The National
Archives
Kew
Richmond
Surrey,
TW9 4DU
Tuesday, 26 September 2017
Dear Sirs
75th
anniversary publication request - document
AIR 20/4870
As you know, in 1944 the writer H E Bates was commissioned
to write a monograph on the defence of Britain during the Blitz of 1940-41,
which was titled "The Night Battle of Britain."
May I ask whether this study by a now world-famous author,
written so close to the events it describes, will be made available online in
time for the 75th anniversary of its completion, i.e. 2019? That
year will of course also be the 75th anniversary of the D-Day
landings.
Alternatively (or in addition), would the National Archives
consider permitting hard-copy facsimile publication?
3 comments:
Ah, 1940/41, being near Coventry we had the bombers going over us and on their way back dumping some bombs. After that my parents packed me off to family in Liverpool and Bootle because someone told my Dad that the Germans could not get that far.
Bates heard a doodlebug blow up the tower of Little Chart Church near Ashford, where he lived; still a ruin - new church built nearby. Hope to visit it sometime. One landed near my dad's home in Cheam; when he pulled himself up again off the kitchen floor he found great shards of glass embedded in the other side of the door that had been blown open. If one of them had got him I wouldn't be here.
One hopes.
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