Episode2.org

A very charming Scots girl from Glasgow came in this afternoon, and I had the pleasure of conducting her over the Vaults and Dungeons. Her husband is in the R.E.S. down on the coast here. We spoke of invasions, in which she refuses to believe. Her view of the war was very similar to mine and she was delightfully honest. She said, “I don't care who gets killed in this war so long as I get Bill back safe. He’s mine and that’s that!” What a delightfully honest thing to say in these days of cant, humbug and patriotic hysteria.

Weather cold, wet, and very windy. There was an alarm at 9.30, which lasted until 5.30am on Saturday. At midnight I went up to the Warden’s Post at the Albert Hall and had some tea and biscuits there. There was heavy gunfire all round, and a bomb fell S. of the town about half past 3. There were planes over all night. In the “Essex Standard” this week is recorded the case of a man charged at Braintree with begging in disguise, and it is quite clear that he is the same man who changed his disguise in the Holly Trees lavatory. Some weeks ago, Harding found a hat, dark glasses, and basket there early one morning, and we both recognised these as the property of an old man who played a fiddle in the streets.

We considered that he was either a person in disguise or else he had been taken ill in the lavatory and had staggered out, leaving his property behind him. At any rate, I reported this obviously suspicious affair at the police station, and was laughed out, as nobody would take the matter seriously. Harding destroyed the things he found, and yet a week later I saw the old man, wearing exactly similar things, playing outside Barclays Bank! I again went to the police, and was told that “They knew all about him”. It now turns out that he was disguised, and although he appeared to be at least 70, old and blind, he was really less than 50. I told this story to Taylor tonight, and was astonished to hear that he also had seen him changing in the Park lavatories, and had reported the fact to the police sergeant who again refused to take any interest. It appears that the man is quite harmless, and only disguised himself in order to make his appearance more pathetic and so get more generous alms, but it shows at any rate that there is little to prevent persons with the most evil intentions from doing the same thing. After all, this is a garrison town in the middle of a war, and one would expect the police to take just a little interest when it is reported that disguised persons are about the place.

Battle of Britain Day 66. Bad weather again restricts German attacks during the day, with single bombers coming across at a rate of about 7 per hour to drop bombs on London and RAF airfields. Bombs land in front of Buckingham Palace, slightly damaging the Victoria Memorial, and in the Palace courtyard where much damage is done. The Royal Family is at the Palace at the time but they are not injured. Luftwaffe has 3 aircraft shot down. RAF loses 2 Blenheims (1 does not return from a reconnaissance flight over Norway; the crew bales out of another near Calais and are taken prisoner). Bombing of London overnight is more widespread than previously (Westminster, Battersea, Mitcham, Clapham Junction, Wembley and Hammersmith). Cardiff is also bombed. With tides the next few nights favouring invasion by Germany, Royal Navy moves battleships HMS Nelson & Rodney to Rosyth and HMS Revenge to Plymouth, to support cruisers and destroyers defending the English Channel. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/6200463/Queen-Mothers-biography-on-bombing-raid-on-Buckingham-Palace.html

North Africa. Italian 1st Blackshirt Division (23 Marzo, in honour of the founding of the Italian Fascist Party on 23 March 1919) recapture Fort Capuzzo, taken by the British in June, just inside Libya on the border with Egypt. Soon after, Italian troops cut the barbed wire on the Libyan/Egyptian border and begin the invasion of Egypt.

Vichy French steamers carrying demilitarized troops home from North Africa to France hit mines west of Sardinia (SS Ginette Le Borgne and SS Cassidaigne are sunk and SS Cap Tourane is damaged). German minesweeping trawler Hermann Krone hits a mine and sinks off Hanstholm, Denmark.

British steam passenger ship SS City of Benares departs Liverpool bound for Quebec and Montreal, carrying 90 British children being evacuated to Canada. She is the flagship of the convoy commodore Rear Admiral Mackinnon and the first ship in the center column of convoy OB-213.

Cool, fine morning. Feel I cannot settle down. ... Another notice was published today, warning inhabitants that in the event of an invasion this town was liable to be heavily bombed.

Went round to Brook’s [a farrier in Colchester]. Plowright, the coalman was there, anxious about his horse [asking], "Was it likely that horses would have to be killed?"

London raids last night but don't seem to have been so bad. Very few killed. Last Monday night 400 were killed, almost all in a school which was hit. Fancy packing 1600 people into a 3-storey brick-built school. We had the usual alarm tonight. At long [last] I settled a light which we could see in George Street, and had seen nightly for weeks past. It was in a woman’s bathroom. I was glad of my horse rugs tonight [at the Castle]. V. cold.

Battle of Britain Day 65. Cloudy weather restricts flying to a minimum. Only German reconnaissance flights take place during the day and 50 bombers attack London overnight (compared to about 300 on previous nights). 2 German bombers are shot down and Wing Commander J.S. Dewar (airfield commander at Exeter) is lost on a pleasure flight to Tangmere in his Hurricane. A delayed action high-explosive bomb hits St. Paul’s Cathedral but does not explode and is buried 30 feet into the ground. Royal Engineers Lieutenant R. Davies and Sapper J. Wylie defuse the bomb and are awarded the George Cross, becoming the first military personnel to receive this medal for “bravery not in the face of the enemy”. St. Paul’s Cathedral will become a symbol of London’s resilience during the Blitz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral#Post-Wren_history

Vichy French cruisers depart Casablanca at 4 AM, leaving behind their destroyer escorts. 3 British destroyers join HMS Renown and 3 other destroyers off Casablanca, searching for the French cruisers which are now well on their way South, steaming for Dakar at full speed.

North Africa. Italian 10th Army continues to make slow progress towards the Libyan border with Egypt to begin their invasion. British light covering forces fall back slowly fighting delaying actions.

In the Indian Ocean 330 miles East of Madagascar, German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin stops British steamer Benavon with a shot across the bows. Benavon tries to escape and returns fire with her 4 inch gun but the inexperienced crew does not fit the shells with fuse caps (1 shell hits Pinguin, lodging next to the magazine containing 300 high-explosive mines; a lethal hit if it had exploded). Pinguin shells Benavon into submission (24 killed, 25 crew taken prisoner).
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/pinguin.html

Sisson came in today about the destruction of church railings [for salvage]. He was very perturbed about the evacuation notices, although it does not apply outside the Borough [of Colchester]. From this most ridiculous situations arise. Lexden Schools are shut, while the Stanway Schools, less than half a mile away, (with a Colchester Councillor for a headmaster!) are open. Some children have been sent from Lexden a few yards up the London Road to relations in Stanway; others have been sent to West Bergholt. Grammar school boys from the town are expected to leave, while the school has to remain open for the benefit of boys from the country, who are apparently allowed to come into the town to school, while it is unsafe for our own children to remain here! I was told tonight that between 3,000 and 4,000 went away today on special trains.

Hull, strangely enough, takes no interest whatever in all this. I was quite expecting him to bury the whole museum today.

Battle of Britain Day 64. Despite fine weather, there are no Luftwaffe attacks in the morning. At 3 PM, 300 German bombers fly across Kent and up the Thames Estuary in 2 waves, escorted by Messerschmitt Bf109s and Bf110s. While Bf109s (which are at the limit of their fuel supplies) are engaged by fighters of AVM Park’s No. 11 Group at high altitude, AVM Leigh-Mallory’s “Big Wing” of 3 squadrons from No. 12 Group attacks the bombers. Losses are equally high on both sides but many bombers get through and again drop their loads on London’s East End. At the same time, Portsmouth and Southampton are also bombed. Destroyers HMS Atherstone and Fernie are attacked by German bombers off Ramsgate, Kent, escorting convoy CW-11 in the Straits of Dover. HMS Atherstone is badly damaged (6 killed), towed to Chatham by tug Turquoise and will be under repair until January 1941. Overnight, London and Liverpool are bombed.

3 Vichy French cruisers and 3 destroyers pass through the Straits of Gibraltar at 25 knots at 8.35 AM, heading for Dakar. They have been spotted at 5.15 AM by destroyer HMS Hotspur 50 miles inside the Mediterranean, but it is too late for the British fleet at Gibraltar to respond. Battleship HMS Renown departs at 4 PM with 3 destroyers to pursue the French warships, with instructions to make sure they go no further South than Casablanca. The French warships stop at Casablanca overnight but only to refuel.

Between 3.26 and 3.28 AM, 200 miles Northwest of Ireland, U-28 torpedoes 2 unladen steamers in convoy OA-210 outbound from Britain. Dutch SS Maas sinks (20 killed) and British SS Harpenden (1 dead) is badly damaged, towed back to the Clyde and beached. At 7.16 AM, U-99 sinks British SS Albionic, carrying 3500 tons of iron ore from Canada to Britain (all 25 hands lost).

Alarm this morning from 2am – 5am. There was a fire burning at the Hythe, just as planes were passing over. I thought it must be an incendiary bomb, but heard later it was an accidental fire at the Moler Works, only rubbish burning. A bomb fell in the distance. The planes were high above the searchlights.

At 10 o’clock came what I had expected all the summer, and had half begun to hope we should escape – notices for the evacuation of Colchester. Old or infirm people, retired persons, women and children are urged to leave immediately. ... I rang up for a taxi, in case I could get [my parents] to go, back to Maidenhead if necessary, although I knew it was hopeless. Saw Hilda Smith, worrying about her old father, who she wants to go to Windsor, so we agreed to share a car in case anything can be done.

Saw George Farmer, joking and laughing, but very anxious. His people want to go, and are going to try his sister’s place in Surrey. As I thought, when I got home the parents resolutely refused to leave again under any circumstances. ...

Today as yesterday, no papers came until 2 o’clock. This is due apparently not so much to the fact that the papers cannot get out of London, as to the fact that the distributors refuse to send them out until they have the whole lot, which seems very unfair. More terrible raids in London.

Old Mr. Temperley sent us one or two things, including a very nice Celtic bronze ring and a 16th century key, both found at Maldon. The ring is labelled as being found during the excavation of Maldon West Station, a not unlikely spot.

EJR pasted the notice issued by the Regional Commissioner on the transfer of the local population into his journal. It provides an insight on the seriousness of the war situation and the expectation of an invasion:

'Urgent Notice. Temporary Transfer of Population.
1. If the enemy tries to invade this Country the Services will defend every inch of our land ...
2. The public throughout the Country has been asked to “stay put” and that it will do, but special considerations apply to this town. Some reduction in its population will make it easier for the Army to operate. For this reason we ask, as a patriotic duty, all those whose work does not require them to remain, to leave the town temporarily as soon as possible. This applies particularly to:
Mothers with young children
Schoolchildren
Aged and infirm persons
Person without occupation or in retirement
3. Such person should make arrangements for temporary accommodation with relatives but not in coastal areas of East Anglia, Kent or Sussex or in London.
4. Assistance is available to pay for railway fares and accommodation
5. You are urged to go quickly and not to take much luggage. Take your National Registration ID Card, Passport, Ration book, Gas mask, a rug or blanket and food for 24 hours
6. Special trains will be available from 11th September to Peterborough, Rugby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Stoke-on-Trent, Burton-on-Trent. ...
The following should stay:
Home Guard, Police and Special Constabulary, Fire Brigade and AFS, ARP and Casualty services, Workers in War Work, especially if on the land, export trades and the supply and distribution of food, transport employees, water, gas, electricity employees, Local authority members and officials, Doctors, nurses and chemists, Ministers of Religion, Government employees, Bank employees.'

Battle of Britain Day 63. Cloudy, rainy weather returns after days of good flying weather and restricts Luftwaffe to mainly reconnaissance raids in the afternoon. 6 small raids approach London at 5.15 PM, presumably to drop incendiaries as markers, but these are turned back by RAF fighters (2 Dornier bombers shot down). 1 Spitfire is lost in combat (2 more fighters destroyed and 3 damaged in training operations). Overnight, East End of London is again bombed, as well as South Wales, West Midlands and Liverpool.

Royal Navy controls the Straits of Gibraltar; Vichy government has agreed to notify them to ensure safe passage of French ships. At 6 PM, French admiralty informs British Naval Attaché in Madrid that 3 cruisers intend to sail through the Straits next day. Despite this and other warnings, Royal Navy fails to appreciate the significance to the impending Free French landings at Dakar.

Libya, North Africa. Italian 10th Army advances slowly towards the Egyptian border. Troop formations, including the main armored force Maletti Group, get lost or are late leaving their starting points and many of the vehicles required for a rapid advance break down. British light covering forces delay the advance as they fall back, by sowing mines and harassing the Italians.

German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis sinks British steamer Benarty (carrying lead, zinc and tungsten from Rangoon, India, to Liverpool) in the Indian Ocean 1250 miles East of Madagascar. All 49 crew are taken prisoner.

British submarine HMS Sturgeon attacks U-43 (no damage) 50 miles Southwest of Southern Norway.