BBC broadcasts - WWII

[Segilla]

Born 1934, I've many memories of the war in London and so on. There are three BBC news broadcasts which somehow stay in my mind and I wonder about their truth, bearing in mind British propaganda aimed at buoying the country.

1. Around Christmas1943 the BBC reported that the Sharnhorst was sunk after having being sent out, *Hitler being persuaded that it could secure a Christmas victory*. This doesn't quite seem to accord with the facts.

2. That the Germans abandoned a very large number of Italians in the N African desert, (without food and water?).

3. A few years after the war, papers had been found showing that Hitler's plans for occupied Britain included severe punshment including mass deportation of males and beheadings for criminals.
How much of this is true?

[123everton]

2 They took all their wagons is completely true, from what I can remember, I've never read the North African campaigns (I'll put it on my list of things to do), but the German withdrawal was more akin to a moonlight flit that took even the Italians by surprise so I'd imagine there could be some truth in it at least.
The British lines weren't far away and the positions known so surrender would have been easy to organise.

[jno]

the Scharnhorst was sunk on Boxing Day 1943 but she'd been in service since the beginning of the war. I'd be surprised if Hitler really thought she was going to win the war overnight; her main job was attacking convoys.

[jno]

here's something on Hitler's plans - I can't vouch for its accuracy but it sounds pretty much like what you've suggested.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_Hitler%27s _plans_for_Britain

[Segilla]

Thanks jno.
I should have been more precise with language. Obviously I can't recall the exact words, but the impression given by the broadacast was that the Scharnhorst would secure a great *success*.

The Wiki answer is exactly what I wanted. I recall that the proposed deportations would have applied to my dad.
.
Britain had a narrow eacape, and, in very general terms, this has enabled those of my generation, (born 1934) to have lived though one of the 'best' ages ever experienced. The way things seem to be headed at the moment, such an era may never happen again.

[Scylax]

I am exactly of your generation, Segilla, and wondered
why you consider this one of the best ages ever
experienced ?
The 30s have been described by Piers Brendon as
'The Dark Valley': massive unemployment, Jarrow
marches and 'Love on the Dole'.
The 40s saw the misery of widescale bombing (I lived
in Sunderland), conscripted and absent fathers, and
food rationing which lasted well into the 1950s.
Then came the post-war austerity years; not much
comfort or security as I remember. The British Empire
came to pieces then, and Enoch Powell had things to
say which have subsequently proved to be very
prophetic.
Now, national bankruptcy seems to be our lot in 2009.
I remember, I remember....unfortunately.

[seadogg]

You are right Scylax but as a kid I thought it was just normal for all this to be happening and though we lost our Dads, families were close and supportive for the most part. Food was scarce but fairly distributed and I reckon we had a healthy diet.
What was austerity at a time when youth and romance made life sweet? At least you could walk home through dark streets in safety having seen your girl to her door.
As students we howled Powell down. We demonstrated against Suez. But we were free to do it.

[Segilla]

Of course, Scylax, much of my experience of life being good is personal and is a very broad brush approach. Your approach is also personal, but not so rosy as mine.
My Dad had a good job; I was sent to a Grammar School, (where I had a very severe but well-deserved flogging), came away with few GSC�s but got a job for life with an insurance company on the strength of my schooling and that my brother worked there..
We lost our windows three times in the London blitz but were never hurt, we had the exhilaration of winning a war against all odds.
Despite post-war privations, national prosperity rapidly increased, though held back by too many strikes.
Later were we not told, ' You�ve never had it so good?� And was that not true?
Both our children avoided the drug problem as it had hardly started when they were at school. I left work at age 58 after 38 years and with a modest pension.
Believe me, I�m conscious that others have not had such a good life but what happens to people is partly governed by chance, place of birth, class, and so on.
Just as I don�t envy those better off than me, with bigger cars, better housing, big savings, I don�t expect others to envy me. C�est la vie.

Until the recent collapse,*in general terms* we have done materially very well.

Admittedly on a long-term basis society has been rotting for many years, starting, in my view in the 1960s when adults lost control of their children partly because a Labour government reduced the voting age and the age of majority etc.

The trail of broken relationships and homes, sink estates, STDs, drugs and any number of ills are here but haven�t really affected me, (can I be blamed for that?), but they are gathering strength.
The country is building up for big trouble.

Attlee�s government who, in a spirit of bonhomie and goodwill sowed the seeds of uncontrollable immigration and we now see the

[Segilla]

we now see the folly of that in the numbers of them here, alien in thought, word and deed.
Well-meaning but short-sighted politicians have allowed laws to be enacted which are contrary to human nature. I have had to change my language towards those I regard as �unhealthy� for a nation to harbour and or encourage, and am forbidden by law to express freely what I feel, something I believed was my birthright as a free-born Englishman. Human rights, Health and Safety, too much law, not enough order, too much crime and not enough punishment, it�s parade every day along with all sorts of other ills. Need I go on?

The best days are over. Work till 70, no coachloads of trippers out for the day, holidays abroad ad lib; but in 5 years time I�ll not be here to experience what is in store.

My only disappointment when die will be that I shall never know what happens next.
Hands up anyone who thinks life will get better.

[jno]

life has got quite a lot better. Materially: we got our first TV when I was 16. Nowadays there's one in every room. Technologically: you used to have to wait months for a phone. Now you can buy as many as you want over the counter. Cars used to break down every couple of months; now they run for years. In terms of personal freedoms: homosexuals used to be jailed; people of the wrong colour could be discriminated against.

There are downsides of various sorts: I used to play in the middle of the road after school when I was young; not recommended now. I don't like CCTVs watching me day and night - but other people think they're a wonderful way of catching the criminals they think are lurking on every street corner. And I don't like celebrity culture.

But on the whole, I'll take modern life, able to get onto the internet and talk to strangers and not having to take out my spark plugs and check them every week.

[Scylax]

Rule Brittania indeed, but Brittania waves the rules
under the noses of 'middle Englanders' while
waiving the rules for asylum-seekers and illegal
immigrants.
Social manipulation seems to be an obsession with
our Socialist do-gooders. No wonder that at the end
of Labour Party conferences everyone linked hands
and sang 'The Red Flag':
'The people's flag is deepest red.
It shrouded oft our martyred dead'
The concluding line was:
'We'll keep the red flag flying here'.
- and don't we know it ?

We need a radically different administration and the
good people of Norwich have led the way. For one,
I now consider myself to be a native of East Anglia.