Benghazi

You are currently browsing the archive for the Benghazi category.

14.4.41 [George Orwell]

April 14, 2011 in Abyssinia, America, Benghazi, Cairo, China, Egypt, French West Africa, Germany, Indians, Japan, Negroes, Political, Red Sea, Russia, South Africa, Tobruk, War-time, non-aggression pact by orwelldiaries

The news today is appalling. The Germans are at the Egyptian frontier and a British force in Tobruk has the appearance of being cut off, though this is denied from Cairo. [1] Opinion is divided as to whether the Germans really have an overwhelming army in Libya, or whether they have only a comparatively small force while we have practically nothing, most of the troops and fighting vehicles having been withdrawn to other fronts as soon as we had taken Benghazi. In my opinion the latter is the likelier, and also the probability is that we sent only European troops to Greece and have chiefly Indians and Negroes in Egypt. D., speaking from a knowledge of South Africa, thinks that after Benghazi was taken the army was removed not so much for use in Greece as to polish off the Abyssinian campaign, and that the motive for this was political, to give the South Africans, who are more or less hostile to us, a victory to keep them in good temper. If we can hang on to Egypt the whole thing will have been worth while for the sake of clearing the Red Sea and opening that route to American ships. But the necessary complement to this is the French West African ports, which we could have seized a year ago almost without fighting.

Read the rest of this entry »

8.4.41 [George Orwell]

April 8, 2011 in Benghazi, Connolly, Francis Beeding, Fyvel, Germans, Greece, Hugh Slater, Italian empire, Libya, MOI, Madrid, News Chronicle, Piccadilly, Political, RAF, The Battle of Britain, Triploi, War-time, air battle by orwelldiaries

Have just read The Battle of Britain, the M.O.I.’s best-seller (there was so great a run on it that copies were unprocurable for some days). It is said to have been compiled by Francis Beeding, the writer of thrillers. I suppose it is not as bad as it might be, but seeing that it is being translated into many languages and will undoubtedly be read all over the world – it is the first historical account, at any rate in English, of the first great air battle in history – it is a pity that they did not have the sense to avoid the propagandist note altogether. The pamphlet is full of “heroic”, “glorious exploits”, etc., and the Germans are spoken of more or less slightingly. Why couldn’t they simply give a cold accurate account of the facts, which after all are favourable enough? For the sake of the bit of cheer-up that this pamphlet will accomplish in England, they throw away the chance of producing something that would be accepted all over the world as a standard authority and used to counteract German lies.

Read the rest of this entry »

7.4.41 [George Orwell]

April 7, 2011 in Abyssinia, Balkans, Battle of Cape Matapan, Belgrade, Benghazi, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Jugo-Slavia, Libya, Liddell Hart, Pioneers, Political, U.S.S.R., War-time, conscription by orwelldiaries

Belgrade bombed yesterday, and the first official announcement this morning that there is a British army in Greece – 150,000 men, so they say. So the mystery of where the British army in Libya had gone to it at last cleared up, though this had been obvious enough when the British retreated from Benghazi. Impossible to say yet whether the treaty of friendship between Jugo-Slavia and the U.S.S.R. means anything or nothing, but it is difficult to believe that it doesn’t point to a worsening of Russo-German relations. One will get another indication of the Russian attitude when and if the Emperor of Abyssinia is restored – i.e., whether the Russian government recognises him and sends an ambassador to his court.

Read the rest of this entry »