BackStory Episode 12
As usual on my BackStory page, below you will find extra details about my family as well as what was happening in the US and the UK. See also photos on Instagram @FondlyYoursMarguerite.
Episode 12 begins with Marguerite at her aunt and uncle’s home. In addition to his knowledge about the culture and politics of China, Marguerite’s Uncle Owen was an expert on Mongolia and its culture. Mongolia acknowledged his interest in many ways. One was this: When a heretofore undiscovered dinosaur fossil was discovered in Mongolia in 1982, it was described and named after him: Goyocephale lattimorei.
Marguerite’s Uncle Dick, Richmond Lattimore, translated Homer’s Odyssey, and The Iliad. Based on the quote that Marguerite referenced in her diary, I looked up Richmond’s translation, although it was not published until 1965.
“Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods; for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given.”
The Destroyers-for-bases deal of Sept 2, 1940 that Marguerite writes of, was an agreement between the US and the UK, according to which 50 destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the US Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions which they would use as naval bases. US president Roosevelt (whose hands were tied at being able to give any more assistance than this due to the ‘Neutrality Act’) used an executive agreement which did not require congressional approval. This would ultimately lead to the Lend-Lease agreement enacted in March 1941.
Maude writes of the air raids over Liverpool:
‘Ack-ack’ guns was the term for ‘anti-aircraft’ guns which fired at enemy aircraft once they were caught in the searchlight beams.
In 1940, this synchronization of gun and searchlight was still being used. The new use of radar (which average people knew nothing about) for more accurate locating was integrated by 1942. Radar, which gave early warning of approaching raids, was one of the most important factors in the success of Britain’s air defences during the Battle of Britain.
Incendiary bombs (bomblets) were small bombs dropped by aircraft, sometimes with tiny parachutes attached. They were designed not to explode, but to start a fire. Civilians were taught how to deal with one and put it out if one came through the roof of their home.
After I read about the bombing of Liverpool on November 28, I studied maps and locations of bomb shelters. There was a dance that night at the Grafton Rooms. I imagined what it would have been like for Maude to have been there. She describes seeing Jackie approach and the silver badge on his jacket. Jackie Fink, (Eileen’s brother—Eileen would grow up to marry Ron Hall, W.F. Hall’s brother) was a seaman of the Merchant Navy. They did not wear uniforms. However, each did wear a small silver ‘buttonhole badge’ with the initials MN thereon, inside an embossed oval of rope, tied in a reef knot, surmounted by a naval crown. (see the photo in BackStory Episode 9).
There were 300 people packed into The Durning Road shelter (where Maude and Jackie did not go) that night. 160 died. After the war, Winston Churchill referred to this tragedy as ‘the single worst civilian incident of the war’.