All Hell Let Loose (114 page)

‘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 FRANCE

‘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