Wartime miscellany

belushi. Lots of things had to be covered up, but soldiers and the like were about so some things came into the open. Like I posted on here somewhere, Smithfield Market in London was hit, killing over a hundred people - both I and my sister were less than half a mile away so knew within an hour. In different places, a trying time that Coventry did not experience, and neither of us ever told mother, and some I have recently found out was about the disaster on Omaha Beach. They had fifty tanks, and not one reached the beach. Down here a village school was hit, a whole generation of kids wiped out, it had to kept from people. I visited the crashed bomber from the Coventry blitz, picked up the thumb of one of the airman, lying in the bottom of hedge, handed it to a military policeman. My feelings?

We should never forget the two world wars, the carnage of our young men. The cream of the Empire marched into the mud of France to be slaughtered. The sorrow of our young women, 1.7 million young women surplus who had to dance with each other, went to the cinema to dream of Rudolph Valentino now their sweethearts had gone to a soldier's grave. By then 37 million people had been killed or wounded - five times the pre-war figure of Belgium, nine million short of pre-war Britain. The Treaty of Versailles, 1919, was hoped to be an enduring peace for all, but the treaty stripped the Germans of their colonies and young Germans left vowing retribution. 1920 and the words 'Never again' inspired a new League of Nations and disarmament - the Germans and the Japanese walked out. Mosley came to power in 1932 and Hitler in 1933. Young men were disillusioned by strikes, impoverished by the slump, and Chiefs of Staff warnings of another war, joined all sorts of meetings and organisations. Coventry's one-armed fruit sellers, one-eyed butchers, and all the other limbless war veterans, middle-aged men of Coventry saw the writing on the wall, despite that employment was on the way up. The air was buzzing, despite the fact that the public and the country were unprepared for war.

Another interesting read Kaga. One thing though, Oswald Mosley may have come into prominence in 1932 but he didn't come to power. If things had gone differently in 1940 though...

Belushi, hi! Could you explain he didn't come into power? 1932, Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists. He married his second wife in Berlin, 1936. He was head of the party as far as I know until he was arrested in 1940. Released in 1943 and his career as a politician over, he was now hated by the British public and he went to live in Paris. I don't believe he ever came back to Britain.

Kaga. I think it's a question of the interpretation of the phrase "in power"

Midland Red That's why I asked the question, he had all the power of the movement. Just a friendly question.

Hi Kaga. Yes, it's an interpretation of the word "power". Mosley may have been important in his own sphere, but he wasn't "in power", as in Prime Minister or Leader, as he would have styled himself. As you know from previous correspondence I'm fascinated by the influence that Fascists and anti-Semites seemed to have within the British Establishment. It would have been interesting to see who would have been "in power" if Britain had been defeated or sued for peace. I'm not a conspiracy theorist (I don't think), but I like to speculate "what if"?

belushi, hi! As I thought, you meant outside his own party while I meant inside his party. Mosley was top blood, a baronet, had great schooling, but a bully. A top politician for many years, but not one that preached what people wanted to hear, even as a politician, so no, he had no power. He formed his own party and became top dog, same as Hitler, but people rallied round Hitler because they had a cause, the Versailles pact had taken their land. The English black-shirts were all bully boys, pushed people off the streets, used muscle instead of brains, which the man in the street disliked, and there were many fights and skirmishes. But in the 1930's people were still scared of the first world war, the huge losses still fresh in the mind. The mud and the blood of the fields, so many people still about with missing limbs, everywhere was 'never again'. When Chamberlain came to power, they idolised him, because of appeasement, they named kids after him, and streets because they wanted peace. But to Hitler he was the little stupid man with a brolly, and Hitler toyed with him, said Germany wanted to be friends with all its friends around them. Two months later his army walked in on its neighbour, all guns blazing. but I'm not sure everyone wants to hear this stuff.

My thoughts exactly Kaga. I've just read "Appeasing Hitler" by Tim Bouverie. It's an excellent book, but as it was only published in 2019 it has the benefit of hindsight. If it was written in 1938 the author would probably have been lynched!

Belushi, The mid-thirties was a kind of awakening for Coventry and Britain, employment was on the up, health and safety and a more kind of freedom. Coventry got rid of a lot of slums, built better roads and shops, Trinity Street the main one, the Livingstone Road swimming pool, the new luxury cinema, The Rex. In London they opened the Serpentine Swimming Club, made changing rooms etc, wireless and phones appeared, even if dark clouds were overhead. I was about twelve years of age and a number of us went to see HG Wells' film, and all I can remember was the screen full of bombers, hundreds of them, and within twelve months there they were right over Coventry. Fantasy alive. But Britain had pledged not to use air war until Germany did, even to help our own troops, and when Chamberlain got up to speak, by the time he got to the third paragraph, there where shouts of 'You've missed the bus, you've missed the bus' - mocking cheers. A retired Admiral spoke, dressed in full regalia, an old hero and a symbol of what Britain stood for in the world. He got thunderous applause, said of Churchill, 'I have great admiration and affection for my Right Honourable friend the First Lord of the Admiralty' and so forth. Churchill was on his way to lead us in the coming years.

Hi Kaga, keep on posting your fascinating reminiscences. "Things to Come" (1936) was the H G Wells film. More of a fantasy sci-fi film than an action war drama, it certainly makes you think when you see it now. Perhaps it helps explain why appeasement was so popular before 1939. Yes, the 1930s were a boom time for Coventry, not so the older industrial areas dependent on coalmining, textiles and heavy industry. Hence my dad migrating from South Wales to join the growing Welsh community in Coventry.

Belishi, A little background. My family were always going to be different, I had ten aunts and ten uncles, our own debating system, through the 1930's. We came to Coventry in the 18th century, through a business of canal transport of coal from local pits, but by the 1920s the writing was on the wall - pits were closing fast, but in education and time era, Wales was no farther away than Berkswell, and Welsh miners no different than local boys, so I could not understand why you thought there should be some friction. OK, now my father was WWI veteran, no visible scars, but gas and shell-shock had badly troubled him. Fiercely patriotic, he made guard's uniforms for my two small brothers to wear on VJ Day, and he planted the first peace tree in memory of his mates in Coventry the very day he came home. My grandfather protected it, when they stole part of the garden for road widening in 1936, then the tree had to stay in the pavement, right up until 1945 when father left Coventry. The first book I saw was a war book. so you get the picture of my beginnings. So all through 1930's the debates and arguments went on with my uncles at weekends, and most of them had kids that were close to military age. I lost many cousins and schoolfriends in WWII, so if I'm abrupt, or rude with my answers, then I'm sorry. But war and broken bodies were the first twenty years of my young life.

I'm also beginning to make mistakes in my posts - nearly time to go.

During the 1920's, young men with money and surplus women went on a great splurge of dance, booze and sex, and egotism - they did rock the boat a lot. 1934, the Chiefs of Staff alarmed the country by saying they needed a larger army on the continent, BEF. Churchill asked for a bigger bomber force. The government didn't even begin to re-arm. 1936, we did not get involved in the Spanish Civil War, but newsreels showed us German bombers taking part. The papers told us there was no danger of war, others thought Communism was the danger. By 1938 polls said one person in five expected war, one person in three thought anything was better than war. 1939, and the arguments, uproar and late night sessions rocked the government. In the summer, people were still taking trips to Calais, walking the Lakelands, but I watched the young men of the village march off to war. Several warnings were issued to Germany. It rained the first two weeks of August and we couldn't cut the corn, but then the sun came out and we got to cut it. By the time Germany walked into Poland, Eros was moved to safety, the snakes in the zoo were put down, the animals moved to safety, and hundreds of thousands of mothers and children said goodbye in evacuation. Domestic pets were put down, tens of thousands of patients from hospitals were moved out of London to safety. Parks bristled with anti-aircraft guns, and the government wondered what kind of note they should send to Germany.