A Dismal Second Christmas at War
25th December 1940: This year, there is no escape from the war, either at home or abroad
The second Christmas of the war was very different from the first for people in Britain. A year earlier, only Poland and Czechoslovakia had been occupied by the Nazis, and the ‘phoney war’ had yet to make much of an impact on people’s lives. The dramatic events of 1940 had seen the occupation of most of Europe, and the threat to Britain had become very real indeed.
Britain had survived the threat of invasion and beaten off the attacks on her air defences. But British towns and cities were being laid waste daily. Thousands of families up and down the country had had violent and sudden death visited upon them. Tens of thousands of people were recovering from serious injuries.
Death could come unexpectedly in any theatre of the war, even on Christmas morning. Off the coast of the Canary Islands, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper suddenly appeared out of the mist and threatened a convoy headed south, around Africa, bound for the Middle East. The escort ships quickly engaged - and only minutes later, men were dead, but the German ship was driven off:
