WAR Paper 1 LONDON INTELLIGENCE REPORT 1940
MOMENTS FROM HISTORY
LONDON INTELLIGENCE REPORT
12 September 1940
Home Intelligence Report No. 98 for Central Government ~ issued on Thursday 12 September 1940 marked SECRET
I
Issued by the Public Record Office on 12 September 1940, the date is significant because three days later, the 15 September 1940 is the official date upon which the Luftwaffe’s campaign to defeat the Royal Air Force failed, for upon this date Adolf Hitler temporarily suspended Unternehmen Seelöwe ~ Operation Sealion.
Nevertheless, this also marks that point at which the bombing of the London Capital and all major cities throughout the four nations of the United Kingdom commenced, and which history records as The Blitz. (Lightning in German), with London being bombed on 57 consecutive nights.
At this point the United States of America was still sixteen months away from formal entry into the Second World War.
The Blitz formally commenced on 7 September 1940 and ended on 11 May 1941 three days after the Eight Nights of the Liverpool Blitz 1-8 May 1941.
II
I sometimes see it written that Operation Sealion is overstated. That it was not a really serious attempt, more of a gamble in light of the rolling of the dice clearly being in the Third Reich’s favour. Presumed invincibility is also always the first cracks that signal ultimate failure, even oblivion.
During my time in Liverpool (2003-2017) I remember a chilling article about a Nazi Directive that had been made public. Whilst the intention was to occupy Southern Britain below a line drawn across the islands from the Wash on the South East Coast to the Severn Estuary on the West Coast - it being suggested that everything above that line would be akin to Vichy France - the intention had been to lay siege to Liverpool on the North west Coast of England and upon Edinburgh, the Capital City of Scotland.
Both cities would be used as an example.
Earlier this week, I read pages 471-472 of Rowland White’s outstanding History of the De Havilland Mosquito and of the Occupation and Liberation of Denmark.
It is a superb account.
Then I turned to page 471, and I experienced the same fear I had sensed when I read that article up in Liverpool.
III
Fortunately, this did not happen. But it did happen throughout what was termed the Third Reich. It also happened throughout what was termed the Japanese Empire.
I reflect upon this when I look at the War in Ukraine and the War in Israel and Gaza and the Lebanon. The League of Nations proved to be impotent in reining in dictators, instead giving them carte blanche to inflict upon the world the most terrible catastrophe in the history of humankind. The United Nations seems to be set upon the same course.
They who maintain a close eye on history quietly place within their defences that awareness that enables us to live freely and independently, at the same time following that very ancient principle:
“That if you wish for peace, you must prepare for war.”
MOSQUITO by Rowland White
In which the chilling pages 471 and 472 are located.
Sources
1 London Intelligence Report as reported on the back cover of LISTENING TO BRITAIN
Edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang and published by THE BODLEY LONDON IN 2010
2 Extract pages 471-472 from MOSQUITO by Rowland White
and first published by Transworld Publishers Penguin Random House UK in 2023
3 Banner Image 21st Century Licensed Adobe Stock image by KTW
on Coordinates UAF signed 29.12.2022.AdobeStock_547800464
29 October 2024
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“Presumed invincibility is also always the first of the cracks that signal ultimate failure, even oblivion.”