Eighty years ago this week Churchill chooses a new Archbishop of Canterbury for his toughness

 

The Bishop of London Geoffrey Fisher became Archibishop of Canterbury in succession to William Temple, who had been his patron and wanted him as the next Archbishop. Temple's early death, though, had deprived the Church of a forward-looking leader who was ready to take it into the vastly changed world after the war. By contrast Fisher was a conservative, albeit far from reactionary. Churchill selected him for his "toughness".

The American psychological warfare arm launched Operation Cornflakes. The kindest thing that can be said about it is that it illustrated the vast resources that the US had at their disposal and was willing to deploy. Letters containing defeatist sentiments were forged and addressed to real Germans, complete with forged postage stamps. Sacks of the these were dropped at locations where trains had been derailed in air attacks in the hope that salvage teams would take them to be genuine and ensure the letters reached their addressees.

US Navy warships bombarding Luzon in the Philippines prior to landings there suffered severe kamikaze attacks which damaged two battleships, USS New Mexico and USS California, and other vessels. The attacks killed US Rear Admiral Theodore Chandler, one of five USN flag officers to be killed in combat and British Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden who was serving as a liason officer. He was the British army's most senior battle casualty of the war.

 

 

 

Operation cornflakes

fisher archb