September 4th 1939

Monday September 4th

First blood to the Germans. With their usual clumsiness they have continued to outrage world opinion by torpedoing the liner “Athenia” off the Hebrides. It was an act of useless violence for she could not possibly have been an auxiliary cruiser or - since she was outward bound - be carrying contraband.

She was fired on without warning. There seem to have been very few casualties, although most of the passengers were women and children, about 800 being Americans. There will be a row about this over the other side.

The German Government with its well known, inspired ingenuity declared that she struck one of our mines, regardless of the fact that she was 250 miles out where there could be none, that she would have been warned away from any area where there were any. The admiralty declared that no mines have been laid in that area at all. We are supposed to be trying to inflame American public opinion by lying reports of the disaster.

Our best effort for the day, or rather last night, has been a reconnaissance flight over Northern and Western Germany by the RAF during which they dropped 6,000,000 leaflets in German. 

Gas masks are de rigueur for wear in the Democracies, carried about with great self-consciousness by about half the population; the other half resolutely leave them at home.