Minister of Food, 1941

Diary extracts and correspondence, thematically arranged, with extensive footnotes identifying newspaper coverage and parliamentary speeches, dealing with Woolton’s policies and actions on rationing against the background of the development of the Battle of the Atlantic. It gives insights into the challenge of maintaining supplies given the toll on shipping, the negotiations with key groups such as farmers, the challenge of maintaining staff morale at Colwyn Bay (including the discreet visits there made by Woolton for this purpose), revealing also the key roles played by men like Sir Henry French and John Redcliffe Maud. Entries and speeches reveal Woolton’s frustration with party politics and the Civil Service in other departments, as well as with key figures like Churchill and Robert Hudson Spear.

Minister of Food, 1942

Diary extracts and correspondence, thematically arranged, with extensive footnotes identifying newspaper coverage of Woolton’s policies and actions on rationing, as the Battle of the Atlantic continued, with the added complication of the entry of the USA into the war, given the impact on supply management. The toll on shipping continued to provide a challenge to imports from the Empire. Woolton’s continuing consciousness of the importance of media-related strategies of explain and so gather public support for Ministry policies (including changes in rations) is revealed, and his continuing frustration with party politics, fellow politicians and other departments (including Agriculture) are revealed. The challenges of engaging with Churchill are shown to have continued, while his positive relations with the Royal Family continued.

Internationalism and War

With the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese taking all of Indochina, Roosevelt prepared the country for war and began to implement his grand strategy for victory. The president implemented his expansive vision of the Monroe Doctrine to allow naval escorts of lend-lease supplies across the North Atlantic, extended American aid to Russia, creating the Grand Alliance of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, and joined with London in enumerating Western war aims through the adoption of the Atlantic Charter. At the same time, he extended the economic embargo against Japan to include oil, bringing the final break in relations with Tokyo. By the fall 1941, the U.S. Navy was engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic with German submarines. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought the United States directly into World War II.

The Battle of the Atlantic: The environmental front of World War II

This article examines the potential environmental impact in one specific theatre of World War II during a specific time frame. The study begins with an examination of the major oil spills that occurred after the 1960s to place them in a relationship with the cumulative effects of smaller spills, which best describe the numerous individual spills during 1942. It provides historical detail into the German offensive against North American shipping to establish a general scale of the resulting oil spills. Finally, it will describe the environmental impacts and assess current efforts to mitigate risks of continued oil exposure from shipwrecks in sensitive marine ecosystems. This establishes the theoretical framework to answer, at least in part, the question of whether a rapid succession of small spills would cause as much damage as large spills.