Eighty years ago, the Italians are softened up for attack and a Red Rat is removed

 

Allied aircraft dopped over Italian cities a leaflet signed by Roosevelt and Churchill inviting Italians to  turn their backs on Mussolini and to abandon support for Nazi Germany, "The time has now come for you, the Italian people, to consult your own self-respect and your own interests, and your own desires for a restoration of national dignity, security, and peace. The time has come for you to decide whether Italians shall die for Mussolini and Hitler-or live for Italy and for civilization." More ominously the leaflet spoke of Italy's vulnerability to attack from the air. At a more practical level, Rome suffered Operation Crosspoint,  its first air raid. It supposedly targeted railway marshalling yards but hit civilian districts, killing killed 1,500 people and damaging the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori Le Mura .

George VI's private secretary Sir Alex Hardinge was removed from office after seven years. He was deeply unpopular; socialite MP Chips Channon detested him and christened him first the Black Rat and then, when Channon persuaded himself that Hardinge had become a Communist supporter, the Red Rat. His poor performance over the King's visit to the Mediterranean had been the final nail in the coffin. Few regretted his deparature but he had taken the job out of a sense of duty to the Royal family despite knowing that Edward VIII would be a very difficult master. Tommy Lascelles, his deputy and a far more emollient character, succeeded Hardinge.

Ernest Bevin, minister for labour and national sevice, issued a stark warning that labour shortage in the coal mines would call for harsh measures. The minimum age for working in the pits should be cut from 18 to 16. Implicit was the possibility of conscription into the mines. Chillingly he did not even commit to allowing mining conscripts to return to work above ground after the war although he did promise that the position would be reconsidered.