History when it was still news

I purchased the above book together with its companion piece for Servicemen in France in 1944 and German Invasion Plans For The British Isles 1940. The two 'servicemen' books are replicas of the books issued to servicemen by the Foreign Office, the German Plans book has been put together by the Bodleian Library using one of the few of the original copies that were found in the main library in Berlin in 1945.

The wonderful thing about all three books is the small details and expressions that were used during the war to convey to soldiers what to expect when they arrived in France, Germany or Britain. The book on Germany contains such little words of wisdom as "don't be too ready to listen to stories told by attractive women. They may be acting under orders..." And "Be on your guard against 'propaganda in the form of hard-luck stories. Be fair and just, but don't be soft."

The book on the French is particularly illuminating given the attitude of what I can only refer to as 'non warring generations post 1945' who seem to take delight in portraying all French people as 'cheese eating surrender monkeys." The book points out that the RAF were actually responsible for killing French citizens in the areas under German occupation through either direct bombing of towns or bombing of French based German acquired armament factories. The book states the often forgotten fact that despite having vast numbers of their own people killed by what would today be classed as enemy fire the French civilians and resistance continued to help the war effort.

If you ever have the chance to visit Cherbourg its worth visiting the D-Day Exhibition. The story of the Allied bombing of St.Lo is incredibly sad, the Americans dropped leaflets on the town warning that they would be bombing parts of the town under German military occupation and urged the French residents to move out. What the Americans didn't realise was that as they dropped their leaflets the wind direction changed, the bombers came and at 8 p.m on 6th June, as part of Operation Overlord, some 60,000 tons of bombs were dropped in just six seconds on St.Lo. Rough estimates put the destruction of St.Lo at about 95% of the town, interestingly though the bombing of St.Lo was never reported in the States despite the deaths of over one hundred U.S servicemen during the raids.

The German Invasion book is interesting but in a different way. The two books issued to Servicemen are for two different purposes, one sets out what to expect from the people of an allied country under occupation for five years, the other is about what to expect from the population of that occupying force. The German book is an anoraks guide to the landscape, infrastructure and customs of these islands we call home and was put together not by intelligence officers or people on the ground but by reports gathered from academics using Ordnance Survey maps, studies of weather, customs, money etc. What is interesting is how Kent was seen as the ideal place to invade - ironic really given that part of the background to D-Day was the German obsession with the idea that the Allied forces would enter France via the Pays De Calais. The area where I live is described as 'a sought-after haven for the rich, retired officers, civil servants and other settlers and hoildaymakers (Bournemouth in particular).' Plus ca change as they say in France!

Another interesting fact (wake up at the back there) is the table about the movement of goods in England in 1937, the last year before the war for which stats were available. 63.3% of all goods transport was by Rail, 31.3% by HGV and 5.4% by canal.

On page 21 the book includes the following paragraph which I think is great: "English industrial towns are typified by the cloud of smoke that is constantly lying over them; it is the cause of the thick fog that appears in foggy weather. England's working-class quarters contain lines of identical houses that could not be smaller and in many cases have no yards or gardens."

So all that talk about town planners doing more harm than the Luftwaffe is wrong, the Germans were simply trying to improve our lot!

These three books are right up my street, rue or strasse and at under a fiver each aren't expensive and are great for dipping into when you have a minute or five to spare.