England's Last War Against France
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135 ‘We have decided that the enterprise against Dakar’: IWM 139. Churchill’s message is appended to Lieutenant General Irwin’s report on Dakar. The Admiralty received the news of the Resolution’s torpedoing at 12.45 p.m. on 25/9/40 and the Prime Minister’s reply, which would have been sent a few minutes after he wrote it, was timed at 1.27 p. m.
135 sunk alongside the south mole: Dannreuther, op. cit., p. 48, and other details of Vichy’s second air raid on Gibraltar.
135 ‘Bloodshed has been avoided at the cost of honour’: The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Michael Davie.
136 ‘A very gay journey back’: ibid.
136 ‘We went to Dakar with General de Gaulle’: Marder, op. cit.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
137 some wit had pinned … a ‘Communiqué anglais’: I–Illustration, 2 November 1940.
137 ‘modest share to the final overthrow of England’: Geoffrey Warner, Pierre Laval and the Eclipse of France, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1968, p. 228, citing German Foreign Ministry archives.
138 ‘France is fighting with Germany against Britain’: Paxton, Vichy France, p. 70.
138 ‘We don’t need your help’: Warner, op. cit., p. 224.
138 ‘wallowed in defeat like a dog in filth’: Langer, Our Vichy Gamble, p. 84, quoting Raymond Brugère’s Veni, Vidi, Vichy, Paris, 1944.
139 ‘it’s not only Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop you’re going to see’: Warner, op. cit., p. 232.
139 ‘Merde, alors!’: ibid.
140 ‘if you offer us a just peace’: ibid., p. 233.
140 ‘I will not add to Germany’s suffering by sparing France’: from Josée Laval’s compilation of her father’s surviving papers, The Unpublished Diary of Pierre Laval, Falcon Press, London, 1948, p. 75.
140 ‘We shall have to endure English reprisals’: Warner, op. cit., p. 234.
142 ‘The English will fight and go on fighting’: John Toland, Adolf Hitler, Ballantine Books, New York, 1977, p. 870.
142 ‘I’d rather have three or four of my teeth out’: Ciano’s Diaries, op. cit., p. 402.
143 ‘If General Weygand will raise the standard’: NA FO 370/2769.
143 ‘If they come to North Africa with four divisions’: Langer, op. cit., p. 86, quoting Louis Rougier’s Les Accords Pétain-Churchill, Montreal, 1945.
144 ‘A collaboration was envisaged’: Paxton, op. cit., p. 77.
144 ‘The Axis powers and France have an identical interest’: Langer, op. cit., p. 95.
144 ‘it was necessary to proceed slowly and with caution’: Warner, op. cit., p. 237.
CHAPTER TWELVE
148 ‘I felt insulted, a young woman was present’: VA. Le Nistour’s report to the Médecin General Director of Health Services, 3rd Maritime Region, dated Toulon, 8 December 1940.
149 ‘I told Kaye that this blackmail’: ibid.
149 ‘The next morning I was visited’: Bouillaut papers, VA, Document 287c.
150 except for Capitaine de corvette de Saussine: mentioned by de Gaulle in his memoir, The Call to Honour
151 ‘I was asked not to leave Liverpool for too long’: Bouillaut’s report on his stay in England, VA, Document 287c, dated Toulon, 27 December 1940.
151 Liverpool had 200 killed: www.liverpool.gov.uk/archives/
153 ‘with the information they already have, this state of affairs could be extremely dangerous to us’: NA HW 50/10.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
155 ‘What we want is not bones but meat’: Werth, France 1940–1955, p. 12.
156 Dining alone with Robert Murphy, Peyrouton had confided: Murphy, Warrior Among Diplomats, p. 98.
156 ‘I remain more than ever a partisan of the policy of collaboration’: Langer, Our Vichy Gamble, p. 110.
156 judging by the editorials in his newspaper Oeuvre: Werth, op. cit., p. 110.
156 ‘I hope, Monsieur le Marécbal’: Warner, Pierre Laval and the Eclipse of France, pp. 255-6.
157 ‘An American journalist’: Laval, Unpublished Diary, p. 84.
157 ‘What swine! And it’s Friday the 13th’: Warner, op. cit., p. 256.
158 ‘a puppet, a windbag, and a weathercock twirling in every breeze’: ibid., pp. 263-4
159 ‘Even if I wished it, the improper conduct of M. Laval’: ibid., p. 266. Quoting DGFP Series D, Vol. XI. The text of the letter was forwarded to the German Foreign Ministry on Christmas Day 1940.
159 ‘setting out again on the same road which led it to Vichy’: Melton, Darlan, p. 101.
160 ‘My family have always hated the English’: David Irving, Hitler’s War, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1977, p. 193.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
163 streets named Bond, Regent and Tottenham Court Road: Roald Dahl, Going Solo, Penguin, London, 1988, p. 92.
163 delighted in painting doleful tales of the hellhole: ibid., p. 91.
163 a couple of nights under canvas on the nearest high ground: ibid., p. 93.
164 Air Vice-Marshal Reggie Smart, a 50-year-old survivor: all details on AVM Smart from www.rafweb.org/biographies.
164 ‘frequently descended among heavy rifle fire’: London Gazette, 28 October 1921.
167 his Anglophobia with Operation Ration: Paxton, Vichy France, p. 116.
167 ‘The Cabinet are particularly concerned’: NA ADM 223/678.
168 a direct hit on a magazine: ibid.
168 an Australian ship adapted a Lee-Enfield cartridge: Marder, op. cit.
168 a Frenchman named Tarte: NA ADM 223/678.
168 ‘Please at once inform your French colleague’: ibid.
168 ‘with the shortest delay’: ibid.
169 It might even revive a French proposal floated: Paxton, op. cit., p. 59.
171 ‘I want you to go to Jerusalem and relieve Baghdad’: Field Marshal Lord Wilson, Eight Years Overseas, 1939–1847, Hutchinson, London, 1949, p. 109.
172 ‘Our patient and much tried’: Christopher Buckley, Five Ventures, HMSO, London, 1946, p. 45.
172 ‘I have consistently warned you’: the exchange of telegrams between Wavell, Churchill and the Chiefs of Staff are an edited version of those quoted by Churchill in his wonderful history, The Second World War.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
176 ‘Please make no flying or the going out of any force’: article by Kelly Bell, Aviation History, May 2004.
176 ‘Any interference with training flights’: ibid.
178 ‘One 20 pound bomb carries’: Anthony Dudgeon, Hidden Victory, Tempus, London, 2000, p. 45.
178 ‘We were only too aware that we had nothing’: ibid., pp. 59-60.
179 with fifty-two new bullet holes: ibid., p. 59.
179 ‘The terms “minor damage” or “flesh wounds”: ibid., p. 60.
180 ‘a solid mass of flame 250 yards long’: Christopher Shores, Dust Clouds in the Middle East, Grub Street, London, 1996, p. 176.
180 to advertise their arrival by flying low and slow: Dudgeon, op. cit., p. 63.
182 ‘except for the guns and a little ammunition’: Shores, op. cit., p. 186.
182 ‘One Me110 flashed past my port wing’: Thomas Andrew, Gladiator Aces, Osprey Publishing, London, 2002
183 a communications centre … a flying laboratory: Dudgeon, op. cit., p. 111.
184 Adjutant-chef Contes, had received a bad leg wound: Shores, op. cit., p. 191.
184 Sous-lieutenant Vuillemin shot down a Blenheim: ibid.
184 same Moranes were given the task of escorting four Junkers 52s: ibid.
184 Rahn sent 12 field guns – 8 of them big 155mm – with 16,000 shells: Buckley, Five Ventures (Iraq–Syria–Persia–Madagascar–Dudecanese), HMSO, London, 1954.
186 the second went through the hole: Bernard Ferguson, The Black Watch and the King’s Enemies, Collins, London, 1950, pp90–91.(On German casualties at Heraklion, Ferguson quotes the commander of a parachute battalion who was later captured by the British in North Africa.)
186 1,828 compared to 1,751: Antony Beevor, Crete: Th
e Battle and the Resistance, Penguin, London, 1992, Appendices, p. 346.
188 Sottotenente Valentini, who bailed out: Shores, op. cit., p. 195.
188 captured at rifle point by the Household Cavalry’s intelligence officer: Somerset de Chair, The Golden Carpet, Faber & Faber, London, 1945, p. 77.
188 ‘A bold and correct decision’: John Connell, Wavell: Supreme Commander, Collins, London, 1969, p. 446.
188 ‘C’est magnifique mais … c’est bloody silly’: John Verney, Going to the Wars, Collins, London, 1955, p. 83.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
191 ‘Concentration of Australian and English troops in Palestine frontier area’: VA, Cipher No. 524 A 526/DE 2200 hrs 28.5.41.
192 ‘This is an important moment in your history’: VA. Catroux’s proclamation dropped by the RAF as a propaganda leaflet.
193 Raziel had just asked for a cigarette: J. Bowyer-Bell, Terror Out of Zion, Avon Books, London, 1977, p. 70, quoting Yaacov Tarazi who survived the air strike.
193 one of four brothers on active service: Hermione Ranfurly, To War with Whitaker: Wartime Diaries of Countess Ranfurly 1939–45, Heinemann, London, 1994, p. 76.
193 Palmer and all twenty-three Haganah volunteers, three of them crew, disappeared: Allied Special Forces Association, Hereford. www.alliedspecialforces.org (The fate of the Sea Lion is one of the more enduring mysteries of the Second World War. Nothing in the surviving British, French, German and Italian archives has ever been unearthed that sheds any light on it.)
194 paused to eat chocolate: Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1976, p. 48.
194 ‘I awoke to daylight’: ibid., p49.
196 much impressed by the courage and marksmanship displayed by the Arab Taher: ibid. 196 ‘I opened up’: ibid., p. 50.
196 ‘I must say it required a considerable effort’: ibid.
198 emptying a pistol around the manager’s dancing feet: ibid., pp. 33-4.
198 In 1938 Mayne was also selected to play [ftn]: Hamish Ross, Baddy Mayne, Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2003 p. 31
198 ‘too old to be dangerous’ [ftn]: Chambers Biographical Dictionary, quoting L. Dawson’s Sound of Guns.
199 ‘Eleven Commando were very young and quiet’: The Diaries of Evelyn Waugb, p. 493.
199 accused Pedder of being a ‘half mad’: ibid., p. 512.
199 ‘saw to their welfare’: ibid.
199 most of his young officers, whose average age was 21, respected him as an excellent trainer: author’s interviews and correspondence with Gerald Bryan, Eric Garland and Sir Thomas Macpherson, June – July 2008.
200 ‘Never in the whole history of human endeavour’: Julian Thompson, War Behind Enemy Lines, Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1998, p. 47.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
202 One of those being left behind offered Lance Corporal Noble Sproule: www.combinedops.com/
202 not even lingering long enough to pick up her landing craft: NA DEFE 2/349.
203 could be irritatingly Bertie Wooster: Ross, Paddy Mayne, p. 46, quoting interview with Sir Thomas Macpherson.
203 ‘Spent Alma Mater’s birthday’: Keyes’s journal, NA DEFE 2/349.
203 ‘likely to be extremely well registered by batteries’: ibid.
203 London-born immigrant: Gavin Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1962, p. 309.
204 had improvised one: and other details of the 2/16th’s river crossing, Jim and Trigellis Smith, Syd McAllester, Largely a Gamble, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1995, pp. 62-6.
204 ‘all firing very accurately’: Keyes’s journal notes on Litani operation, NA DEFE 2/349.
204 ‘Extremely unpleasant … snipers in wired post’: ibid.
205 ‘I couldn’t really see a target’: Eric Garland, author’s telephone interview, 7 July 2008.
207 ‘Eric locates flash of 75mm gun on hillside’: Keyes’s journal, NA DEFE 2/349.
207 ‘Their dead literally littered the beach’: R.L. Henry, The Story of the 2/4th Field Regiment, Melbourne, 1950, p. 100.
207 ‘nonchalantly perched and in full view of the enemy’: Long, op. cit., p. 364.
207 An attempt to retake the bridge: papers of Colonel Sir Thomas Macpherson CBE MC TD DL, IWM 05/73/1 and author’s telephone conversations.
207 ‘promptly pumped full of tommy gun’: ibid.
208 ‘Tevendale went out into the gully and climbed up its north side’: ibid. From Regimental Sergeant Major Tevendale’s ‘Brief Account of the Action Taken by No 1 Troop and Commando HQ in action on Monday 9th June, 1941’, included in Macpherson papers.
209 ‘I think I was the first to start throwing grenades’: Gerald Bryan. Author’s interview at his home in Binfield, Berkshire, 10 June 2008. Also mentioned in his autobiography, Be of Good Cheer, Wilton 65, Windsor, Berkshire, 2008.
209 ‘Our gun was pointing away’: ibid.
210 ‘Every time they tried to fire’: ibid.
210 ‘Tevendale, Farmiloe, I’m shot’: from the account by RSM Tevendale DCM, op. cit.
210 ‘one bullet having passed through his back and chest’ ibid.
211 ‘I was damned thirsty’: author’s interview with Gerald Bryan.
211 ‘You are not our enemy. I served in the last war. You are our allies’: ibid.
212 ‘Boy oh boy it was duck soup. They had 200 yards of open flat plain’: Noble Sproule, quoted in Combined Ops website, www.combinedops.com/
212 trying to disarm their guards and escape: Lieutenant E. McGonigal’s report on the action of no. 4 Troop in the Litani river engagement (Macpherson papers), IWM 05/73/1.
212 ‘You felt you were practically looking down the barrels’: Macpherson papers, IWM 05/73/1.
213 ‘had turned a startling green’: George Stitt, Under Cunningham’s Command, Allen and Unwin, London, 1944, p. 105.
213 Guépard followed this up with a torpedo: Commandant Pierre Guiot, Combats sans Espoir: La Guerre Navale en Syrie (1941), La Couronne Littéraire, Paris, 1971, p. 68.
213 ‘Engage the enemy more closely’: Stitt, op. cit., p. 86.
214 Crowther bailed out and was captured badly burned: author’s interview with Gerald Bryan who was in the same ward as Crowther.
214 Their pilots, Sergeant Martin Bennett and Sous-lieutenant Georges Rivory: Shores, Dust Clouds in the Middle East
214 composed of young Jewish women: Stitt, op. cit., p. 91.
214 ‘significantly superior’ [ftn] : Christopher Langtree, The Kelleys: British J, K, and N Class Destroyers of World War Two, Chatham Press, UK.
215 become a qualified instructor: author’s interview with Gerald Bryan.
215 ‘I called on them to jetez vers à la planche’: Ross, Paddy Mayne, p. 42, quoting a letter from Blair Mayne to his younger brother Douglas.
215 His total casualties out of a strength of forty-five: Macpherson papers, IWM 05/73/1.
215 ‘an air of unrelieved pessimism and disbelief’: ibid.
216 ‘I got him out quite a long way down’: ibid.
216 ‘a continuous beer party’: ibid.
217 ‘They all sat in the bottom of the communication trench’: Keyes’s journal, NA DEFE 2/349.
217 It was broad daylight when Keyes awoke: ibid.
218 purloining some of their precious Brens: Keyes’s journal, NA DEFE 2/349.
218 shot a successful sniper by offering himself as bait: Keyes’s citation for Garland in his official report of the action, Macpherson papers, IWM 05/73/1.
218 ‘Jumbo asks some shrewd questions’: Keyes’s journal, NA DEFE 2/349.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
219 ‘General Wilson has a twinkle in his eye’: Ranfurly, To War With Whitaker, p. 91.
219 ‘You thought we were yellow’: Alan Moorehead, African Trilogy, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1944, p. 165.
221 an anti-tank shell which wrecked its engine: Compton Mackenzie, Eastern Epic, Chatto & Windus, London, 1951, p. 109.
222 paid parti
cular attention to the shadowy places: author’s interview with Major General (rtd) Frank Caldwell, Guernsey, 6 September 2005.
222 killed over forty: Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 110.
222 then three Vichy Dewoitine 520s: Shores, Dust Clouds in the Middle East, p. 125.
223 ‘Ce que vous avez fait, c’est incroyable’: Buckley, Five Ventures, p. 90.
223 the favourite had been the Deraa road push towards Damascus: telegram from de Verdilhac’s HQ to the War Ministry in Vichy. VA, signal reference 7465 and 7466 (‘the major effort appears to bear on the Axis Deraa axis’).
224 ‘but not to become seriously involved’: statement by Captain T.P. Wilson MC 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, concerning the action at Kuneitra, NA WO 169/1722.
226 ‘still slippery with orange peel’: Bernard Fergusson, The Trumpet in the Hall, Collins, London, 1970, p. 102.
226 about 4 feet high and 3 feet thick: NA WO 169/1722.
226 with the 20mm Breda: ibid.
226 ‘only interested in the theory of it’: C. Northcote Parkinson, Always a Fusilier, Sampson Low, London, 1949, p. 86. (Parkinson, best known for Parkinson’s Law, was a pre-war TA officer in the regiment and during 1939–45 served in training or administrative posts. For his regimental history, published in 1947, he interviewed or corresponded with many of the participants but rarely attributes quotes. However, it is certainly among the more readable regimental histories.)
226 Orr had about 575 men under him: Captain Wilson’s statement on Kuneitra, NAWO 169/1722.
226 though not the Free French Senegalese waiting: Shores, op. cit., p. 224.
226 manoeuvres had included an exercise in which Kuneitra: Fergusson, op. cit., p. 108.
228 ‘NOTHING could put these tanks out of action’: Wilson’s post-action report, NA WO 169/1722.
228 ‘He begged me almost tearfully’: Fergusson, op. cit., p. 108.
231 ‘driven half mad by the filth and flies’: Parkinson, op. cit., p. 80.
232 ‘Surely a battalion of the Royal Fusiliers have not surrendered to the Vichy French?’: Dill, quoted by Robert Lyman, First Victory, Constable and Robinson, London, 2006, p. 206, citing NA PREM 3/309/5, 17 June 1941.