (the first time since 1914). It appears that in deference to American opposition we are going to let more food into France. Even if some kind of neutral commission is set up to supervise this it will do no good to the French. The Germans will simply allow them to keep such wheat, etc., as we send in and withhold a corresponding quantity elsewhere. Even while we make ready to allow the food ships in, there is no sign of the government extorting anything in return – e.g., expulsion of German agents from North Africa. The proper course would be to wait till France is on the verge of starvation and the Pétain government consequently rocking, and then hand over a really large supply of food in return for some substantial concession, e.g. surrender of important units of the French fleet. Any such policy totally unthinkable at present, of course. If only one could be sure whether —-, —- and all their kind are really traitors, or only fools.

Looking back through this diary, I see that of late I have written in it at much longer intervals and much less about public events than when I started it. The feeling of helplessness is growing in everyone. One feels that the necessary swing of opinion cannot now happen except at the price of another disaster, which we cannot afford and which therefore one dare not hope for. The worst is that the crisis now coming is going to be a crisis of hunger, which the English people have no real experience of. Quite soon it is going to be a question of whether to import arms or food. It is a mercy that the worst period will come in the summer months, but it will be devilish difficult to get the people to face hunger when, so far as they can see, there is no purpose in the war whatever, and when the rich are still carrying on just as before, as they will be, of course, unless dealt with forcibly. It doesn’t matter having no war aims when it is a question of repelling invasion, because from the point of view of ordinary people keeping foreigners out of England is quite a sufficient war aim. But how can you ask them to starve their children in order to build tanks to fight in Africa, when in all that they are told at present there is nothing to make clear that fighting in Africa, or in Europe, has anything to do with the defence of England?

On a wall in South London some Communist or Blackshirt had chalked “Cheese, not Churchill”. What a silly slogan. It sums up the psychological ignorance of these people who even now have not grasped that whereas some people would die for Churchill, nobody will die for cheese.

[1] The laconic humour is typical of Eileen. Peter Davison


Posted in air raid, arms, barrage balloon, bomb, cheese, Churchill, food, France, Greenwich, helplessness, Home Guard, Political, Tangier, War-time | No Comments »

The ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ begins

Sunday, March 6th, 2011
A depth charge attack under way in the Atlantic, as seen from one of the destroyers supplied to Britain by the USA.
We must take the offensive against the U-boat and the Focke-Wulf wherever we can and whenever we can. The U-boat at sea must be hunted, the U-boat in the building yard or in dock must be bombed. The Focke-Wulf and other bombers employed against our shipping must be attacked in the air and in their nests.

Posted in 1941, Churchill, March 1941 | No Comments »

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