The Germans ruled the air and encountered light R.A.F. interference. The bombardment on May 27 was the worst. But the press and the public in Britain had no idea how desperate it was. Still, except for very few people, the politicians and certainly the public knew nothing about the conflict between Halifax and Churchill. By coincidence, George Orwell began on May 28 to pen his war diary.
People talk a little more of the war, but very little.
He went to a pub to hear the nine o'clock news. Nobody else listened. Back in Moscow, Stalin ordered Molotov, his Foreign Minister, to congratulate Hitler on the occasion of the German victory in France. A bit premature. The writer, a former diplomat, is a regular contributor to these pages.