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12 The Second Front: January to September 1944
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
Extract
Headlam spent the first six weeks of 1944 recuperating at Holywell; he kept the diary regularly, but his knowledge of events was restricted to that provided by the press and radio. Towards the end of January he began to return to his normal routine and attended some meetings in Newcastle. However, his first visit to London in mid-February brought on further illness and he was confined to bed for the following three weeks. After this Headlam's strength recovered sufficiently for him to engage in local affairs, but he did not make another visit to the House of Commons until 21 April and only resumed a regular pattern of attendance at the end of May.
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References
1 As prospective Conservative candidate for Barnard Castle.
2 North-Eastern Electric Supply Company, of which Headlam was a non-executive director.
3 Richard Thomas Dyke Acland (1906–1990), M.P. Barnstaple 1935–45 (Lib. until Sep. 1942, then Common Wealth), Lab. M.P. Gravesend 1947–55; suc. 15th Bart. 1939; founder of the Common Wealth movement.
4 Headlam wrote ‘north’ by mistake; Wiikin (q.v.) had been Chairman of Newcastle Central Division Conservative Association.
5 Denville (q.v.) was Con. M.P. for Newcastle Central 1931–45.
6 The office of the Newcastle North association, for a meeting of the executive committee.
7 A medicine which Headlam had also been prescribed - ‘a marvellous drug’: Headlam diary, 24 Feb. 1944.
8 The Allied advance had been held for a long period at Monte Cassino, whilst the landing farther north at Anzio had not secured a large beachhead and was now under severe pressure from German counter-attacks.
9 Josip Broz (1892–1980), known as ‘Tito’ from 1922; Yugoslav Communist organizer, imprisoned 1928–34; Gen. Sec., Yugoslav Communist Party 1937–80; leader of ‘Partisan’ (Communist) resistance from June 1941, named ‘Marshal of Yugoslavia’ at the Jajce Congress of the Anti-Fascist Nat. Liberation Ctte., Nov. 1943; head of the provisional & federal govt. 1943–45; P.M. 1945–53; Pres. 1953–74, Pres. for life 1974–80.
10 Lord Simon, the Lord Chancellor.
11 Con. & Govt. Chief Whip; Churchill chose to regard the defeat on the ‘equal pay’ amendment as an attack on the govt., and its reversal was to be moved on 30 March and treated as a Vote of Confidence.
12 Nuremberg was the location of the Nazi Party rallies from 1933 to 1938, and the site of Hitler's planned monumental buildings.
13 A colloquial term for prison.
14 Wentworth Henry Canning Beaumont (1890–1956), Lib. peer; Lord in Waiting 1931–32, 1937–52, 1954–56; Pres., Northern Lib. Fed. 1925–49; Chairman, West Riding Unemployment Centres 1936–41; suc. 2nd Viscount Allendale 1923.
15 Harold Paton Mitchell (1900–1983), Con. M.P. Brentford & Chiswick 1931–45; P.P.S. to J. Colville 1931–35, to R. Assheton 1939–42; British Liaison Officer with Polish Forces 1940–41; Con. Party Vice-Chairman 1942–15; Lecturer in Hispanic American Studies, Stanford University, California 1959–65; cr. Bart. 1945.
16 German forces holding the monastery on Monte Cassino had delayed the Allied advance in Italy for some time, resisting heavy bombing and frontal assaults.
17 John Curtin (1885–1945), Australian trade union and Labour leader, Lab. M.P. (at Canberra) Fremantle 1928–31, 1934–45; Lab. Leader 1935–45; P.M. Australia 1941–45.
18 translation: for the public good.
19 Due to the bomb damage suffered by their own chamber, the Commons were meeting in the House of Lords during this period.
20 German propaganda had made much of the defences of the ‘Atlantic Wall’.
21 The M.P. detained under Defence Regulation 18B (q.v.).
22 Irving James Albery (1879–1967), Con. M.P. Gravesend 1924–45; kt. 1936.
23 The V-1 rocket, also known as the ‘flying bomb’.
24 (Albert Victor Nicholas) Louis Francis Mountbatten (1900–1979), naval career; Chief of Combined Operations 1942–43; S.A.C. South East Asia 1943–46; last Viceroy of India Mar.–Aug. 1947, and first Gov.-Gen. 1947–48; 4th Sea Lord 1950–52; C. in C. Med. 1952–54; 1st Sea Lord 1955–59; Chief of Defence Staff 1959–65; assassinated by I.R.A. bomb; cr. Viscount Mountbatten of Burma 1946, Earl 1947, K.G. 1946.
25 Church House (q.v.); near to the Palace of Westmister, this more modern and stronger building had been used during periods of heavy bombing in Nov.–Dec. 1940 and Apr.–June 1941. Since then the Commons had used the chamber of the House of Lords (their own House being destroyed by a bomb on 10–11 May 1941), but the V-1 attacks caused a temporary return to Church House from 20 June to 3 Aug. 1944.
26 The term for the French Resistance.
27 The Underground railway stations were used as air raid shelters at night.
28 Giffard Le Quesne Martel (1889–1958), army career; C. in C. Mesopotamia 1936–38; Dep. Dir. of Mechanization, War Office 1938–39; G.O.C. 50th (Northumberland) Div. 1939, Royal Armoured Corps 1940; Head of British Military Mission at Moscow 1943; Colonel Commandant, Royal Engineers 1944; Con. cand. Barnard Castle 1945; kt. 1943.
29 Robert (‘Robin’) Hugh Turton (1903–94), Con. M.P. Thirsk & Malton 1929–74; P.S. Nat. Insurance 1951–53, & Pensions 1953–54; U.S. For. Office 1954–55; Min. of Health 1955–57; Father of the House 1965–74; Chairman, Commonwealth Industries Assoc. 1963–74; kt. 1971, cr. Baron Tranmire 1974.
30 Violet Emily Mildred Meeking (1895–1966), married 1924 Allen Algernon Bathurst, styled Lord Apsley; Con. M.P. Bristol Central 1943–45 (seat previously held by her deceased husband); Dir., Western Airways 1936–55.
31 The elite force of the Nazi Party; its military wing, the Waffen S.S., grew to include several fully-equipped divisions and fought alongside the regular army forces, but was responsible for atrocities against civilians and captured prisoners.
32 translation: capable of anything.
33 The purges after the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler by Colonel von Staunenberg on 20 July, and the failure of the following army coup in Berlin.
34 Originally the term for the agrarian gentry of Prussia, this was extended in common British usage to embrace the whole of the traditional German upper classes.
35 Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867–1951), Finnish soldier and statesman; acting Head of State 1919–20; resumed command of Finnish Army 1939, entered war against Russia in alliance with Germany June 1941; Pres. 1944–46; secured armistice with Russia Sep. 1944, joined Allies and entered war against Germany Mar. 1945.
36 The area of the launching sites of the short-range V-1 ‘flying bomb’ rocket.
37 translation: pride, self-belief.
38 Michael II (1921-), King of Rumania (under regency) 1927–30, replaced by his father Carol II, returned to the throne 1940–47, abdicated 1947.
39 Ion Antonescu (1882–1946), Romanian officer, linked to Fascist movement; Chief of Gen. Staff 1937; imprisoned for plotting against govt. 1938–40; Min. of War 1940; P.M. 1940–44, effectively dictator, proclaimed himself Conducator; arrested in coup staged by King Michael 23 Aug. 1944; executed for war crimes May 1946.
40 translation: mass mobilisation; the term originates from the armies raised in the early 1790s to defend revolutionary France from invading forces.
41 (Mary) Beatrice Fenwick, member of Newcastle City Council, Sandyford Ward 1945–53; she was married to Christopher Fenwick, K.C., and was not related to the owners of Fenwick's department stores, which originated in Newcastle.
42 An election fought under wartime or immediate post-war conditions in which the Conservatives would benefit from popular feelings of patriotism and military success; the term was originally applied to the 1900 general election, held during the Boer War, and refers to the colour of the army uniform at that time.
43 William John Robert Cavendish (1917–1944); styled Marquess of Hartington after suc. of father as 10th Duke of Devonshire 1938; married 1944 Kathleen Kennedy, sister of John Kennedy, Pres. of U.S.A. 1960–63.