by Erik Larson
“There seems to be”: Manuscript Diary, May 11, 1940, Colville Papers. Colville’s original entry differs greatly from that published in Fringes of Power, 143–44. This reference is omitted.
“I am filled with amazement”: Dockter and Toye, “Who Commanded History?,” 416.
“I cannot yet think”: Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 446.
“I hope Winston”: Lukacs, Five Days in London, 67.
“I have seldom met”: Ibid.
“W.C. is really the counterpart”: Olson, Troublesome Young Men, 328.
“If I had to spend”: Lukacs, Five Days in London, 81.
“My wish is realized”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:2–3.
The second letter: Ibid., 3.
CHAPTER 3: LONDON AND WASHINGTON
“Sit down, dear boy”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:70–71.
“Apparently,” Ickes said: Lukacs, Five Days in London, 72n.
“When I was shown into his office”: Sumner Welles, Memorandum, March 12, 1940, FDR/Safe. Clearly Welles was exaggerating when he called it a twenty-four-inch cigar. At least one hopes so.
At one point Kennedy repeated: Maier, When Lions Roar, 213. Chamberlain phrased it differently: “His judgment has never proven to be good.”
“I could have killed him”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 268.
CHAPTER 4: GALVANIZED
“Heaven help us”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:13.
“It was as though”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 220.
To Colville’s astonishment: Ibid., 50.
In the course of transcribing: Nel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, 37.
“There’s always that cigar”: Ibid., 29.
“It is slothful”: Ismay, Memoirs, 169. Churchill paid particular attention to the code names chosen for secret operations, according to Ismay. The names could not be glib or frivolous. “How would a mother feel if she were to hear that her son had been killed in an enterprise called BUNNY HUG?” Ismay wrote. Ibid., 187.
“Anything that was not”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 24–25.
The effect, Brooke observed: Ibid., 22.
“The eyes, wrinkling nose”: Colville, Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle, 161.
“Poor people, poor people”: Ismay, Memoirs, 116.
“bleed and burn”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 198.
The raid killed four people: Overy, Bombing War, 239.
“I have nothing to offer”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:22.
“a brilliant little speech”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 150.
“if possible today”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:30–31.
First would come: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 274.
“We have been defeated”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 42.
“if necessary, we shall continue”: Churchill to Roosevelt, cable, May 15, 1940, FDR/Subject.
“I am not certain”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:69.
“The best of luck to you”: Kennedy, American People in World War II, 21.
“none of us could believe it”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:54.
“It would not be good”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 50. Also in Gilbert, War Papers, 2:62.
“This means denuding”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:154.
Upon their engagement: Wrigley, Winston Churchill, 113.
“finished, flawless beauty”: Carter, Winston Churchill, 171.
She and Churchill kept: Purnell, Clementine, 48.
It was to Bonham Carter: Carter, Winston Churchill, 173.
“flayed him verbally”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 156.
“Clemmie dropped on him”: Purnell, Clementine, 177.
“I was most ashamed”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 156.
“You ought to have cried”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:157.
“Whatever Winston’s shortcomings”: Ibid.
“I speak to you”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:83–89. See also Toye, Roar of the Lion, 45–47. Toye’s book provides the often-surprising backstory to Churchill’s greatest speeches.
“Of 150 house-to-house”: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 47.
“It was terrible flying weather”: Diary, May 22, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.
“I have become his doctor”: Moran, Churchill, 5.
“dressed in the most brilliant”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:162.
He was about to take: Purnell, Clementine, 162.
“the inevitable, egregious Sawyers”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 2:216.
“so pneumatic as to suggest”: Thompson, Assignment, 173.
“The one firm rock”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 211.
CHAPTER 5: MOONDREAD
“The object of this paper”: “British Strategy in a Certain Eventuality,” May 25, 1940, War Cabinet Papers, CAB/66/7, UKARCH.
“the greatest target”: Clapson, Blitz Companion, 27.
“Take a good look”: Dalton, Fateful Years, 329.
As one American visitor put it: Memorandum, May 6, 1943, Writings File, Memoirs, W. Averell Harriman Papers.
“Beaverbrook enjoyed being provocative”: Cowles, Looking for Trouble, 112.
“a violent, passionate, malicious”: Lee, London Observer, 79. Lee also, on page 54, refers to Beaverbrook as looking “dwarfish and prickly.” After meeting him in the spring of 1941, Kathleen Harriman likened him to a caricature from the satirical magazine Punch: “Small, baldish, big stomach and from there he tapers down to two very shiny yellow shoes. His idea of sport is to surround himself with intelligent men, then egg them on to argue and fight among themselves.” Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman Fisk, May 30, 1941, Correspondence, W. Averell Harriman Papers.
“the Toad”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 265.
“the Beaver”: I came across this nickname in numerous sources, for example, in Chisholm and Davie, Beaverbrook, 339, 356, 357, 371, and Colville, Fringes of Power, 2:83.
“My darling”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 66.
“Max never seems”: Moran, Churchill, 7.
“He’s like a man”: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 411.
“Some take drugs”: Purnell, Clementine, 194.
“believe in the Devil”: Maier, When Lions Roar, 211.
“It was as dark a picture”: Farrer, Sky’s the Limit, 11.
“They are all captains”: Ibid., 33.
“Tell Thomson that Hitler”: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 424.
“For god’s sake, hurry up”: Farrer, G—for God Almighty, 53.
“But there is one thing”: Minute, Churchill to Beaverbrook, [date barely legible, but appears to be July 8, 1940], Prime Minister Files, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.
From time to time: Thompson, Assignment, 129. It is perhaps worth noting that Thompson in 1943 shot himself in the leg accidentally, after his pistol snagged a piece of upholstery. He recovered, and Churchill accepted him back. “I have no doubts about you whatever, Thompson,” Churchill said, by Thompson’s account. “You are a most careful person. Carry on as before.” Ibid., 214–15.
he embedded a capsule: Manchester and Reid, Defender of the Realm, 124.
“You will have to get the Buick”: Nicolson, War Years, 88.
“unstained heaven of that perfect summer”: Ziegler, London at War, 82.
“In the case of air raids”: Hinton, Mass Observers, 191.
CHAPTER 6: GÖRING
27,074 soldiers dead: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 59.
“fatal error”: Kesselring, Memoirs, 60. See also the head of Army High Command General Franz Halder’s incredulous diary entry, which concludes, “Finishing off the encircled enemy army is to be left to air force!!” Ha
lder, War Diary, 165.
“The task of the Air Force”: Trevor-Roper, Blitzkrieg to Defeat, 27–29.
“When I talk with Göring”: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 211.
“In his childhood games”: Air Ministry Weekly Intelligence Summary, No. 51, Aug. 23, 1940, AIR 22/72, UKARCH.
On the side, Göring ran: “The Göring Collection,” Confidential Interrogation Report No. 2, Sept. 15, 1945, Office of Strategic Services and Looting Investigative Unit, T 209/29, UKARCH. This is an impressive and detailed account of Göring’s personal looting campaign. The breadth of the operation, and the depth of his corruption, is breathtaking. Material cited in this paragraph can be found on pages 7, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 25, 28, 35.
Paintings hung from the walls: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 214.
Every year his underlings: Ibid., 385.
One German general: Dietrich von Choltitz Interrogation, Aug. 25, 1944, WO 208/4463, UKARCH.
“despite rumors to the contrary”: “Hermann Göring,” Interrogation Report, Military Intelligence Service, U.S. Ninth Air Force, June 1, 1945, Spaatz Papers.
“Where Hitler is distant”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 468.
“We swore by the Führer”: Baumbach, Life and Death of the Luftwaffe, 55.
“small clique of sycophants”: “The Birth, Life, and Death of the German Day Fighter Arm (Related by Adolf Galland),” Interrogation Report, 28, Spaatz Papers.
“Göring was a man”: Ibid.
“Beppo Schmid,” Galland said: Conversation between Galland and Field Marshal Erhard Milch, June 6, 1945, transcript, Spaatz Papers.
CHAPTER 7: SUFFICIENT BLISS
He was in love: John Colville’s often despairing entries about Gay Margesson can be found in his original handwritten diary in the Colville Papers at the Churchill Archives Centre, but the saga, save for a few glancing references, is omitted from the published version, The Fringes of Power.
“She did so with an ill-grace”: Manuscript Diary, May 22, 1940, Colville Papers.
The sun emerged: Ibid., May 26, 1940.
“Only a few fishing boats”: Lukacs, Five Days in London, 140.
CHAPTER 8: THE FIRST BOMBS
“In these dark days”: Directive to Ministers, May 29, 1940, Prime Minister Files, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.
“I am convinced”: Dalton, Fateful Years, 335–36. See a slightly different, and less graphic, version in Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 225.
John Martin: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 154, 156.
Inspector Thompson recalled: “Private Life of a Prime Minister,” MEPO 2/9851, UKARCH.
“How wonderful it would be”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:171.
“were treated with respect”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 144.
“Wars are not won”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:243.
As the House roared: Halle, Irrepressible Churchill, 137; Maier, When Lions Roar, 256. Maier’s version reads, “And if they do come, we shall hit them on the head with beer bottles, for that is all we shall have to fight them with!”
“It was now that my love”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 157.
One young navy man: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 70.
“I feel so much”: Nicolson, War Years, 94.
He instructed her: Ibid., 89–90.
Clementine noted: Pottle, Champion Redoubtable, 224–25.
David Lloyd George: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 53.
The next day: Ibid., 54–55.
“Churchill’s speech yesterday”: Ibid., 55.
CHAPTER 9: MIRROR IMAGE
“It brings me to the fact”: Lukacs, Five Days in London, 192–93n.
CHAPTER 10: APPARITION
“People who go to Italy”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:177.
“He was in a very bad temper”: Ibid.
“He would turn on”: Thompson, Assignment, 217.
“He has been accused”: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 657.
“Pitch dark”: Cadogan, Diaries, 296.
“The black heavy clouds”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 93, 95.
“on and on and on”: Spears, Fall of France, 150. In a letter dated May 30, 1940, America’s ambassador to France, William Bullitt, told President Roosevelt, “In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you and that I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship.” Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 62.
“an angry Japanese genie”: Spears, Fall of France, 161.
The empire’s preparedness: Kennedy to Hull, cable, June 12, 1940, FDR/Safe.
PART TWO: A CERTAIN EVENTUALITY
CHAPTER 11: THE MYSTERY OF SWAN CASTLE
“was to unite against”: Fort, Prof, 232.
“I think he was probably”: Ibid., 329.
“d-dirty l-little Jew”: Birkenhead, Prof in Two Worlds, 68.
“His memory was not”: Colville, Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle, 48.
“Peach at luncheon”: Fort, Prof, 12.
“The fact that she knew”: Birkenhead, Prof in Two Worlds, 16.
“His foreign connections”: Fort, Prof, 208.
“beautiful brain”: Colville, Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle, 46.
“Does this mean anything to you?”: Jones, Most Secret War, 135. See 135–50 for Jones’s engaging account of his detective work.
The town had a famous castle: Anne was queen for all of six months, until the marriage was annulled for lack of consummation. “As you know, I liked her before not well,” Henry confided to Thomas Cromwell, “but now I like her much worse.” This romantic episode can be found in Robert Hutchinson’s Thomas Cromwell (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), 253.
“I have never met”: Harrod, Prof, 2.
“I do hate it when he goes”: Diary, June 13, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.
“extremely stern and concentrated”: Spears, Fall of France, 199. See ibid., 198–220, for Spears’s richly detailed account of that fateful meeting in Tours, France.
By way of further preparation: See Jones, Most Secret War, 135–50.
“Tell me,” he said: Ibid., 137.
“He was as obstinate”: Ismay, Memoirs, 173.
“Stop that dripping”: Fort, Prof, 216.
“There seems some reason”: Lindemann to Churchill, note, June 13, 1940, F107/17, Lindemann Papers.
“This seems most intriguing”: Jones, Most Secret War, 137.
“It was looking cool”: Pottle, Champion Redoubtable, 224.
There was much to arrange: “No. 10 Downing Street: Expenditure, 1935–1936,” Ministry of Works Report, WORK 12/245, UKARCH.
“The Chamberlains have left”: Diary, June 15, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.
“Mummie has given me”: Ibid., June 18, 1940.
“To watch him compose”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:337.
“I understand all your difficulties”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:337–38.
“If words counted”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:183.
CHAPTER 12: THE GHOSTS OF DULL PEOPLE
“One would sit”: Nel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, 60–61.
“A police officer”: Thompson, Assignment, 3.
“Apart from these”: Elletson, Chequers and the Prime Ministers, 49–50.
“Happy Prime Ministers”: J. Gilbert Jenkins, Chequers, 7.
“Ye houres doe flie”: Ibid., 130.
Rembrandt’s The Mathematician: When Lee bought it, the painting was thought to have been done by Rembrandt himself. Later research determined that it was painted by one of his students, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout. Major, Chequers, 128.
“God made them as stubble”: E
lletson, Chequers and the Prime Ministers, 25–26.
“full of the ghosts of dull people”: Ibid., 59, 61–62.
“Here I am”: Soames, Clementine Churchill, 256. Churchill used the abbreviation “wd” in his letter, instead of “would.”
“My mother took”: Fort, Prof, 164–65.
“I always rather dreaded”: Ibid., 165.
Colville took the news: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:184.
“silent, grumpy and remote”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 186.
“Always remember, Clemmie”: J. Gilbert Jenkins, Chequers, 122.
“The war is bound”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:184.
“It was light”: Ibid.
“Tell them…that”: Ibid.
As the coal ends of cigars: It is unclear just how many cigars Churchill smoked per day, and how many he actually smoked to the end. “He will light a cigar immediately after breakfast,” Inspector Thompson observed, “but by lunchtime the same cigar may be only half finished, having been relighted innumerable times and quite as often abandoned soon after. He chews cigars, he doesn’t smoke them.” The relighting process involved a good deal of smoke and fire. “One of the permanent mental pictures I have of Mr. Churchill is of the relighting of his cigar,” wrote his secretary Elizabeth Layton (later Mrs. Nel). She described the sequence: “A pause in whatever he was doing: the flame from a very large match jumping up and down, while clouds of blue smoke issued from his mouth: then a hasty shake of the match to extinguish it, and on with the job.” Expended cigars, or those Churchill deemed substandard, wound up tossed into the nearest hearth. The near-constant dormancy of his cigars prompted General Ian Jacob, assistant secretary to the War Cabinet, to observe, “As a matter of fact he didn’t really smoke at all.” See Thompson, Assignment, 251; Nel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, 45; Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 182.
