Mrs Miles's Diary

by S. V. Partington

  88 Sir Samuel Hoare, a staunch Chamberlain supporter, had been Secretary of State for Air in the 1920s before serving as Foreign Secretary and then Home Secretary in the 1930s. He was Lord Privy Seal in Chamberlain’s War Cabinet until his resignation in May 1940.

  89 Literally meaning ‘living space’, the concept of Lebensraum underpinned the Nazi expansionist ideology, which required that the German nation should possess as much land as it needed to grow and prosper. Ersatz passed into English usage as a result of the Great War, when prisoners in German camps were given Erzatskaffee, inferior substitute coffee made with grain or acorns, or Erzatsbrot – bread cut with cheaper substitutes for flour.

  90 The invasion of Denmark and Norway marked the first stage of the ending of what was known as the Phoney War, in which there had been no significant land offensive against Germany by either Britain or France for the seven months since war was declared in September 1939. Hitler’s move against countries over which Germany had no valid territorial claim resulted in Allied troops being landed in Norway from 14 April. Less than one month later Germany had invaded Belgium and Holland and the full scale land war had begun.

  91 HMS Hardy, an H-class destroyer and flagship of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, was badly damaged and run aground in the attack on Narvik on 9 April, capsizing next morning after her crew had managed to get ashore. HMS Hunter, also an H-class destroyer, was torpedoed and sunk during the battle with the loss of 112 men.

  92 Alice was Connie’s cousin; Sibyl was Robin’s younger sister.

  93 Paymaster Lieutenant Stanning took command of the Hardy when her captain was mortally wounded at Narvik and ordered the badly damaged ship to be run aground, thus preventing her from sinking until after the surviving crew had abandoned ship.

  94 Both Emmeline Pethick and her husband Frederick Lawrence were active in the cause of women’s suffrage. They each served nine months in prison in 1912, during which they went on hunger strike and were forcibly fed, and when they married in 1901 each took the other’s name, rather than Emmeline taking his as per the usual practice.

  95 The Shrapnell-Smiths

  96 Ralph Reed, later Sir (Albert) Ralph Reed, a paper industry magnate, served (unpaid) as Paper Controller for the Board of Trade during the war, monitoring paper stocks.

  97 Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s Deputy from 1933 until his attempt to broker peace with Britain in 1941.

  98 The Allied response had been unable to prevent Norway from falling into German hands, although fighting continued in the north of the country until June. The resulting recriminations saw the end of the Chamberlain government.

  99 Churchill was still First Lord of the Admiralty, becoming Prime Minister the following day on Chamberlain’s resignation.

  100 Sir Archibald Sinclair was appointed Secretary of State for Air by Churchill, which position he held until the end of the war. Anthony Eden was Secretary of State for War from 11 May to 22 December 1940, after which he resumed his former role of Foreign Secretary until July 1945.

  101 G. M. Trevelyan, noted historian and prolific author whose History of England (1926) and English Social History (1944) were among the most widely read textbooks of the age.

  102 Mirroring the German Siegfried Line, France’s Maginot Line was a system of concrete defences, machine gun emplacements and tank traps along the French borders with Germany and Italy. A hasty extension along the Belgian frontier in 1939–40 was insufficient to halt the German invasion of France.

  103 General Maurice Gamelin, commander-in-chief of the French land forces in 1940, whose inability to mount an effective defence against the German advance contributed to the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force and its evacuation from Dunkirk.

  104 Ernest Bevin, previously first general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, was Minister of Labour in the wartime coalition government. As the war went on, unmarried women were conscripted to work either in industry or on the land, taking the place of the men who had been called up for military service.

  105 Thirteen miles and nine miles from Shere respectively.

  106 Connie says in a handwritten note that he was lost in 1941.

  107 The aluminium from cans and pans was used in the manufacture of Spitfires and other aircraft. Bones made glue for aircraft and glycerine for explosives. In addition, kitchen waste helped to feed pigs and chickens, paper was used in munitions as well as to make new paper and rubber went to make tyres.

  108 Marshal Pétain was revered in France for his defence of Verdun and reform of the French Army in the Great War, and to some he remained a hero even after he signed the Armistice with Germany in 1940. After the war, however, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, a sentence which was commuted to life imprisonment. He died at the age of ninety-five in 1951.

  109 The Surrey section of the GHQ line, the longest of Britain’s Second World War land defences, followed the Wey, Tillingbourne and Mole valleys. Traces still remain across the county. Impressive dragons’ teeth (concrete tank traps) run alongside the River Wey in Stoke Park, Guildford, and there are six pillbox machine gun emplacements in Netley Park alone.

  110 The future first President of the French Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle rejected the Nazi armistice with France in June 1940 and escaped to Britain, where he became the leader of the Free French.

  111 Of the other two islands, on Alderney, where the authorities advised evacuation, most of the population left, whereas on Sark, following the example of the Dame of Sark, they chose to stay (see the entry for Thursday, 4 July).

  112 This was the Battle of Britain, which went on until October.

  113 Areas of open countryside such as parts of the New Forest were liable to be closed to the public for military purposes.

  114 HMS Transylvania was a liner converted to an armed merchant cruiser which was torpedoed by submarine U-56 off Malin Head, Ireland, on 10 August. She sank while being towed to land, with 36 lives lost.

  115 The Vickers Armstong aircraft works which occupied the disused motor-racing circuit at Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey possessed one of the largest deep shelters in the country, consisting of multiple passages each 180 feet long and protected by a 50-foot entrance tunnel with blast doors. According to Subterranea Britannica the tunnels are still in good condition, although there is no public access.

  116 Before Heathrow was built, Croydon Airport was Britain’s largest commercial passenger airport. At the start of the war it became an RAF fighter station. Six airmen and 62 civilians were killed when it was bombed on 15 August, and among the outlying buildings hit was the Redwing Aircraft factory, which repaired fighter planes and bombers on behalf of the Air Ministry.

  117 Robin’s brother Bevis and his wife Evelyn had a tobacco farm in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). It was felt that the climate of East Africa would be beneficial to Harry’s health, which was worsened by conditions of cold or damp.

  118 The Honourable Artillery Company. An HAC unit was billeted at the time at Netley Park.

  119 The long-term tenants, Madge and Edie Davidson, had gone to Scotland. For the remainder of the time covered by the journal, the downstairs flat was sub-let first to Mr Stevens and his niece Miss Scott, then to Captain and Mrs Pakenham, then Mr Brook and his invalid wife.

  120 In fact the proposed Nazi invasion of Switzerland never took place.

  121 Spitfire Funds raised money to help finance the production of the fighter planes that were needed. Communities, businesses and individuals contributed and had planes named after them. Donations came not only from people in Britain but all over the Empire and Commonwealth.

  122 May Browne’s son

  123 The mother of Charles Edward Stuart, otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, was Maria Clementina Sobieska, granddaughter of John III Sobieska, King of Poland 1674–1696.

  124 Commander John Graham Bower, RN, who had married Barbara Euphan Todd in 1932.

  125 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to serve a thi
rd term in November 1940, the first President of the United States to serve more than two terms.

  126 Over 500 German bombers targeted Coventry on the night of 14/15 November 1940. More than 550 people were killed and 1200 injured, and the cathedral was destroyed, as were around one third of the city’s factories. The following two nights saw major raids by British planes on Hamburg, foreshadowing the almost total destruction of that city in July 1943.

  127 All signposts had been removed from road junctions in June 1940 so that parachutists or other invaders should not know where they were.

  128 This is actually the victory, in Egypt, not Libya, that Connie refers to in more detail in the entry for Friday, 13 December.

  129 The Battle of the Camps. At Nibeiwa on 9 December, where the Italian General Maletti was killed, Sidi Barrani on 10 December and Buq Buq on 11 December a total of 38,000 Italian prisoners were captured, along with 73 tanks and 237 guns.

  130 This is Olive Sutton who was the daily maid, not Olive the cook who had left to work in a factory in September.

  131 Née Browne.

  132 An estimated 36,000 Italian prisoners were taken after the Battle of Bardia, in Libya, which took place over 3–5 January 1941.

  133 TB is highly infectious, especially in such crowded and enclosed conditions.

  134 Probably Mrs Coppinger. See previous entries for 28 September and 9 October 1939.

  135 William Nicholson, known for his landscapes and still lifes as well as portraits. In his earlier years, together with James Pryde, he had designed posters under the name The Beggarstaff Brothers and, although a commercial failure at the time (the late1890s), their work has since been recognised as a landmark in graphic design and an important influence on artists in both Europe and America.

  136 Strictly, the ‘Molotov bread basket’ was the Soviet RRAB-3 bomb used against Finland, which released a cluster of incendiary bombs as it fell. The name was applied in Britain to similar German incendiary devices.

  137 On 21 January the Australian 6th Division captured the port of Tobruk in Libya from the Italians. Some 27,000 Italian prisoners were taken, at the cost of only 49 Australian lives.

  138 HMS Triton was lost in the Adriatic. On 6 December she torpedoed the Italian merchant ship Olimpia, but never returned from that patrol. In a later note Connie identifies the ‘boy’ as ‘Daredevil’ Lt Watkins, commander of the Triton.

  139 Two shillings and sixpence, or half-a-crown.

  140 Churchill’s radio broadcast of 9 February, in which he assured the nation, ‘We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire.’

  141 Sir George William Rendel, head of the Eastern Division of the Foreign Office from 1933–38 and Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1938 to 1941.

  142 Under the Lend-Lease Bill the USA undertook to supply the Allied nations with much-needed materials. Although America had not yet entered the war as a combatant, the signing of the Lend-Lease Bill meant that, in economic terms at least, she could no longer be regarded as neutral.

  143 Both men and women were called up at different times according to their age group: first those in their early twenties, then at a later date those aged up to thirty, and so on. By 1942 all able-bodied men aged 18–51 were liable to be called up, and unmarried women aged 20–30.

  144 It was not until December 1941 that America entered the war.

  145 It was not until December 1941 that America entered the war.

  146 Paternoster Row was a centre of the publishing industry before the war, and suffered severely in the Blitz. Hodder and Stoughton, for whom Connie’s father William Robertson Nicoll was chief literary advisor, was at No. 27, and it was there that he set up and published his magazine, The British Weekly. Phyl’s connection to Paternoster Row is uncertain, as Connie does not identify her or what she does in any of the entries in which she appears. She could be Phyllis Twigg, a fellow children’s author, who is mentioned once in full in the entry for Wednesday, 17 July 1940.

  147 The Worzel Gummidge books were first adapted for radio before the war and continued to be broadcast on BBC Children’s Hour for several years.

  148 The Clydebank raids of 13 and 14 March caused the worst devastation suffered by Scotland in the war, but the figure of 4,000 dead is either a mistake by Cis or a mistranscription of her letter by Connie. There were 4,000 houses completely destroyed, and 35,000 people lost their homes, but the number killed was 528, with another 617 seriously injured.

  149 Connie adds in a handwritten note that only her handbag was found.

  150 J. B. Priestley, novelist, critic and playwright. On 5 June 1940 Priestley began a regular radio broadcast called Postscripts in which he expounded his thoughts on the war and on the future of the country. So successful was it that Graham Greene said of him ‘Priestley became in the months after Dunkirk a leader second only in importance to Mr Churchill. And he gave us what our other leaders have always failed to give us: an ideology.’

  151 Literally, crisis of nerves.

  152 Britain Can Take It was a shortened version of the public information film London Can Take It, which showed how ordinary Londoners were coping with the Blitz. Distributed in the United States, the film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 as Best Live Action Short Film. The expression ‘we can take it’ was adopted as a catchphrase in Britain, especially in London.

  153 Both key acquisitions in the East African campaign, Keren giving the British forces access to the Eritrean capital Asmara, and Harar opening the route to the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) capital Adis Ababa.

  154 Arthur William Fadden, later Sir Arthur, Australian politician. He was leader of the Country Party from 1940 and of the UAP/Country coalition in 1941, serving briefly as Prime Minister from 26 August to 7 October 1941, when the coalition broke apart.

  155 Connie was staying in the New Forest when this entry was written. From references to her elsewhere in Connie’s journal, Betty was probably Muriel Andrews’ daughter.

  156 On 3 April the retreating British forces had pulled out of Benghazi, a major port and Libya’s second-largest city, and on 4 April the Germans and Italians entered the city unopposed.

  157 Major General Michael Gambier-Perry, commander of 2nd Armoured Division in North Africa, was captured at Mechili in Libya and imprisoned in Italy, successfully escaping in 1943.

  158 An estimated 5 million books were destroyed in the firestorms of 29–30 December 1940.

  159 General Archibald Wavell was Commander in Chief of the British Army in the Middle East in 1941, where he was successful against the Italians but was pushed back by the Germans. Transferred to the Far East as Commander in Chief of the Allied forces, he was promoted to Field Marshal in 1943 and was Viceroy of India from 1943–7.

  160 The Bray family have been Lords of the Manor of Shere since 1487, when it was gifted to Sir Reginald Bray, a leading figure at the court of Henry VII.

  161 Airgraphs were designed to reduce the weight of mail going overseas to and from the troops. Letters written on standard forms were photographed and transported on film and printed out at the receiving mail stations for delivery.

  162 He was not. He survived a series of Japanese prisoner of war camps until his liberation in 1945, eventually resuming the governorship of Hong Kong in 1946 after several months’ recuperation.

  163 Properly Våsgoy, an island in the Nordfjord district of Norway, which housed a German garrison.

  164General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the US Army Forces in the Far East.

  165 Churchill had been in the United States for meetings with President Roosevelt following America’s entry into the war. He had in fact set out on the home voyage on 14 January.

  166 Warship Weeks were fundraising drives to raise set amounts of money towards the cost of building a naval ship. Cities, towns and villages were given different targets to raise, according to their level of population, and when the target was achieved the community would adopt the ship they had funded. Quite apart from the money rais
ed, these and similar schemes had the benefit of making people feel that they had made vital contributions to the war effort.

  167 Connie does not explain who the lonely soldier was, or refer to him by name, but he was a frequent visitor during 1942.

  168 On 17 January 5,000 Axis troops surrendered to the South African 6th Infantry Brigade. Halfaya Pass in Egypt was the main route into Libya, and hence a key part of the campaign in North Africa. The fierce fighting that took place there earned it the nickname ‘Hellfire Pass’.

  169 HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk by Japanese long-range bombers off the Malayan coast on 10 December, after they had sailed without any air support. They were the first large warships to be sunk by air attack alone. Churchill later wrote that ‘in all the war, I never received a more direct shock . . . over all this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme.’ Conservative MP Sir John Wardlaw-Milne raised the fate of the ships in the debate of 27–29 January. He also questioned why troops from India had not been sent to support the defence of Singapore, concluding: ‘It seems incredible in the circumstance that we should have been left with such a meagre force to stand against the attack of an active, powerful enemy like Japan.’ Despite his critics, Churchill won a vote of confidence by a large majority.

  170 General Sir Edwin Morris, who shortly after this dinner was appointed Chief of the General Staff in India.

  171 William Ralph Inge, author, newspaper columnist and Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral.

  172 Poor Law Relief provided support for the destitute or for those unable to work. First instituted in 1597, it was replaced on the creation of the welfare state in 1948 by the National Assistance Act.

  173 The 2nd Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment had lost so many men in Malaya that it was no longer viable as a fighting unit. On 20 December 1941 it was amalgamated with the 1st Battalion, The Leicestershire Regiment to form the British Battalion, under which name it fought until the surrender of Singapore on 15 February. Out of an intial complement of 786 men, only 265 were left, and a further 149 were to die in Japanese POW camps.