Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945

by Max Hastings

  218 “A series of absurd conventions became established”: Churchill, World Crisis, vol. 2, part 3, chapter 10, pp. 1131, 1134–35.

  219 “I am so glad you were able to find the means”: Churchill to Tovey, April 7, 1941.

  220 “by 300 determined men”: Colville, p. 286, November 3, 1940.

  221 “He lay there in his four-post bed”: Ibid., p. 285, November 3, 1940.

  222 “as if it were the only source of information”: Nicolson, p. 121, October 17, 1940.

  223 “‘How are you?’”: Ibid.

  224 “You should not telegraph at Government expense”: Gilbert, Finest Hour, pp. 905–6.

  225 “I purred like six cats”: Churchill, Second World War, 2:480.

  226 “At long last we are going to throw off”: Ismay, p. 195.

  227 “If, with the situation as it is”: BNA, PREM3/288/1.

  228 “Off we went across the unknown country”: Barnett, Desert Generals, pp. 37–65.

  229 “For the first time the possibility”: Harvey diary, p. 149, February 22, 1941.

  230 “Mr. Churchill’s speech has rather sobered me”: Hodgson, pp. 122–23, February 11, 1941.

  231 “We cannot, from Middle East resources”: Eden, p. 168.

  232 “The weakness of our policy”: Ibid., p. 170, November 3, 1940.

  233 “We were near the edge of the precipice”: Kennedy diary, LHA, January 26 and February 11, 1941.

  234 “He thinks Greece is lost”: Sherwood, White House Papers, 1:239–40.

  235 “Found Wavell waiting for me at 9am”: Eden, p. 131, August 13, 1940.

  236 Churchill and his generals failed to perceive: Hinsley, et al., 1:260.

  237 “I hope, Jack”: Eden, p. 240.

  238 “General Wavell should regain unit ascendancy”: BNA, CAB120/10, April 14, 1941.

  239 “I think it is desperate”: Kennedy diary, LHA, April 10, 1941.

  240 “CIGS is miserable”: Ibid., April 11, 1941.

  241 “Chiefs of staff overawed & influenced”: Ibid.

  242 “I am afraid of a disaster”: Menzies, p. 120.

  243 “Aren’t you going to listen to Winston Churchill?”: Broad and Fleming, eds., p. 133, April 27, 1941.

  244 “All that the country really wants”: Nicolson, p. 162, April 13, 1941.

  245 “He himself took a depressed view”: Roskill, Hankey, 3:506, May 13, 1941.

  246 “We hold our breath”: Hodgson, p. 177, May 25, 1941.

  247 “The difference between the capability”: IWM, 92/12/1, Belsey Papers.

  248 Churchill, a few months later: Colville, p. 443, September 28, 1941.

  249 “Once more Germany gives the impression”: Sebastian, p. 343, April 9, 1941.

  250 “You’ve lost the game”: Pauli, p. 137.

  251 “the utter darkness”: Brooke, p. 379, February 4, 1943.

  252 “The PM in conversation will steep himself”: Menzies, p. 169, March 1, 1941.

  253 Churchill observed crossly: CAC, Eade Papers, 2/2, July 24, 1941.

  254 “was right when he asserted”: Potsdam Institute, 3:555.

  255 “As far as I can make out”: BNA, PREM4/17/2, March 20, 1941.

  256 “He said some very harsh things about Wavell”: Colville, p. 394, June 3, 1941.

  257 “that fine commander whom we cheered”: BBC broadcast, April 27, 1941.

  258 “I understand he has a great deal”: Soames, ed., Speaking, p. 480, May 13, 1943.

  259 Wavell’s best biographer, Ronald Lewin: Lewin, The Chief.

  260 “My trouble is that I am not really interested in war”: Pownall, 2:95.

  261 “Now I’m going to waste a morning”: Kennedy diary, LHA, September 14, 1939.

  262 “They are a pretty fair lot of gangsters”: Pownall, 2:19, June 3, 1941.

  263 “It is a bad feature of the present situation”: Kennedy diary, LHA, July 9, 1942.

  264 “When he is in the right mood”: Kennedy diary, LHA, February 9, 1941.

  265 “It is a strange thing”: Brooke, p. 647, January 20, 1945.

  266 “At times you could kiss his feet”: CAC, A. V. Alexander Papers, AVAR6/1, diary, June 10, 1942.

  267 Capt. Stephen Roskill, the official historian: See Roskill, Churchill, p. 279.

  268 “I … have to confess to an inherent difficulty”: Cunningham, pp. 578, 580.

  269 “I never saw him ruffled”: Richards, pp. 202–3.

  270 “I am thankful I have so little to do with him”: Kennedy diary, LHA, December 5, 1941.

  271 “Ismay is such a devotee of PM’s”: Ibid., April 10, 1941.

  272 “Is there any evil except in intent?”: IWM, Alec Bishop unpublished MS, 98/18/1.

  273 “The chief difficulty is understanding what he says”: CAC, Martin diary, p. 10.

  274 “In truth it is only a sham of a parliament”: Davie and Chisholm, p. 664, May 14, 1941.

  275 “If you see that you are about to be captured”: Wilson, p. 16 and passim.

  276 “Moran was seldom, if ever”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action, p. 110.

  277 “He always retained unswerving independence of thought”: Colville, p. 125.

  278 “The people strike me”: Lee, p. 243, April 16, 1941.

  279 “Young man”: John Kennedy, Business of War, p. 236.

  280 “War,” he wrote, “consists of fighting”: quoted in Reynolds, In Command, p. 244.

  281 “I suppose you realise that we shall lose the Middle East”: Kennedy diary, LHA, June 21, 1941.

  CHAPTER SIX: COMRADES

  282 “There is nothing straightforward about this war”: Garfield, p. 129.

  283 “None of this conflicts with our main interest”: Gilbert, War Papers, 1:147–49, September 25, 1939. On this issue, see, for instance, Carlton, passim.

  284 “That the Russian armies should stand”: BBC broadcast, October 10, 1939.

  285 “a sentiment widely felt”: Colville, p. 436, September 3, 1941.

  286 “They think they are dealing with normal people”: Pownall, 2:36, July 17, 1941.

  287 “I don’t suppose that the ‘conquest’”: Headlam, p. 157, June 22, 1941.

  288 “One feels that God is on our side”: Ibid., p. 258.

  289 “I glory in all this”: IWM, 85/49/1, G. W. King MS, July 30, 1941.

  290 “The Russians have not been too nice”: Hodgson, p. 185, June 22, 1941.

  291 “Somehow I think Stalin”: Ibid., p. 190, July 2, 1941.

  292 “I was agreeably surprised … that Churchill received Russia”: IWM, 92/12/1, Belsey letters, June 25, 1941.

  293 “It’s impossible to say how long Russian resistance”: Pownall, 2:30, June 29, 1941.

  294 “I don’t believe Winston is at heart”: Ibid., p. 31, June 30, 1941.

  295 “Why the authorities at home”: Cunningham, p. 350.

  296 “It was quite evident that all of the Britishers”: Lee, p. 416.

  297 “Britain’s radio spies are at work”: Daily Mirror, February 14, 1941.

  298 “The danger of enemy”: Hinsley, 2:671.

  299 “almost a pariah in London”: Lee, p. 317, June 23, 1941.

  300 “an obstinate, high-minded man”: Quoted in Reynolds, In Command, p. 256.

  301 “The British government, by its passive”: Bellamy, p. 415.

  302 “We would like to inform you on the contents”: Ocherki Istorii Rossiikoi Vneshney Radvedki, pp. 143–44.

  303 “In order to enable Russia to remain”: Hansard, September 30, 1941.

  304 “Hitler is throwing all he has got into the Eastern battles”: IWM, 85/49/1, G. W. King MS.

  305 “I can still remember with what close attention”: Kumanyov, p. 300.

  306 “Now I have to bring to light the fact”: Roskill, Hankey, 3:533.

  307 Chris Bellamy, among the best-informed Western historians: Bellamy, p. 446.

  308 “The effect upon us psychologically”: Observer, August 17, 1941.

  309 “My main feeling is one of bitter�
�: Quoted in Garfield, p. 172, October 9, 1941.

  310 “the rising temper of the British people”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1372, October 25, 1941.

  311 “Things are pretty hard here”: CAC, CHAR1/362.

  312 “The fundamental difficulty is that altho”: Kennedy diary, LHA, July 7, 1941.

  313 “Would that the two loathsome monsters”: Pownall, p. 50, October 29, 1941.

  314 “The Labour ministers”: Harvey, p. 179, October 27, 1941.

  315 “In two years struggle with the greatest military Power”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1204, September 12, 1941.

  316 “Winston’s attitude to war is much more realistic”: Menzies, p. 99, March 31, 1941.

  317 “The Army must do something”: Kennedy diary, LHA, October 9, 1941.

  318 “Winston is in a difficult position”: Ibid., October 13, 1941.

  319 “Yes, I am afraid Moscow is a gone coon”: Ibid., October 11, 1941.

  CHAPTER SEVEN: THE BATTLE OF AMERICA

  320 “I wonder if the Americans realise how late”: Kennedy diary, LHA, May 25, 1941.

  321 “rushing vast quantities of weapons”: Hull, 2:967.

  322 “The United States Administration is pursuing”: Eden, p. 176.

  323 “after the victory was won with our blood”: Kimball, 1:102.

  324 “I have never realised so strongly as now”: Quoted in Kynaston, 3:472.

  325 “Our desperate straits alone”: Eden, p. 135.

  326 “I have never liked Americans, except odd ones”: Quoted in Roberts, Holy Fox, p. 280.

  327 “The heavy labour of toadying”: Ibid., p. 278.

  328 “I only said that I thought you might hate it”: Eden, p. 182.

  329 During a trip to Detroit: Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 1941, p. 15 and November 11, 1941, p. 8.

  330 “pretty hopeless—the old trouble of being unable”: Harvey, p. 20, July 15, 1941.

  331 “because he couldn’t get on with these Americans”: Dalton, p. 272, August 25, 1941.

  332 “They really are a strange and unpleasing people”: Headlam, p. 270, August 15, 1941.

  333 “no great enthusiasm for the US”: BNA, FO371/34114.

  334 “it wouldn’t really pay us for the US”: LHA, Slessor Papers, Box XIIC.

  335 “when one is dealing with a people so arrogant”: RAF Museum, Hendon Harris Papers, folder H98, September 15, 1941.

  336 “It is just a little humiliating”: Dalton, p. 247, July 10, 1941.

  337 “the average man’s … unfavourable view”: Planning Committee minutes, BNA, INF1/249, June 4, 1941.

  338 “Donovan … is extremely friendly to us”: Kennedy diary, LHA, March 7, 1941.

  339 “a possible America”: Watt, p. 161.

  340 “he quite understood the exasperation”: Colville, p. 283, November 1, 1940.

  341 “I was … only a Second Lieutenant”: Pilipel, p. 16.

  342 “Had he been pure English aristocracy”: Hodgson, pp. 189–90, July 2, 1941.

  343 “Here’s a telegram for those bloody Yankees”: Colville, p. 136, May 19, 1940.

  344 By late 1941, Churchill ran second: Richard L. Coe, Washington Post, January 11, 1942.

  345 “I believe that we really can keep out”: Sherwood, White House Papers, 1:125.

  346 “a walking corpse”: Time.

  347 “He can work only seven hours a day”: Time, March 10, 1941.

  348 “of the exact state of England’s need”: Sherwood, White House Papers, 1:239.

  349 “I suppose you could say—but not out loud”: Ibid., 1:237.

  350 “We seek no treasure”: Chandros, pp. 165–66.

  351 “Hopkins was, I think, very impressed”: Quoted in Gilbert, Finest Hour, pp. 997, 999.

  352 “I have never had such an enjoyable time”: Lee, p. 220.

  353 “Apparently the first thing that Churchill asks for”: Ickes, p. 181.

  354 “He finished with really glorious words of comfort”: Hodgson, pp. 195–96, July 27, 1941.

  355 “Winston is completely certain of America’s full help”: Menzies, p. 64, February 22, 1941.

  356 “It is never very easy for the British”: Books & Bookmen, October 1977, in a review of Joseph P. Lash’s Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939–41 (Andre Deutsch, 1977).

  357 “Personally I am very sorry to see America turning”: IWM, M. P. Troy Papers, 95/25/1, January 1, 1941.

  358 “As soon as the Lend-Spend, Lend-Lease”: Harriman and Abel, p. 5.

  359 “We can’t take seriously requests”: Ibid., p. 15.

  360 “He resented this so much”: Lee, p. 307, June 9, 1941.

  361 By contrast Col.—soon to be a lieutenant general: Pogue, Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, pp. 133–34.

  362 “if rather than when continued to dominate”: Ibid., p. 139.

  363 “I was deeply worried the president”: Harriman and Abel, p. 18.

  364 “I must attempt to convince”: Ibid., p. 18.

  365 “The PM is much smaller than I expected”: Ibid., p. 61.

  366 “the PM bluntly stated”: Ibid., p. 28.

  367 “believing that we shall get the Americans”: Amery, p. 689, May 19, 1941.

  368 “The great difficulty is re-educating”: Harriman and Abel, p. 57.

  369 “The idea of being our armoury”: Headlam, p. 234, December 31, 1940.

  370 “The great thing is not to antagonise the United States”: Nicolson, p. 153, March 21, 1941.

  371 “Well, yes”: Lee, p. 357, July 26, 1941.

  372 “frightened of nothing but Japan”: Cadogan, p. 393, July 21, 1941.

  373 “A wonderful story is unfolding”: Quoted in Gilbert, War Papers, 3:810.

  374 “a disorderly day’s rabbit-shooting”: BNA, PREM4/27/9, March 13, 1941.

  375 “I must say I do not think our friend”: BNA, PREM3/485/6, folio 16.

  376 “with a retinue which Cardinal Wolsey might have envied”: Colville, p. 424, August 3, 1941.

  377 “Working in H[arry] H[opkins]’s cabin this morning”: CAC, Geoffrey Green, GREE1.

  378 “really incapable of a personal friendship with anyone”: Quoted in Davis, p. 212.

  379 “Not a single American officer”: CAC, Jacob diary, JACB1/10, August 11, 1941.

  380 “It would be an exaggeration to say that Roosevelt and Churchill”: Sherwood, White House Papers, 1:364.

  381 “My God, this is history!”: CAC, Geoffrey Green, GREE1, August 10, 1941.

  382 the occasion must fulfil the fantasies of a “pressman”: CAC, Jacob diary, August 10, 1941.

  383 That afternoon, Churchill took a launch: CAC, Martin diary, p. 60.

  384 “Am I going to like it?”: Ibid., p. 62.

  385 “It was hard to tell whether Churchill”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action, p. 206.

  386 “a very interesting and by no means unfruitful meeting”: CAC, Churchill Papers, CHAR1/362/28-32, August 29, 1941.

  387 “Roosevelt is all for coming into the war”: Pownall, 1:374.

  388 “nothing dressed up very nicely”: Kennedy diary, LHA, August 24, 1941.

  389 “There was a statement of War Aims”: Hodgson, p. 201, August 15, 1941.

  390 “I ought to tell you that there has been a wave of depression”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1125, August 28, 1941. 170

  391 “The PM said that after the joint declaration”: Colville, p. 434, August 30, 1941.

  392 He even questioned—as did some: Harvey, p. 210, August 31, 1941.

  393 “The attitude of the people he had been with”: Quoted in Lee, p. 376, August 24, 1941.

  394 “It will not be possible for the whole British Army”: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1202.

  395 “plans were worked out to establish”: Trukhanovsky, p. 273.

  396 “the Food Account was very high”: CAC, Churchill Papers, CHAR1/379/12-20.

  397 “Oh, Miss, you’ll never guess what he did next …”: Nel, pp. 43–45.

  398 “Now run inside and type like HELL”: Ibid., p. 6
7.

  399 “Winston was depressed at outset”: Eden, p. 294, September 22, 1941.

  400 “in the event of a collision between Japan”: BNA, HWI/25.

  401 “Make sure they have all they want on extreme priority”: Hinsley et al., 3:655, appendix 3.

  402 “Another Prayer from the prime minister”: CAC, Edwards diary, REDW2/3, August 24–25, 1941.

  403 “There is nothing like having something that can catch and kill anything”: Kimball, 1:165, November 2, 1941.

  404 “People are wondering why you don’t do something offensively”: Harriman and Abel, p. 109, October 20, 1941.

  405 “Whatever may happen on the Russian front”: Pownall, 2:41.

  406 Camrose was sufficiently impressed: Quoted in Hartwell, p. 316.

  407 On the nineteenth, Churchill told guests during a lunch: CAC, Eade Papers, November 11, 1941.

  408 “A. E. is much perplexed”: Harvey, p. 179, October 10, 1941.

  409 “Winston’s methods were frequently repulsive to him”: Brooke, p. 192, October 20, 1941.

  410 “too much impressed by the enemy’s will”: John Kennedy, Business of War, p. 78.

  411 “his ability to shake himself like a dog”: Kennedy diary, March 19, 1942.

  412 “If they declare war on us”: Winant, pp. 196–97.

  413 “tired and depressed”: Harriman and Abel, p. 111.

  414 “Saturated and satiated with emotion”: Quoted in Reynolds, In Command, p. 264.

  CHAPTER EIGHT: A GLIMPSE OF ARCADIA

  415 “Well then, this war is over”: Billotte, p. 187.

  416 “We simply can’t be beaten”: Nicolson, p. 197, December 11, 1941.

  417 “Though I do not wish anyone to be bombed”: Hodgson, p. 232, December 9, 1941.

  418 “While the public are prepared to make”: BNA, INF1/292.

  419 “I do not know when or how I shall come back”: Soames, ed., Speaking, p. 460, December 21, 1941.

  420 “All is very good indeed”: Ibid., p. 461, December 24, 1941.

  421 “No one but he”: Macmillan, p. 294, November 16, 1943.

  422 “Senators’ … office telephones carried call”: Washington Post, December 27, 1941.

  423 “the greatest orator in the world”: Ickes, December 26, 1941.

  424 “It is a great weight off my chest”: Moran, p. 23.

  425 “to put it on its throne”: Lash, p. 15.