Cricket Malta Conference, January–February 1945
Culverin Proposed attack on northern Sumatra
Diadem Offensive against the Gustav Line, 1944
Dracula Combined-operations attack on Rangoon, May 1945
Dragoon Allied landings in the south of France, August 1944 (previously Anvil)
Eureka Teheran Conference, November 1943
Freehold Churchill’s visit to Athens, February 1945
Gymnast American invasion of Morocco (later Super-Gymnast, later Torch)
Habbakuk British scheme to build floating aircraft stations out of ice and wood pulp
Herbstnebel German offensive in the Ardennes, December 1944–January 1945
Husky Allied invasion of Sicily, July 1943
Iceberg American capture of the Ryukyu Islands, April 1945
Ironclad British Commonwealth attack on Madagascar, March 1942
Jubilee Raid on Dieppe, August 1942
Jupiter Proposed operations in northern Norway
Kutuzov Marshal Zhukov’s successful counter-attack during the battle of Kursk
Mandibles Proposed operations against the Dodecanese Islands
Manhattan Engineer District Development of the atomic bomb
Manna British movement into Greece after German withdrawal, October 1944
Market Garden Attempt to seize the Rhine bridges, September 1944
Modicum Marshall’s visit to London, April 1942
Mohican Allied attacks along the North African coast, similar to Super-Gymnast
Neptune Naval and air support for Overlord, June 1944
Octagon Second Quebec Conference, September 1944
Orange US pre-war contingency plans against the eventuality of war versus Japan
Overlord Invasion of Normandy, 1944 (previously Roundup)
Plunder Allied crossing of the Rhine, March 1945
PLUTO Pipeline Under The Ocean, Normandy 1944
Pointblank Allied strategic bombing offensive against Germany
Quadrant First Quebec Conference, August 1943
Rankin Plan for Allied occupation of post-war western Europe
Riviera Meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay, August 1941
Roundup Anglo-American invasion of Europe (changed to Overlord)
Sealion German plan for invasion of Britain, from 1940
Sextant First Cairo Conference, November 1943
Shingle Anzio landings, January 1944
Slapstick Landings at Taranto, September 1943
Sledgehammer Small-scale attack on the Cotentin Peninsula, 1942 or 1943
Supercharge Final phase of the battle of El Alamein, November 1942
Super-Gymnast Attack on Morocco and Algeria (later Torch)
Symbol Casablanca Conference, January 1943
Tarzan Attack in north Burma to open the Burma Road
Tolstoy Second Moscow Conference, October 1944
Torch Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942 (previously Gymnast and Super-Gymnast)
Trident Third Washington Conference, May 1943
Ultra The signals-interception project based at Bletchley Park
Veritable 21st Army Group Rhine operations, February 1945
Victor Anti-invasion exercises in 1940
Winter Storm (Wintergewitter) General von Manstein’s attempt to relieve Stalingrad, December 1942
Appendix C
The Selection of Codenames
After the US bombing attack on the Ploesti oil fields in Roumania on 1 August 1943, codenamed Operation Soapsuds, Churchill minuted to Ismay that military operations ‘ought not to be described by codenames which imply a boastful and over-confident sentiment’ or equally ones ‘which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency’. Furthermore, ‘They ought not to be names of frivolous character’ or be ‘ordinary words’ and ‘Names of living people should be avoided.’ He had already spoken to Marshall on this subject, and Soapsuds was duly rechristened with the altogether more macho name of Tidalwave. Churchill thought that codenames should be taken from ‘heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, famous racehorses and the names of British and American heroes’.
Racehorse names perhaps betrayed Churchill’s English aristocratic upbringing, but it does indeed seem astonishing that operations in which men’s lives were at stake were often given light-hearted and sometimes downright flippant codenames, but war often throws up such strange phenomena. They almost seem like fey, light-hearted jokes deliberately designed to contrast with the lethal reality of the operations they masked. Among such frivolous codenames of the Second World War were Operations Bingo, Boozer, Bunghole, Cabaret, Cellophane, Chastity, Chatanooga Choo-Choo, Corkscrew, Duck, Grapefruit, Haddock, Hats, Horlicks, Infatuate, Jockey, Juggler, Lilo, Loincloth, Mallard, Manhole, Market Garden, Modified Dracula, Mutton, Nest Egg, Pancake, Pantaloon, Peanut, Puddle, Pumpkin, Raincoat, Razzle, Rhubarb, Rhumba, Sardine, Saucy, Seaslug, Skinflint, Spinach, Squid, Teacup, Wowser and Zipper.
It cannot have been easy for parents to discover after the war that their sons’ lives had been lost on Operation Slapstick, Toenails or Maggot, in comparison to the far more martial-sounding Retribution, Mailfist, Supercharge or Musketeer. Churchill’s fears about creating ‘an air of despondency’ were surely justified by the codenames for Operations Orphan and Batty (remote-controlled B-17 bombers), Moonshine (the naval operation to pick up supplies from Sweden in 1945), Penitent (an attack on Yugoslav ports in 1945), Blot (British air operations in Europe), Grubworm (the air transport of the Chinese Army from Assam to China), Hasty (parachute drops east of Rome in June 1944), Deficient (the advance of the Indian 10th Division in 1941), Frantic (bombing raids by 8th and 15th US Air Forces in 1944), Lost (the SAS raid to the Serent after D-Day), Rockbottom (special operations over the Hump in 1943), Ratweek (a Balkan bombing offensive), Stalemate (invasion of the Palau Islands in 1944) and especially Taxable (the British radar deception operation). Nor did the French take to heart Churchill’s words about not naming operations after living people: the airborne operation by the 2ème Regiment des Chasseurs Parachutistes to harass the German retreat from Normandy near Corrèze in August 1944 was codenamed Marshall.
Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
ALAB
Papers of Lord Alanbrooke
ASTL
Papers of Joan Bright Astley
AVON
Papers of Sir Anthony Eden, later 1st Earl of Avon
BEAV
Papers of Lord Beaverbrook
BLAC
Archive of Lord Black of Crossharbour
BRGS
Papers of Lawrence Burgis
CAB
Cabinet Papers at the National Archives, Kew
CHAR
Chartwell Papers at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge
CHUR
Churchill Papers at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge
CUNN
Papers of Admiral Lord Cunningham
DILL
Papers of Sir John Dill
DUPO
Papers of Sir Dudley Pound
FDR
Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FRUS
Foreign Relations of the United States
JACB
Papers of Sir Ian Jacob
KENN
Papers of Sir John Kennedy
LEAH
Papers of Admiral William Leahy
LH
Papers of Sir Basil Liddell Hart
MAR
Papers of George C. Marshall
MHI
USA Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
NA
British National Archives
PEAK
Papers of Sir Charles Peake
PORT
Papers of Lord Portal
PREFACE
1. Lees-Milne, Enigmatic Edwardian, p. 229
2. Ibid.
, p. 330
3. BRGS 1/1/46
4. Leasor, War at the Top, pp. 40–41
5. BRGS 1/1
6. BRGS 1/2
7. BRGS 1/1/44
8. BRGS 1/2
9. CAB 69/4/38
10. KENN 4/2/3–5
INTRODUCTION
1. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 268
2. JACB 1/14/B
3. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 268
4. ALAB 11/9
5. Churchill, Hinge of Fate, p. 344
CHAPTER 1: FIRST ENCOUNTERS: 1880–JUNE 1940
1. Churchill, The World Crisis: 1915, p. 166
2. The phrase is from William F. Buckley Jr
3. ed. Kimball, Correspondence, ii, p. 355; Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt, p. 200; ed. Smith, Hostage to Fortune, p. 411; Black, Roosevelt, p. 91; Ward, First-Class Temperament, p. 393
4. Robbins, ‘The Atlantic Charter’, p. 18; Churchill, Gathering Storm, p. 345
5. Halifax Diary, 30/11/1941
6. Marshall, Together, p. 110
7. Moran, Struggle for Survival, p. 67
8. ed. Bland, Interviews, p. 40
9. MAR Secretary of Defense Papers Box 207/12
10. Ibid.
11. ed. Stephen, Sir Victor Brooke, passim
12. Lord Carver in Times Literary Supplement, 7/5/1982, p. 504
13. Layton, Mr Churchill’s Secretary, p. 51
14. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vii, p. 863
15. Russell, Churchill, pp. 49–50
16. Churchill, My Early Life, p. 57
17. Major Buckley recollections in Astley Papers
18. ed. Wheeler-Bennett, Action This Day, p. 194
19. Halifax Diary, 27/11/1941
20. JACB 4/8
21. Jenkins, Roosevelt, p. 5
22. Black, Roosevelt, pp. 65–6
23. Ibid., pp. 646, 715
24. Ibid., p. 21
25. Fraser, Alanbrooke, p. 93
26. Ibid., pp. 64–5; ALAB 11/9; ALAB 11/55
27. Greenwood, Auchinleck, p. 51
28. Ronald Lewin reviewing Fraser, Alanbrooke, in The Times, 13/5/1982
29. KENN 4/2/5
30. Interview with General Sir David Fraser, 8/6/2006
31. MHI Pogue Notes for Supreme Command, 26/8/1958
32. MAR McCarthy Papers B-17/f-18, MAR GCM Library Xerox 2256
33. Russell, Churchill, pp. 288, 297; Churchill, My Early Life, p. 327
34. Cray, General of the Army, p. 110
35. Ibid., pp. 114–15
36. Pogue, Education, p. 353
37. Ibid., p. 340; ed. Bland, Interviews, p. 109
38. ed. Bland, Interviews, p. 109
39. MHI Handy Interview 1974 section 4, p. 12
40. Ibid.; MAR William M. Spencer Interview with Marshall, 9/7/1949
41. Morgan, FDR, p. 589
42. MHI Hull Interview 1974 section 5, p. 29
43. MHI Hull Interview Session 6, pp. 24ff., interview with Larry Bland, 28/11/2006; MAR Richard DeMartino interview with Merill Pascoe, 11/11/1997, p. 7
44. MAR Pentagon Papers Boxes 80 and 81; ed. Bland, Papers, passim
45. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 71/20
46. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 22
47. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 80/28
48. Pogue, Education, pp. 341–2
49. ed. Bland, Interviews, p. 329
50. LH 15/15/1
51. Stimson and Bundy, Active Service, p. 238
52. ed. Kimball, Correspondence, i, p. 421
53. Churchill, Great Contemporaries, p. 302
54. LH 15/15/1
55. ed. Bond, Chief of Staff, i, p. 367
56. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vii, p. 865
57. 1959 BBC Interview of Lord Alanbrooke, videotape no. VC338475; Sunday Times, 27/1/1946
58. Gilbert, ‘Churchill and D-Day’, p. 24
59. ed. Macleod, Ironside Diaries, p. 351
60. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 79
61. Ibid., p. 80
62. Ibid., p. 81
63. Ibid.
64. ALAB 11/9
65. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 273
66. ALAB 11/9
CHAPTER 2: COLLECTING ALLIES: JUNE 1940–DECEMBER 1941
1. ALAB 11/59
2. Finest Hour, no. 130, Spring 2006, pp. 34–6
3. Moran, Struggle for Survival, p. 192
4. KENN 4/2/3, 21/11/1941
5. Best, Churchill and War, p. 176
6. David Freeman in Finest Hour, no. 115, Summer 2002, p. 34
7. Colville, Footprints, p. 189
8. Simpson, Stark, p. 144
9. Colville, Fringes, p. 283
10. ed. Parker, Churchill, p. 89
11. Reynolds, Creation, p. 167
12. Gilbert, Churchill War Papers, iii, p. 55
13. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 133
14. Gilbert, Churchill War Papers, iii, p. 397
15. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 154
16. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 80/29
17. ed. Danchev, Anglo-American Alliance, pp. 10–11
18. Morgan, FDR, p. 610
19. Papers of Jo, Countess of Onslow
20. BRGS 2/12, 30/3/1942
21. BLAC 4/8/1941
22. Robbins, ‘The Atlantic Charter’, p. 18
23. Morgan, FDR, pp. 596–7
24. BLAC
25. Morgan, FDR, pp. 596–7
26. BEAV D/491
27. Reynolds, In Command, p. 257; Danchev, ‘Dilly-Dally’, p. 21
28. ALAB 11/64
29. KENN 4/2/3
30. CHAR20/22/273
31. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 206
32. Howard, Mediterranean Strategy, p. 18
33. Jackson and Bramall, The Chiefs, p. 214
34. Danchev, ‘Waltzing’, p. 221; Fraser, Alanbrooke, p. 233
35. Jackson and Bramall, The Chiefs, p. 214
36. ALAB 11/74
37. CUNN Add MSS 52578/28
38. BRGS 2/22
39. CUNN Add MSS 52577/95
40. Ibid.
41. CAB 65/44/66
42. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 116
43. Marshall, Together, p. 145
44. KENN 4/2/3; Sunday Times, 27/1/1946
45. KENN 4/2/3
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. BRGS 2/10
49. KENN 4/2/3
50. Ibid.
51. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 209; KENN 4/2/4, p. 301
CHAPTER 3: EGOS IN ARCADIA: DECEMBER 1941–FEBRUARY 1942
1. Churchill, Hinge of Fate, p. 290
2. CHUR 4/225A/138; Ismay, Memoirs, p. 243
3. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 30
4. BRGS 2/10
5. Stimson and Bundy, Active Service, p. 207
6. Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vii, pp. 10–13
7. LH 15/15/1
8. Best, Churchill and War, p. 93
9. Stimson and Bundy, Active Service, p. 214
10. Morgan, FDR, p. 637
11. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 80/30
12. Stimson and Bundy, Active Service, p. 212
13. MHI Handy Interview 1974 section 3, p. 42
14. JACB 1/13/16
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. MAR Robinett Papers Box 21, p. 357
18. MHI Handy Interview 1974 section 4, pp. 10–11
19. MAR Robinett Papers Box 21, p. 363
20. Danchev, On Specialness, p. 19
21. ed. Kimball, Correspondence, i, p. 293
22. MHI Pogue Interview, 20/12/46, p. 3
23. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 272; Ismay, Memoirs, p. 244
24. ed. Bland, Interviews, pp. 413–14
25. Ibid.
26. Danchev, ‘Very Special Relationship’, p. 5
27. MAR Robinett Papers Box 21, p. 365
28. Bercuson and Herwig, One Christmas, p. 178
2
9. ed. Bland, Interviews, p. 601
30. Fenby, Alliance, p. 53
31. Gilbert, Churchill War Papers, iii, p. 1696; Reynolds, In Command, p. 40
32. JACB 1/13/20
33. Moran, Struggle for Survival, p. 20
34. ed. White, Stillwell Papers, p. 44
35. Ibid., pp. 44–5
36. Ibid., p. 47
37. ed. Bland, Interviews, pp. 592–3
38. Halifax Diary, 18/2/1942
39. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 80/31
40. Dupuy and Dupuy, Collins Encyclopedia, p. 1309
41. MAR Pentagon Papers Box 71/20
42. MAR Robinett Papers Box 21, p. 356
43. JACB 1/13/40
44. BRGS 2/11, 18/1/1942
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. CAB 69/4/23
48. BRGS 2/11, 2/2/1942
49. AVON 20/1/22
50. KENN 4/2/4
51. Danchev, On Specialness, p. 23
52. MHI Charles Donnelly Autobiography, p. 634
53. ed. Danchev, Anglo-American Alliance, p. 13
54. Danchev, ‘Very Special Relationship’, p. 6
55. ed. Danchev, Anglo-American Alliance, p. 8
56. MHI Handy Interview 1974 section 4, p. 18
57. ed. Bland, Interviews, pp. 623–4; Parrish, Roosevelt and Marshall, p. 251
58. Stimson and Bundy, Active Service, p. 213
59. MHI Caraway Interview 1971 section 6, pp. 50–51
60. Hastings, Nemesis, p. 21; MHI Handy Interview 1974 section 4, p. 10
61. Jackson and Bramall, The Chiefs, p. 226
62. Harmon, ‘Alanbrooke and Churchill’, p. 36
63. Colville, Footprints, p. 190
64. Tully, FDR, p. 262
65. ed. Bland, Interviews, p. 436
66. eds Danchev and Todman, Diaries, p. 228
67. Danchev, On Specialness, p. 18
68. ALAB 6/2/12/8A
69. Kennedy, Business of War, pp. 104–5
CHAPTER 4: BROOKE AND MARSHALL ESTABLISH DOMINANCE: FEBRUARY–MARCH 1942
1. NAWO 193/334, 4/10/1942
2. Brodhurst, Churchill’s Anchor, p. 208
3. Ibid., passim; David Freeman in Finest Hour, no. 115, Summer 2002, p. 35
4. Brodhurst, Churchill’s Anchor, pp. 211–12
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