Bătălia Angliei reflectată în presa românească a vremii (iunie - decembrie 1940)

1 February 2010


Authors
Sorin Arhire
Pages
387-404
Abstract

Although Great Britain and Germany had officially declared war on each other as early as the 3rd of September, 1939, the first direct confrontation between the two countries, excluding the participation of the British Expeditionary Force on French territory, occurred only at the beginning of July 1940, when the first air raid over England took place. The Romanian press of the time covered the development of the conflict with great interest, but, as it was to be expected, the events were always presented in a light favorable to Germany, since Romania was already a satellite of the Third Reich as far as foreign policy was concerned. In articles published daily in newspapers such as Universul or Curentul, two dailies with wide circulation in the interwar period, Romanian journalists, without exception, wrote articles favorable to Germany, and, obviously, criticizing Great Britain, expressing the authors’ complete adherence to the new European order which was to be instituted by the German National-Socialist régime. As a natural consequence of the above-mentioned situation, Romanian readers could find out daily that German raids had been successful, only strategic military targets being hit almost every time, while the greatest failures were attributed to the British, their explosive charges hitting almost exclusively civilian objectives, which we now know was not the case. An aspect worth mentioning is the fact that, despite the open antipathy shown by Romanian journalists against England, they did not refrain from expressing their admiration for the inhabitants of the British Isles and their resolution, some of the articles being truly appreciative.

Keywords
air raids; landing; Royal Air Force; Luftwaffe; London