MID-August 1944. There continues to be encouraging news from the various fronts in the war.
“Battle of Normandy nears end,” reads a headline in the Glasgow Herald on Monday the 14th. Our military correspondent’s report begins: “The great battle in Normandy is ending, and in a day or two we shall know the extent of our victory. It was apparent yesterday morning that the German army – let it be said again, the enemy’s only first-class fighting force in France – was in a trap from which extrication was rapidly becoming impossible.”
President Roosevelt has just declared that the war against Japan in the Pacific is “well in hand”.
On the 15th, it is reported that Red Army forces had tightened its grip on the approaches to East Prussia.
Other items from around this time: Scots newly repatriated from German prisoner camps say they had been led to expect by their captors that flying bombs had devastated Glasgow and that southern England had been reduced to ashes. They were relieved to see Glasgow still standing.
Read more: Herald Diary
In Glasgow's Queens Park, the latest attraction at a successful Army Equipment Exhibition features a realistic, billowing smoke-screen, accompanied by battle sounds recorded during D-Day, a few weeks earlier.
And in the city's Woodlands Road there is a timely reminder of the war effort when local members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (above), go on parade.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here