‘You aren’t going to Siberia’ Jan Karski Story of a Secret State Penguin 2011 p.5
‘To hear people talk’ Walter Duranty Atlantic Monthly September 1939 p.393
‘would quickly be turned’ Galeazzo Ciano Diaries Milan 1946 Vol. I 15.5.39
‘If there was hardship’ Norman Davies God’s Playground Oxford 1981 Vol. II p.426
‘In view of Poland’s’ Edward Raczyski In Allied London Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1962 p.20 30.8.39
‘It’s a wonderful feeling’ James Owen & Guy Walters ed. The Voices of War Penguin 2004 p.9
‘They were united’ IWM 08/132/1 Kruczkiewicz MS p.163
‘We sang a Polish hymn’ IWM 02/23/1 Ephrahim Bleichman MS
‘and told me he was’ IWM 86/17/1 P. Fleming MS
‘You’re alive, Witold?’ Olson & Cloud p.52
‘Franciszek Kornicki’ IWM Kornicki MS 01/1/1
‘After recovering from’ IWM 03/41/1 Ralph Smorczewski MS
‘I was awakened’ Kruczkiewicz p.166
‘The stench of burning’ IWM Pilot B.J. Solak MS
‘We saw two women’ IWM 86/15/1 P. Fleming MS
‘Suddenly, there was’ Wladyslaw Anders An Army in Exile Macmillan 1949 p.3
‘It was a terrible place’ IWM 01/1/1 Pilot Franciszek Kornicki MS
‘I saw the very face’ Adrian Carton de Wiart Happy Odyssey Jonathan Cape 1950 p.156
‘news that shook’ Evelyn Waugh Officers and Gentlemen Chapman & Hall 1955 p.5
‘This war has a’ Moltke p.33
‘There is no excitement’ William Shirer This is Berlin Hutchinson 1999 p.75
‘None of the brave’ Alexander Stahlberg Bounden Duty Brassey 1990 p.116
‘They did not feel’ Stefan Zweig The World of Yesterday Pushkin Press 2010 p.247
‘I regarded England’s’ Louis Hagen Ein Volk ein Reich: Nine Lives Under the Reich Spellmount 2011 pp.32–3
‘have only themselves’ Cuthbert Headlam, ed. Stuart Ball Parliament and Politics in the Age of Churchill and Attlee Cambridge 1999 p.167
‘Mother was very’ Sandra Koa Wing ed. Our Longest Days Profile 2008 p.31
‘an ominous rumour’ David Killingray Fighting for Britain James Currey 2010 p.11
‘The effect was’ Max Hastings Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy Michael Joseph 1984 correspondence
‘The mental approach’ David Fraser Wars and Shadows Penguin 2002 p.122
‘It was a marvellous’ Max Hastings Bomber Command files, Davis to the author
‘How lucky you are!’ Raczyski p.27
‘Are they still waiting?’ Mihail Sebastian Journal 1935–44 Heinemann 2001 p.234
‘I had never experienced’ IWM 02/23/1 Bleichman MS
‘I called out’ Janusz Piekałkiewicz The Cavalry of World War II Orbis 1979 p.9
‘The lovely Polish’ Olson & Cloud p.52
‘They would hurry’ Piekalkiewitcz p.12
‘I can only compare’ IWM Lt. Piotr Tarczyski MS
‘Boys I was at school’ IWM 95/13/1 George lzak MS
‘The advance of the armies’ Heinz Knoke I Flew for the Führer Evans 1979 p.20
‘Run – run for your lives’ IWM 78/52/1 Stefan Kurylak MS
‘You know the British’ Olson & Cloud p.69
‘What was happening’ Anders p.7
‘Fellow countrymen!’ Raczyski p.36
‘It isn’t right!’ Adrian Ball The Last Days of the Old World Doubleday 1963 pp.27–8
‘It would seem’ Janet Flanner New Yorker 10.9.39
‘Loathing war passionately’ Leo Amery My Political Life Hutchinson 1955 Vol. III p.328
‘Practically everyone thinks’ Simon Garfield ed. We are at War Ebury 2009 p.36
‘And he, when the city’ Davies p.83
‘The procession of wounded’ Owen & Walters p.16
‘I get up at 6.30’ Mungo Melvin Manstein Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2010 p.122
‘It was nice to see’ ibid. p.125
‘Red, glittering flames’ General K.S. Rudnicki Last of the Old Warhorses Bachman & Turner 1974 p.49
‘Tomorrow morning we shall’ ibid. p.54
‘at variance with’ ibid p.63
‘Desolate as was’ IWM 91/6/1 Feliks Lachman MS
‘standing over the corpse’ IWM 08/132/1 Adam Kruczkiewicz MS p.168
‘We are now good friends’ Anders p.13
‘From this instant’ IWM 99/3/1 Tadeusz Zukowski MS
‘You Polish, fascist lords!’ Karski p.23
‘How is it possible’ IWM 91/6/1 Lachman MS
‘Gentlemen, you have seen’ John Raleigh Behind the Nazi Front Dodd Mead 1940 p.320
‘Well, your Poles’ Carton de Wiart p.160
‘I encountered chaos’ IWM 06/52/1 Szmulek Goldberg MS
‘In the household’ Simon Garfield Private Battles Ebury 2006 p.48
‘Where on earth can’ Raczyski p.34
Chapter 2 – No Peace, Little War
‘Seldom have I seen’ Arthur Bryant The Turn of the Tide Collins 1957 p.71
‘both the French communists’ IWM Kornicki MS p.89
‘The war doesn’t seem’ Douglas Arthur Desert Watch Blaisdon 2000 p.76
‘We went to strange beds’ Norman Longmate The Home Front Chatto & Windus 1981 p.17
‘The village people objected’ Koa Wing p.15
‘some 18 per cent’ Public Opinion 1935–1946 Princeton University Press 1951 p.48
‘Defence regulations were’ E.S. Turner The Phoney War Michael Joseph 1961 p.53
‘trotted home like a gentleman’ Street narrative by courtesy of Miranda Corben
‘It certainly is breath-taking’ IWM Elizabeth Belsey correspondence 6.3.41
‘There was anger’ Turner p.169
‘I used to wonder’ Arthur Kellas Down to Earth Pentland Press 1989 p.11
‘Look at ’im, girls’ Arthur p.28
‘While the [First] World War’ Elliot Roosevelt ed. The Roosevelt Letters Vol. III Harrap 1952 p.286
‘it would be wrong’ Robert Edwards White Death Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2007 p.59
‘When one gives a gift’ ibid. p.68
‘Comrade Commander’ ibid. p.156
‘Comrades, our attack’ ibid. p.82
‘Our units, saturated by’ Chris Bellamy Absolute War Macmillan 2007 p.76
‘The fighting was almost’ Carl Mydans More than Meets the Eye Harper 1959 p.119
‘I regard it as essential’ Edwards p.206
‘The women of Finland’ Harold Macmillan, Hansard 19.3.40
‘In the early afternoon’ Edwards p.232
‘It’s particularly cold’ ibid. p.254
‘One thing is clear’ ibid. p.261
‘At least you will tell them’ Mydans p.129
‘The idea was to’ François Kersaudy Norway 1940 Collins 1990 p.31
‘Everyone is getting married’ Koa Wing p.32
‘We have had to suffer’ ibid. p.18
‘After Daladier’ Julian Jackson The Fall of France Oxford 2003 p.127
Chapter 3 – Blitzkriegs in the West
1 NORWAY
‘I think of the Germans’ Ruth Maier Ruth Maier’s Diary Harvill Secker 2009 p.115
‘[The man] turns to me’ ibid. p.231
‘I am profoundly moved’ Kersaudy p.103
‘You cannot conceive’ Keith Jeffrey MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–49 Bloomsbury 2010 p.374
‘imagine how we felt’ Robert Kershaw Never Surrender Hodder & Stoughton 2009 p.37
‘very young lads who appeared’ Kersaudy p.169
‘Drunk British troops’ BNA FO371/24833
‘The war goes on’ Street diary in possession of Miranda Corben 27.4.40
‘The worst of it all’ BNA W0106/1962
‘Those officers who had’ Adrian Gilbert Voices of the Foreign Legion Skyhorse 2010 p.190
‘I am stunned’ Koa Wing p.35
2 THE FALL OF FRAN
CE
‘striding up and down’ Jackson p.11
‘The noise of their engines’ R. Balbaud quoted Jackson p.164
‘The gunners stopped’ ibid. p.164
‘A wave of terrified fugitives’ ibid. p.166
‘The room was barely’ ibid. p.47
‘sitting in tragic immobility’ ibid. p.224
‘with unbelieving terror’ Kershaw p.54
‘We want to go home’ ibid. p.168
‘I saw very well’ ibid. p.169
‘an immediate impression’ Jackson p.170
‘They told us terrible things’ ibid. p.172
‘Even though the reports’ Irène Némirovsky Suite française Chatto & Windus 2006 p.3
‘The people are half-mad’ Jackson p.176
‘They had to dress their children’ Némirovsky p.41
‘After a few days’ fighting’ John Horsfall Say Not the Struggle Roundwood 1977 p.157
‘Armed as they were’ Michael Howard Liberation or Catastrophe Hambledon 2008 p.9
‘Our soldiers just need’ Horsfall p.54
‘I lost my temper’ Sir Edmund Ironside The Ironside Diaries ed. MacLeod & Kelly London 1962 p.321
‘It was evident’ Horsfall p.57
‘I remember the order’ Kershaw p.56
‘It was so wonderful’ Owen & Walters p.45
‘When we went ashore’ Peter Hart At the Sharp End Leo Cooper 1998 p.75
‘At Ramsgate we met’ Horsfall p.151
‘We … are woken’ McCormick letter in possession of Mrs Miranda Corbin
‘I forgot I was’ Nella Last Nella Last’s War Sphere 1981 p.62
‘We are really tired’ Jackson p.178
‘Many of them were’ Constantin Joffe We Were Free Smith & Durrell 1943 p.47
‘In these ruined villages’ Alastair Horne To Lose a Battle Macmillan 1969 p.489
‘Few of my own misfortunes’ Zweig p.149
‘Silently, with no lights’ Némirovsky p.42
‘Their bodies had been’ ibid. p.53
‘We found them among’ Paul Richey Fighter Pilot Cassell 2001 pp.69–70
‘A disillusioned Johnny’ ibid. p.90
‘All along the road’ Hart p.47
‘was led astray’ Jackson p.126
‘What are you waiting for’ ibid. p.144
‘It should really be’ Barry Leach & Ian MacDonald eds Command in Conflict: The Diaries and Notes of Colonel-General Franz Halder and Other Members of the German High Command Oxford 1985 p.656
‘I am so impatient’ Roy Macnab For Honour Alone Hale 1988 p.59
‘Today among many’ Jackson p.144
‘The British were granted’ see Max Hastings Finest Years HarperCollins 2009 p.45 et seq.
‘I should … describe France’ Jackson. p.182
‘Have we suffered enough?’ ibid. p.233
‘For years, everything done’ Némirovsky p.351
‘Stalin was in a great’ Sergei Khrushchev ed. The Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev Thomas Watson Institute 2004 Vol. I p.256
‘To his intimates’ Denis Mack Smith Mussolini Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1981 p.250
‘The C-in-C [Gen. Walter von Brauchitsch]’ Halder p.668
‘The war machine rolled’ Rosemary Say & Noel Holland Rosie’s War Michael Mara Books 2011 p.86
Chapter 4 – Britain Alone
‘I looked down on the calm’ Richey p.155
‘Heard today that Hitler’ Ronald Blythe ed. Private Words Viking 1991 p.98 19.7.40
‘a regessive moral’ Michael Burleigh Moral Combat HarperCollins 2010 p.202
‘All at once, crossfire’ Geoffrey Wellum First Light Penguin 2002 p.148
‘Spitfire on my tail!’ Stephen Bungay The Most Dangerous Enemy Aurum 2010 p.118
‘We are in the Geschwader’ ibid. p.116
‘It was just beer, women’ ibid. p.119
‘We used to booze’ James Holland Battle Over Britain HarperPress 2010 p.548
‘Our hearts leapt!’ Bungay p.179
‘When you seen’ ibid. p.124
‘There was tremendous’ ibid. p.165
‘People who stayed in’ Robert Kershaw p.163
‘It was rather like’ Beatrice Bishop Berle & Travis Beal Jacobs Navigating the Rapids 1918–1971 Harcourt Brace 1973 p.150
‘Our track across’ Robert Kershaw p.166
‘I could not get’ Holland p.383
‘I then said’ ibid. p.387
‘Oh God I do wish’ IWM 97/43/1 Denis Wissler diary 16.6.40
‘The British are slowly’ Holland p.578
‘I think everyone’ George Barclay Fighter Pilot Kimber 1976 p.43
‘We have been up four times’ ibid. p.45
‘nearly jumped clean’ Sandy Johnstone Enemy in the Sky Kimber 1976 p.118
‘Wherever one looks’ Holland p.543
‘the pure azure-blue’ ibid. p.537
‘Our airmen have had’ Headlam p.220
‘the troops under our command’ Charles Hudson Journal of Major-General Charles Hudson Wilton 65 1992 pp.187–9
‘One aristocratic housewife’ Sarah Baring The Road to Station X Wilton 65 2000 p.20
‘The Sedgebury Wallop platoon’ A.G. Street From Dusk Until Dawn Blandford 1945 pp.59–60
‘The bombs came down’ Barbara Nixon Raiders Overhead Scolar 1980 p.129
‘I wonder what the pilots’ Koa Wing p.60 15.11.40
‘Human casualties were’ Nixon pp.42–3
‘Some people … recall’ Longmate p.66
‘I pray, Oh God!’ Rev H.A. Wilson quoted Longmate pp.79–80
‘Neither had any idea’ Nixon p.62
‘It was the old people’ Owen & Walters p.94
‘as evidently her nerves’ Koa Wing p.52
‘I’ve had really’ ibid. p.53
‘Early in the war’ James Owen Danger UXB Little Brown 2010 passim
‘Early one morning’ ibid. pp.115–19 and passim
‘The first effects’ Howard Smith Last Train from Berlin London 1942 p.86
‘German command preparing’ Jeffrey p.373
‘It seems almost’ Ian Kershaw Fateful Choices Penguin 2008 passim
‘I do not suppose’ Knoke p.32
‘Germany’s 1940 victories’ see Adam Tooze The Wages of Destruction Penguin 2007 passim
‘The Prime Minister has’ Johnstone p.161
‘a malevolent suspension’ Evelyn Waugh Unconditional Surrender Chapman & Hall 1961 p.147
‘Sometimes I get’ Koa Wing p.37 4.6.40
‘The British people are’ Barclay p.73
Chapter 5 – The Mediterranean
1 MUSSOLINI GAMBLES
‘Madam, I cannot’ IWM 08/132/1 Kruczkiewicz MS p.150
‘a contemptuous joke’ Hagen p.34
‘We want to reach Suez’ Knox MacGregor Mussolini Unleashed Cambridge 1982 p.153
‘Everyone thinks only’ ibid. p.135
‘We’re trying to fight’ Colin Smith & John Bierman Alamein: War Without Hate Penguin 2002 p.28
‘loaded with the everyday’ Arthur p.191
They can’t take it’ Mark Johnston At the Front Line Cambridge 1996 p.14
‘All Australians now know’ ibid. p.15
‘One can’t help’ Smith & Bierman p.49
‘To this end’ Killingray p.169
‘It goes without saying’ Sebastian p.320
‘Every day was’ Arthur p.212
‘Beyond doubt Spain’ Stanley Payne Franco and Hitler Yale 2008 p.62
‘it was a point of both’ ibid. p.94
‘We are all twenty-one’ Smith & Bierman p.149
‘Here things are going’ Andrea Rebora ed. Letters of Lt. Pietro Ostellino N. Africa Jan. 1941 to March 1943 Prospettiva Editrice p.51
‘Morale is very high’ ibid. p.52
‘The rot seemed to set in’ Smith & Bierman p.70
‘We are well advanced’ Ostellino p.73
‘Yesterday I received’ ibid.
p.79 3.6.41
2 A GREEK TRAGEDY
‘If anyone makes’ Mack Smith p.357
‘Not having any money’ C.N. Hadjipateras & M.S. Falfalios eds Greece 1940–41 Eyewitnessed Efstathiadis 1995 p.35
‘When we’ve beaten’ ibid. p.33
‘The door of our’ ibid. p.104
‘Starving, soaked to the bone’ ibid. p.122
‘Many, many pessimists’ MacGregor p.201
‘Best place we have’ Tony Simpson Operation Mercury Hodder & Stoughton 1981 p.92
‘We were followed by’ ibid. p.101
‘It’s a peculiar feeling’ ibid. p.107
‘the patter of feet’ ibid. p.97
‘They were the ones’ Hadjipateras & Falfalios p.124
‘During the afternoon’ Johnston p.29
‘I saw a captain’ Hadjipateras & Falfalios p.197
‘George, a black night’ ibid. p.230
‘He began by saying’ ibid. p.255
‘I think … the masses’ Koa Wing p.92
3 SANDSTORMS
‘Vichy’s meddling’ For an exceptionally vivid account of Vichy’s intervention in Iraq and the campaign in Syria, see Colin Smith England’s Last War with France: Fighting Vichy 1940–42 Weidenfeld 2009 passim, especially pp.96–8
‘Churchill’s policy’ Warren Tute The Reluctant Enemies Collins 1990 p.81
‘My God, what is’ Némirovsky p.347 21.6.41
‘You thought we were’ Alan Moorehead African Trilogy Hamish Hamilton 1999 p.164
‘I for one have’ Roald Dahl Going Solo Penguin 1988 p.196
‘So long as’ Sebastian p.358
‘I can only now’ Ostellino p.140
‘We can learn from’ Johnston p.28
‘In 1941 and early 1942’ Overlord correspondence
‘One enemy post’ Johnston p.43
‘Men of both armies’ ibid. p.44
‘We were sitting up’ ibid. p.46
‘I drew alongside’ Smith & Bierman p.110
‘You are an Australian’ Johnston p.56
‘The Australians regarded’ John McManners Fusilier Michael Russell 2002 p.67
‘I came to realise’ Arthur p.153
‘The flies plague us’ Smith & Bierman p.32
‘Even the climate’ Ostellino p.96 5.8.41
‘We … slowly make ourselves’ Smith & Bierman p.134
‘Smooth yellow sand’ Alastair Borthwick Battalion Baton Wicks 1994 p.39
‘The chief occupation’ McManners p.46
‘You would think it’ Ostellino p.54 14.3.41
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