by Erik Larson
“a flood of eloquence”: Colville, Fringes of Power, I:184–85.
“It was at once”: Ibid., 183.
CHAPTER 13: SCARIFICATION
“looking just like”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:185.
“provided, but only provided”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:346.
“What a change”: Jones, Most Secret War, 138.
“some rather nebulous”: Ibid.
“I may be wrong”: Ibid., 139.
“that such investigation”: Fort, Prof, 261.
“Let this be done without fail”: Ibid., 262.
“He was doubtless considering”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:189.
“I wish to repeat”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:359.
Home intelligence reported: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 123.
“Poor France!”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 100.
“Personally,” the king wrote: Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 460.
“I don’t mind telling you”: Cadogan, Diaries, 299.
“The newspapers have got quite”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 194.
“The withholding of the news”: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 271.
“In the pursuit of anything”: Ismay, Memoirs, 180.
“Today,” he began: Beaverbrook to Churchill, June 16, 1940, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.
CHAPTER 14: “THIS QUEER AND DEADLY GAME”
Churchill spoke of parachute troops: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:360–68.
“Some suggested he was drunk”: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 59.
“Whether he was drunk”: Ibid.
“Experience of the campaign”: “Urgent Measures to Meet Attack,” Report by the Chiefs of Staff, June 19, 1940, CAB 66/8, UKARCH.
When he got to his office: Jones, Most Secret War, 144.
“holding out his hand”: Nel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, 30.
“Any chortling by officials”: Fort, Prof, 227; Ismay, Memoirs, 172; Gilbert, War Papers, 2:402.
“Make one million”: Fort, Prof, 227.
“bellowing at him”: Ibid., 242.
“Love me, love my dog”: Ibid.
Jones sensed the tension: Jones, Most Secret War, 145.
“Would it help”: Ibid.
“one of the blackest moments”: Jones, Most Secret War, 153.
“there was a general air”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 385.
“the load was once again lifted”: Jones, Most Secret War, 153.
“All I get from the Air Ministry”: Ibid., 146.
“the principles of”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 386–87.
“Had I, after all”: Jones, Most Secret War, 148.
But that Friday: Lough, No More Champagne, 288–89. David Lough’s No More Champagne is an excellent account of how Churchill struggled financially through much of his career.
First, Bufton reported: Jones, Most Secret War, 148–49.
CHAPTER 15: LONDON AND BERLIN
“A wrathful & gloomy”: Diary, June 23, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.
With France quelled: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 60.
“Well, this week”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 16: THE RED WARNING
“the awful problem”: Cadogan, Diaries, 306.
“The German Government”: “Battle Summary No. 1: Operations Against the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir (Oran), July 3–6, 1940,” Appendix A, ADM 234/317, UKARCH.
The clause as later published: Ibid.
“Ask half a dozen”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:415.
“The night is very still”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 109.
“Many people did not”: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 154.
“an intention to land”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:433n3.
“this should be done”: Ibid., 452–53; Lindemann to Churchill, minute, June 30, 1940, F108/21, Lindemann Papers.
“Supposing lodgments were effected”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:444–45.
“Much thought,” he wrote: Note, “Home Defense,” June 28, 1940, War Cabinet Papers, CAB 66/9, UKARCH.
She reported that a member: Clementine to Winston, June 27, 1940, CSCT 1/24, Clementine Churchill Papers.
CHAPTER 17: “TOFREK!”
After one weekend: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:555.
“But, no!” he wrote: Elletson, Chequers and the Prime Ministers, 108–9.
“I thought Randolph”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:207.
“His coughing is like”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 57.
“was anything but kind”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:207.
“Pam was terribly”: Ogden, Life of the Party, 69.
“She’s a wonderful girl”: Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman Fisk, May 30, 1941, Correspondence, W. Averell Harriman Papers.
“She passed everything”: Ogden, Life of the Party, 123.
“I expect that he”: Ibid., 86.
“All you need”: Ibid., 85.
“One of the secrets”: Sarah Churchill, Keep on Dancing, 18.
“One to reproduce”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 264.
“Combative,” according to one: Purnell, Clementine, 139.
He once pushed: Readers will find all three incidents in ibid., 88, 115.
When he was nine: Ibid., 182.
“Your idle & lazy life”: Winston Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Dec. 29, 1929, RDCH 1/3/3, Randolph Churchill Papers.
Churchill loved him: Colville, Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle, 36.
“as his personality developed”: Soames, Clementine Churchill, 315.
“It was indeed generous”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:231.
“You must get”: Ogden, Life of the Party, 69.
“Are you listening?”: Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 6.
The three found themselves: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:208–9.
“It is a curious feeling”: Ibid., 209–10.
CHAPTER 18: RESIGNATION NO. 1
The letter began: Beaverbrook to Churchill, June 30, 1940, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.
John Colville guessed: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:214.
“Dear Minister”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:454.
“I will certainly not neglect”: Young, Churchill and Beaverbrook, 150.
CHAPTER 19: FORCE H
The Royal Navy was poised: All references to the Mers el-Kébir episode are drawn from “Battle Summary No. 1: Operations Against the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir (Oran), July 3–6, 1940,” ADM 234/317, UKARCH. It’s a literate and dispassionate recounting, full of excerpts from original documents, and thus wholly chilling. For some reason—possibly convenience—most secondary sources use the name Oran when referring to the incident, but in fact the main action was at Mers el-Kébir.
He called the matter: Manchester and Reid, Defender of the Realm, 107; Martin, Downing Street, 14. Martin omits the words “and painful.”
“The Germans will force”: Young, Churchill and Beaverbrook, 153.
The war in the west: Koch, “Hitler’s ‘Programme’ and the Genesis of Operation ‘Barbarossa,’ ” 896.
“Britain’s position is hopeless”: Halder, War Diary, 230.
“the plan to invade England”: Trevor-Roper, Blitzkrieg to Defeat, 33.
“There was nothing for it”: Ismay, Memoirs, 149.
“The action was sudden”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 233–34.
Churchill paced his office: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:215.
“It is so terrible”: Diary, July 3, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.
“I lea
ve the judgment”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:474.
“Fortified”: Nicolson, War Years, 100.
“This is heartbreaking”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:216.
The Home Intelligence survey: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 189.
“an act of sheer treachery”: Manchester and Reid, Defender of the Realm, 110.
“I am sure it cut him”: Ismay, Memoirs, 150.
“To this,” Pamela recalled: “My Memory of the Lunch in the Downstairs Flat…,” n.d., Churchill Family and Mary Soames File, Pamela Harriman Papers.
Clementine glared at Churchill: Inspector Thompson dreaded this look and was all too familiar with it. He knew his own constant presence could be annoying, “far more trying and importunate than protective, at least to her,” and he respected how she kept this displeasure to herself. “She did, however, have an icy way she could look at a man when things went to the snapping point of endurance, and on these occasions I always wished I could disappear till she could recover.” Thompson, Assignment, 15.
CHAPTER 20: BERLIN
In July, Hitler met: Stafford, Flight from Reality, 14, 156–57.
“What more can I do?”: Ibid., 14.
“Britain has really revealed”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 63.
Anticipating his remarks: Ibid., 65.
On July 3, a report: “Evacuation of Civil Population from East, South-East, and South Coast Towns,” July 3, 1940, War Cabinet Memoranda, CAB 66/8, UKARCH.
“Information from a most reliable”: “Imminence of a German Invasion of Great Britain,” Report by the Joint Intelligence Sub-committee, July 4, 1940, Appendix A, War Cabinet Memoranda, CAB 66/9, UKARCH.
“I have the impression”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:218.
“a bad look-out”: Ibid., 216.
CHAPTER 21: CHAMPAGNE AND GARBO
“In the intervals”: Manuscript Diary, July 10, 1940, Colville Papers. This is one of what Colville called his “trivial” entries, which he omitted in the published version of his diary.
CHAPTER 22: HAVE WE SUNK SO LOW?
“exactly the color of blood”: Panter-Downes, London War Notes, 62.
“Yes,” she said, “I shall not go down”: Nicolson, War Years, 100.
A government pamphlet: Panter-Downes, London War Notes, 71.
By now the Foreign Office: Numerous such telegrams can be found in Roosevelt’s papers, in the President’s Secretary’s Files, FDR/Diplo. For example, July 13 and 14, 1940.
“very jolly and noisy”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 169.
On one occasion: Diary, Aug. 5, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.
“Have we really sunk”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 124.
“It shouldn’t be allowed”: Ibid., 119.
“callous Oxford accent”: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 229.
“a considerable majority”: Ibid., 231.
“The majority of decent citizens”: Panter-Downes, London War Notes, 79.
“the bringing down”: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 231.
“After all,” he told an interviewer: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:533.
“The naming of a whole squadron”: Farrer, Sky’s the Limit, 78.
By May 1941: Ibid., 79.
“The people appeared”: Beaverbrook to Churchill, minute, Jan. 31, 1941, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.
“It will do the players”: Farrer, Sky’s the Limit, 81.
“ ‘On Preparations for a Landing’ ”: Trevor-Roper, Blitzkrieg to Defeat, 34.
CHAPTER 23: WHAT’S IN A NAME?
A small but pressing crisis: Ogden, Life of the Party, 100; Smith, Reflected Glory, 71.
CHAPTER 24: THE TYRANT’S APPEAL
“like a happy child”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 363. Shirer calls Göring’s retreat “Karin Hall”; for the sake of consistency, I’ve changed it to Carinhall.
“The Minister emphasizes”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 67.
“So wonderful an actor”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 362.
First Hitler ran through: See transcript of the speech in Vital Speeches of the Day, 6:617–25, on www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1940/1940-07-19b.html.
“Throughout Hitler’s speech”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 363–64.
“One bomb on the Kroll Opera House”: Galland, The First and the Last, 8.
Galland’s journey to this moment: Details of Galland’s upbringing and career can be found in his autobiography, The First and the Last, and in materials relating to his postwar interrogations by U.S. Air Force officials. See especially the May 18, 1945, transcript of one interrogation and the more comprehensive report, “The Birth, Life, and Death of the German Day Fighter Arm (Related by Adolf Galland),” Spaatz Papers.
the Messerschmitt Me 109: The fighter is often referred to as the Bf 109, after its original manufacturer, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke. Overy, Battle of Britain, 56.
“Let me tell you what”: Manchester and Reid, Defender of the Realm, 129–30.
The various officials present: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 362.
“I do not propose to say”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:234.
“We shall not stop fighting”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 250.
“Mistrust must be sown”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 70.
“At the right moment”: Ibid., 74.
CHAPTER 25: THE PROF’S SURPRISE
Churchill was in high spirits: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:580.
CHAPTER 26: WHITE GLOVES AT DAWN
“the effect of which”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 406.
“Nothing must now be said”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:667.
“The next six months”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 398.
In May, a military maneuver: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 49.
“Against Europe’s total war”: Ibid., 52.
“this minor and easily remediable factor”: Churchill to Roosevelt, cable, July 31, 1940, FDR/Map.
“no chance of passing”: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 142.
“I was driven all through the day”: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 446.
The first night began: For a full account of the episode, see Interview Transcripts, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers. Also, Ogden, Life of the Party, 95–97.
CHAPTER 27: DIRECTIVE NO. 17
“The German Air Force”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 37–38.
“For the first time”: Otto Bechtle, “German Air Force Operations Against Great Britain, Tactics and Lessons Learnt, 1940–1941” (lecture, Feb. 2, 1944), AIR 40/2444, UKARCH.
He expected little resistance: Indeed, at the end of 1942 a captured Luftwaffe officer would tell his interrogators that if German intelligence reports were correct, the RAF and Allied air forces possessed “minus 500 aircraft.” See “Intelligence from Interrogation: Intelligence from Prisoners of War,” 42, AIR 40/1177, UKARCH.
“Göring refused to listen”: “The Birth, Life, and Death of the German Day Fighter Arm (Related by Adolf Galland),” Interrogation Report, 15, Spaatz Papers.
CHAPTER 28: “OH, MOON, LOVELY MOON”
“To do our work”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:636.
Anti-tank mines: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:251.
“The First Sea Lord fell”: Ibid., 252.
Saturday morning brought: Ibid., 253–54.
“Oh, Moon, lovely Moon”: Ibid., 254.
“Today they painted them”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 373.
PART THREE: DREAD
CHAPTER 29: EAGLE DAY
At dawn on Tuesday: Baker, Adolf Galland, 109–11; Basil Collier, Battle of Britain,
70–71; Basil Collier, Defense of the United Kingdom, 184–88; Bekker, Luftwaffe Diaries, 151; Overy, Battle of Britain, 62–63.
“Everything beyond was practically”: Galland, The First and the Last, 18.
“At Luftwaffe HQ, however”: Ibid., 24.
CHAPTER 30: PERPLEXITY
“The question everyone is asking”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:261.
“Our view is that we are two friends”: Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 409–10.
“The transfer to Great Britain”: Ibid., 404.
Galland dove headlong: Baker, Adolf Galland, 110.
CHAPTER 31: GÖRING
“There’s more than a hundred”: Baker, Adolf Galland, 157.
“I have known him”: “War Diary of Kampfgruppe 210,” Appendix to Interrogation Report 273/1940, AIR 40/2398, UKARCH.
CHAPTER 32: THE BOMBER IN THE PASTURE
“Don’t speak to me”: Ismay, Memoirs, 180.
“RAF exploits continue to arouse”: Addison and Crang, Listening to Britain, 331.
“This was to be the day”: Cadogan, Diaries, 321.
“While our eyes are”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:679.
A British intelligence report: Air Ministry Weekly Intelligence Summary, No. 51, Aug. 23, 1940, AIR 22/72, UKARCH.
“The setting was majestic”: Cowles, Looking for Trouble, 423–24.
