Eighty years ago nature achieves more than the Luftwaffe

 

Mount Vesuvius, which dominates Naples, erupted seriously for the first time since 1872. It destroyed the village of San Sebastian and dozens of B-25 bombers parked on an airfield belonging to the 340th Group, which was famously fictionalised in the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller who joined the unit a few weeks later. Remarkably, fewer than thirty people died.

So as to forestall Hungary making a separate peace with the USSR the Germans occupied the country. The Regent, Admiral Horthy, acquiesced and Hungarian forces continued to fight on the Axis side. Hungary's Jews could be rounded up and despatched to extermination camps.

Afters a week's strike 100,000 Welsh miners returned to work with the prospect of a large increase in rates for piecework pay. Some 500,000 tons of coal production had been lost.

The health Minister, Conservative Henry Willink, triggered a lively debate when he presented the proposals for a National Health Service to the House of Commons. Conservative MP and doctor Sir Ernest Graham-Little claimed to be speaking for a large body of the medical profession in saying that they would reject coming under state control. His credentials were challenged by Dr Edith Summerskill for Labour and Dr Russell Thomas for the Liberals.