by John Kelly
Eternal England, 179
German Propaganda Ministry, 236, 308
Nazi, 234
Proust, Marcel, 36
Prytz, Björn, 255, 304–5
Raeder, Erich, 65, 307
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 269
Ramsay, Bertram, 212
rearmament and rearmament debate, 9–10, 18, 19, 41–42, 83, 125, 207, 248
Redman, Harold, 158
Reinberger, Major Helmuth, 63–64
Reynaud, Paul, 54, 79–81
at Allied summit, June 11, 1940, 282–83, 285
at Allied summit, June 13, 1940, 287–90
at Allied summit, March 28, 1940, 87–88
at Allied summit, May 16, 1940, 158–60
at Allied Summit, May 31, 1940, and Churchill, 263–66
appeal to United States for help, 237, 288, 290
calls to Churchill as Germany invades, 153–54, 155, 156
Chamberlain and, 87–88
Churchill cable, May 30, 1940, 258–59
Churchill meeting, May 26, 1940, 189, 197, 201–2
Churchill pledges RAF squadrons to France, 160, 161–62
complaints about the British, 258
consequences of a Hitler victory, 279
feud with Daladier, 89, 95–96
as French premier, 82
Gamelin crisis, 138–40
German approach and, 156–57, 187, 279
Halifax and, 203–4, 209, 224
lover, Comtesse de Portes, 80–81, 87, 181, 287
Mussolini neutrality pledge sought, 201–9, 238, 247, 248
Paris apartment of, 161
personality and character, 80–81
Pétain and, 173
Pétain replaces, 291
separate peace called for, 287–88
small stature of, 80, 87
Spears and, 224–25, 237–38
Spears representing Churchill, meeting, May 25, 1940, 180–83
surrender of Belgian Army and, 237
terms of armistice and, 301
three-point war plan, 83
weaknesses of, 225
Reynolds, Robert, 71
Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 40, 76
Ritchie, Charles, 256, 257
Roberts, Andrew, 130, 184
Romania, 16
Rome-Berlin Axis, 15
Rommel, Irwin, 152
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
advisors for, 165
aid to Britain and, 298–99, 343n
amending Neutrality Act and, 49–50
appeals from, 25
brief on Whitsun debate, 128
British attack at Mers-el-Kébir and change of opinion about Britain, 303–4
British pledge not to wage unrestricted air war, 117
Churchill and, 165
Churchill’s requests for aid, 155, 164–65, 205, 219–20
French appeal to, 237, 288, 290
joint French-British appeal to, 249, 250, 252, 262
Mussolini rebuff, 209
negotiated peace settlement and Mussolini, 222–23
reply to Reynaud, June 14, 1940, 290–91
secret approach to Canada, 220
Sudetenland and, 21
views on war (1939), 50
war cabinet view of, 230
Rothermere, Lord, 28, 113
Rothschild family, 256
Royal Air Force (RAF), 51
ability to defend Britain, 198
account of air battle, Adler Tag, 313–15
Army Co-operation Command, 315
Baldwin and building of fighter planes, 11–12
British victory dependent on, 277
Coastal Command, 315
Dowding System, 310, 312–13
Dunkirk and, 215, 245, 260, 261, 275–76, 278
Fighter Command, 12, 240, 260, 310–11, 312–13, 316
Fighter Command head, Dowding, 240, 278–79, 315, 316
French campaign losses, 311
Gardner’s eyewitness account of air battle, 307
German attack, August 15, 1940, 316–19
German invasion threat and, 310–11
Hurricanes, 281, 282, 306, 311, 315, 317
number of planes available for home defense, 154, 160, 240, 254
patrols over Dunkirk, 240
Spitfires, 311, 314, 315, 317, 318
squadrons sent to defend France, 160–61
strikes in Italy, 282
Sudeten crisis and, 24
Royal Navy, 18, 51, 277
blockade of Germany, 39
danger of Germany gaining control of, 220
in the Dover Straits, 306–7
Dunkirk and, 270, 272, 273
Force H, 301
Gallipoli and, 100
German invasion of Norway and, 93–96
German invasion threat and, 309–10
German sinking of the Glowworm, 94–95
German sinking of the troop ship Lancastria, 291
Home Fleet, 309–10
Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, 93–94
losses in German assault on Holland and Belgium, 154
losses in Norwegian campaign, 154
Narvik expedition, 98, 99, 100, 101–2
need for United States ships, 154–55
Operation Catapault and French Navy, 301–4
put on alert, September 1938, 22
strength of, 1940, 154, 251, 254, 278–79
Sudeten crisis and, 24
Royal Navy ships
Glowworm, 94–95
Hood, 301
Keith, 270
Kelly, 141
Lancastria, 291
Resolution, 301
Queen of the Channel, 240
Valiant, 301
Vimy, 260
Russia in World War I, 3. See also Soviet Union; Stalin, Josef
Salisbury, Lord, 90, 109
Chamberlain talk with, post–Norway invasion, 109
as Churchill supporter, 142
urging more vigorous pursuit of the war, 109, 110
Seal, Eric, 304
Serbia, 3, 16
Shakespeare, William, 14, 309
Shaw, George Bernard, 167
Shirer, William, 24, 59, 195, 223, 236, 273
at French surrender, Compiègne, 293–94
in occupied Paris, 291–92
Short Brothers aircraft works, 318
Siegfried Line, 20–21, 63
Simon, John, 37, 143
Simpson, Wallis, 11, 130
Sinclair, Archibald “Archie,” 112, 218, 247, 310
Smith, F. E., 36
Smith, Thomas and William, 105
social movements, 1930s, 8
“Soldier, The” (Brooke), 4
Somerset, Nigel, 241, 241n
Somerville, James, 301
Somme, Battle of, 3–4
first day casualties, 14
South Africa
isolationism of, 18
Sudeten crisis and, 23
Soviet Union
assault on Finland, 57–58, 69–70
casualties, Finland, 69–70
German-Soviet pact, 27, 29, 42
Hitler and, 27
Hitler’s desire for an eastern empire and, 308
occupation of Poland, 48
treaty with the Czechs, 21
See also Stalin, Josef
Spain
civil war (1936), 15, 16, 292
Franco and, 16
Spears, Edward Louis, 35, 51, 54, 55–56, 79, 110, 127, 197, 247
Allied summit, June 11, 1940, 281, 282, 284
Allied summit, June 13, 1940, 287–90
Churchill cable, May 30, 1940, 257–59
Churchill in France and, May 31, 1940, 262, 263, 266
drowning rats fable, 182, 217
final conversation with Pétain, 286–87
memories of early June 1940, 279–80
mission to see Reynaud, May 25, 1940, 180–83
Pétain and, 279
Pétain and armistice, 271
Reynaud and, 180–83, 224–25, 237–38
Reynaud-Daladier feud and, 89, 95–96
wife of, 281–82
Speer, Albert, 64
Stalin, Josef, 21
nonaggression pact signed with Hitler, 27, 29, 42
perception of threats against the Soviet Union, 57–58
Stanley, Oliver, 75, 86
Star (London tabloid), 235
Stark, Harold, 299
Stokes, Richard, 167, 306
Stokes Group, 306
Strasbourg, France, evacuation, 58–59
Sudetenland, 19, 22
Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler and, 22–24
See also Czechoslovakia
Suez, 185, 203, 224, 238, 300
Sunday Pictorial, 112, 113, 306
Sweden, 72
iron ore for Germany, 58
neutrality of, 58
Sylvester, A. J., 45, 46, 114
Tavistock, Lord, 45
Taylor, Myron, 108
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 241
Testament to Youth (Brittain), 32
Their Finest Hour (Churchill), 239
Things to Come (film), 9, 9n, 24
Thomas, Dorothy, 59
Thomas, George, 65
Thompson, Alfred Cuthbert, 192
Thomsen, Hans, 299–300
Thorndike, Sybil, 167
Time magazine, 47–48
Times of London, 60, 91
lists of the dead and missing, 192
reporter on Belgian frontier, 149
sermon in, May 25, 1940, 180
Tolleshunt D’Arcy, England, 21
Toma, Wilhelm von, 185–86
Tours, France, 286, 287
Toynbee, Arnold, 192
Treaty of Versailles, 74
British guilt and, 19
as cause of World War II, 77, 85
Foch’s prediction for, 6–7
German violations of, 13
signing of, 6
terms of, 6, 19
Trondheim. See Norway
Tunisia, 224
Turkey, 107
Turnbull, Patrick, 212, 226–27, 228–29
Tyneside, England, 317
United States
aid sent to Britain, 298–99, 343n
antiwar sentiment in (1939), 49
British attack at Mers-el-Kébir and, 303
British fleet wanted by, 270
British National Prayer Day and, 196
British war needs and, 155, 165, 205, 219–20
defense of the Eastern Seaboard, 220
as essential to Britain’s survival, 219
German lobbying of Republican congressmen, 1940, 299–300
isolationism of, 49, 71, 77, 300
Kellogg-Briand Pact, 7
Neutrality Acts, 49
views on Britain’s progress, 312
Welles’s European fact-finding trip (1940), 71, 72–77
in World War I, 3, 71
US Army Air Force, 220
Venlo incident, 68
Vigilantes, 14, 90, 92
Villelume, Paul de, 151, 201
“Vitaï Lampada,” 14
Vuillemin, Joseph, 188, 189
Walpole, Robert, 197
war cabinet (of Churchill)
debate between Halifax and Churchill, 197–99, 247–49, 259
meeting of June 3, 1940, Dowding speaks, 278–79
meeting of May 26, 1940, 196–99, 205–8
meeting of May 27, 1940, 216–21, 229–32
meeting of May 28, 1940, Halifax-Reynaud Italian plan, 247–49
meeting of May 28, 1940, on Dunkirk, 239–41
meeting of May 28, 1940, on fall of France, 246
meeting of May 30, 1940, 261
rejection of Reynaud’s French plan, 252
Roosevelt discussed, 230
“Wait and See” policy, 277
War Office, 1, 52, 82, 95, 98, 99, 169, 170, 236, 261, 309
Watching Committee, 14, 90, 109, 113, 142
Waterhouse, Charles, 145
Wedgewood, Joshua, 127
Wehrmacht (unified armed forces of Germany), 66, 68
Oberkommando (Supreme Command), 275
offensive against Holland and Belgium, 151
Welles, Sumner, 71–77, 165
Churchill and, 75–76
in London, 75–76
meetings with Mussolini, 72–73, 76
meeting with Hitler, 73–74
in Paris, 74–75
Wells, H. G., 9
Westminster, Duke of, 28
Weygand, Maxime, 173–75, 183, 225, 227, 238, 259, 263–66, 279–80, 283, 284, 285
counsels armistice, 286, 287
counsels quick end to war, 186–89
Dunkirk and, 264–65
home in Briare, 280, 282
plan of, 174–75, 181, 253
“White Cliffs of Dover, The,” (song), 60, 295
Wilhelmina, Queen of Holland, 199
Wilkie, Wendell, 300
Wilson, Woodrow, 71
Windsor, Edward Duke of, 59
Winter War, 58
Wood, Kingsley, 37, 117, 133, 134, 142
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 146
Woodruff, Roy, 71
World at War, The (BBC series), 52
World Disarmament Conference, 7, 8
World War I (the Great War)
Allied dead, 2
Armistice Day, 5
Belgians in, 2–3
British Cenotaphs, 4, 5, 22
British death toll, 3–4, 9, 234
British Expeditionary Force (BEF), 3, 4
British forces in France, number of, 88
British “surplus women,” 5, 114
British “Unknown Soldier,” 5
Czarist Russian dead, 3
defensive lessons of, 52–53
demise of empires and, 130–31
Flanders, 4
French dead and wounded, 3
French in, 3
Gallipoli, 4, 10–11, 36, 100
German occupation of Belgium, 15
German surrender, Forest of Compiègne, 293–94
grands mutiles (grotesquely disfigured wounded), 5
as the “Great Sacrifice,” 4, 5
Italians in, 3
Japanese in, 3
Jutland, sea battle, 93
Lloyd George’s memo, audit of cost of victory, 242
Loos, 4
Marne, 4
Miracle on the Marne, 173
Mons, 106
offensive battles of 1914, casualties, 53
Old Contemptibles (first British troops to fight), 105–6, 114
onset of, 29
Passchendaele, 4, 44
reminders of, in 1938, 21–22
Schlieffen plan, 149
Serbians in, 3
Somme, 3–4, 14, 44
total casualties, 7
United States, death toll and debt, 49
United States and, 2, 71
Verdun, 67, 188, 225–26, 263
Victory Day Parade, London (1919), 1–4
Vimy Ridge, 4, 44
Ypres, 4, 15, 106, 215
World War II
Allied bombing campaign against Germany, 9n
annoyances of, winter 1939–40, 59–60
approach of (1939), 29
Ardennes campaign (1940), 151–53
Battle of Britain, 261, 307–10, 313–19, 321
Battle of France, 171, 246, 283, 292
begun as “limited war,” 41
Belgium and Holland invaded, 128, 140–42, 149–54, 157–58, 197
Belgium surrenders, 216, 217, 233–35, 237
Britain’s strength, 1940, 154
British analysts on, 1940, 112–13
British deaths from German bombs, 9n
British declaration of war on Germany, 40–41
British determination to fight the war alone, 176, 207, 21
4, 217, 276, 283, 287, 304
British propaganda campaign, 41
British rearmament, 9–10, 18, 19, 41–42, 83, 125, 207, 248
Churchill war policy (never surrender), 128, 147, 165–66, 197–98, 205, 220–21, 220n, 229–30, 252, 276, 283, 287, 304
Dunkirk as British victory, 276–77
Finland, 57–58, 69–71, 72, 75, 81
France-Britain no-separate-peace pledge, 87, 88, 187, 188, 288–90
France enters war, September 3, 1939, 41, 54
French surrender, June 18, 1940, 291, 293
German invasion of Holland and Belgium, 128, 149–54
German invasion of Norway, 93–96
German offensive plan (Case Yellow), 64–68, 69, 149–50
Maginot Line, 51, 52–53, 58, 59
negotiated peace settlement policies, 31, 45–46, 54, 69, 72, 166–67, 183–85, 197, 221, 222, 244, 259, 296, 304–5, 326n (see also France; specific leaders)
Operation Wilfred, 88
“phony war,” 58, 61, 71
“Reynaud plan,” 202–4
size of military forces, 1939–40, 42–43, 51
Western Front, 47, 51–52, 58–59, 81–82
Yugoslavia, 16, 107
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