The following excerpt from the National Australia's Prime Ministers site of interest on this....
While in Britain, Robert and Pattie Menzies both experienced first-hand the devastation caused by German air raids. They were deeply moved by what they saw and visited a number of provincial British cities and war factories to help boost morale. But Menzies was unable to achieve an increased commitment from Britain for Singapore’s defence. With the blitz still in progress and the threat of German invasion not yet passed, Churchill promised only to keep Australia’s concerns in mind.
So it seems the "winner" is Dame Pattie! That is of course if the National Archives are correct. Contemporary
newspaper accounts and Mr Menzies Diary indicate otherwise. Still remarkable the experiences of Mr Menzies while in Britain during the Blitz.
21 March
…through Bristol (with its main shopping streets blitzed—no possible military objective) and by Bridgewater, Taunton, Exeter to Plymouth, which had a doing last night. Many ruins still smoking. Meet Lady Astor at her house on the Hoe. Windows broken, and therefore sent to Admiral’s Residence, after visiting a shelter for homeless & speaking there.
At dinner we are warned that Hun arrives two nights running. Sure enough, just as the port arrives we are hurried into the cellars, into a corridor whose floor is some feet below ground level but whose walls are pierced by window sandbagged outside. A frightful bombing breaks out. Twice the window swings right in with the force of the blast. Twice I don my tin helmet and creep out to see the sky red with fire, to hear the sound of the planes overhead, to hear the ping of falling shrapnel, to see fires all along the city, and nearby houses and a church spire standing out as clearly as in an aquatint of moonlight.
Nancy Astor
2 and I keep the company entertained below, but the business is not really funny. The windows in the front of the house are broken. After midnight, all clear sounds...A frightful scene. Street after street afire; furniture litters the footpaths; poor old people shocked & dazed are led along to shelter. Buildings blaze and throw out sparks like a bush fire. There are few fire appliances and firemen. Picture Melbourne blazing from Flinders to Lonsdale, from Swanston or Russell to Elizabeth Streets; with hundreds of back street houses burning as well.
Every now & then a delayed action bomb explodes (two were so close as to make me duck) or a building collapses. Millions of pounds go west in an hour. I am in a grim sense glad to have seen it. I am all for peace when it comes, but it will be a tragedy for humanity if it comes before these beasts have had their own cities ravaged. The Hun must be made to learn through his hide; for sheer brutality this kind of thing is beyond the imagining of those who have not actually witnessed it. I thought it horrible, but Billy Rootes
3 said “Nothing to Coventry!!”
Tarin Kowt seems somewhat benign by comparison.
We sent the following query to National Archives:
Dear Sir/madam.
The text reads..."While in Britain, Robert and Pattie Menzies both experienced first-hand the devastation caused by German air raids. They were deeply moved by what they saw and visited a number of provincial British cities and war factories to help boost morale. But Menzies was unable to achieve an increased commitment from Britain for Singapore’s defence. With the blitz still in progress and the threat of German invasion not yet passed, Churchill promised only to keep Australia’s concerns in mind."
Contemporary newspaper reports (and Mr Menzies Diary indicate that Mrs Menzies did not accompany Mr Menzies on the PM's world trip in Jan-May 1941. Can you please clarify the text? Or provide a link to documents that put Mrs Menzies in the UK in early 1941.
