Hottest June since 1940 – historians can’t ignore that!

According to the Met Office last month’s mean temperature of 14.9 celsius makes it the hottest June since 1940.  A marked feature about weather patterns in the 1940s is the harshness of the winters across Europe, as the German Army found to its cost in Russia from late 1941.  For the British it’s a postwar winter that is etched into the national psyche, with the ice and snow lasting well into the ostensible spring (with extensive flooding once the big melt began).  The morale of the British Expeditionary Force in northern France during the winter of 1939-40 must surely have been affected by the freezing weather – visits from Gracie Fields and George Formby provided a brief distraction from the cold, but by the time spring arrived life in and behind the defensive positions must have been pretty miserable – and then the Germans made it a whole lot worse.  The decade’s best known June is of course 1944, but that was a month marred by bad weather: The 6th marked a brief if fortuitous break in the storms lashing the Channel (Ike: ‘Let’s go!’), while continuous bad weather from the 19th to the 21st June left the Mulberry A Harbour at Omaha Beach so badly damaged that the caissons were beyond repair.  Four years earlier the evacuation of over 338,000 troops from Dunkirk was over by 6th June (it effectively ended two days earlier), but the good weather stretched back into May, ensuring calmness in the Channel for long periods of time.  There was a consistent warmth across 24 hours but without the extremes seen in June 2023, and without long periods of clear blue sky.  The absence of the latter was crucial as low cloud cover went some way to reducing the impact of the Luftwaffe strafing the packed beaches.  Some have argued that the light breeze also ensured a degree of smoke cover from aerial attack, but I suspect the jury is out on that one.  Of course extensive fighting continued post-Dunkirk, and again good weather must have been a key factor in the relative success of subsequent evacuations further south (the loss of the Lancastria and the surrender of the 51st (Highland) Division heavily qualifying any claim that such operations could be seen as successful).  Of course the Germans also benefited from good weather in their offensive preparations, but long days of sunny skies were hugely beneficial to both the Army and the Royal Navy in preparing for an anticipated invasion.  For the RAF pilot and air crew training benefited hugely from an exceptionally fine June, as did operational squadrons in 11 and 12 Groups, already in fierce combat over the Channel ahead of the Battle of Britain (for which the starting date is usually given as 10th July 1940).  Fighter Command further benefited from a warm and sunny spring in that aircraft production continued round the clock – Spitfire production at Supermarine’s Woolston works in Southampton reached its optimum output prior to the catastrophic air raids on 23rd August and 15th September 1940.  American reporters in England that spring and early summer were astonished by the plethora of cricket matches still being played, and many a returned member of the BEF had a few choice words to say about the presence of so many dressed in whites not khaki; but the sun shone and the wickets were dry – it’s hard to imagine Ben Stokes not taking the opportunity to knock off a quick 155.  Thinking of England’s talisman, if you were on the beach at Dunkirk queuing for days to reach the mole who would you want as your company commander, keeping up morale and insistent that he’ll get you home come hell or high water?