If Britain Had Fallen (50 page)
The place of publication of books is London, unless otherwise stated. Most of the documents, including
Directive No 16,
on the invasion plans, and
Orders concerning Organisation and Function of Military Government in England
were collected by the BBC for use in the television programme of the same name. The other principal source is the transcripts of interviews recorded by the BBC for the same purpose, though not all these were finally broadcast, and in other cases I have quoted more of the text than could be included in the programme.
On the general history of the period, and at numerous points throughout the book, I referred to Alan Bullock,
Hitler, A Study in Tyranny
(revised edition, Pelican Books, 1962) and Winston Churchill,
The Second World War
(Cassell, 6 volumes, 1948–54). For Hitler’s opinions throughout I consulted
Hitler’s Table Talk
(edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1953). For
Chapters 1
and
2
I consulted, on the Germans’ military plans, Ronald Wheatley,
Operation Sea Lion
(Oxford University Press, 1958), and on the British defence plans, Basil Collier,
The Defence of the United Kingdom
(Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957). On numerous aspects of the preparations on both sides, in these chapters and in
Chapter 3
, 1 used Peter Fleming,
Invasion 1940
(Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957) and my debt to this excellent book will be apparent to all who have read it. Fleming is the source of most of the information about German ‘black’ radio, but I also used Ernst Kris and Hans Spier,
German Radio Propaganda
(OUP, 1944), which provided most of the quotations from German bulletins. The firsthand accounts of caring for the soldiers from Dunkirk, the French refugees at Weymouth, the treatment of the Italians in Londonderry, the Scotsman who wanted a machine-gun and Mrs R, who was concerned about the washing-up, came from private information supplied to me by contributors to my book,
How We Lived Then, A History of Everyday Life during the Second World War
(Hutchinson, 1971). This was also my main source, along with material collected for it of which full details can be found in the exhaustive bibliography to
How We Lived Then,
for background information on wartime shortages, etc. Only in a very few cases, however, mainly relating to the Channel Islands, have I used in the present book material that has already appeared there. The account of building an anti-aircraft obstacle was by Hector McQuarrie,
Front to Back
(Cape, 1941, to whom I am indebted for permission to quote from it), and the LDV recruit who described his first route march was F. Howard Lancum,
Press Officer, Please,
’ (Crosby, Lockwood and Co, 1946). The policeman who said ‘This may happen to us’ is mentioned by F. Tennyson Jesse and H. M. Harwood,
London Front
(Constable 1940). On the early days of the Home Guard I used previously collected private information and Charles Graves,
The Home Guard of Britain
(Hutchinson, no date, but in fact 1943), which is confusing and inadequate but indispensable. The publications on irregular warfare mentioned are John Brophy,
Home Guard Handbook
(Hodder and Stoughton, 1940), which mentions swearing at dive-bombers, John Langdon-Davies,
Parachutes over Britain
(Pilot Press, 1940), which deplores the lack of obvious sites for barricades in British villages, and Tom Wintringham,
New Ways of War
(Penguin Special, 1940), which recommends consulting boy-scouts. The information on arming the police is contained in extracts from the Cabinet minutes, recently available under the ‘thirty-year rule’ and collected for the television programme, and the accounts of the ways in which the police planned to control refugees are from interviews filmed for it.
In
Chapter 4
the minister quoted is Hugh Dalton,
The Fateful Years
(Frederick Muller, 1957) and other information comes from the Cabinet papers mentioned above. The account of American and Canadian reactions to Britain’s possible defeat can be found in C. P. Stacey,
Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada 1939
–
45
(Department of National Defence, Ottawa, 1970). The account of the shipment of the gold reserves is based partly on Peter Fleming, partly on the narrative prepared for the programme and partly on an interview recorded for it. The details of the Battle of Britain, and of the weather during subsequent weeks, are taken from Derek Wood and Derek Dempster,
The Narrow Margin
(Arrow Books, revised edition, 1969). The description of the despatch of the codeword ‘Cromwell’, and the first-hand accounts of those involved, are taken from material I collected for my BBC radio programme,
The Night the Germans Didn’t Come,
broadcast on Radio 4 on 7 September 1971. This was supplemented by information in Peter Fleming and in David Lampe,
The Last Ditch
(Cassell, 1968), the source of the incident at Lincoln.
Chapters 5
to
7
are based on the military sources already mentioned and on the narrative of imaginary events referred to in the Foreword, though I obtained some information about the government’s underground headquarters from James Leasor,
War at the Top
(Michael Joseph, 1959).
In
Chapter 8
and subsequent chapters I made extensive use of
German Occupied Great Britain: Ordinances of the Military Authorities
(first printed in Leipzig, 1941, reissued in England by Scutt-Dand, Foord of Lancing, Sussex, on an unspecified date, probably 1967), and of the military government
Orders
mentioned earlier. On Sir Oswald Mosley my sources were his over-long but revealing autobiography,
My Life
(Nelson, 1968), supplemented by an interview he recorded for the programme. Mr Coldwell’s opinions were also specially recorded and other information about the Canadian attitude came from C. P. Stacey, previously cited. The so-called ‘White List’ was one of the documents collected for the television production, while the suggestion about Sir Samuel Hoare occurs in David Dilks (editor),
The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan 1938
–
1945
(Cassell, 1971). The
Proclamation to the People of England
was one of the documents supplied to me by the BBC, as was most of the material used in
Chapter 9
, though the biography of Dr Six is based on David Lampe. The informants still living in Liverpool were interviewed by the BBC.
Chapter 10
, apart from some material, including the cartoon about nuns, in Peter Fleming, is also based on programme material.
Chapter 12
is based largely on the
Ordinances
and on source-material assembled by the BBC. Most of the material on the Channel Islands was collected in interviews for television, or supplied to me privately for
How We Lived Then,
but I also constantly consulted Alan and Mary Wood,
Islands in Danger
(Evans Brothers, 1955), the source of the ‘Mrs Churchill’ story; on Guernsey, Frank Falla (frequently identified in my text as ‘a Guernsey journalist’),
The Silent War
(Frewin, 1967); and, on Jersey, L. P. Sinel,
The German Occupation of Jersey {Evening Post,
Jersey, revised edition, 1946). The sources for
Chapters 13
–
15
are similar. Conditions at Biberach, in
Chapter 14
, were described for television, and the quotation which ends the same chapter occurs in Alan and Mary Wood. On
Chapter 16
I used, beside the BBC interviews, David Lampe’s book, and I interviewed by telephone, and corresponded with, the under-cover agent in Sheerness. I also acknowledge with thanks the assistance given me by Mr Richard Body, a former member of an Auxiliary Unit. The Channel Islands material, including the hostage sent to jail, the man reprimanded for being uncooperative, the cheeky girl in Boots, and the colonel who spat at Hitler, was recorded for the BBC. The same source, and documents collected by the BBC, was used for
Chapter 17
.
Chapter 18
is based on all the Channel Islands sources, published and unpublished, previously mentioned, and the account of the last few months of the Occupation owes much to Alan and Mary Wood. The interview with Albert Speer which opens
Chapter 19
was recorded by the BBC, which also provided details about the ‘Newhaven experiment’ and the way in which a contemporary advertising agency would ‘sell’ Nazism to the public. I also referred to
Hitler’s Table Talk,
while Hitler’s singing of ‘Now thank we all our God’ is described by an eye-witness, Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, in his
Memoirs
(William Kimber, 1965). The economists and industrialists quoted were interviewed by the BBC, as were the Americans referred to in
Chapter 20
. Hitler’s tribute to the British which ends the book can be found on page 307 of his
Table-Talk.
David Littlejohn,
The Patriotic Traitors, A History of Collaboration in German Occupied Europe 1940/45
(Heinemann, 1972) was published while I was writing the present book, though I did not read it until the manuscript was complete. Although Mr Littlejohn’s book omits the Channel Islands, and does not speculate as to what might have happened in Britain, I saw no reason, after reading it, to alter any of the conclusions given in this book.
Sources consulted for the 2004 edition
On potential collaborators see Richard Griffiths,
Fellow Travellers of the Right, British Enthusiasm for Nazi Germany 1933-39
(Constable, 1980), and the article
The Way We Nearly Were
by Andrew Roberts in the
Sunday Telegraph,
18 May 1992. On material released by the Public Record Office, see, on the theft of art treasures, the
Daily Telegraph
for 6 February 1955; on the Duke of Windsor’s attitude to Nazi Germany, see the
Daily Telegraph
for 15 November 1991 and 4 December 1996 and the
Guardian
for 25 January 2003.
Compiled by F. D. Buck
Academic Assistance Council,
141
Admiralty, German,
66
Aham, Lt.-Col. S. S. G.,
140
airborne landings,
19
aircraft, British:
Airship Rioo,
97
Blenheim,
30
,
65
,
97
Defiant,
65
,
97
Fairey Battle,
97
,
98
Gloster Gladiator,
97
Hampden,
70
,
97
Harvard,
97
Hurricane,
64
,
65
Spitfire,
64
,
65
Swordfish,
98
Tiger Moth,
97
,
99
Wellington,
30
,
70
,
97
Whitley,
70
,
98
aircraft, German:
Dornier,
53
Heinkel,
29
,
53
Junkers,
29
,
53
,
65
Messerschmitt,
53
,
64
,
65
,
97
,
99
Stuka (i.e. Junkers
87
),
53
,
64
Air Force, British (
see
RAF)
Air Force, German (
see
Luftwaffe)
Air Staff, German,
19
Air Transport Auxiliary,
97
Alderney,
20
Aldershot barracks,
95
All-Ireland Council,
50
‘America First’ Committee,
259
American aid,
260
American Forces Network,
153
Ancient Order of Foresters,
198
Ancient Order of Rechabites,
198
Anderson, Sir John,
143
Anglo-Spanish Society,
145
anti-German conspiracies, rooting out,
138
anti-Jewish edicts,
199
anti-semitism,
200
,
201
,
225
Armistice, French,
19
Army, British:
Auxiliary Territorial Service,
210
Auxiliary Units,
100
,
109
,
207
,
208
,
209
,
210
,
211
,
212
Catering Corps,
95
Devon Regiment,
73
GHQ Home Forces,
70
Royal Irish Fusiliers,
178
Royal Signals,
213
Somerset Light Infantry,
73
1st Armoured Division,
90
,
91
7th Corps,
91
7th Division,
72
