The Myth of the Blitz

by Angus Calder

  Campbell, J.R., 81–2

  Canada, 197; internees sent to, 113–14, 124

  Capra, Frank, x, 253; war films of, 245–50

  Cardiff, 135; bombing of, 37

  Cardus, Neville, 12, 198

  Cavalcanti, Alberto, 190, 195, 235, 237, 259–60, 265

  Cazalet, Major, 116, 117

  CBS (Columbian Broadcasting Service), 211, 214, 215, 217, 218, 222

  Central Office of Information (COI), 261

  Chamberlain, Neville, 20–1, 48, 58, 60, 71, 81, 91, 92, 211, 228; fall of (May, 1940), 22–5, 46, 47, 83, 92, 134; Munich Agreement (1939), 71; Tory MPs’ loyalty to, 92

  The Changing Face of Europe (film), 263

  Channel Islands, German occupation of, 45, 124, 260

  Cheer Boys Cheer (film), 264

  Chicago Daily News, 216, 222

  Children’s Newspaper (ed. Mec), 204

  ‘Christian Peace Movement’ station, 75

  Christiansen, Arthur, 223, 225, 232

  Christmas Under Fire (film), 233, 248

  Churchill, Winston, 10, 20, 23, 24, 26, 29, 33, 38–9, 46, 47, 48, 49, 56, 90, 95, 110, 113, 136, 146, 148, 150, 155, 160, 176, 181, 196, 197, 202, 211–12, 222, 224, 225, 238, 246; and Anglo–US relations, 49–52; Brenton’s play about, 266–7; broadcasts, 37, 50–1, 123; distrust of, 92; Dunkirk speech, 27–8, 50, 92, 98; fallibility of, 90; ‘Finest Hour’ speech, 14–15, 29–30, 50; A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, 52; and Norway débâcle, 23, 91; preface to Battle of Britain film, 247–8, 249–50; replaces Chamberlain as Prime Minister (May 1940), 24–5, 92, 270; speeches, 14–15, 18–19, 21–2, 25, 26, 27–8, 29–30, 31–2, 50, 51, 92. 120, 127, 146, 180, 241; unpopularity among Welsh miners, 69; view of history, 38, 48, 271; War Cabinet, 25, 29, 47, 71, 80, 83, 91, 117, 270–1

  Citrine, Walter, 56

  Clark, Andrew, 5–6

  Clark, Sir Kenneth, 110

  Clark, R.T., 213, 218

  Clarke, T.E.B. (‘Tibbie’), 265, 266

  Clinton-Baddeley, V.C., 54

  Cliveden Set, 47, 224–5

  Clydeside/Clydebank, Blitz, 37, 130, 141, 170, 171, 240, 267; class war and industrial relations, 130; Rent Strike, 70

  Cockburn, Claude, 88–9

  Colebaugh, Charles, 224

  Colefax, Sybil, 221

  Colliers Weekly Magazine, 209, 223, 224, 225, 259

  Cologne, RAF’s ‘Thousand Bomber’ attack on, 39

  Communist Party, British, 46, 47, 56, 57, 58, 71, 74, 75, 77–89, 90, 126, 129; air-raid shelter campaign, 83–4, 85; banning of Worker and The Week, 88–9; Convention organised in London by (1941), 85–8; in Coventry, 78, 84; and fifth column, 77–8; and Labour Party, 77, 78, 79–80, 82–3; loses control of Left Book Club, 57, 79; membership, 77, 84; ‘The People’s Convention’, 82–3, 85, 88, 89; scare campaign against, 111; in Scotland, 69–70, 77, 78, 85, 130; in Wales, 68–9, 78

  Connolly, Cyril, 254

  conscientious objectors, 46–7, 71, 72, 76–7, 108–9, 111

  conscription, 63, 66, 72, 76, 84, 168

  consensus, post-war, 46, 48, 267, 271

  Conservative Party/Government, 20, 63, 75–6, 78–9, 191, 197, 266; appeasement policy, 20, 47, 75–6, 78, 92, 100, 117, 204; Churchill replaces Chamberlain as Prime Minister (May 1940), 22–5; distrust of Churchill within, 92; Falklands War (1982), vii, viii, 2, 269–70, 271; general elections, 48, 75, 269; ‘guilty men’ thesis, 92; middle-class support for, 59; right-wing, 112–13

  Constable, John, 184, 185

  Constantine, Eddie, 267

  Convention (Royal Hotel, London, 1941), 85–8

  Cooper, Sir Alfred Duff, 123, 225

  ‘Cooper’s Snoopers’, 116

  Cornelius, Henry, 265

  Coventry, Communist Party’s strength in, 78, 84; IRA bomb explosion, 65; Nazi Blitz on, 36, 37, 84, 129, 132, 168, 169, 249, 250

  Coward, Noël, In Which We Serve, 230; Peace In Our Time, 251–2, 260.

  Cowles, Virginia, 216

  cricket mythology, 198; England vs. Australia Test Matches (1981), 3–4; feats of Compton and Edrich at Lord’s (1947), 251; ‘googly’ ball, 175–6; Old Trafford, 11, 12

  Cripps, Sir Stafford, 79, 80

  Crompton, Richmal, William the Hero, 177

  Cronin, James, 59

  Crosby, Professor Travis L., 61–2

  Crown Film Unit, 146, 180, 224, 229, 231, 232, 233, 240, 242, 243; see also GPO Film Unit

  The Cruel Sea (film), 264

  Crystal Palace, burning down of (1936), 235

  Cull, Nicholas, 211–12

  Curtis, Margaret, 222

  Daily Express, 113–14, 166, 216, 223, 225

  Daily Herald, 78, 87, 113–14, 132

  Daily Mail, 118, 206

  Daily Mirror, 88, 159

  Daily Telegraph, 111

  Daily Worker, 47, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84; banning of (1941), 88–9; Scottish edition, 84

  Dalrymple, Ian, 231, 242, 261

  The Dam Busters (film), 43

  Dandy Monster Comic annual (1941), 205

  Daniel, Professor, 68

  De Valera, Eamon, 65, 66, 168

  Dean, Basil, 191. 203

  ‘Deep England’ mythology, 182–3, 185, 188, 190, 193, 194, 195, 199, 201, 207, 209, 233, 259; Auden’s rejection of, 188

  Deighton, Len, 104

  Delderfield, R.F., The Avenue Goes to War, 172–3

  Demi-Paradise (film), 230

  Denmark, 77; Nazi occupation of, 22, 91

  Desert Victory (film), 246

  Diary for Timothy (film), 261

  Dickinson, Thorold, 259

  Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Greater Britain, 52

  Dim Little Island (film), 261–2

  Diplock, Babs, 104–6; ‘Battle of Britain War Hero’, 105

  Disney, Walt, 247, 249

  Domville, Admiral Sir Barry, 112, 113

  Documentary News Letter, 243

  Donne, John, 181

  Dorsey, Jimmy, 210

  Dover, 107–8; US press corps in, 215–17

  Dowding, Air Chief Marshal, 30, 98, 99, 103, 160

  Drake, Sir Francis, 12, 13

  Dreiser, Theodore, 86

  Dresden, RAF incendiary attack on, 42

  Du Cann, Edward, 270

  Dublin, Nazi accidental bombing of, 66

  Dunkirk, evacuation of BEF from (‘Operation Dynamo’, 1940), vii, ix, 1, 4, 7, 8, 18, 26–8, 50, 89, 92–8, 101, 106, 107, 108, 123, 135, 155, 156–7, 197, 199, 227, 244, 253, 258, 268; debunking of myth, 92–8; role of the little ships, 96–8, 156–7, 199

  Dunkirk (film), 266

  Dunkirk Postscript, Priestley’s, 199

  Dunkirk speech, Churchill’s, 27–8, 50, 92, 98

  Dunne, Eileen, 222

  Duranty, Walter, 209

  Dutt, R. Palme, 81, 82, 87

  Ealing Studios, 237, 259, 263–6

  Economic League, 122

  Eden, Sir Anthony (Lord Avon), 25

  Edwards, Sebastian Rice, 175

  El Alamein, Battle of, 38, 253

  Elgar, Edward, 182, 189, 194, 206; ‘Pomp and Circumstance’, 194–5

  Eliot, T.S., 16, 151, 244; Four Quartets, 145–8: ‘Burnt Norton’, 145; ‘The Dry Salvages’, 145, 146; ‘East Coker’, 145–6; ‘Little Gidding’, 145, 146–8, 244

  Elizabeth, Queen (George VI’s consort), 34, 54, 219, 221, 238, 239, 250, 268

  Ellis, Clough Williams, 193

  Emergency Powers Act (1940), 123, 220

  Empire Day Movement, 54

  Empire Youth Movement, 54

  England, Len, 135, 139

  Ensor, R.C.K., 61

  evacuation of city (slum) dwellers, 59, 60–4, 106, 124, 126, 130

  Eyre, Richard, 267

  Falklands War (1982), vii, viii, 2, 269–70, 271

  Family Portrait (film), 262–3

  Farson, Negley, 209, 220–1; Bomber’s Moon, 209

  Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury, 256

  Festival of Britai
n (1951), 262

  Festival of Empire (1944), 54

  Fielden, Lionel, 132

  Fields, Gracie, 191, 199

  fifth column, 77–8, 94, 109–10, 111, 112, 116, 176, 259–60

  ‘Fight for Right’ organisation, 194

  Fighter Command, RAF, 30, 31, 253; Battle of Britain, 1, 31, 32, 33, 42, 98–100, 102–6, 157, 158, 159–61, 162–3, 215–17, 249; Commonwealth and European pilots, 104, 106; at Dunkirk, 98; morale of pilots and groundstaff, 62–4; Norwegian campaign, 22; supply of aircraft to, 31, 32, 100–2

  Finland, Russian invasion of (1939), 79, 91

  Fires Were Started (film), 180, 229, 237, 241, 242–4, 260

  The First Days (film), 195–6

  The First of the Few (film), 206, 256

  First World War (Great War, 1914–18), 59, 65, 70, 74, 75, 117, 184, 193, 198, 211; language of the, 15–18; persecution of conscientious objectors, 76; trench poets, 151, 152

  Fisher, James, 262

  Fisher, Jane, 230

  Fontanne, Lynne, 210

  Foot, Michael, 96, 252, 269–70, 271

  Foreign Correspondent (film), 214

  The Foreman Went to France (film), 264

  Forrester, Helen, Three Women in Liverpool, 167–8

  Forster, E.M., 88, 261

  France, French, 21, 24, 58, 92–3, 95; D-Day landings (1944), 41; fall of (1940), 2, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 67, 77, 80, 82, 106, 107, 123, 124, 135, 215, 240; post-liberation culture, 252; see also Dunkirk

  Frantisek, Sergeant Pilot Josef, 106

  Fremlin, Celia, 86–7

  Frend, Charles, 264

  Freud, Lucien, 143

  Front Line (MoI’s account of Blitz), 128

  Fuller, Roy, 150–1, 152; ‘Autumn, 1940’, 150–1; ‘Soliloquy in an Air Raid’, 119, 151

  Fussell, Paul, 151; The Great War and Modern Memory, 16, 17

  Gallacher, Willie, 69, 70, 71, 81, 87

  Galland, Generalleutnant Adolf, 40

  Gallipoli (1915), 91; myth of, 4–5, 6–7, 8

  Gallipoli (film, 1981), 6

  Gardner, Charles, 31

  Garson, Greer, 244

  Gaulle, General Charles de, 95

  General Election (1945), 48, 59, 260, 266; (1983), 269

  General Strike (1926), 69

  George VI, King, 30, 54, 134, 219, 236, 249, 250

  George Cross, 128

  Gibbon, Lewis Grassic, A Scots Quair, 171

  Gibson, Jock, 78

  Glasgow, 67, 70, 71, 72, 130

  Goebbels, Dr Joseph, 39, 40, 52, 108, 180, 225

  Goering, Hermann, 40, 158, 200

  Gollanez, Victor, 56, 57, 79, 96, 200, 209

  Gone With the Wind (film), 205

  Gort, Lord, 26, 95

  GPO Film Unit, x, 190, 195, 224, 231, 235, 236, 237, 238; see also Crown Film Unit

  Graebner, Walter, 221

  Graf Spee, scuttling of, 21

  Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows, 193

  Gram Swing, Raymond, 221

  Graves, Robert, 15

  Gray, Dulcie, 160, 161

  Greene, Graham, 197, 259

  Gregson, John, 160

  Grierson, John, 190, 224, 231, 235, 236, 237, 238, 242, 243, 245, 247

  Griffiths, Fred, 242

  Griffiths, Trevor, Country, 266

  Guedalla, Philip, 26–7

  Guilty Men (‘Cato’), 96, 269

  Gulf War (1991), 271

  Gunther, John, 209

  Haldane, Professor J.B.S., 83, 87

  Halifax, Lord, 30, 31

  Hamburg, RAF bombing of, 39–40, 244

  Hamer, Robert, 266

  Hamilton, Sir Ian, 5

  Hammerton, Sir John, 27

  Hardy, Bert, 142

  Hardy, Thomas, 13, 201; ‘In Time of the Breaking of Nations’, 201; Tess of the D’Urbervilles, 13; Wessex of, 181, 182, 201

  Hare, David, Licking Hitler, 266

  Harman, Nicholas, Dunkirk, 92, 94, 97

  Harris, Air Chief Marshal ‘Bomber’, 39, 42

  Harrison, Charles, 193–4

  Harrison, Julius, 207–8; Bredon Hill, 208

  Harrisson, Tom, 131–2, 133, 191–2, 235

  Hartshorn, H.I., 79

  Hawkins, Jack, 160, 161, 164

  Hawkins, Sir John, 13

  Hayman, David, 175–6

  Heath, Edward, 267

  Hemingway, Ernest, 225, 232

  Henty, G.M., 54

  Herbert, A.P., 198

  Hess, Myra, 229, 238, 261

  Hillary, 162; The Last Enemy, 157–60

  Hills, Mary, 116

  Hilton, James, 247

  Hitchcock, Alfred, 214, 237

  Hitler, Adolf, ix, 20, 21, 22, 31, 37, 38, 40, 41, 52, 58, 69, 78, 81, 82, 89, 92, 108, 111, 112, 113, 142, 246, 249

  Hodgson, Vere, 46, 48; diaries of, 18–19, 20, 31, 36, 37

  Hodson, H.V., 53

  Holland (Netherlands), Nazi occupation of (May 1940), 2, 24, 25, 67, 106

  Hollywood wartime films, 244–50

  Home Defence (Security) Executive, 113

  Home Guard (Local Defence Volunteers), 25–6, 29, 31, 33, 54, 69–70, 109, 146, 155, 173, 181, 196, 201; Ulster, 168

  Home Intelligence Reports (MoI), 55, 77, 120–31, 132, 134, 197, 221

  ‘Home Propaganda’, MoI-directed, 125, 133

  Hope and Glory (film), 173–6, 177, 178–9, 229, 266

  Hopkins, Harry, 225

  Hornbeck, William, 247

  Horner, Arthur, 68, 69, 87

  Hoskins, Bob, 267, 268

  Hoskins, W.G., The Making of the English Landscape, 13

  Hosley, David H., 214

  House of Commons, 220; Falklands debate (1982), 269–70; Norway debate and fall of Chamberlain (May 1940), 22–4

  Housman, A.E., 208

  Howard, Leslie, 205–7, 256, 264

  Howard, Peter, 96

  Howe, General Robert, 14

  Hughes, Kim, 4

  Hull, bombing of, 37, 39, 128

  Huston, Walter, 246–7

  Hutchinson’s Camp for internees, 115–16

  If War Should Come (film), 228

  In Which We Serve (film), 230, 237

  Independent Labour Party (ILP), 68, 71–2, 73, 198

  Inge, Dean, The English Genius, 187

  Ingersoll, Ralph, 215, 221–2, 224

  International Surrealist Exhibition,

  internees/internment of aliens, 106, 109, 110–12, 113–18, 155; artists, 115–16; deported and drowned at sea, 113–15, 124; Italian, 113, 114, 115; refugees, 106, 111

  invasion threat, German, 31, 33, 37, 66, 99, 109, 123, 126, 132, 177, 259–60

  Ireland (Eire), 65–6, 168, 169, 254, 255; Nazi espionage in, 66; neutrality, 65, 66, 223; threat of invasion through, 123

  Irish Republican Army (IRA), 65, 66, 268; bomb outrages in Britain, 65–6; internment without trial in Eire, 66

  Ironside, General, 110

  Isherwood, Christopher, 16

  Isle of Man internment camps, 115–16

  Ismay, Colonel Hastings, 91–2

  Italian League of the Rights of Man, 113

  Italy, Italians, 38, 113, 114, 124; internees, 113, 114; invasion of Abyssinia, 75; neo-realistic films, 237

  Japan, Japanese, 38, 75

  Jay, Douglas, 270

  Jeffrey, Ian, 192–3

  Jenkins, Robin, Fergus Lamont, 170–2

  Jennings, Humphrey, 180, 181, 192, 195, 228, 229, 231, 234–44, 260–3, 272; films directed by: Christmas Under Fire, 233; Diary for Timothy, 261; Dim Little Island, 261–2; Family Portrait, 262; Fires Were Started, 180, 229, 231, 237, 241; Listen to Britain, 229, 231, 237–8, 239, 240–1, 261; London Can Take It, 231–2, 233, 240; The Silent Village, 237, 260–1; Spare Time, 238–9; Spring Offensive, 231; Words for Battle, 231, 241; and Mass-Observation, 192, 235–6

  Johnson, Hewlett, ‘Red Dean’ of Canterbury, 87

  Johnston, Tom, 73, 114

  Jones, Jack, 78

  Joyc
e, James, 16

  Joyce, William, ‘Lord Haw-Haw’, 67, 108, 110, 112

  Kauffer, E. McKnight, ‘Stonehenge’, 193

  Keeffe, Barrie, 267, 268, 269

  Keegan, John, 151; Face of Battle, 15–16

  Keene, Ralph, 234

  Kennedy, Joseph, 213

  Kent, Johnny, 103

  Kent, Tyler, 112

  Keyes, Admiral Sir Roger, 23

  Keynes, John Maynard, 49, 56

  Kind Hearts and Coronets (film), 266

  Kingsmill, Hugh, 187

  Kipling, Rudyard, 52, 181, 182, 241, 244

  Kirkpatrick, Helen, 216

  Klein, Holger, 155

  Knight, Erie, 246, 247

  Korda, Alexander, 52

  Labour Party, vii, viii, 46, 56, 63, 86, 92, 136, 262, 264, 268; and Communist Party, 77, 78, 79–80, 82–3; election defeat (1983), 269; election victory (1945), 48, 59, 260, 266; and Falklands War, 269–70; fall of Chamberlain, 23–4, 25; ILP disaffiliation from, 71; leaders join War Cabinet, 25, 47, 71, 80, 270–1; Left wing, 79, 80, 252; pacifism rejected by, 75; Peace Aims Group, 71, 79–80; in Scotland, 70, 71, 72, 130; welfare state, 260; Welsh, 68, 69; working-class support for, 59

  Lafitte, François, 116, 117; The Internment of Aliens, 117

  Lancaster, Osbert, 262

  Lansbury, George, 75, 77

  Laski, Harold, 56–7

  Lawrence, D.H., 16

  Lawrence, T.E., of Arabia, 16, 206

  Le Sueur, Larry, 217

  League of Nations, 75

  Lee, Bill, Mass-Observation diary of, 136–8

  Lee, Jennie, 56, 100, 101

  Left Book Club, 56–7, 58, 79, 134, 191

  left-wing, attitudes towards USA, 55–8; intellectuals and artists, 181, 252; and myth-making, 8, 9, 15, 45, 47–8

  Lehmann, Beatrix, 87, 88

  Lend-Lease, US, 37–8, 49, 51, 213

  Leopold, King of Belgium, 93

  Lestocq, Humphrey, 160

  Lewis, Norman, Naples ’44, 153, 154–5

  Lewis, Saunders, 67; trial of (1936), 67–8

  Liberal Party, 59, 72, 262, 271

  Liberal-SDP Alliance, 269

  The Lion Has Wings (film), 200

  Listen to Britain (film), 229, 231, 237–8, 239, 240–1, 248, 261

  Liverpool, 119, 127, 166

  Lloyd George, David, 23, 68, 70

  London and the Blitz, 33–7, 121, 126, 127, 128, 141, 217, 254, 256, 258, 265, 267; air raids before Blitz, 124, 125; bombing of City, 221; casualties, 33, 35, 37, 42, 59, 213; Convention at Royal Hotel, 85–8; evacuation from, 59, 60–4, 106, 126, 130, 133; Festival of Britain, 262; filming of Blitz, 195–6, 224, 225, 227, 228–30, 231–3, 240–1, 242–4, 248–50; fires/fire bombing, 33, 36, 144, 147, 180, 217, 229, 242–4, 249; Hyde Park (4 August 1940), 108; morale, 33–7, 59, 125–6, 127, 128–9, 131, 133–4, 137, 139, 142–3, 180, 209, 215, 218–19; poetry of the Blitz, 144, 145, 147; prediction of effects of bombing on, 59, 60; psychological casualties, 130; start of Blitz (7 September 1940), 2, 33, 83, 106, 133–4; suburbia, 172–6; tube stations as shelters, 34–5, 47, 83, 209; US press corps in, 209–27 passim, 252–3; VI flying bombs (1944), 41