Professor Tim Luckhurst, our Principal of South College, looks back at how Great Britain celebrated 25 December as World War Two raged on.
Britain’s popular newspapers greeted Christmas 1943 with the fond hope that it would be the last Christmas of the war. Daily Mail columnist Simon Harcourt-Smith wrote: “We will have only ourselves to blame if by Christmas 1944 our victory in Europe is not several months old.”
The popular left-wing weekly Picture Post was equally optimistic: “Christmas 1943 brings promise,” it declared, adding: “The day we are looking for is coming – perhaps sooner than we all expect.” And writing for Picture Post, Dorothy Crook, an American experiencing her first Christmas in England, thought Britons were enjoying “the brightest and most hopeful Christmas season in five years”.
Having spent one career as a journalist, my main research area these days is the history of journalism, to find out more about how the UK press reported important events. It’s interesting to look back at Christmas 80 years ago, when Britons thought – with some good reasons – that an end to the second world war was in sight.
The year 1943 had seen significant military success. The Red Army had pushed invading Germans back to the banks of the Dnieper. British and American forces had made landings in Italy and its fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, had been removed from office. Intense bombing raids had obliterated much of Hamburg, dealt colossal damage to industry in the Ruhr valley, and destroyed 40% of Berlin. Indeed, the Daily Telegraph relayed reports from neutral Swedish newspapers that Joseph Goebbels, Reich minister for propaganda, wanted to evacuate the German capital entirely.
But if victory appeared certain, Allied success was yet to deliver material rewards to war-weary Britons. With factories converted to war work, the Daily Mirror reported intense competition for second-hand toys.
In Newcastle, auction rooms had closed because they were “ashamed to take the money which frantic bidders were prepared to pay”. Auctioneers blamed the parents – one told the Mirror that once children had “set their minds on” toys such as a toy train or doll, the parents “fight for the article because they haven’t the heart to disappoint the child”.
Many titles focused on the shortage of traditional food. The Listener, a weekly magazine published by the BBC, acknowledged that there would be no extra rations – but it said things would be much worse for the Germans, who were led by “pre-Christian barbarians opposed to the Christian way of life”.
The Daily Telegraph poured scorn on the minister for food’s prediction that “a substantial proportion of the population will get their turkey”. Butchers made it plain that this was unlikely. The Telegraph concluded that: “Roast pork without apple sauce and simplified plumb pudding (ie, what housewives can make from sultanas, prunes and raisins they may have saved from rations) will be the mainstay in many homes.”
A ministry of food advertisement in the national press encouraged the “resourceful housewife” to “make Christmas meals different by serving something usual in an unusual manner”. It advised readers to “s-t-r-e-t-c-h the meat ration with delicious new stuffings and make it a real feast”. Suggestions included parsley and celery stuffing and “bacon olives” made by wrapping lumps of stuffing in bacon.
The Daily Mirror was equally determined to encourage innovation. It lamented the failure of communities “to club together” and make toys. The popular left-wing daily title was certain that “no part of the country” lacked “people able to use a saw, chisel and paintbrush”. Advertising its commitment to post-war reform, it warned that: “If we can’t produce a few homemade toys, the outlook for a whole new world is pretty grim.”
The Times offered a picture of choristers rehearsing for the Christmas Eve festival of nine lessons and carols in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The Daily Telegraph offered a competition for junior readers – they could win book tokens by finding toys hidden in a picture of Father Christmas.
But the Conservative broadsheet’s editorial offered a more sobering thought. There was “no power on Earth” that could now prevent the allies achieving the destruction of German fighting forces. However, it went on:
"British and American forces may have to endure the greatest sacrifice of life which they have yet suffered."
From the US, the Economist reported that the festive season was not offering President Franklin D. Roosevelt tranquillity. Striking rail workers’ trade unions had expressed “deep dissatisfaction with the economic management of the war”. Among the causes was white workers’ hostility to the employment or promotion of black colleagues on southern railroads.
The Daily Mirror found a more personal story about Britain’s American allies. Columnist Ian Fyfe (who was to die while covering the D-Day landings the following year) met Private Hank Burnett of Ohio at an American Forces club in London.
Burnett missed his children but was sure his beloved wife, Myrtle, would fill their Christmas stockings. His concern was that he could not find a suitable present for her. “She’s gonna get the best and London ought to be able to give it to her,” Hank explained. The problem, in this fifth Christmas of war, was that London could not.
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