Finest Years (95 page)
United Nations: inaugural meeting (4 May 1945), 566
United Services club, London, 260
United States of America: as key to victory, xviii; denies WSC's request for destroyers, 15, 21; WSC's determination to bring into war, 18, 171, 188, 190, 207; opposed to participation in European war, 25; declines Britain's appeals for aid, 31; Halifax suggests appeal to, 38; French arms contracts transferred to Britain, 55; views of Britain, 64â5, 184, 258, 298â301, 360â1, 482; sends old weapons to Britain, 73, 172; demands payment for supplies, 86, 138, 172â3; impressed by WSC's resistance, 103; delays entry into war, 111, 171, 184, 188â9, 200; oil production, 117; attitude to Soviet involvement in war, 160â1; sends aid to Russia, 161, 167, 226, 290; reduces aid to Britain, 170â2; buys British assets cheaply, 173; and British anti-Americanism, 174â7, 189, 214, 370â2; economic boom, 175â6; WSC's earlier visits to, 177â8; WSC broadcasts to, 190â2; enters war after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 212â13; Germany and Italy declare war on, 216; gives priority to West over Japan, 220â1; liberty ships, 220; WSC addresses Congress, 222â3; arms production, 226, 368; resentment at British understimate of capabilities, 226; chiefs of staff attitude to WSC, 231; British military mission in, 232, 296; Australia seeks support from, 236; views on post-war settlement, 256; as decision-maker, 258; quality of tanks, 268, 317; advocates second front to relieve Russians, 283â4; misunderstanding of British position, 295; sends tanks and equipment to British in Libya, 297; anti-imperialsm, 300â1, 372, 540, 548; and North African landings, 313â14; wartime relations with Russia, 330; performance in North Africa, 340, 351; negotiates at Casablanca conference, 353â7; commitment to Pacific strategy, 354, 358; distaste for de Gaulle, 365, 446, 479; campaign in Pacific, 368; officers' suspicion of British, 368; defeated at Kasserine pass, 370; troops enter Bizerta, 376; mistrust of British intentions over D-Day, 385; declining regard for WSC, 386, 393; determination to invade Europe, 393, 478â9; disfavours minor operations, 404; importance to Britain as ally, 435â6; abandons support for Mediterranean operations, 442; supports Cetniks in Yugoslavia, 468; concern over political situation in Britain
(1944), 476; working relations with Britain, 482â3; recognises de Gaulle as head of provisional French government, 505, 513; and post-liberation government in Italy, 507; power compared with Britain, 519â20; support for liberated countries, 523â4; differences with Britain over post-liberation policies, 526â8; view of WSC's post-war international policies, 527; criticism of Britain towards war's end, 540â2, 549; demands repayment of Lend-Lease loans, 548; avoids diplomatic wrangling with Russia, 565
United States Army Air Force: attacks French railways before D-Day, 480; bombing campaign, 251; qualities, 595
United States Navy: successes in Pacific, 256
VESSELS:
Augusta
(cruiser), 193â4;
Quincy
(cruiser), 547
Unthinkable
, Operation, xix, 575â7, 584
Urey, Harold, 65
Ustashi (Croat), 464
V1 flying bombs, 489â90
V2 rockets, 490, 546
Vanderkloot, Bill, 315â16
VE-Day (8 May 1945), 568
Vercors:
maquis
massacred, 460
Vichy France: no war with Britain, 69; forces resist Allied landings in North Africa, 340, 346; US relations with, 347;
see also
France
Vickers, Geoffrey, 8
Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy, 386
Victor
, Exercise, 123
Vienna: Russians bar British representatives, 581
Wall Street Journal
, 578
Wallace, Henry, 312
Waller, Lt.Col. R.P., 133
Walpole, Horace, 69
Walsh, David, 31
war cabinet: composition and meetings, 140
Ward, Maj.Gen. Orlando, 357
Wardlaw-Milne, Sir John, 281, 302, 308, 310
Warsaw rising (August 1944), 472â3, 503, 509, 513, 516
Washington, DC: WSC and party visit (December 1941), 216, 219â28, 233; WSC visits for
Trident
conference (May 1943), 375, 377â90; WSC stays in (September 1943), 392
Washington Post
, 530â1
Waugh, Evelyn, 34
Wavell, Gen. Sir Archibald (
later
Earl): WSC sends tanks and equipment to, 94, 118; as Middle East commander, 117; character and qualities, 118; orders evacuation of Somaliland, 118; poor relations with WSC, 118, 127â8, 138, 343; questions British intervention in Greece, 119â20, 129â30; plans offensive in Western Desert, 120â1, 123; successes in East Africa, 123; changes mind on Greek campaign, 126â7, 132, 136; and actions in Syria and Iraq, 137; dismissed, 139; as Anglo-American supreme commander in Far East, 236; and fall of Singapore, 239; Cadogan criticises, 259; accompanies WSC to Moscow, 315, 325â7
Wedemeyer, Maj. Albert, 186, 360
Weichs, Field Marshal Maximilian von, 466
Welles, Sumner, 47
Wells, H.G., 528
Wesson, Maj.Gen. Charles (âBull'), 186
Weygand, Gen. Maxime, 24, 40, 46, 49, 52, 55
Wheeler, Burton K., 161
Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John, 500
White, Harry Dexter, 321
Wigram, Eva (Lady Anderson), 274
Wigram, Ralph, 274
Williams, Brig. Bill, 337
Willkie, Wendell, 184, 194, 300, 316
Wilson, Charles
see
Moran, 1st Baron
Wilson, Woodrow, 32
Winant, John G. (âGil'), 160, 178, 183, 185, 200, 212, 313
Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 82, 245
Wingate, Brig. Orde, 387â8, 429
Wintringham, Tom, 265
Wood, (Sir) Kingsley: as chancellor of exchequer, 10, 50, 86, 138; in war cabinet, 140; and Lend-Lease terms, 181; death, 396
Woodhouse, Col. Christopher Montague, 462â3, 465
Woodring, Harry, 31
Woolton, Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of, 202, 274, 423, 476, 498
Wrigley, Chris, xviii
Wrong, Humphrey Hume, 336
Wulff, Gen. Karl, 565
Yalta conference (1945), 543, 547â57
Yates, Commander Andrew, 304
Yeo-Thomas, Wing Commander Edmund (âWhite Rabbit'), 458
Yugoslavia: Germans invade and occupy, 124, 128â30; German forces in, 363â4; Resistance movement and partisans, 428, 432, 451, 458, 461, 466â9, 474; Allied arms supplies to, 467; British missions to, 467â9; US supports Cetniks in, 468; post-war settlement, 515; communists seize control after liberation, 524; partisans withdraw from Trieste, 580
Zeppelin
, Operation (deception), 466
Zervas, Napoleon, 463
Zhukov, Marshal Georgy, 362, 556, 565, 572â3, 585, 587
Zog, King of Albania, 515, 543
Zorab, Capt. Phillip, 532
My first debt is to Richard Johnson of HarperCollins in London and Ash Green at Knopf in New York, for showing the confidence to commission this work, when less optimistic souls might have judged that there was no more usefully to be said about Winston Churchill. Robert Lacey of HarperCollins is a superb editor, who contributes immeasurably to the coherence of all my books, likewise Andrew Miller at Knopf. Michael Sissons and Peter Matson have been my agents for longer than they care to remember, and have always been wonderfully supportive.
Dr Lyuba Vinogradova has been responsible for research and translation in Moscow on this book, as for my earlier
Armageddon
and
Nemesis
. It has today become much more difficult to access Soviet archives than it was a decade ago, but Lyuba achieved a remarkable amount by scouring published document collections. I am especially grateful to her for translating hundreds of pages of material concerning Churchill and the Allies from the wartime Soviet press.
Edward Young, who I met when he was assisting Douglas Hurd with his biography of Peel, has done important and extraordinarily energetic research for me in US archives. He is on the threshold of becoming a distinguished historian in his own right. As usual, I owe thanks to the peerless staff of the London Library, whose patience and goodwill are invaluable. Allen Packwood and his team at the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge have been tirelessly helpful, a great tribute when they contend with a column of Churchill scholars threading daily through their doors. Beyond generosity with his time while I was visiting Churchill College, Allen was generous enough to read my draft MS and make helpful comments and corrections.
William Spencer and his colleagues at the British National Archive, together with their American counterparts at the National Archive in Washington, Tim Nenninger most conspicuous among them, show how magnificently great collections function when staffed by men and women who really care. The Imperial War Museum's library and manuscript archive become ever more important, now that most 1939-45 eye-witnesses are dead. The Liddell Hart Archive at King's College, London holds many important papers, and I am especially grateful for access to Sir John Kennedy's diary. I am indebted to copyright holders who have given permission for extracts
from their material to be quoted in my text, including Antonia Yates for the papers of Captain Andrew Yates. Extracts from the writings and speeches of Winston Churchill are reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of The Estate of Winston Churchill, copyright © Winston S. Churchill.
Anyone who writes about Winston Churchill must pay tribute to Sir Martin Gilbert, his official biographer, whose work laid the foundations for all who follow. Gilbert's massive
Life
, accompanied by the equally fascinating companion document collections, represents one of the great scholarly achievements of our time. Future writers and biographers will owe Sir Martin a further debt, when he completes his forthcoming volumes of War Papers for 1942-45.
Professor Sir Michael Howard OM, CH, MC and two other old friends, Godfrey Hodgson and Don Berry, have read my draft manuscript. Both made immensely helpful suggestions and proposed amendments, most of which I have acted upon. I am indebted to Antony Beevor for focusing my attention on Operation
Unthinkable
, and for the time and wisdom of Professor David Reynolds, Professor Robert Gildea, Professor Christopher Andrew and Chris Bellamy. Douglas Matthews's index is a work of art, for which I am warmly grateful. In the United States, Dr Williamson Murray made many helpful suggestions about the text, based upon his own exhaustive knowledge of the period. Dr Tami Biddle of the US Army War College is extraordinarily generous with her own material, in this case pointing me to Harris's and Slessor's 1941 reports from Washington. The contribution of my secretary, Rachel Lawrence, is always indispensable, not least in collating notes and references. So too is that of my infinitely long-suffering wife, Penny, who feels doomed forever to share my spirit existence, focused upon 1939-45. She deserves to believe that some day we shall progress towards a real life in our own times.
All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939â1945
A study of the greatest and most terrible event in history, vividly showing its impact on hundreds of millions of people around the world â soldiers, sailors and airmen; British housewives and Indian peasants; SS killers and the citizens of Leningrad. An âeveryman's story', this is Hastings' attempt to answer the question: âWhat was the Second World War like?'
âUnquestionably the best single-volume history of the war ever written'
Sunday Times
Did You Really Shoot the Television?: A Family Fable
Hastings' âtribe of eccentrics' include his parents, a great-uncle African hunter who wrote poetry, family friends such as Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy, and one very unfortunate television. All figure in this heart-warming and funny tale of an extraordinary childhood.
âA brilliantly entertaining book'
Evening Standard
Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944â1945
From the battles of Imphal and Kohima to Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Soviet assault on Manchuria, Hastings explores both the grand strategy and human experience of soldiers and civilians on both sides of the Second World War's epic Asian campaigns.
âAbsolutely excellent'
Observer
Warriors: Extraordinary Tales from the Battlefield
Exhilarating and illuminating, this is a study of the lives of sixteen fighters of five nations from the last two centuries, chosen for their courage, character and extraordinary battlefield experiences. In this âbedside book for military history buffs', Hastings explores how heroes and our attitude to them have changed over the centuries.
â
Warriors
will enthral everyone'
Daily Telegraph
REPORTAGE
America 1968: The Fire this Time
Ulster 1969: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland The Battle for the Falklands
(with Simon Jenkins)
BIOGRAPHY
Montrose: The King's Champion
Yoni: Hero of Entebbe
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Going to the Wars
Editor
MILITARY HISTORY
Bomber Command
The Battle of Britain
(with Len Deighton)
Das Reich
Overlord
Victory in Europe
The Korean War
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45
COUNTRYSIDE WRITING
Outside Days
Scattered Shots
Country Fair
ANTHOLOGY (EDITED)
The Oxford Book of Military Anecdotes
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Published by HarperPress in 2009
Copyright © Max Hastings 2009
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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