The Splendid and the Vile

by Erik Larson

  “Among the heaps of brick”: Harrisson, Living Through the Blitz, 82.

  “No one wanted to be alone”: Cowles, Looking for Trouble, 441.

  “Every night next week”: Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman Fisk, June n.d., 1941, Correspondence, W. Averell Harriman Papers.

  “For the young it was”: Stansky, First Day of the Blitz, 170–71.

  “The normal barriers”: Ogden, Life of the Party, 122.

  “only one complete for me”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 186.

  “I have never in all my life”: Ziegler, London at War, 91.

  He had come close: Fort, Prof, 161–63.

  “Now come on”: Ibid., 163.

  CHAPTER 52: BERLIN

  In the first three months: Overy, Bombing War, 97.

  “The Fat One promised”: Galland, The First and the Last, 37.

  Night bombing, the airman said: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 411–13. British intelligence made it a point to take cooperative prisoners on tours of London, even to the theater, to show them how much of the city had survived the bombing. “Prisoners saw for themselves that London was not lying in ruins as they had been led to believe,” states an intelligence report on the process. Seeing this shook their confidence in what their leaders had been telling them and often made them more cooperative. “Intelligence from Interrogation: Intelligence from Prisoners of War,” 10, AIR 40/1177, UKARCH.

  Another intelligence report presents an excerpt of a conversation between two prisoners recorded by British interrogators eavesdropping through microphones, in which one prisoner says, “I still can’t understand that London still exists!”

  “Yes,” the other says, “it is inexplicable, though I was driven all round the outer districts, but…more must have been smashed up!” Special Extract No. 57, WO 208/3506, UKARCH. (Interestingly, this file was kept secret until 1992.)

  “An airplane carrying Hitler”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 448.

  “an unmistakable wave of optimism”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 97.

  “must expect to find himself”: Ibid., 98.

  CHAPTER 53: TARGET CHURCHILL

  “striding along the middle”: Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, 118.

  “One thing worries me”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:818–19.

  “It may be fun for you”: Pottle, Champion Redoubtable, 228.

  “When I was at Chequers”: Lee to Neville Chamberlain, April 4, 1940, PREM 14/19, UKARCH.

  “I don’t know how to fire a gun”: Ogden, Life of the Party, 95; Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 10; Pamela C. Harriman, “Churchill’s Dream,” American Heritage, Oct./Nov. 1983.

  Compounding Ismay’s worries: Ismay to P. Allen, Aug. 29, 1940, PREM 14/33, UKARCH.

  Sewage could be a problem: Ismay to General Sir Walter K. Venning, Aug. 8, 1940, “Protection of Chequers,” pt. 3, WO 199/303, UKARCH.

  “These would provide”: J. B. Watney to GHQ Home Forces, Sept. 22, 1940, and “Note for War Diary,” Sept. 14, 1940, “Protection of Chequers,” pt. 3, UKARCH.

  One detailed assay: “Report on Cigars Presented to the Prime Minister by the National Tobacco Commission of Cuba,” Oct. 14, 1941, CHAR 2/434.

  “Gentlemen,” he said: Gilbert, War Papers, 3:1238.

  The Prof, he told Churchill: Ibid., 1238n.

  “The Professor thought”: Colville to Churchill, June 18, 1941, CHAR 2/434, Winston Churchill Papers.

  “The sirens, it must be admitted”: Farrer, Sky’s the Limit, 63.

  “The decision might”: Beaverbrook to Churchill, June 26, 1940, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.

  “It was the appearance”: Farrer, Sky’s the Limit, 65.

  “Beaverbrook is a man”: Ibid., 63.

  In one memorandum: Lindemann to Churchill, minute, Aug. 14, 1940, F113/19, Lindemann Papers.

  “In my view burning oil”: Lindemann to Churchill, Aug. 20, 1940, F114/12, Lindemann Papers.

  “Another victory for evacuation”: Home Intelligence Weekly Report for Sept. 30–Oct. 9, 1940, INF 1/292, UKARCH.

  “I don’t see how”: Diary, Sept. 26 and 27, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

  “All today seemed overcast”: Ibid., Sept. 27, 1940.

  “I cannot feel”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:902.

  The dinner was in full sway: Diary, Oct. 8, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers; Soames, Daughter’s Tale, 179–80.

  “I’ve told you five times”: Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

  “Winston Churchill Junior arrived”: Diary, Oct. 10, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

  Pamela’s husband, Randolph: Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers; Ogden, Life of the Party, 100; Smith, Reflected Glory, 72.

  “Will they do us any damage”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:307.

  “Certainly there is a danger”: Ibid., 309.

  “Probably, they don’t think”: Ibid.

  “It is quite a business”: Nicolson, War Years, 128–29.

  “I have always been”: Roy Jenkins, Churchill, 640.

  “Max knows how”: Chisholm and Davie, Beaverbrook, 445.

  CHAPTER 54: SPENDTHRIFT

  “Yes,” Pamela assured him: Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

  One day after a shopping trip: Ibid.; Ogden, Life of the Party, 92.

  “Instead of this”: Winston Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Oct. 18, 1931, RDCH 1/3/3, Randolph Churchill Papers.

  “as I really cannot run the risk”: Winston Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Feb. 14, 1938, RDCH 1/3/3, Randolph Churchill Papers.

  “She was wonderfully comforting”: Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

  “What a shock it was”: Ogden, Life of the Party, 102–3.

  “Oh! Randy everything would be so nice”: Winston S. Churchill, Memories and Adventures, 14.

  “It is a very good thing”: Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Sept. 17 and 18, 1940, RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 1, Randolph Churchill Papers.

  “Please darling pay”: Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Sept. 9, 1940, RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 1, Randolph Churchill Papers.

  “I know it is difficult”: Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, [n.d., but likely late Oct. 1940], RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 2, Randolph Churchill Papers.

  “We have no gas”: Pottle, Champion Redoubtable, 230.

  “They heard the bomb”: Nicolson, War Years, 121.

  “Where is Nelson”: J. Gilbert Jenkins, Chequers, 146.

  In London that following Saturday: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:318.

  “I believe that I can do it!”: Ismay, Memoirs, 175; Elletson, Chequers and the Prime Ministers, 110.

  CHAPTER 55: WASHINGTON AND BERLIN

  “When your boy”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 198.

  “I have said this before”: Ibid., 191.

  “a very difficult situation for Germany”: Kershaw, Nemesis, 336.

  “The decisive thing”: Overy, Battle of Britain, 98.

  “For the first time”: “Air Defense of Great Britain,” vol. 3, “Night Air Defense, June 1940–December 1941,” 82, AIR 41/17, UKARCH. The report uses the phrase “small propositions,” surely an unintended substitute for “proportions.”

  CHAPTER 56: THE FROG SPEECH

  The ministry sent: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:979.

  “frog speech”: Toye, Roar of the Lion, 80.

  “He relished the flavor”: Ibid., 81.

  “On my knees”: Ibid.

  “Frenchmen!”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:980–82.

  “Tonight Papa spoke”: Diary, Oct. 21, 1940, Mary Churchil
l Papers.

  “heavy sentences for radio offenders”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 108.

  “in the long run”: “Intelligence from Interrogation: Intelligence from Prisoners of War,” 42, AIR 40/1177, UKARCH.

  CHAPTER 57: THE OVIPOSITOR

  “It looks all right”: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 189.

  “It is the best thing”: Nicolson, War Years, 126.

  “Glory hallelujah!!”: Diary, Nov. 6, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

  “This does not mean”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:1053–54.

  “Would you kindly find out”: Ibid., 1147.

  “I trust this unlikely accident”: Lindemann to Churchill, Nov. 1, 1940, F121/1, Lindemann Papers.

  “Professor Lindemann implies”: Portal to Churchill, Nov. 5, 1940, PREM 3/22/4b, UKARCH.

  A navy salvage squad: Wakefield, Pfadfinder, 67.

  “It is a very great pity”: Lindemann to Churchill, Nov. 13, 1940, PREM 3/22/4b, UKARCH.

  “Pray make proposals”: Churchill to Ismay, Nov. 18, 1940, PREM 3/22/4b, UKARCH.

  The airplane had been lost: Ismay to Churchill, Nov. 21, 1940, PREM 3/22/4b, UKARCH.

  Lost in this acerbic interchange: See Wakefield, Pfadfinder, 64–67, for a detailed account of the pilot Hans Lehmann’s very bad night.

  CHAPTER 58: OUR SPECIAL SOURCE

  All the official intelligence reports and memoranda that I used to tell the story of the Coventry attack in this chapter and the one following may be found in the file “German Operations ‘Moonlight Sonata’ (Bombing of Coventry) and Counter-plan ‘Cold Water,’ ” AIR 2/5238, in the National Archives of the United Kingdom. Ever since the attack, conspiracy-minded souls have sought to prove that Churchill knew all about it but did nothing, in order to avoid revealing the secret of Bletchley Park. However, the documentary record, declassified in 1971, makes it clear that Churchill on that night had no idea Coventry was the target.

  “apolaustically”: Colville, Winston Churchill, 85.

  Growing impatient: As Inspector Thompson put it, “He could no more stay out of a raid than he could sit still in a debate in Parliament.” Thompson, Assignment, 126.

  CHAPTER 59: A COVENTRY FAREWELL

  “We could almost have read”: Longmate, Air Raid, 73.

  “The air was filled”: Ibid., 79.

  “After a time”: Ibid., 102.

  Her seven-year-old said: Ibid., 109.

  “The complication with bomb lacerations”: Ibid., 105.

  “During the course of my training”: Ibid., 106.

  “The whole interior”: Ibid., 95.

  “When we went out”: Donnelly, Mrs. Milburn’s Diaries, 66.

  Now came scenes of horror: Süss, Death from the Skies, 412; Longmate, Air Raid, 156.

  “It is greatly regretted”: Longmate, Air Raid, 223.

  “The roots of the Air Force”: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 454.

  “He’d asked Coventry’s workers”: Longmate, Air Raid, 196.

  “since the night was so clear”: “Note on German Operation ‘Moonlight Sonata,” and Counter-plan ‘Cold Water,’ ” 2, AIR 2/5238, UKARCH.

  “Oh dear!” she cried: Longmate, Air Raid, 202.

  A team of Mass-Observation researchers: Harrisson, Living Through the Blitz, 135.

  “The strangest sight of all”: Ibid., 134.

  “No means of defense”: Longmate, Air Raid, 212.

  “exceptional success”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 109.

  “The reports from Coventry”: Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 177.

  “The unpredictable consequences”: Kesselring, Memoirs, 81.

  “The usual cheers”: Bekker, Luftwaffe Diaries, 180.

  CHAPTER 60: DISTRACTION

  “Mounted on two”: Diary, Nov. 17, 1940, Colville Papers.

  “I enclose a sketch”: Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Nov. 19, 1940, RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 2, Randolph Churchill Papers.

  “Having no false dignity”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:379.

  The child was round: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:1002.

  “As it was my birthday”: Elletson, Chequers and the Prime Ministers, 107.

  “I have never forgotten”: Cowles, Winston Churchill, 327.

  “I am not now the man”: Beaverbrook to Winston Churchill, Dec. 2, 1940, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.

  “As I told you”: Churchill to Beaverbrook, Dec. 3, 1940, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.

  CHAPTER 61: SPECIAL DELIVERY

  “The Prime Minister said”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:1169.

  “I have not been able”: Churchill to Sinclair et al., Dec. 9, 1940, G 26/1, Lindemann Papers.

  “Surely there is”: Churchill to Sinclair et al., Jan. 12, 1941, G 35/30, Lindemann Papers.

  “It’s horrible”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:1204.

  “As we reach the end”: Churchill to Roosevelt, Dec. 7, 1940, FDR/Diplo. Also in FDR/Map.

  “Another victim for Christian Science”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 272.

  “Orangeade and Christian Science”: Cooper, Trumpets from the Steep, 69.

  “Papa in very bad mood”: Diary, Dec. 12, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

  “Since we aimed”: Gilbert, War Papers, 2:1217.

  “I didn’t know for quite awhile”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 224.

  CHAPTER 62: DIRECTIVE

  “How do I feel”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 181–82.

  CHAPTER 63: THAT SILLY OLD DOLLAR SIGN

  “I don’t think there is”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 225.

  “ploughing under every fourth”: Ibid., 229.

  CHAPTER 64: A TOAD AT THE GATE

  “There was nothing”: A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook, 58.

  “He returned to Churchill”: Andrew Roberts, “Holy Fox,” 275.

  “the shock effect”: Hylton, Their Darkest Hour, 107.

  “to say that their mental health”: James R. Wilkinson to Walter H. McKinney, Dec. 27, 1940, FDR/Diplo.

  The blackout invariably: Harrisson, Living Through the Blitz, 313.

  “Blinds must be kept”: Cockett, Love and War in London, 149.

  “Used to smoke occasionally”: Ibid., 140.

  What Clementine found: Clementine Churchill to Winston Churchill, Jan. 3, 1941; “The 3-Tier Bunk,” “Sanitation in Shelter,” “Shelters Visited in Bermondsey on Thursday December 19th 1940,” all in PREM 3/27, UKARCH.

  Along these lines, here is a nice breakfast story: Earlier in the fall, the journalist Kingsley Martin visited the massive Tilbury shelter in the East End, a margarine warehouse that nightly drew up to fourteen thousand people. He then wrote a graphic essay about the experience, titled “The War in East London.” The shelter’s inhabitants—“Whites, Jews and Gentiles, Chinese, Indians and Negroes”—paid little attention to sanitation, he wrote. “They urinate and defecate in every part of the building. The process is helped by the convenience of the margarine in cardboard cases which can be piled up into useful mounds behind which people can dig themselves in and sleep and defecate and urinate in comfort.” He did not know whether this margarine had then been distributed to food markets in the city, but wrote that “the dangers of thousands of people sleeping on London’s margarine is obvious enough.”

  More toast anyone? PREM 3/27, UKARCH.

  “Now is the time”: Churchill to Home Secretary et al., March 29, 1941, PREM 3/27, UKARCH.

  “Furious,” he wrote: Cadogan, Diaries, 342.

  “I looked up and saw”: Ibid., 343.

  “He was very unhappy”: Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 520.

  CHAPTER 65: WEIHNACHTEN

  “When w
ill that creature”: Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 179–80.

  “It seems that the English”: Ibid., 208.

  “The German Armed Forces”: Trevor-Roper, Blitzkrieg to Defeat, 49.

  “No strip dancers”: Boelcke, Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, 112.

  He warned his lieutenants: Ibid., 110.

  “A lot of work”: For this succession of diary entries, see Fred Taylor, Goebbels Diaries, 201, 204, 215, 217, 209.

  An idea came to Hess: Stafford, Flight from Reality, 126, 127.

  CHAPTER 66: RUMORS

  As Christmas neared: For these rumors, and many others, see Home Intelligence Weekly Reports for Sept. 30–Oct. 9, 1940; Oct. 7–Oct. 14, 1940; Jan. 15–Jan. 22, 1941; Feb. 12–Feb. 19, 1941, all in INF 1/292, UKARCH. Regarding the Wimbledon rumor, see “Extract from Minute by Mr. Chappell to Mr. Parker, Sept. 23, 1940,” HO 199/462, UKARCH.

  CHAPTER 67: CHRISTMAS

  He gave the king: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:383.

  “There may not be”: Lee, London Observer, 187.

  “Apparently,” wrote John Martin: Martin, Downing Street, 37.

  “A busy Christmas”: Colville, Fringes of Power, 1:383.

  “But it gave me a pang”: Diary, Dec. 24, 1940, Colville Papers.

  “I know what your wife”: Colville, Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle, 110.