Re-writing the 'Myths of Churchill'

Blood sweat and arrogance the myths of Churchill's war by Gordon Carrigan

A strange book that not only points out that Churchill interfering ways sometimes hindered his generals in World war II but also tries to blame Churchill for budget cuts to the armed services after 1918.

Quite frankly the later of these charges is rather odd, Churchill, even in his few years as Chancellor of the Exchequer was not single handedly responsible for Government policy neither was there any real chance in the 1920's or early 1930's of anyone keeping up the levels of military expenditure advocated by the author.

The earlier charge that Churchill interfered and often made things worse, is already well known, and on the other side of the argument has to be set the fact that he often led or interfered and made things better.  Surely on balance his contribution to the allies winning WWII is undoubted. 

the wooden horse

The film the wooden horse was show the other day.

It is quite amazing to think that the men who tunnelled out of a prisoner of war camp in the escape known as the "wooden horse" managed to tunnel 100 feet in three months. Only the shaft had wooden shoring meaning the rest of the tunnel carried a high risk of collapse.   The three men who escaped made it back to re-join the war effort. It makes me wonder about their bravery and whether their return made any difference to the war.

Crime in the UK in WWII

An underworld at war - spivs deserters, racketeers and civilians in the second world war by Donald Thomas  ISBN 0-7197-5732-1

This is a fascinating book - if a little over long about crime in the UK in World War 2.  While there was undoubtedly a lot of sacrifices made by many people, other saw the war as an opportunity or reason to turn to crime.

Theft and fraud make up the biggest amount of crime - be it stealing or forging ration books, whole lorry loads of supplies disappearing or fraudulent claims for work or wages.

It is informative to find out how the Government tried to counter crime and how some relatively trivial matters were punished harshly while some more serious ones

Often the stories are almost incredible. In 1941 a Liverpool ship repairer cheated the Government out of £20 million (at today's prices).  Soliders and others would steal equipment needed for the war effort. 

Of course these are just the records of the crimes that were recorded, no doubt there were many more that weren't recorded.

Private Walker from the TV series Dads Army is most peoples idea of a spiv - before that there was Arthur English (are you being served) and Sid Field and a host of others who played to audiences who new spivs not just from 6 years of war but the years of rationing the continued after 1945.   This book shines a light on those that make Walker look like a boy scout.

After a while the accounts seems to blur and a few more statistics and a few less examples would have been a good idea, however for a topic that has been overlooked, it is a good read.

The Naked Island

The Naked Island by Russell Brandon (ISBN 0-330-02169-9) is his story of joining the Australian Army in 1941 and his capture and imprisonment for 3 years by the Japanese Imperial Army.

This was apparently one of the first books written about such experiences, and was first published in 1952.

It is a powerfully written and evocative account.  Russell writes with a keen eye for detail, a amazingly robust sense of humour and excellent character portraits.

His description of training and deployment by the Australian Army ought to be read by anyone interested in the military.  The farcical deployments and movements and 'training' contrast appallingly with the courage and heroism displayed by the troops in combat.

His time in captivity, is harrowing, and I can only describe it as being like memoirs of a concentration camp survivor.  The treatment of prisoners by the Japanese Military was appalling beyond words. In fact, at one stage in the book, Brandon himself struggles to describe the existence he endured.  The relentless 18 hours of work and brutality passing in  a haze where one incident blurs into an endless stream of torture  so bad that few incidents stand out for recall. Working 18 hours a day subject to beatings and witnessing unimaginable cruelty, Brandon survived by determination,luck and telling himself nothing mattered.

That the suffering inflicted by the Japanese Army was both deliberate and unnecessary is without doubt.  I can't help but feel for the British/commonwealth/USA troops who had to endure it and who saw their comrades suffer and die, yet were treated abysmally after the war and got little in the way of compensation or apology.

The modern welfare state

In 1945 the majority of the UK wanted to implement the Beveridge report. So what did it do when given the opportunity to vote for the man himself ?

Berwick on Tweed
[E] Conservative gain

RAF Thorpe	Conservative	12,315	43.29%
W Beveridge	Liberal	10,353	36.39%
J Davis	Labour	5,782	20.32%

Electorate: 41,978; {Civ: 38,570; Bus: 0; Serv: 3,408};
Turnout: 67.77%; Majority: 1,962 (6.90%

Oh well, you can always rely of the commonsense and collective wisdom of voters :-)

Beveridge was elected in 1944 as MP for Berwick on Tweed but at that time he faced no Labour or Conservative opponent as part of the war time 'truce' on campaigning made between the three main parties.