by Colin Smith
232 ‘He endeavoured to rally these troops’: war diary of 2/5th field regiment, quoted in Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 399.
233 ‘We were cavalrymen doing an infantryman’s job’: author’s interview with William Cross, Chelsea Hospital, June 2007.
233 ‘Of course, the first thing the British soldier misses is his tea’: ibid.
234 ‘a crowd of struggling vehicles’: Long, op. cit., p. 399. (The Bofors gun team who distinguished themselves were from 171 Light Anti-Aircraft battery, Royal Artillery.)
236 ‘There had been so many moments when formations of either side had been surrounding’: Fergusson, op. cit., p. 102.
236 panic below decks when calls for gas masks: papers of H. Atkins, a sergeant in the battalion’s motor transport pool, IWM 92/28/1.
236 no more than boiler plate welded to a truck chassis: Edward Home, A Job Well Done: The History of the Palestine Police, Anchor Press, Tiptree, Essex, 1982,
237 ‘The colonel pondered them’: Fergusson, op. cit., p. 111.
237 ‘The scene was like that of an old print’: ibid.
238 ‘Only 27 reached the end of the wood’: Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 116.
238 ‘There was a French barracks lit up like a Christmas tree’: author’s interview with Major General (rtd) Frank Caldwell, Guernsey, 6 September 2005.
239 ‘pale and with five bullet wounds’: Fergusson, op. cit., p. 111.
239 the first tank announced its presence with a burst: author’s interview with Caldwell.
242 ‘One side of the house had collapsed’: Fergusson, op. cit., p. 113.
242 ‘to the last man and the last round’: Wilson, Eight Years Overseas, p. 116.
243 ‘I didn’t have the guts to try’: Fergusson. op. cit., pp. 113-15.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
247 marked by two stone cairns: de Chair, The Golden Carpet, p. 185.
248 ‘We had been going for some hours now’: ibid., pp. 187-8.
247 flown by a Lieutenant Seinturier: Shores, Dust Clouds in the Middle East, p. 232.
249 sufficiently unusual to merit an immediate award: de Chair, op. cit., p. 194.
249 slam on the brakes and get well clear of the vehicles: ibid., p. 198.
249 ‘I should, of course, have seized my prisoner’: ibid., pp. 190-91.
250 ‘The tyres were all in shreds’: ibid., p. 198.
250 One troop of Wiltshire Yeomanry lost thirteen: ibid., p. 195.
250 ‘staring ahead with unseeing eyes’: ibid., p. 207.
251 ‘We saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls’: Dahl, Going Solo, p. 193.
251 In ten seconds they had turned five into blazing, broken-backed wrecks: Shores, op. cit., pp. 238-9.
254 ‘A right and left. Another – and another,’ screamed one of the young aristocrats: de Chair, op. cit., p. 208. (This was the 9th Duke of Roxburghe, a lieutenant known to his friends as Bobo.)
254 Altogether twenty French aircrew lost their lives: John Bagot Glubb, The Changing Scenes of Life, Quartet Books, London, 1983, p. 127.
256 ‘Thereafter there were no more raids’: ibid.
256 there were only 187 men on their feet. Of these 6: all figures Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 477.
257 ‘An Indian non-combatant cook’: John Masters, The Road Past Mandalay, Michael Joseph, London, 1961, p. 48.
257 ‘Two black dots appeared’: ibid., pp. 47-8.
257 a Lieutenant Legrand in one of the Dewoitines: Shores, op. cit., pp. 249-50 et passim.
258 ‘The Gurkhas avoided my eye’: Masters, op. cit., p. 48.
260 Wait, dirty English bastards: ibid., p. 56.
261 ‘sagged so much it was like carrying a man in a bag’: Long, op. cit., p. 509.
261 discovered twenty-one fresh graves and fifteen unburied: ibid., p. 458.
261 a French stretcher-bearer was killed: ibid., p. 486.
261 ‘General Lavarack, feeling that to both Frenchmen and Australians’: ibid., p. 511.
262 placed fourteen 250-pound bombs on the High Commissioner’s Beirut Residency leaving five of his Syrian police guard: Police Information Bulletin, 30 June 1941, VA.
263 ‘Knowledge of the possibility of an armistice’: Long, op. cit., p. 512, letter to Blamey.
267 ‘All troops in forward areas will cease fire’: author’s interview with Chelsea Pensioner Donald Pickering at Chelsea Hospital, July 2007.
267 ‘Everyone naturally felt anxious not to be killed’: Brigadier W.E. Underhill, ed., The Royal Leicestershire Regiment 1928–1956, Underhill, Plymouth, 1956
267 ‘I explained that I too was a regular soldier’: Bryan, Be of Good Cheer, p. 47.
CHAPTER TWENTY
268 ‘Night of 29 to 30 June’: Police Information Bulletin, VA.
269 ‘a provincial druggist in uniform’: Time magazine, 21 July 1941.
269 ‘signed Paris away to the conquering Nazis’: ibid.
269 ‘When the incident became known’: Georges Catroux, Dans la bataille de Méditerranée, Gallimard, Paris, 1949, p. 150.
270 ‘Everything was going on as though nobody owed us anything’: de Gaulle, The Call to Honour, p. 201.
270 This led to an election atmosphere with speeches, slogans: Wilson, Eight Years Overseas, p. 72.
270 ‘I am not prepared to let this lapse’: NA PREM 3/422/4.
271 a strange tale of a long but not uncomfortable seven-day rail journey across Hitler’s Europe: all the details of the British prisoners’ journey through occupied Europe are taken from files at the UK’s National Archives at Kew, London. Also from Parkinson’s Always a Fusilier.
272 ‘If anyone had predicted two months ago’: Hansard, 15 July 1941.
273 ‘remain faithful to the unity of France and to Maréchal Petain’: in General Order 14, dated 13 July 1941 and signed by General Pierre Arlabosse, commander of troops in Lebanon, VA.
274 shooting at them with the kind of 6.35mm: details from Warner, Rierre Laval and the Eclipse of France, p. 281.
274 an X-ray revealed was caused by a bullet lodged a quarter of an inch: ibid.
275 twice as many as had yet been killed in any raid on a German city: Patrick Bishop, The Bomber Boys, Harper Press, 2007, pp. 87-8.
275 ‘violent anti-British feeling in both the occupied and unoccupied zones’: Admiral William D. Leahy, I Was There, Whittlesey House, New York, 1948, p. 82.
275 ‘To murder, for political motives, women, children … Is England already bolshevized?’: ibid., quoting letter from Darlan, p. 83.
277 ‘might be using one day’: Wheeler quoted in James Dorrian, Saint-Nazaire, Pen and Sword, Barnsley, Yorkshire, 2006, p. 180.
277 ‘the propaganda value of the raid was enormous’: M.R.D. Foot and J.M. Langley, M19: Escape and Evasion 1939–1945, Bodley Head, London, 1979, p. 85.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
281 known as an accomplished pianist: E.D.R. Harrison article in the English Historical Review, 1999, quoting SOE files HS 3/9, HS 3/14 and HS 3/7.
281 from behind its false ceiling: ibid.
282 towed the 362 miles to South Africa’s Port Elizabeth: NA ADM 1/11709.
282 ‘A very fine show indeed’ ‘SOE Operations in Africa’, NA HS 3/14.
284 ‘Great charm, absolutely fearless’: Harrison, op. cit.
285 agreed to pay SOE an extra £4,000: ibid.
285 France Libre d’Outremer, a radio station: ibid.
285 ‘bribery, corruption, murder’: ibid.
285 ‘I am convinced, and Mayer confirms’: ibid.
287 ‘It was like looking through a bloody periscope’: Keith Flint, Airborne Armour, Helion Publishing, UK, 1991, p. 11.
287 ‘We were considered good enough to look after ourselves’: Sergeant (as he became) Clegg quoted in Guidon, journal of the Royal Hussars, 1990, p. 152.
288 ‘If the Japanese walked into the island’: Harrison, op. cit., quoting The War Against Japan by Major General S. Woodburn Kirby, GB Cabinet Office, Principal War
Telegrams and Memoranda. NA WO 208/1518.
288 ‘Sheer madness’: ibid.
288 issuing some of the troops involved with the kind of Arctic clothing: Jonathan Riley, The Life and Campaigns of General Huhbie Stockwell, Pen and Sword, Barnsley, Yorkshire, 2006, p. 74.
289 perhaps a dozen or so others knew: ibid., p. 75.
289 the nearest they were going to get to a beach: author’s interview with Chelsea Pensioner Bombardier Frederick Bailey at the Royal Chelsea Hospital, London, 2006.
289 alive with rumours that we were going to attack the French in Madagascar: ibid.
289 watching the flying fish: papers of Captain J.H. Patterson (1910–81), IWM 05/49/1.
289 ‘Please don’t worry, you are more than ever in my thoughts’: BBC’s World War 2 People’s War: Roland Moss and Operation Ironclad in Madagascar by David Moss.
289 ‘Operation Ironclad is on. I wonder what sort of battle’: papers of Captain J.H. Patterson, IWM 05/49/1.
290 ‘look very pretty nipping around us’: ibid.
291 2 miles of trenches and pill boxes: Buckley, Five Ventures, op. cit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
293 ‘Firing at night is not contemplated, the entrance to the bay being considered impossible’: RN Battle Summaries, NA ADM 234/331.
293 fifty-seven mines were lifted: ibid.
293 accidental detonation of the last two mines: ibid.
293 ‘We moved up to the gun position’: papers of Captain William Knight, R.A., IWM 97/7/1.
294 through his forehead: Patterson papers, IWM 05/49/1. (Patterson examined the body and attributed the sharp shooting to somebody else but Knight was an eyewitness.)
294 how much bigger the exit wound was: Knight papers, IWM 97/7/1.
294 ‘That was the end of the opposition’: ibid.
294 ‘knocked the concrete off the top of the hill’: ibid.
294 ‘The battery at Courrier Bay’: report on the Diego Suarez battle compiled in Vichy and dated 17 October 1942, VA.
294 ‘taken by surprise and overwhelmed’: ibid.
295 ‘We had a drink and he then showed me all over’: Marcus Binney, Secret War Heroes, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2006, p. 182, quoting PF 859/1011/7, Meyer’s personal file with SOE.
298 the revolver of a lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers: Riley, The Life and Campaigns of General Hughie Stockwell, p. 81. (Lieutenant Ray Simmons commanded the leading platoon of A Company.)
298 A Tommy gunner in the East Lancs: 2nd East Lancs war diary, NA WO 174/30.
298 their orders were to stay at least 7 miles offshore: RN Battle Summaries, NA ADM 234/331.
299 ‘To avoid any untoward incident’: British propaganda leaflet dropped at Madagascar, in the archives of Royal Marine Museum, Southsea, Hampshire.
299 ‘did not covet an inch of French territory’: RN Battle Summaries, NA ADM 234/331.
299 ‘We shall defend ourselves to the last’: Vichy Colonial Ministry files, VA, 5.5.42. (‘Have received the following telegram from the Governor of Madagascar … Diego Suarez attacked this morning by British aircraft – Naval forces of unknown strength are off shore … ultimatum demanding unconditional surrender replied to … ‘)
300 ‘The despatch of that letter’: from a copy of Major General Robert Sturges’s after-battle report lodged in the Royal Marine Museum, Southsea, Hampshire.
300 ‘But owing to the rocky nature of the ground’: Major Jocelin Simon’s after-battle report on B Special Service Squadron RAC, NA WO 218/156.
301 The blame for this lay mostly with the South African Air Force: Buckley, Five Ventures
301 somewhere along the line this had slipped through the hands: ibid.
303 ‘great gallantry’: Simon’s report, NA WO 218/156.
304 ‘who would otherwise have had to remain in the open’: ibid.
304 ‘low jabberings’: Guidon, journal of the Royal Hussars, 1982, p. 158.
304 ‘The enemy then made a third sortie’: Simon’s report, NA WO 218/156.
305 ‘in a hand-to-hand fight with a Senegalese’ Guidon, op. cit., p. 158.
305 ‘The enemy then advanced’: Simon’s report, NA WO 218/156.
306 ‘One moment they were there’: Guidon, op. cit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
308 ‘do the maximum damage possible’: War Diary, 2nd South Lancashire Regiment, NA WO 274/31.
308 saw an aircraft burst into flames: War Diary, 2nd East Lancs, NA WO 174/30.
308 The man at the end of it was a Lieutenant Héloise: Shores, Dust Clouds in the Middle East, p. 28.
309 Peter Reynier, a subaltern in the Royal Scots Fusiliers: biographical details from Times obituary, September 1999.
309 had breakfasted at 2 a.m.: Colonel J.C. Kemp MC, The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, Maclehose, Glasgow, 1948, Chapter V.
309 thought they had scored a direct hit on one machine-gun post: ibid.
309 ‘We tried several times to get out’: ibid.
309 sector of the line the French called Rue Placers: ibid.
310 Lieutenant Bande of the 3rd Company, 2 Régiment mixte malgache: ibid.
310 Armstrong appended it to his successful recommendation: ibid.
310 ‘you can be sure that the French can pick one out’: ibid.
310 ‘flat and open with only a few straggly bushes’: War Diary, 2nd East Lancs, NA WO 174/30. C Company’s report on capture of Antsirane by Lieutenant Wood.
310 ‘blowing away most of his right elbow and side’: ibid.
311 ‘Our position was most unhealthy’: ibid.
311 two of their signallers became the battery’s first casualties: author’s interview with Frederick Bailey.
311 Force Eight winds continued to delay: RN Battle Summaries, NA ADM 234/331.
312 ‘It was quite clear the attack had failed’: Archives of Royal Marine Museum, Southport, Hampshire. From General Sturges’s report on Ironclad, p. 14.
313 ‘it was the only two-storey building in the area’: papers of Captain Hector Emerton, IWM 96/42/1.
315 ‘I wished to try and arrange for a destroyer’: Sturges’s report, Archives of Royal Marine Museum, Southport, Hampshire.
315 ‘Prolonged operations, which we so much wished to avoid’: NA ‘RN Naval Summaries NA ADM 234/331’.
316 seventeen South Lancs lost their lives and about forty were wounded: War Diary, 2nd South Lancashire Regiment, NA WO 174/31.
316 ‘The effect of this penetration’: Sturges’s report, Archives of Royal Marine Museum, Southport, Hampshire.
317 ‘on no account to commit themselves against the French guns’: Report of B Special Service Squadron, R.A.C., NA WO 218/156.
317 two were killed and the twelve wounded: Kemp, op. cit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
320 if they had to abandon ship: papers of Ordinary Seaman A.L. Yule, IWM p- 1–3.
321 ‘Figures could be discerned’: ibid.
321 ‘All Marines ashore’: ibid.
321 Clavel stood there staring at his target which still looked: General Sturges’s report, Royal Marine Museum, Southsea, Hampshire. (Sturges evidently met or was told about Clavel after the end of hostilities and wrote: ‘A French 75mm manned by a Capitaine Clavel failed to register a hit, a fact that this officer still disbelieves.’)
322 felt the unmistakable swell of: RN Battle Summaries, NA ADM 234/331.
322 ‘They were obviously firing at the patter’: Captain Martin Price DSO quoted in a wartime pamphlet, The Royal Marines 1939–43, by the journalist Owen Rutter, HMSO.
324 ‘ready to take on anybody’: Jim Stockman, ‘Madagascar 1942’, British Army Review, 1986, no.83.
325 ‘We just kept moving’: ibid., p. 93.
327 a white flag, a bugler and two bottles of gin: Emerton papers, IWM 96/42/1.
327 ‘It was as though we had won a hard game of rugger’: Rutter, op. cit.,
328 had lost 105 killed, 15 of them officers: Buckley, Five Ventures, p. 187
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328 French losses were 145 killed and 336 wounded: VA. (From a report datelined Vichy, 17 October 1942 from the Lieutenant General Secretary of State for War on ‘the operations at Diego Suarez on 5, 6, & 7 May 1942’.)
328 ‘shyly proffered by one of the French ladies’: Patterson papers, IWM 05/491.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
330 ‘A principal object must be to get our best troops forward’: Churchill, The Second World War, vol. iv, The Hinge of Fate, p. 205, quoting his 30 April 1942 memo to General Ismay.
330 ‘your problem is one of holding the place’: ibid., p. 208.
331 ‘only ships left for anti-submarine duties’: RN Battle Summaries, NA ADM 234/331.
332 where the bed bugs were driving him crazy: author’s interview with Frederick Bailey.
333 ‘Corvettes were chasing about’: Patterson papers, IWM 05/49/1, op. cit
334 beat up a drunken Frenchman: ibid.
335 ‘Attack must have been made by Vichy submarines’: Smuts message quoted in Churchill, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 210.
336 ‘clear out the rot’: John Grehan, The Forgotten Invasion: Madagascar 1942, Historic Military Press, Storrington, West Sussex, 2007, p. 115, quoting Harvy.
338 ‘a French crenellation in the Atlantic wall’: Paxton, Vichy France, p. 305.
338 750 sons of Dieppe held captive in Germany: ibid., p. 306.
339 One day a Monsieur Millot, President of the Planters’ Association: Grehan, op. cit., p. 125.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
342 ‘The tide was well up and we scrambled out among the bullets’: Patterson papers, IWM 05/49/1
342 ‘I patched up a few French and Malgache’: ibid.
342 ‘Flies and blood and filth’: ibid.
343 cost the British twelve dead: Riley, The Life and Campaigns of General Hughie Stockwell, p. 93.
343 ‘encased her body’: Grehan, The Forgotten Invasion, p. 137.
344 ‘Lieutenant Simpson-Jones, as I understand it’ [ftn] : interview with Peter Simpson-Jones, Audio archives, IWM 15320.
347 ‘that the Russians had come into the war solely for our benefit’: Alanbrooke, War Diaries, 30 March 1942, p. 243.
349 ‘heroic resistance of the French troops’: Grehan, op. cit., p. 165, quoting Hytier.
350 ‘Ten days later, having passed through Switzerland’: Langer, Our Vichy Gamble, p. 277.
