Armageddon (107 page)

“I was not surprised the Germans”: AI Yury Ryakhovsky.

“They were wonderful”: AI Nikolai Timoshenko.

“a land so flat”: AI Valentin Krulik.

“The NKVD claimed that”: RSA, Stalin files shelf 1–1 box 16.

“[Russian] soldiers’ conduct”: Gabriel Temkin,
My Just War
(Presidio: 1998), pp. 200–1.

“Oelmer violently protested”: Quoted Jentz,
Panzertruppen,
op. cit., p. 221.

“Major Dmitry Kalafati”: AI Dmitry Kalafati.

“Because of the mountainous terrain”: RMDA, vol. xv 3(1), p. 463.

“Between 8 September and”: Colonel-General G. F. Krivosheev ed.,
Grif Setretnosti Snyat
(Moscow: 1993).

“This war is not as in”: Djilas, op. cit., p. 398.

“For some reason”: RSA, Stalin files.

“On 31 December, he declared”: RSA, Stalin files, box 14/3.

“Suddenly the Major raised”: Alexander Klein,
Ulikbi Nevoli,
p. 396, quoted Applebaum, op. cit., p. 400.

“Stalin issued an order”: Stalin order of 1.11.45, RSA Stalin files, shelf 1–1 file 28.

“Captain Vasily Krylov”: AI Vasily Krylov.

“Twenty-one-year-old”: AI Yury Ryakhovsky.

“The men of the Red Army”: I should acknowledge a debt to Orlando Figes, op. cit., for many observations about Russian culture and thought.

“It is when they sing”: Von Lehndorff, op. cit., p. 134.

“Vitold Kubashevsky remarked”: AI Vitold Kubashevsky.

“One night in Yugoslavia”: AI Leopold Goesse.

“One has to work and work”: RMDA, vol. xv 3(1), p. 241.

“But you got used to it”: AI Anatoly Osminov.

“My corporal often saved me”: AI Vladimir Gormin.

“If you got the wrong”: AI Pavel Nikiforov.

“The T-34 was not”: AI Vasily Kudryashov.

“Vasily Kudryashov’s T-34”: Ibid.

“and all sorts of other things”: AI Vladimir Gormin.

“Orders were never”: AI Alexandr Sergeev.

“Ninety per cent”: AI Gennady Klimenko.

“The statistics were”: AI Vladimir Gormin.

“You should know that”: Senyavshaya, op. cit., p. 18.

“I had so much hatred”: Ibid., p. 37.

“War and women in trenches”: Temkin, op. cit., p. 202.

“Abortions at the front”: AI Nikolai Senkevich.

“Whole trainloads of”: AI Gennady Klimenko.

“Every senior officer”: AI Vasily Krylov.

“Corporal Anna Nikyunas”: AI Anna Nikyunas.

“Vasily Krylov was manning”: AI Vasily Krylov.

“At first, it all seemed”: AI Natalia Ivanova.

“A soldier who distinguishes”:
Orders of the State Defence Committee of the USSR,
published Moscow, 1997.

“I once watched a penal”: AI Yury Ryakhovsky.

“The commander of Anatoly”: AI Anatoly Osminov.

“One felt no pity”: AI Vitold Kubashevsky.

“I saw him crouching”: Temkin, op. cit., p. 182.

“I went away a boy”: AI Vasily Kudryashov.

“It was a question of making”: AIs Nikolai Timoshenko, Nikolai Senkevich.

CHAPTER FIVE: WINTER QUARTERS

“I was never able to convince”: Tedder, op. cit., p. 600.

“We had five divisions”: Whitaker and Whitaker, op. cit., p. 217.

“ ‘Unfortunately,’ wrote the colonel later”: Ibid., p. 194.

“ ‘Battle morale’ is definitely not”: Quoted Williams, op. cit., p. 135.

“Living conditions at the front”: Will R. Bird,
North Shore Regiment
(Brunswick Press: 1963), p. 446.

“Among the British formations”: AI Kenneth Pollitt.

“Wilhelmina Helder, a twenty-year-old”: AI Wilhelmina Helder.

“The regiment had seldom been”: A. R. Leakey, unpublished MS, “Nine Lives,” LHA.

“hard fighting and heavy casualties”: Turner-Cain MS, op. cit.

“Major-General ‘Pip’ Roberts”: Roberts, op. cit., p. 214.

“It was you, Prime Minister”: W. F. Deedes, private information to the author, based on a conversation with Montgomery c. 1965.

“The
Sketch
had a big write-up”: Turner-Cain MS, op. cit.

“When you analyse how difficult”: Hansen Papers, box 391, USAMHI.

“The British have had tough”: Hansen Diary, 10.31.44, USAMHI.

“what was at this stage”: Wilmot, op. cit., p. 527.

“rather depressed at the state”: PRO, CAB106/1124, Ramsay Diary.

“Some people begin to believe”: Quoted Henri van der Zee,
The Hunger Winter
(Norman & Hobhouse: 1982), p. 68.

“There was a change of mood”: AI Captain “Dim” Robbins.

“We don’t want any Victoria”: AI Roy Dixon.

“I’d simply got into a state”: AI Captain “Dim” Robbins.

“Two mornings in succession”: AI Denis Thomas.

“After the airborne operation”: AI W. F. Deedes.

“I was terribly impressed by”: AI Roy Dixon.

“There was something happening all”: AI Field-Marshal Lord Bramall.

“A British sniper watched”: Lieutenant Peter Downward, unpublished narrative lent to the author, p. 102.

“It is believed that certain”: “Combat Fatigue,” USAMHI, D769AZ no. 91 c.4.

“I had his head spot”: Downward MS, op. cit., p. 116.

“Corporal Stan Proctor was proudly”: Stan Proctor,
A Quiet Little Boy Goes to War
(Dragon Print Centre: 1996), p. 149.

“Dr. David Tibbs was driving”: AI David Tibbs.

“I could worry every minute”: Harold Fennema, unpublished MS, “What did you do in the war, Daddy?,” SA.

“Corporal Iolo Lewis put his hand”: AI Iolo Lewis.

“I saw a line of soldiers”: Cropper, op. cit., p. 52.

“During the Scheldt battle”: Carl Shilleto,
The Fighting 52nd Recce
(Eskdale Publishing: 2001), p. 45.

“I figured somebody had to do it”: Cooper, op. cit., p. 243.

“All the ones who said before”: AI Roy Dixon.

“A squadron commander of 2nd Fife”: Steel-Brownlie MS, IWM, 92/37/1.

“The British soldier is a little slow”: PRO, WO208/3111.

“Propaganda loudspeakers were”: PRO, WO106/43480.

“Few thought that Germany”: PRO, WO218/311, 1.17.45.

“We felt they were more”: AI Patrick Hennessy.

“always felt conscious that”: AI Captain “Dim” Robbins.

“Until a very late stage”:
Times Literary Supplement,
4.21.78.

“Operation Clipper on 18 November”: PRO, WO106/4348.

“The Allies burdened themselves”: Ruppenthal, op. cit., passim.

“They seemed to be much more”: Gavin MS, op. cit., p. 91.

“I just accepted how long”: AI Field-Marshal Lord Carver.

“Every day I feel older”: Alanbrooke, op. cit., p. 646, 1.18.45.

“The outside world didn’t”: AI W. F. Deedes.

“There was always someone”: AI Captain “Dim” Robbins.

“[Tom] Driberg—Austrian”: Letter in Montgomery Papers, quoted Nigel Ham-ilton,
Monty: The Field Marshal
(Hamish Hamilton: 1986), p. 278.

“The contrast with our own”: AI John Denison.

“A private of the Duke of Cornwall’s”: George Taylor,
Infantry Colonel
(privately published: 1990), p. 61.

“The Americans seemed”: AI Lord Carrington.

“We thought of the Americans”: AI General Sir David Fraser.

“Funny lot the Americans”: AI Patrick Hennessy.

“The Americans are least good”: AI Field-Marshal Lord Bramall.

“a general feeling that”: Berlitz MS, author’s collection.

“Many men are weak”: PRO, WO208/3111.

“It is very difficult”: PRO, CAB106/1069.

“Deficiencies in infantry”: PRO, WO205/152.

“I don’t think this outfit”: Fennema MS, op. cit., SA.

“A very pleasant day”: Proctor, op. cit., p. 110.

“A British officer described”: AI John Denison.

“We thought about girls”: AI Field-Marshal Lord Bramall.

“There is a feeling of optimism”: PRO, CAB106/1068.

“This is a larger total”: Arch Dempsey Papers, LHA.

CHAPTER SIX: GERMANY BESIEGED

“Lieutenant Leopold Goesse”: AI Leopold Goesse.

“Heinz Knoke, a Luftwaffe”: Heinz Knoke,
I Flew for the Führer
(Evans: 1979), p. 44.

“Eleonore Burgsdorf and her family”: AI Eleonore Burgsdorf.

“Katharina Minniger, a twenty-two”: AI Katharina Minniger.

“Lieutenant Helmut Schmidt”: AI Helmut Schmidt.

“Why are you looking”: Letter lent to the author by Ursula Salzer.

“The vain hope that”: Von Stemann MS, op. cit.

“
In meiner Jugend
”:
The Berlin Diaries of Missie Vassiltchikov
(Chatto & Windus: 1981), p. 239.

“Maria Hustreiter was”: AI Maria Hustreiter.

“Ten-year-old Jutta”: AI Jutta Dietze.

“This is now a dead town”: Second Army MD.

“Fourteen-year-old Eggert”: AI Eggert Stolten.

“Regina Krakowick lost everything”: AI Regina Krakowick.

“We are getting more and more”: This report was evidently captured by the Soviets, and appears in RSA, 9401 om.2 g.97.

“I have never before seen”: Klemperer, op. cit., p. 455.

“When the enemy reaches”: Aachen, 9.15.44, Second Army MD.

“Helmut Fromm, who was serving”: AI Helmut Fromm.

“For the average German family”:
Statistiches Fahrbuch, 1957,
pp. 470–1.

“Well, my dear Hans”: Second Army MD.

“Albert Speer, as armaments”: Albert Speer,
Inside the Third Reich
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1970), p. 378.

“Some of the foreign workers”: See Alan Milward,
The German Economy at War
(Athlone Press: 1965), passim.

“In addition, German industry”: Mark Harrison ed.,
The Economics of World War II
(Cambridge University Press: 1998), p. 158.

“A statistical breakdown of”:
U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey,
U.S. Department of Defense, 1946.

“The RAF’s legendary”: 12.16.43, quoted Alexandra Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
(HarperCollins: 1998), p. 530.

“It was fantastic how”: AI Rolf-Helmut Schröder.

“Since last night, our”: Second Army MD.

“There was no guilt about”: AI Gotz Bergander.

“Most Germans realized”: AI John Zimmermann.

“After 20 July”: AI Karl-Ludwig Mahlo.

“There were some serious Nazis”: AI Tony Saurma.

“We retained some illusions”: AI Rolf-Helmut Schröder.

“The ordinary German fighting”: Knoke, op. cit., p. 162.

“believing that I could”: AI Karl-Günther von Hase.

“Wilhelm Pritz, an infantry”: AI Wilhelm Pritz.

“An order of 20 November”: Second Army MD.

“The contents of this letter”: U.S. Third Army Intelligence Report, MD.

“A PW of 353rd Division”: Second Army MD.

“A total of 44,955 men”: The scale of the problem has been underestimated by many historians, believes one modern German researcher, Major John Zimmermann.

“You silly sods”: AI Tony Saurma.

“We knew we were still pretty”: AI Max Wind.

“Twenty-six-year-old Captain Walter”: AI Walter Schaefer-Kuhnert.

“I knew that I was against”: AI Helmut Schmidt.

“I get so angry when”: AI Otto Cranz.

“I wonder what Hitler’s”: RSA, Stalin files, shelf 1–1 file 72.

“Beria reported to Stalin”: RSA, 9401 om.2 g.66 1–1 318.

“That would finally be”: Heiber and Glantz, op. cit., p. 587.

“Even officers with little”: Bartov, op. cit., p. 126.

“The Potsdam Military History”:
Germany and the Second World War,
vol. iv (Oxford: 1998), passim.

“A remarkable year is drawing”: Helmuth von Moltke,
Letters to Freya
(Collins Harvill: 1991), pp. 394 and 412.