December 12th 1940

Thursday December 12th

It was a very bad night last night with guns firing endlessly and heavy bombs dropping in the (not so) distance. Cheltenham[1] seems to have got it, and Birmingham. We hardly slept at all for though the All Clear went at 1.40am, a new alert sounded at 4.00am, and the All Clear did not go until twenty to eight.

“We” captured Sidi Barrani[2] in Libya and 20,000 prisoners all told. A very nice little haul, but I wish they had been Germans.

Jerry seems to be too quiet – he’s up to something particularly beastly, one can be sure.

Lord Lothian[3] died suddenly in America.

[1] Twenty people were killed and 600 lost their homes in a bombing by German planes returning from a raid on Coventry. There is an eye witness report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9276000/9276212.stm
[2] See details of the Battle of Sidi Barrani at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sidi_Barrani
[3] UK ambassador to the US. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kerr,_11th_Marquess_of_Lothian#Personal_life_and_death