Geoffrey Wellum obituary - Youngest Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/squadron-leader-geoffrey-wellum-obituary-prswmxfsr

Youngest Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot whose bestselling war memoir was hailed as one of the most powerful and poignant ever written

Geoffrey Wellum in 2002

In the early 1970s Geoffrey Wellum was at a very low ebb. His business had failed, his marriage was coming to an end and he had recently lost his house. Dogged by despair, he began to write a memoir about his youth: “I just wanted to convince myself that at some point in my life I had been of use.”

In 1940, when he was 18, Wellum had, as the youngest Spitfire pilot in the RAF, flown in the Battle of Britain. He had been mad about aircraft as a boy and joined the service straight out of school. Having learnt to fly in Tiger Moths, he first went solo on September 1, 1939. Two days later Britain entered the war.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/fochs-counter-stroke-7hw2jsqhz

JULY 19, 1918

Foch’s counter stroke

By a brilliant counter-stroke against the vulnerable western side of the new German salient General Foch has swiftly transformed the battle position, and possibly destroyed the prospects of the new German offensive. He attacked at dawn yesterday on a front of 27 miles between the Aisne and the Marne, from a point over six miles west of Soissons to a point six miles north-west of Chateau-Thierry. He effected complete surprise and accomplished remarkable results. By 1pm yesterday his troops had made great progress along the whole line of attack. Everywhere they drove the enemy headlong. At some points they advanced eight miles, and at no point less than three.

It is already realized that the counter-stroke is one of the most brilliant operations of the war. It may even prove to bear comparison with the battle of the Ourcq, fought in September, 1914, by General Manoury, which led to the victory on the Marne. Manoury rolled up the extreme right flank of the German Army, while Foch has attacked a portion of a continuous front; but the main object is in each case the same, for by attacking the exposed side of a very dangerous salient Foch hopes, like Manoury, to compel the withdrawal of the enemy northward across the river. There has really been no Allied counter-stroke of this character and magnitude since the first great battle of the Marne. The operation is a direct retaliation upon the German offensive, shrewdly conceived and fought by the attacking troops with a dash which proved invincible.

Two considerations stand out. The first is that the recovery of Prunay probably marks the complete repulse of the German offensive east of Reims. The second is that by advancing eight miles to the ravine through which the River Crise flows the Allies can command by gunfire the two railways by which the enemy troops within the salient are being chiefly supplied. The position of the large bodies of German troops holding the salient should now become extremely difficult, and it will not be surprising if the enemy forces south of the Marne meet the fate of the Austrians who rashly crossed the Piave. Whatever be the outcome, yesterday was the best day the Allies have had on the Western front for a very long time.

British politics, 1917-1918

British politics, 1917-1918

This week's chapter examines Mr Lloyd George's government, the War Cabinet, electoral reform, the Irish Convention, the Dardanelles and Mesopotamia commissions, the India cotton duties, Indian constitutional reforms, the Corn Production Act, the Stockholm conference, the Lansdowne letter, war aims, unity of command, the "sniping" debates, the last Military Service Act, the Irish conscription clause, the Maurice letter and debate, the Education Act, the biggest Budget, the general election, the reconstructed government

It took a long time for British politicians to recognize that strategic unity was a fundamental condition of victory, and the controversy which raged around the question in the latter part of 1917 and the first months of 1918 gave rise to a remarkable series of discussions in the House of Commons which came to be known as "sniping" debates

Lords vote for woman suffrage january 11, 1918

Lord Curzon wound up the debate with a tremendous onslaught on the principle of woman suffrage. He described the proposed change as vast, incalculable, and catastrophic, without precedent in history and without justification in experience

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lords-vote-for-woman-suffrage-dfh8qrbpz?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_18.07.2018%20Politics%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_3777337_118 From The Times, January 10, 1918

The House of Lords tonight rejected Lord Loreburn’s amendment to the Reform Bill opening the Parliamentary franchise to women by 134 votes to 71 — a majority of 63. The debate attracted the largest House since the beginning of the war. There were more women than men in the seats allotted to the public, and there has not been such a large attendance of peeresses in the side galleries since the far-off days of party conflict.
The Lord Chancellor, in resuming the debate, said what made him anxious was the possible effect of enfranchising 6,000,000 women for a General Election during the war. There would be a mass of women without political experience upon which pacifists might work.
Lord Selborne followed. The cost of carrying the amendment would involve the rejection of the Bill and, in the climax of the war, would split the nation from top to bottom. In the whole of his political experience no measure had been stamped with such unanimous national approval. He regretted the suggestion of the Lord Chancellor that women would be likely to be a prey to pacifists.

The Archbishop of Canterbury strongly supported the women’s claim. He did not base his case on rewarding women for having done well in the war. It was rather a recognition of the part that women were now taking in our national life. Lord Lytton asked bluntly whether women were to be told again that they must remain in the same category as lunatics and children.

Lord Curzon wound up the debate with a tremendous onslaught on the principle of woman suffrage. He described the proposed change as vast, incalculable, and catastrophic, without precedent in history and without justification in experience. He even ventured on a prediction that before many years were past the influence of women voters would not be Conservative but Socialistic, to the disturbance of home life. He could not conceal that to cut the clause out of the Bill would be a challenge to the House of Commons, and that the House of Lords was not likely to prevail. In these circumstances he proposed to abstain. The division was then taken, and the announcement of the figures was received with a round of cheering — an unusual manifestation in the House of Lords. 

Major-General Corran Purdon obituary

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-07-06/register/major-general-corran-purdon-obituary-hhzdfrqkq

Fitness-addicted commando who won an MC in the ‘Greatest Raid of All’, was imprisoned at Colditz and filmed with Jeremy Clarkson

Major-General Corran Purdon was injured during the St Nazaire raid

Corran Purdon seldom spoke about the two events that came to define his military career: the audacious commando raid on the Nazi-held French port of St Nazaire in 1942, dubbed “the Greatest Raid of All”, and his subsequent year-long imprisonment at the infamous Colditz castle.
If pressed he would cite the bravery or endurance of someone who had shared the dangers or deprivation with him, while playing down the MC he was awarded for the former role.
Operation Chariot, as the St Nazaire raid was officially called, was meticulously planned by the Combined Operations staff regarding deception measures and demolition of the huge dry dock, yet they underestimated the Wehrmacht’s ability to react with violent offensive action, even when taken by surprise. In consequence the demolition parties were unable to escape after completing their mission.

Wing Commander Tom Neil obituary

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/wing-commander-tom-neil-obituary-mtw75zvpd

Last-but-one Battle of Britain fighter ‘ace’ who downed 14 enemy aircraft, most of them when he was 19

Neil photographed by Cecil Beaton at RAF North Weald

The fighter pilot Tom Neil hated being called “Ginger”, but revelled in his other nickname, “Hawkeye”, bestowed for his unerring ability to sense the presence of enemy aircraft, identify the most vulnerable in a formation and move in ruthlessly.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/australians-exploits-at-merris-j9l36f83h

JULY 13, 1918

Australians’ exploits at Merris

An interesting adventure in patrol tactics is proceeding near Merris, where, in full daylight and without artillery or trench-mortar assistance, small groups of Australians carried forward our line within 500 yards of Merris over a front of 2,200 yards. They captured more than 150 men, including officers. Mere handfuls of men were employed in this success. In the morning two patrols, busy in maintaining our hold on No Man’s Land, were working along the railway when four of their number, separated from the rest, came upon some 40 Germans near a farmhouse and captured the whole group. The event caused some rivalry and further expeditions were organized, and during the whole day groups of prisoners were continually coming back to the cages. One sergeant was told that he would be excused some task which he disliked if he would fetch six German prisoners. He suggested that the number was rather excessive, but the officer was adamant. So, in company with a soldier from his company, he set out, and reported an hour or two later with a queue of eight Germans behind him. The reserve troops from whom the prisoners were taken had just relieved the Bavarian Division in which some indiscipline was recently reported. It would not be true to suggest that the moral of the better German divisions is obviously reduced, but there is no doubt that in this sector the enemy are cowed by the dash and originality of the Australian patrols. In the Merris sector, which is very different from the positions on the Somme, no strong, or even regular, line has yet been dug, but before this advance the enemy had a chain of fortified posts forming an awkward salient into our lines, and this is now completely straightened out.

The whole Air Service is in great grief at the loss of Major McCudden. He was on his way from Scotland to take up a new command, and flew over from England in his favourite single-seater. He landed at an aerodrome in Northern France, where he had business, and, after a short stay, set off again to join his squadron. While only a few hundred feet from the ground his machine side-slipped and crashed among trees. He was killed instantly. The official record of his victories is 45 enemy aeroplanes brought down and 13 driven down.

Gudrun Burwitz obituary

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-07-12/register/gudrun-burwitz-obituary-vnvl9xhlt

Daughter of Heinrich Himmler who kept a chilling diary during the war and later joined a secretive charity helping Nazi war criminals

Gudrun Himmler in Berlin in 1938 with her father

In 1941 Gudrun, the 12-year-old daughter of Heinrich Himmler, began keeping a diary in which she idolised her father and wrote of her hopes for peace.
The next year, 500 miles away and hidden in a house in Amsterdam, Anne Frank, the same age as Gudrun, began keeping a diary with similar hopes. If peace came, wrote Gudrun, “we will certainly get a country estate in the east . . . Yes, if only peace came, but that will be a long time.” Anne wrote: “What’s the point of the war? Why, oh why can’t people live together peacefully? Why all this destruction?”
Long after the evils of Nazism had been exposed and its proponents brought to justice, Gudrun Burwitz continued to support veterans of the regime, keeping alight the flame of their barbarous ideology. Her father, who called her Püppi (little doll), had been the architect of the final solution in which Anne and millions of other people were systematically killed.

Unlike the children of other high-ranking Nazis, Burwitz, known as the Nazi Princess, never expressed horror at her father’s crimes. Instead, she became a key player in Stille Hilfe (Quiet Aid), a charity that brought succour to some of the Third Reich’s most notorious criminals. She would help them to start new lives, often with new identities. “It’s true I help where I can,” she said in 1998. “But I refuse to discuss my work.”