It is pointed out in Whitehall that the official statement issued after Herr Hitler’s meeting with Marshal Pétain merely stated that “an agreement in principle on collaboration was reached.” On the basis of this vague declaration the British are not yet ready to believe, as General de Gaulle evidently is, that the Pétain government is ready to bow to Herr Hitler’s terms.
British officials are carrying on tonight as if Herr Hitler were just another caller in Marshal Pétain’s anteroom. For example, they are even abiding by the strictest international etiquette by refusing to release the text of King George’s message to Marshal Pétain on the score that since it concerns the head of the French State, Marshal Pétain’s reply must be received before the King’s message is released.
In other words, the British are not prepared to count their old ally out until France makes a much more specific deal with the Germans. Nobody would be surprised if Vice Premier Pierre Laval made a deal, but government here is still making a distinction between Marshal Pétain and M. Laval, and until M. Pétain signs up specific terms, Prime Minister Churchill is not going to assume that France is lost.
OCTOBER 20, 1940
Life in Wartime Europe As Letters Reveal It Great Britain
From a letter of a Briton engaged on work of military importance, to his wife in the United States:
Tell them [Americans] we in England are prepared to do all the fighting, but we want all the help they can give us. We are appreciative of what they are doing and what they have done, especially in the way of private collections, but it is more arrangements like the fifty destroyers they are exchanging for naval bases that we want.
Above all let them know that we can “take it” and will continue to “take it” until the time comes when we are strong enough to “give it” to the Nazi swine. Somehow I don’t think they will like it a lot, and that this time next year the famous Dr. G. will not be half so cocky as he is now. Nor will the Nazi bunch be so popular after they have tried to invade us and have got it in the neck. I wish they would get on with it, we are all bursting to see them come over so that we can get to grips with them in real earnest. It will be a dreadful business, but we all feel that the sooner it is over the better. It will not be a walk-over for any one, but I think and feel that in the end we will wipe the lot out.
He [Hitler] seems to be spreading his favours fairly evenly, but mostly around London. Actually I don’t think the damage he does is worth the trouble he takes, but he certainly makes himself a damned nuisance. It is singularly pathetic to see the damage he has done to the slum property in the East End. As far as the property is concerned, it does not matter a damn as it ought to come down anyway, but as far as the poor devils who are caught in it, it is pathetic.
As I got into London to see the Ministry and other officials the beastly air-raid warnings started and I found that most of my appointments were kept in air-raid shelters belonging to the various offices I had to be at. As I was going from one office to another I thought by the noise that the bombs were not very far away. I found afterward that they were the ones that were dropped on Buckingham Palace—the second lot. I was furious and so was every one. Actually in a way it was a good thing because the East End had most of it up to then and this sort of joined East and West. Now, rich and poor, high and low, men and women, we are all one and we are getting tougher every night.
On Sunday morning Harry and I set off for a game of golf. We were, of course, out of practice, but it was a nice day and we were enjoying ourselves—suddenly I said “Sounds like a hell of a lot of bombers” and sure enough a huge formation of Hun bombers could be seen in waves going over to London, guarded by fighters. We watched them coming toward us with hate in our hearts and hope in our breasts that our fighters would get them in time before they all got to London. Then—oh, joy of joys, came the boys in Hurricanes and Spitfires. How they came, bang into the lot of Germans. God knows how many they were to one, but our boys just crashed in and bust the lot up. It was marvelous. I thought I would go crazy—Harry nearly did.
Then crash, crash, crash, down came the Huns, some bursting in the air, some in flames, and some just flopping down. The Nazi pilots came down in parachutes and we hoped that they would break their necks in the process. Soon all the Huns were chasing back to the coast and we had given up our game. We were too excited to play any more. At the end of the day we heard on the radio that over 180 had been brought down that day. This was the last day the Hun sent over huge formations and I don’t blame him. Our lads are too good for his men. What a sight!!!!!
BOMBING OF A HOME
From a cabled message on Sept. 29 by W. F. Leysmith, a London correspondent of The New York Times, whose home in a suburb had been hit by a bomb:
About midnight, when we were all upstairs and in bed, two heavy high-explosive bombs fell simultaneously fore and aft. They blasted away more than three-fourths of our house from front to back, and blew to the four winds our neighbor’s house on the park side. Betty and I were precipitated with pieces of roof timbers, walls, fire grates and chimneys into a twenty-foot crater made by a bomb that burst under the cornerstone and blew out both walls.
Annie, our maid, who is 70, was suspended in mid-air on broken joists protruding from the tottering wall of her bedroom. From this elevated position she coolly directed the rescue squad to where, in the white flashes of the anti-aircraft guns, she had seen Betty’s head. Then fractured gas pipes set fire to the wreckage.
The promptness of the fire squad, working while another near-by house was being bombed, saved us from that, and soon they levered Betty out from the iron framework of her bedstead that providentially had been wound around her with the mattress inside.
I was equally fortunate farther down below. I was somersaulted from bed, and went down under a heavy tiled bedroom fire grate that, although it pinned my legs and shoulders, took the shock of the weight of the following cascade of materials.
I am sure that you’d like to know that your friend Peter [the dog] was un-scratched. He was sleeping under my bed, but a night search revealed not even a whimper. I found him at dawn sitting on a high pile of wreckage demanding his morning walk.
The traveling clock you gave Betty was blown from her bedside to the bottom of the garden with the glass unbroken and still ticking. Otherwise, almost the only thing we salvaged was the old car. We dug it out of the garage in a drivable condition without a window broken, although the side wall had been lifted from its foundations and the doors at both ends of the garage were blown out.
The hospital reports favorably on Betty. Her body is badly bruised and her leg is crushed, but it isn’t broken, as we first feared. I am temporarily hamstrung with about half the surface skin off my lower leg, foot, hand and shoulder, but otherwise I’m all right.
NOVEMBER 1, 1940
DRIVE INTO GREECE REPORTED HALTED
Italian Troops Said to Have Been Repulsed—Albanian Bases Attacked by Air
ATHENS, Oct. 31 (UP)—The Greek Air Force, attacking Italian troop columns and supply bases, tonight was reported to have aided in halting a strong Fascist land and air offensive aimed at the heart of invaded Greece.
The Greek radio announced that an Italian army corps had penetrated Greek territory but met strong resistance and immediately was repulsed. Two Italian companies were so completely routed, it was stated, that they threw away their guns and equipment and fled.
Military quarters said Greek bombers, striking for the first time on the northern mountain front, had dropped bombs on Italian forces trying to push southward on the Ionian coast and inland along the Kalamas Valley toward the fortified town of Yanina.
The outnumbered Greek defenders stiffened their resistance against the invaders.
Italian planes again bombed key Greek ports west of Athens today, including the port of Patras, where 110 men, women and children were killed by bombs a few hours after the outbreak of hostilities on Monday and Naupaktos on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth.
Italian soldiers on the front line in Greece, 1940.
Frontier reports said the Greeks had halted and thrown back the Italian advance forces in battle at Melissopetra, on the main highway from the Albanian border to Yanina, with the Italians suffering 41 casualties. Other reports said the Italians were exerting strong pressure around the village of Kastanani, several miles south of Konispolis, which is just across the Albanian border.
ITALIANS REPORTED HALTED
The Greek High Command in a communiqué said that strong resistance had halted the Italian advance generally along the border and it was denied that the Italians had seized the Greek highway town of Breznica to open a route across Macedonia to Salonika, as reported in Belgrade.
The Greek defenders were said to be clinging tenaciously to their positions near the border after four days of sporadic fighting.
The High Command said guerrilla bands were operating with the enemy, apparently referring to Albanian and other mountain irregulars.
Unofficial frontier reports today said that an Italian detachment crossed the border early today from Konispolis in Albania and attacked Kastanani but was met by fierce fire that killed eleven Italians and wounded thirty others before the enemy force retreated.
In the push toward Yanina, Italian troops from the Albanian town of Mesarie were said to have advanced along the main road southward but to have been halted by Greek artillery fire when they attempted to cross the Viosa River. After an hour the Italians were reported to have withdrawn, leaving seventeen dead and forty wounded, while the Greeks suffered only four wounded.
NOVEMBER 1, 1940
Nehru Seized in India for Pacifist Speech
Special Cable to The New York Times.
NEW DELHI, India, Oct. 31—Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of the Indian Congress party, was arrested near Allahabad this evening after a meeting with Mohandas K. Gandhi.
He was one of two men chosen by Mr. Gandhi to make anti-war speeches as a part of the plan of limited civil disobedience. Vinoba Bhave, the other nominee, was arrested a few days ago after making a series of pacifist speeches in defiance of the government’s ban on anti-war activity.
Pandit Nehru was arrested under the Defense of India Rules, charged with delivering an objectionable speech at Gorakhpur recently.
NOVEMBER 5, 1940
GREEKS THRUST ITALIANS BACK; NOW IN GUN RANGE OF KORITZA; BRITISH AGAIN BOMB NAPLES
By A. C. SEDGWICK
Wireless to The New York Times
ATHENS, Nov. 4—The news from the front is even more favorable today than it was yesterday. Information obtained from an authoritative source indicates that Greek troops not only have held the positions they took yesterday on the heights dominating the town of Koritza, but have advanced further and in diverse directions in this area, which is Albanian territory, occupying at least five more strategic positions in the surrounding mountains.
Koritza, which was bombed today by Greek bombing planes with damage claimed to troop concentrations, fuel depots and army storehouses, soon may be within range of Greek guns.
Throughout last night, working in total darkness lest enemy aircraft spot their activities, the Greeks succeeded in bringing up some heavier artillery—a feat that won the praise of British officers recently arrived.
Major Gen. M. Gambier Parry chief liaison officer, told the writer this evening that he was pleased with the Greek performance generally and spoke enthusiastically of the cooperation he was receiving from the Greek General Staff.
GREEKS’ SKILL IN AIR CITED
Despite the tremendous superiority of the Italian air force the pilots of the Greek air force, made up of British, American, Netherland, Polish and Czech planes—some of them “decrepit”—have exhibited skill and daring that has proved fatal to the enemy on several occasions. Thus far, as far as it is possible to compute scores nine Italian planes have been shot down against four Greek planes.
This would appear to be a fictitious exaggeration, but the chances are that it is not, because Greek policy is directed against overoptimistic reports.
While the gains in the vicinity of Koritza might easily be pressed further, it is said here, it is unlikely that such an undertaking is planned in the immediate future, not because of the hazards involved but for the reason that it would be more expedient to continue to play a defensive game until mobilization—which is going on apace—is complete.
At the same time it should be pointed out that Koritza is important not only because the Italians have dressed it up as an important military center, but because of its position with regard to the Balkan peninsula as a whole. Once the Italians are driven out of Koritza their prospective drive on Salonika will suffer a setback. The capture of Koritza, moreover, would be bound to have an effect upon Yugoslav policy, because Italy’s other alternative for her Salonika drive suggests the passage of troops through Bitlj [Monastir] Gap.
In the central sector—that is, in the vicinity of Koritza—the Greeks today were believed to have checked all Italian advances. Reports from the West Epfrus sector, where it appears Italian attacks have had more force than elsewhere, enemy forces advanced until late last night accompanied by all the weapons of a Blitzkrieg—tanks, armored cars and planes.
Then just after midnight, it is asserted, they were checked by a ferocious counter-attack by Greek infantry. This attack, it was learned on the highest authority, was personally order by Premier John Metaxas. The result of this counter-attack was that the invaders’ column was brought to a standstill and the infantry following the mechanized units was routed at bayonet’s point.
The Italians have retaliated by again hurling death and destruction upon the towns and villages of the nation they meant to conquer within a day or so. Salonika again suffered tremendous losses in civilian life. Yesterday as many as fifty-eight were killed and many more were wounded. Destruction to the property was reported here as very great. How many were killed in today’s raid is as yet unknown. Corfu also sustained considerable loss in life and property, but it is said that no military targets were hit.
NOVEMBER 7, 1940
A 5,000,000 MARGIN President’s Vote is Put at 27,000,000, but Rival’s Gain Is Big
By ARTHUR KROCK
Almost complete returns from Tuesday’s election in the United States reveal that, in general terms, the answer of about fifty millions of voters to President Roosevelt’s request for a third term and a vote of confidence in his foreign policies was as follows:
They gave to the President the electoral votes of 39 States out of 48 over Republican Wendell L. Wilkie, with a total of 468 electoral votes when only 266 were required for his re-election, but a reduction of 55 from his total of 1936.
They retained the Democratic party and the Administration in control of the House of Representatives—the Senate is automatically Democratic until 1942 at the earliest—by adding eight Democratoc seats to increase the present majority of 88 to 96, with one seat still in doubt.
NOVEMBER 11, 1940
CHAMBERLAIN DIES; BRITAIN MOURNING HER FORMER CHIEF
Death at 5:30 P.M., Saturday, Not Announced to Country Till Sunday Forenoon
By RAYMOND DANIELL
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Nov. 10—In a low rambling farmhouse among tall larches in the heart of Hampshire Neville Chamberlain, former Prime Minister, lies dead tonight. The man who thought by trade with the dictators at Munich he could assure “peace in our time” was not permitted to see even the outcome of the war to which he reluctantly committed his country after his efforts at appeasement failed.
The Birmingham business man who was one of the most controversial figures of his time died at 5:30 yesterday afternoon, but it was not until 10:20 this morning that the news of his passing was disclosed to the public. Many dwellers in the straggling cottages near the quiet house where Mr. Chamberlain passed his last days learned of his death through the official announcement in the noon news broadc
ast from London.
Adjoining the grounds of Heck-field House, within whose camouflaged walls Mr. Chamberlain sank into a coma yesterday with his wife and sisters at his bedside, is the fine old Norman Church of St. Michael. The Vicar, the Rev. H. R. P. Tringham, and the members of the congregation who attended the morning service were as ignorant of what had happened among them as the rest of the country.
PRAYER OFFERED AFTER DEATH
Just before the beginning of his sermon the Vicar suggested a prayer for Mr. Chamberlain, “who is very, very seriously ill.”
It was Armistice Sunday and the church was fairly well filled with veterans of the war and soldiers and home guards serving in this one. At vespers, attended by a small number of countryfolk, the Vicar paid a tribute to the memory of the man for whom they had prayed earlier in the day. Mr. Tringham said:
“The first thought that comes to one referring to Mr. Chamberlain is, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ No one could have worked harder for our peace and although it seemed a failure it was a grand failure. The man, because of his ideals and unselfishness, was an inspiration not only to us but also to generations to come and probably what he has done was as great a work as that of people who had easy success.”
It is expected the body will be brought to London for a state funeral.
Soon after the announcement of Mr. Chamberlain’s death was received in his home city, Birmingham, where he had served as Lord Mayor and where his father and brothers had rendered distinguished civic service, flags on public buildings were lowered to half staff. Some followers in his constituency, Edgbaston, wore mourning brassards.
The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945 Page 39
