by John Lukacs
Had Hitler won, his New Order, too, would not have lasted forever, though it might have lasted for a long time. In 1989 I wrote a book about the duel between Churchill and Hitler in 1940. Now, ten years later, we can see that in 1989 not only was an entire century closing (the short twentieth century from 1914 to 1989) but an entire age was closing as well, an age that had begun about five hundred years ago and that was, among other things, characterized by the struggle and increasing coexistence of Aristocracy with Democracy, with the latter gradually rising and the former gradually weakening. Now we have begun living in an age where the remnants of that earlier age are gone and when global democracy — unquestioned democracy, with its unforeseeable circumstances and conditions and perils — is beginning. This is neither the place nor the time to speculate about that. But what we must understand is that the history of the fifty years from 1940 to 1990 was inseparable from what happened in 1940, just as the Cold War too was but the result of the Second World War. At best, civilization may survive, at least in some small part due to Churchill in 1940. At worst, he helped to give us — especially those of us who are no longer young but who were young then—fifty years. Fifty years before the rise of new kinds of barbarism not incarnated by the armed might of Germans or Russians, before the clouds of a new Dark Age may darken the lives of our children and grandchildren. Fifty years! Perhaps that was enough.
Bibliography
Unpublished Sources
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON/KEW
CAB 65 War Cabinet Conclusions and Confidential Annexes
CAB 66 War Cabinet Memoranda
CAB 69 Defence Committee and Confidential Annex
CAB 99 Supreme War Council Meetings
CAB 127 Private Office Papers (Horace Wilson)
PREM 3 Prime Minister’s Papers
PREM 4 Prime Minister’s Papers
WO 216 Chief of the Imperial General Staff
INF Ministry of Information Papers
FO 371 Foreign Office Papers
FO 408 Foreign Office Papers
FO 800 (800/323 Halifax, 800/326 Mallet) Foreign Office Papers FO 1011 Foreign Office Papers
CHURCHILL ARCHIVES, CHURCHILL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (CA AND CH/A)
1/355 1940 Correspondence
2/394-401 1940 Personal Office
20/1/8 Correspondence
22/3 Cabinet Notes and Correspondence
Chartwell Household Papers
Churchill: Private Correspondence
Cadogan, Sir Alexander, Diaries
Colville, John, Diaries
Cooper, Alfred Duff, Earl of Norwich, Diaries and Papers
Halifax, Earl of, Papers, Microfilmed. (Also see below, in York.)
Hankey, Lord Maurice, Diaries and Papers
Jacob, Sir Ian, Diaries
Margesson, Viscount David, Diaries
Reeves (Emery: Révész) Papers
Vansittart, Sir Robert, Diaries
OTHER UNPUBLISHED SOURCES
Alanbrooke, Viscount (Sir Alan Francis Brooke). Papers. King’s College, London.
Astor, Nancy. Papers. University of Reading.
Buder, R. A. Papers. Trinity College, Cambridge.
Chamberlain, Neville. Papers. University of Birmingham.
Dalton, Hugh. Papers. London School of Economics.
Eden, Anthony (Earl of Avon). Papers. University of Birmingham.
Esnouf, G. N. “British Government War Aims and Attitudes Toward a Negotiated Peace, September 1939 to July 1940.” Ph.D. diss., Cambridge, 1988. In the Library of King’s College, London.
Halifax, Earl of. Papers. Borthwick Institute, University of York.
Ismay, Lord Hastings. Papers. King’s College, London. Lawlor, Sheila. “British Policies and Strategy, May 1940-March 1941” Ph.D. diss., Cambridge, 1980.
Lloyd George, David. Papers. House of Lords Record Office, London.
Mass-Observation Archives. University of Sussex, Falmer/Brighton.
Nicolson, Harold. Papers. Balliol College, Oxford.
Published Sources
DOCUMENTARY COLLECTIONS
ADAP Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik, 1918-1945, series D, vols. 10, 11. Frankfurt and Bonn, 1961-65.
AOK/KTB Armeeoberkommando/Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht. P. Schramm, ed. Frankfurt, 1961-65.
BBC/WAC BBC Written Archives Centre. Caversham Park, Reading.
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 1. W. Kimball, ed. Princeton, 1985.
The Churchill War Papers. Companion Volume 2. Martin Gilbert, ed. New York, 1995.
DDI Documenti diplomatici italiani, 1939-1943, series 9, vol. 4. Rome, 1965.
Hansard House of Commons Record of Sessions.
Hitler, Adolf. The Testament of Adolf Hitler: The Hitler-Bormann Documents, February-April 194s. London, 1959-
DIARIES AND MEMOIRS
Allingham, Margery. The Oaken Heart. New York, 1941.
Amery, Leo. My Political Life, vol. 2. London, 1955•
—. The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries, 1929-194S. London, 1988.
Among You Taking Notes: The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison, 1939–1945. Dorothy Sheridan, ed. London, 1985.
Baffy: The Diaries of Blanche Dugdale, 1936-1947. Norman Rose, ed. London, 1967.
Boothby, Robert. I Fight to Live. London, 1967.
Brittain, Vera. England’s Hour. New York, 1941.
The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan. David Dilks, ed. London, 1971.
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon. Robert James Rhodes, ed. London, 1967.
Clark, Kenneth. Another Part of the Wood: A Self Portrait. New York, 1974.
Colville, John. The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, 1939–1945. London, 1985.
Cooper, Duff. Old Men Forget. London, 1953.
Dalton, Hugh. The Fateful Years: Memoirs, 1939-1945. London, 1957.
—. The Second World War Diary of Hugh Dalton, 1940–1945. Ben Pimlott, ed. London, 1988.
de Gaulle, Charles. The Call to Honour, 1940-1942. Vol. 1 of War Memoirs. London, 1955.
Eden, Anthony. The Reckoning. London, 1965.
Engel, D. Heeresadjutant bei Hitler, 1938-1943, Stuttgart, 1974.
Forrestal, James. The Forrestal Diaries. Walter Millis, ed. New York, 1951.
Halder, F. Kriegstagebuch, 1939-1942. H. Jacobsen, ed. Stuttgart, 1962.
Halifax, Earl of. Fulness of Days. London, 1957.
The Diplomatic Diaries of Oliver Harvey. London, 1970.
Henrey, Mrs. Robert. The Siege of London. London, 1946.
Hewison, Robert. Under Siege: Literary Life in London, 1939-1945. London, 1988.
Ironside, William Edmund. The Ironside Diaries, 1937-1940. Roderick Macleod and Denis Kelly, eds. London, 1962.
Ismay, Lord Hastings. The Memoirs of Lord Ismay. London, 1960.
With Malice Toward None: A War Diary by Cecil H. King. W. Armstrong, ed. London, 1970.
Macmillan, Harold. The Blast of War, 1939–1945. New York, 1967.
Milburn’s Diary: An Englishwoman’s Daily Reflections, 1939–1945. Peter Donnelly, ed. London, 1979.
Nella’s Last War: A Mother’s Diary, 1939–1945. Richard Broad and Suzie Fleming, eds. London, 1981.
Nicolson, Harold. 1939–1945- Vol. 2 of Diaries and Letters. Nigel Nicolson, ed. London, 1967.
The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: 1940–1943. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, eds. London 1968.
Chief of Staff : The Diaries of Lieutenant General Henry Pownall. 2 vols. Brian Bond, ed. London, 1972, 1975.
Raczynski, Edward. In Wartime London. London, 1962.
Reith, Lord. The Reith Diaries. Stuart Charles, ed. London, 1975.
Schroeder, Christa. Er War mein Chef: Aus den Nachlass der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler. A. Joachimsthaler, ed. Munich, 1985.
Thompson, W. H. Fifty Minutes with Winston Churchill. London, 1951.
The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh. Michael Davie, ed. London, 197
6.
Woolf, Leonard. The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: An Autobiography of the Years, 1939–1969. New York, 1970
The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Vol. 5. New York, 1984.
OTHER PUBLISHED SOURCES
Addison, Paul. The Road to 1945: British Politics and the Second World War. London, 1975.
—. “Churchill in British Politics, 1940–1955.” In The Political Culture of Modem Britain: Studies in Memory of Stephen Koss. J. M. W. Bean, ed. London, 1987.
Ansel, W. Hitler Confronts England. Durham, N.C., 1960.
Aster, Sidney. The Making of the Second World War. London, 1939, 1973.
Bell, P. M. H. A Certain Eventuality: Britain and the Fall of France. London, 1974.
—. “British Public Opinion on the War and the French Alliance, September 1939-May 1940.” English typescript of his article in Français et britanniques dans la drôle de guerre (1979) : 51–80.
Birkenhead, Earl of. Halifax: The Life of Lord Halifax. London, 1965.
Bond, Brian. Britain, France, and Belgium, 1939-1940. London, 1975.
Calder, Angus. The People’s War: Britain, 1939–1945. London, 1969.
Cannadine, David C. Aspects of Aristocracy. New Haven, 1994.
Charmley, John. Churchill: The End of Glory. London, 1993.
Churchill, Winston Spencer. Their Finest Hour. Vol. 2 of The Second World War. Boston, 1949.
Colvin, Ian. The Chamberlain Cabinet: How the Meetings in 10 Downing Street, 1937-9, Led to the Second World War. London, 1971.
Cowling, Maurice. The Impact of Hitler: British Politics and British Policy, 1933–1940. Cambridge, 1975.
Delpla, François. Les Papiers secrets de général Doumenc. Paris, 1992.
—. La Ruse nazie: Dunkerque, 24 mai 1940. Paris, 1992.
Dilks, David. “Allied Leadership in the Second World War: Churchill.” Survey 21, nos. 1/2 (1975).
—. “The Twilight War and the Fall of France: Chamberlain and Churchill in 1940.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, vol. 28 (1978): 61-86.
Feiling, Keith. The Life of Neville Chamberlain. London, 1946, 1970.
Gates, Eleanor M. The End of the Affair: The Collapse of the Anglo-French Alliance, 1939-1940. Berkeley, 1981.
Gilbert, Martin. Finest Hour, 1939-1941. Vol. 6 of Winston S. Churchill. Boston, 1983.
Gillam, Geoffrey. Enfield at War, 1939–1945. n.d.
Green, Henry. Caught. London, 1943.
Hillgruber, Andreas. Hitlers Strategie: Politik und Kriegsführung, 1940-1941. Dusseldorf, 1965.
Howard, Anthony, RAB: The Life of R. A. Butler. London, 1987.
Howard, Michael. The Continental Commitment: The Dilemma of British Defence Policy in the Era of the Two World Wars. London, 1972.
Keyes, Sir Roger. Outrageous Fortune: The Tragedy of Leopold II of the Belgians, 1901-1941. London, 1984.
Lamb, Richard. The Ghosts of Peace, 1935-1945. London, 1987.
Lawlor, Sheila. Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940-1941. Cambridge, 1994.
Lukacs, John. The Last European War, 1939-1941. New York, 1976.
—. The Duel: 10 May-31 July 1940; The Eighty-Day Struggle Between Churchill and Hitler. New York, 1991.
Mass-Observation. War Begins at Home. London, 1940.
Mortimer, John, Clinging to the Wreckage. New York, 1982.
Moynihan, Michael, ed. People at War, 1939–1942. London, 1972.
Neave, Airey. The Flames of Calais. London, 1972.
Ponting, Clive. 1940: Myth and Reality. London, 1990.
Powell, Anthony. A Dance to the Music of Time, vols. 7 and 8. London, 1964, 1966.
Raleigh, Sir Walter. English Voyages of the Sixteenth Century. Glasgow, 1928.
Reynolds, David. “Churchill and the British Decision to Fight On in 1940: Right Policy, Wrong Reasons.” In Diplomacy and Intelligence. R. Lang-home, ed. Cambridge, 1985.
—. The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937-1941. London, 1989.
—. “1940: Fulcrum of the Twentieth Century?” International Affairs, 66 (1990).
Roberts, Andrew. The Holy Fox: A Life of Lord Halifax. London, 1991.
—. Eminent Churchillians. London, 1994.
Rose, Kenneth. King George V. New York, 1984.
Simpson, A. W. B. In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention Without Trial in Wartime Britain. London, 1992.
Smith, Godfrey, ed. The English Reader: An Anthology. London, 1988.
Taylor, A. J. P. English History, 1914–1945, Oxford, 1965.
Villelume, V. Journal d’une défaite. Paris, 1976.
War Begins at Home: Mass-Observation. London, 1940.
Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John. King George VI. London, 1958.
—. Action This Day: Working with Churchill. Memoirs by Lord Normanbrook, John Colville, Sir John Martin, Sir Ian Jacob, Lord Bridges, and Sir Leslie Rowan. London, 1968.
Woodward, Sir Llewellyn. History of the Second World War: British Foreign Policy in the Second World War. 2 vols. London, 1971.
Ziegler, Philip. London at War, 1939–1945. New York, 1995.
NEWSPAPERS (23-30 MAY 1940)
Daily Express
Daily Herald
Daily Mail
Daily Mirror
Daily Telegraph
Illustrated London News
Manchester Guardian
News Chronicle
The Scotsman
Times (London)
Yorkshire Post
Illustration Credits
Page 28 — AP / Wide World Photos. Reprinted by permission.
Page 36 — From the archives of the Imperial War Museum, London.
Reprinted by permission of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum,
London.
Page 52 — Ian Colvin, The Chamberlain Cabinet (New York, 1971),
frontispiece.
Page 70 — AP/Wide World Photos. Reprinted by permission.
Page 154 — Private collection of the Earl of Halifax, reprinted in Andrew
Roberts, The Holy Fox: A Life of Lord Halifax (London, 1991), 108.
Page 166 — Punch, 14 August 1940. Reprinted by permission.
Page 176 — Photograph from Popper Foto / Archives Photo. Reprinted by
permission.
Index
Aa Canal, 40, 44–45
Alba, Duke of, 173
Alexander, A. V, 142, 190n.
Allingham, Margery, 31 ff., 163, 198–99
Amery, Leo, 5–6, 8, 184n.
Astor, Nancy, 131, 157
Attlee, C. R., 68, 71, 94, 107, 109, 120, 127, 157
Australia, 75, 142
Austria, 8–9, 59
Baldwin, Stanley, 8, 14, 50–51, 62
Ball, Sir Joseph, 90
Barcza, György, 173
Bastianini, Giuseppe, 89ff., 105, 108 ff., 147, 172–73, 186n.
Beaton, Cecil, 17
Beaverbrook, Lord, 96, 210
Belgium, 15, 85, 96, 105–6, 140, 177, 215
Bell, Clive, 158n.
Bell, P. M. H., 28n., 107n., 152n.
Berle, Adolf, 72n.
Betjeman, John, 134
Bloch, Marc, 174
Bock, Fedor von, 192
Bonaparte, 126, 134
Bond, Brian, 17n., 40n.
Boothby, Robert, 16–17
Borrow, George, 129n.
Boulogne, 15, 19–20, 26, 39, 42, 99
Brabourne, Lord, 58n.
Bridges, Sir Edward, 113, 202n.
Brittain, Vera, 33–34, 200
Bruce, Stanley, 142
Bullitt, William C, 75, 144
Burke, Edmund, 124–25
Buder, R. A., 24–25, 37 ff., 76, 92, 203–4
Cadogan, Alexander, 64, 111n., 119, 145, 152n., 174, 195
Calais, 15, 19, 26–27, 39, 42 ff., 71, 129, 136, 141
Caldecote, Viscount, 142
Campbell, Sir Ronald, 143
Campinchi, César, 88–89
Canada, 76
&nb
sp; Cannadine, David, 21
Cartier de Marchienne, 173
Casdereagh, 125
Cazalet, Victor, 203n.
Chamberlain, Joseph, 54
Chamberlain, Neville, 5 ff., 8 ff., 12, 17, 19, 31, 48, 51
with Churchill, 14, 23, 53, 69, 119 ff.
conservatism of, 52 ff., 61 ff., 81
on 26 May, 105, 109–10, 113, 115, 117, 119 ff
on 27 May, 141–42, 146, 151–52, 156
on 28 May, 177–78, 182, 190, 195, 210
Channon, Henry (Chips), 210
Charmley, John, 215
Chesterton, G. K., 13
Churchill, Clementine (Mrs. Winston), 105
Churchill, Mary, 24
Churchill, Winston, 1 ff
War Memoirs, 1 ff., 41
on 10 May, 5–6
in 1938-39, 10–11
relations with Chamberlain, 14, 23, 53, 69, 119 ff
in April 1940, 13
distrust of, 14, 21–22
on 13 May, 25
on 16 May, 26
on 18 May, 18, 25
on 19 May, 35–36, 38, 42 ff
on 24 May, 42–43, 53, 71 ff
on 25 May, 45, 86, 91, 95 ff
relations with Halifax, 61, 65 ff., 94–95, 108–9, 112 ff., 116–17, 123 ff., 146 ff., 153–54, 180–81, 202, 205
relations with Roosevelt, 72 ff., 81, 143–45, 153, 172
on 26 May, 104 ff., 128–30
on 27 May, 146ff.
on 28 May, 2–5, 162ff., 172, 177–78, 183 ff., 189–90
on 29 May and after, 189 ff., 201 ff., 211, 218–19
vision of Europe, 213–16
Ciano, Galeazzo, 98n.
Clark, Alan, 215
Clark, Kenneth, 30–31, 56–57
Colville, John, 19, 24–25, 56–57, 190, 214n.
Colvin, Ian, 69