“So long and good luck.”

24th December 1940: Journalist Ed Murrow broadcasts from London for his American audience

Cities across Britain were being ravaged by the German bombers.

CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow was pioneering a new form of journalism with his wartime reporting from London¹. Live reports from the rooftops as the bombs fell brought the reality of war into American homes - and a large audience eager to learn more. He was among a group of American journalists who were shaping American opinion - a matter that would be critical to whether Britain would get material support to continue the war.

Dorothy Thompson had been expelled from Germany in 1934 for her hard-hitting reports on the Nazis and their anti-semitic policies. She was hugely influential when broadcasting from home about the dangers of fascism everywhere.

The Boston socialite and fashion reporter Virginia Cowles also pioneered war reporting, beginning in the Spanish Civil War, and was another supporter of the British cause.

William S. Shirer was, just now, on his way back to the States, having narrowly escaped the attentions of the Gestapo, because his reports on the grim reality of the Nazi regime were getting too close to the truth. In London, Quentin Reynolds of Colliers Magazine had written much of the Ministry of Information film, ‘London Can Take It’, avidly watched in cinemas across America.

These were men and women of integrity who believed in democracy and the freedom of the press.

Edward R. Murrow began his broadcast on 24th December:

This is not a merry Christmas in London. I heard that phrase only twice in the last three days. This afternoon as the stores were closing, as shoppers and office workers were hurrying home, one heard such phrases as “So long, Mamie,” and “Good luck, Jack,” but never “A merry Christmas.”

It can’t be a merry Christmas, for those people who spend to-night and to-morrow by their firesides in their own homes realize that they have bought this Christmas with their nerves, their bodies, and their old buildings. Their nerve is unshaken; the casualties have not been large, and there are many old buildings still untouched. Between now and next Christmas there stretch twelve months of increasing toil and sacrifice, a period when the British will live hard.