22/2/1944 1.= pm. Stuart Hibberd
Mr. Churchill has just started his war review
in Parliament. He started an hour
ago and said that there was no time for
sorrow or rejoicing but time for preparation,
effort and resolve. He said o.a. he never
gave a guarantee that 1944 will see the end
to the European war and also that the
Germans still had some 300 divisions in
the field. He said that since the 1th of January
1943 19 enemy warships were sunk through
British action alone plus a number of
E-boats and other smaller craft.
Since the beginning of the war 316 merchant ships
had been destroyed and our merchant
navy had lost 41000 men killed.
We also had disabled and crippled for
shorter or longer time 95 ships of war.
Over 10000 planes had been lost, all
since the beginning of the war and
900000 sorties flown to the Northern European
area. The number of our pilots killed
and wounded is 38300 and 10400 are
missing. The American bomber force is
surpassing ours in strength and will
be considerably stronger shortly.
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