by Erik Larson
“Well, would you”: Interview Transcripts, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.
“A big bombing raid”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 85.
“London looks bleary-eyed”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:445.
“Needless to say”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 85.
CHAPTER 87: THE WHITE CLIFFS
The RAF “Egglayers”: Lindemann to Churchill, April 17, 1941, F132/24, Lindemann Papers.
He was told, however: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:449.
“For the first time since war”: Ibid., 472.
CHAPTER 88: BERLIN
“The effect is devastating”: Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 332.
“He is said to be”: Ibid., 331.
“What a glorious spring day”: Ibid., 335.
CHAPTER 89: THIS SCOWLING VALLEY
“That’s all we’re really good at!”: Cadogan, Diaries, 374.
“I have come back”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:548.
“His statement that morale”: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 95.
In a “MOST SECRET” directive: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:556.
“The failure to win”: Ibid., 577.
“The battle over intervention”: Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 337.
“Their great fear”: Ibid., 340.
“My dear Excellency”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:577.
“In a later letter to Hitler”: Quoted in Stafford, Flight from Reality, 142; “Studies in Broadcast Propaganda, No. 29, Rudolf Hess, BBC,” INF 1/912, UKARCH.
CHAPTER 90: GLOOM
“I have taken the decision”: Beaverbrook to Churchill, April 30, 1941, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.
“anxious to see the war”: Panter-Downes, London War Notes, 147.
“The hammering must”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:452.
“Personally I am not downcast”: Kimball, Churchill and Roosevelt, 180.
“It seems to me”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:592.
“We must not be too sure”: Ibid., 600.
It was true that the destroyers: In the end, the record of the fifty destroyers that Roosevelt gave to Britain was a mixed one. At least twelve collided with Allied ships, five of them American. The Royal Canadian Navy received two of the destroyers and in April 1944 tried to give them back. The U.S. Navy declined.
But the ships did their part. Their crews rescued a thousand sailors. One, the Churchill, named for an ancestor of the prime minister, provided escort service for fourteen convoys in 1941 alone. The destroyers brought down aircraft, sank at least six submarines, and helped capture one U-boat intact, which the Royal Navy then commissioned into its own fleet.
As the war progressed, the American destroyers fell out of service. A dozen served as targets to train pilots in maritime warfare. Eight, including the Churchill, were transferred to the Russians, along with a ninth, to be scavenged for spare parts.
On January 16, 1945, the Churchill, rechristened Dejatelnyj—in English, Active—was torpedoed and sunk by a U-boat while escorting a convoy through Russia’s White Sea. The ship’s captain and 116 members of the crew were lost; 7 survived.
For the best account of all this, see Philip Goodhart’s Fifty Ships That Saved the World. The title is hyperbolic, but the story is a good one.
“Mr. President,” Churchill wrote: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:600.
“a world in which Hitler dominated”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:453.
CHAPTER 91: ERIC
“The cold is incredible”: Nicolson, War Years, 165.
“It has a good psychological effect”: “World War II Diary,” 56, Meiklejohn Papers.
“Everything is very late”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:454.
“How is it that”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:596.
“He dictates messages”: Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 346.
“It was obvious”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:454.
CHAPTER 93: OF PANZERS AND PANSIES
“There is much that I would like”: Hansard, House of Commons Debate, May 6 and 7, 1941, vol. 371, cols. 704, 867–950.
“He sat down”: Channon, “Chips,” 303.
“He hates criticism”: Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman Fisk, Feb. 10, 1942, Correspondence, W. Averell Harriman Papers.
“I feel very biteful”: Pottle, Champion Redoubtable, 236.
“from the very first moment”: Nicolson, War Years, 164.
“It was the sort of speech”: Hansard, House of Commons Debate, May 6 and 7, 1941, vol. 371, cols. 704, 867–950.
“He thinks it of value”: Harriman to Roosevelt, May 7, 1941, Public Service, Chronological File, W. Averell Harriman Papers.
“He is violently opposed”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:483.
“My head is full of plans”: Ibid., 465.
“Pretty good”: Nicolson, War Years, 164.
CHAPTER 95: MOONRISE
“But no sign of weakness”: Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 355.
“How good that a difficult week”: Ibid., 358.
“I was relieved”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:457. In his published diary, Colville omits the last two words of the sentence: “of him.” A minor thing, but interesting all the same.
PART SEVEN: ONE YEAR TO THE DAY
CHAPTER 96: A BEAM NAMED ANTON
Late on Friday night: Richard Collier, City That Would Not Die, 24–25, 26, 28.
“It has all happened”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 194.
In a seeming paradox: Basil Collier, Defense of the United Kingdom, 271.
“Good afternoon, sir”: Richard Collier, City That Would Not Die, 44.
CHAPTER 97: INTERLOPER
The National Archives of the United Kingdom, one of the most civilized places on the planet, possesses vast holdings on the Hess saga, some opened to researchers only quite recently. These contain all the detail anyone could wish for, but here too, as with the Coventry story, the files will disappoint the conspiracy-minded among us. There was no conspiracy: Hess flew to England on a mad whim, without the intercession of British intelligence. I derived my account from the following:
FO 1093/10.
“The Capture of Rudolf Hess: Reports and Minutes,” WO 199/328.
WO 199/3288B. (Opened in 2016.)
AIR 16/1266. (Originally ordered closed until 2019, but opened sooner, by “Accelerated Opening.”)
“Duke of Hamilton: Allegations Concerning Rudolf Hess,” AIR 19/564.
“Studies in Broadcast Propaganda, No. 29, Rudolf Hess, BBC,” INF 1/912.
“supernatural forces”: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 211; Stafford, Flight from Reality, 168.
Hess packed for his trip: “Report on the Collection of Drugs, etc., Belonging to German Airman Prisoner, Captain Horn,” FO 1093/10, UKARCH. Horn was the code name temporarily assigned to Hess.
“With your whole Geschwader”: Toliver and Constable, Fighter General, 148–49; Galland, The First and the Last, 56; Stafford, Flight from Reality, 135.
At 10:10 P.M. that Saturday: Report, “Rudolf Hess, Flight on May 10, 1941, Raid 42.J,” May 18, 1941, AIR 16/1266, UKARCH.
The plane was next spotted: Ibid.; Note, “Raid 42J,” Scottish Area Commandant to Commandant Royal Observer Corps, Bentley Priory, May 13, 1941, AIR 16/1266, UKARCH.
“hoots of derision”: “Prologue: May 10, 1941,” Extract, AIR 16/1266, UKARCH. This is a lucid, detailed, dispassionate account by the author Derek Wood; a copy is lodged in the Air Ministry’s files.
CHAPTER 98: THE CRUELEST RAID
“I was in bed”: Richard Collier, City That Would Not Die, 157.
In Regent’s Park: Ibid.,
159–60; Ziegler, London at War, 161.
Hess remembered the advice: Stafford, Flight from Reality, 133.
“All of a sudden”: “World War II Diary,” 33, Meiklejohn Papers.
Just after eleven P.M.: Report, “Rudolf Hess, Flight on May 10, 1941, Raid 42.J,” May 18, 1941, AIR 16/1266, UKARCH. In the same file, see “Raid 42J—10/5/1941,” No. 34 Group Centre Observer Corps to Royal Observer Corps, Bentley Priory, May 13, 1941; and “Prologue: May 10, 1941,” Extract. See also “The Capture of Rudolf Hess: Reports and Minutes,” WO 199/328, UKARCH.
“If they cannot catch”: “Prologue: May 10, 1941,” Extract, AIR 16/1266.
“No guns, bomb-racks”: Report, Major Graham Donald to Scottish Area Commandant, Royal Observer Corps, May 11, 1941, AIR 16/1266, UKARCH. Also, “Prologue: May 10, 1941,” Extract, AIR 16/1266.
“He simply stated”: Report, Major Graham Donald to Scottish Area Commandant, Royal Observer Corps, May 11, 1941, AIR 16/1266, UKARCH.
“I do not know if you recognize”: Stafford, Flight from Reality, 90.
“About five AM I took”: “World War II Diary,” 35, Meiklejohn Papers.
CHAPTER 99: A SURPRISE FOR HITLER
“Awoke thinking unaccountably”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:457; Fox, “Propaganda and the Flight of Rudolf Hess,” 78.
“Hold on a minute”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:459.
“I became aware”: Diary, May 11, 1941, Mary Churchill Papers.
“At that moment”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:459.
“Well, who has arrived?”: Colville, Footprints in Time, 112.
They gave Hitler Hess’s letter: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 209.
“My Führer,” it began: Douglas-Hamilton, Motive for a Mission, 193, 194.
“I suddenly heard”: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 209, 210.
“BOMBSHELL,” Mary wrote: Diary, May 11, 1941, Mary Churchill Papers.
CHAPTER 100: BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS
“I keep thinking”: Feigel, Love-Charm of Bombs, 151–57.
“Our old House of Commons”: Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 19. The Foreign Office undersecretary, Alexander Cadogan, had a different view: “I don’t care about that. I wish it had got most of the Members.” Cadogan, Diaries, 377.
“I drew back the curtains”: Harrisson, Living Through the Blitz, 275.
“It may be that they”: Nicolson, War Years, 172.
The change was immediately evident: “Statement of Civilian Deaths in the United Kingdom,” July 31, 1945, HO 191/11, UKARCH.
“The spirit of the people”: Harrisson, Living Through the Blitz, 274.
“History knows a great many”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 162, 165.
“How am I supposed to believe”: Stafford, Flight from Reality, 131.
“From this distance”: Roosevelt to Churchill, [likely date is May 14, 1941], FDR/Map.
“Your Hess guess”: Panter-Downes, London War Notes, 148.
“What a dramatic episode”: Lee, London Observer, 276.
“It is possible that the people”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 174–75.
“Only he had the power”: Ibid., 236.
“Winston’s speeches send”: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 8.
“I never gave them courage”: Cooper, Trumpets from the Steep, 73.
CHAPTER 101: A WEEKEND AT CHEQUERS
“The news,” he said: Harriman, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 111–12.
“We looked at one another”: Winant, Letter from Grosvenor Square, 198.
“It’s quite true”: Harriman, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 112. Roosevelt repeated the sentiment in a telegram dated December 8, 1941, in which he tells Churchill, “Today all of us are in the same boat with you and the people of the Empire and it is a ship which will not and cannot be sunk.” Roosevelt to Churchill, Dec. 8, 1941, FDR/Map.
“Thinking of you much”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1580.
“The inevitable had finally”: Harriman, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 112.
“I could not conceal”: Anthony Eden, Reckoning, 331.
“Being saturated and satiated”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1580.
“It might be badly knocked”: Ismay, Memoirs, 242.
“He is a different man”: Moran, Churchill, 9–10.
“never travelled in such”: Martin, Downing Street, 69.
“Being in a ship”: Winston Churchill to Clementine Churchill, December n.d., 1941, CSCT 1/24, Clementine Churchill Papers.
“The PM is very fit”: Harriman, Memorandum to self, “Trip to U.S. with ‘P.M.,’ December 1941,” W. Averell Harriman Papers.
“It was night time”: Thompson, Assignment, 246.
“I turned,” Thompson wrote: This story is told by different figures in different ways, but all have the same denouement. Ibid., 248; Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 442; Halle, Irrepressible Churchill, 165.
“Let the children”: For background details, see Hindley, “Christmas at the White House with Winston Churchill.” I watched a British Pathé newsreel of the speech, which I found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZTRbNThHnk.
“I simply could not believe”: Thompson, Assignment, 249.
“We are indeed walking”: Hastings, Winston’s War, 205.
“Here’s to a year of toil”: Thompson, Assignment, 257.
EPILOGUE: AS TIME WENT BY
“My first agonizing thought”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 232–33.
“the P.M. dashed off”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 2:99.
“Not so bad at 21!”: Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 32.
“To a three-year-old”: Ibid., 26–27.
“Eric, who was at his simplest”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:523.
“I hear you are plotting”: Ibid., 490.
“It had not crossed his mind”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 60.
“I went out of the room”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:533.
“It is time that you came back”: Ibid., 2:71.
“You seem to think”: Ibid., 84.
“It was thrilling”: Ibid., 116.
“None of us except Clemmie”: Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.
In all, Beaverbrook offered: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 440.
“I owe my reputation”: Young, Churchill and Beaverbrook, 230.
“We have lived & fought”: Ibid., 231.
“I was glad”: Ibid., 325.
“I was always under”: Ibid., 235.
“The conclusion at which”: Singleton to Churchill, [ca. Aug. 1941], G 36/4, Lindemann Papers.
Randolph later complained: Smith, Reflected Glory, 106.
One night, while talking: Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 247.
“I found him absolutely charming”: Ibid., 20.
“She hates him so much”: Waugh, Diaries, 525.
“Unlike Paris, where there was”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 111.
“I mean, when you are very young”: Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.
“Supposing the war ends”: Ibid.
“He used to sit”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 260.
“It was very strange”: Note, “William Averell Harriman,” Biographies and Proposed Biographies, Background Topics, Pamela Harriman Papers.
“We did it!”: Smith, Reflected Glory, 265.
“Oh Pam”: “Barbie” [Mrs. Herbert Agar] to Pamela Digby Harriman, Sept. 19, 1971, Personal and Family Papers, Marriages, Pamela Harriman Papers.
“Only the diversion”: “Interrogation of
Reich Marshal Hermann Goering,” May 10, 1945, Spaatz Papers.
“Of course we rearmed”: Overy, Goering, 229.
“Perhaps one of my weaknesses”: Goldensohn, Nuremberg Interviews, 129.
Investigators cataloged the works: “The Göring Collection,” Confidential Interrogation Report No. 2, Sept. 15, 1945, 174, Office of Strategic Services and Looting Investigative Unit, T 209/29, UKARCH.
Joseph Goebbels and his wife: Kershaw, Nemesis, 832–33.
“I do not regret”: Douglas-Hamilton, Motive for a Mission, 246.
He achieved his final kills: Baker, Adolf Galland, 287–88, 290–92.
The package contained: Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 31.
“Thank you so much”: Hastings, Winston’s War, 460.
Searchlights played on Nelson’s Tower: Nicolson, War Years, 459.
“This is where I miss the news”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 360–61.
“Our last weekend”: Elletson, Chequers and the Prime Ministers, 145.
“Finis”: Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 361.
Bibliography
ARCHIVES AND DOCUMENT COLLECTIONS
Beaverbrook, Lord (Max Aitken). Papers. Parliamentary Archives, London.
Burgis, Lawrence. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.
