Read The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz Online

Authors: Erik Larson

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (59 page)

C
HAPTER 37:
T
HE
L
OST
B
OMBERS

On the night of
:
Bekker,
Luftwaffe Diaries,
172; Basil Collier,
Battle of Britain,
95; Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:270.

“This,” he said, his voice deep
:
I found Murrow’s broadcast at
www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/today-in-media-history-edward-r-murrow-describes-the-bombing-of-london-in-1940/
. I’ve punctuated these excerpts to reflect how I heard it, though transcripts available elsewhere may vary.

“It is to be reported”
:
Bekker,
Luftwaffe Diaries,
172.

“I suppressed a horrid fantasy”
:
Cockett,
Love and War in London,
159.

C
HAPTER 38:
B
ERLIN

“The Berliners are stunned”
:
Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
388.

One rumor making the rounds
:
Ibid., 397.

“Unofficial measures are to be”
:
Boelcke,
Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels,
82.

C
HAPTER 39:
A
H,
Y
OUTH
!

“Now that they have begun”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:270.

“I stood in the garden”
:
Ibid., 271.

“I would not be anywhere”
:
“Home Opinion as Shewn in the Mails to U.S.A. and Eire,” Sept. 5, 1940, War Cabinet Papers, CAB 66, UKARCH.

“Ah ‘
la jeunesse
’ ”
:
Diary, Aug. 26, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

She read them the works
:
Soames,
Daughter’s Tale,
167.

“I am indulging”
:
Ibid., 171.

“It makes me glad”
:
Ibid., 172.

“It was thrilling”
:
Diary, Aug. 28, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“I always thought my daffodils”
:
Andrew Roberts,
“Holy Fox,”
268; Maier,
When Lions Roar,
251.

“unkind but deserved”
:
Andrew Roberts,
“Holy Fox,”
268.

“Nobody knows the trouble”
:
Beaverbrook to Churchill, Sept. 2, 1940, Correspondence, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.

C
HAPTER 40:
B
ERLIN AND
W
ASHINGTON

Hess and Haushofer spoke
:
Stafford,
Flight from Reality,
82.

“As you know”
:
Ibid.

“We haven’t had a better”
:
Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time,
149.

As one American officer put it
:
Goodhart,
Fifty Ships That Saved the World,
194.

C
HAPTER 41:
H
E
I
S
C
OMING

“Mr. Churchill,” he said
:
Manchester and Reid,
Defender of the Realm,
152.

“When they declare”
:
Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
396.

At Carinhall in the peaceful
:
Reproduced in Richard Townshend Bickers,
The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Battle in the History of Air Warfare
(London: Batsford, 2015). Also, see online “Plan of Attack,” doc. 43, Battle of Britain Historical Society,
www.battleofbritain1940.net/document-43.html
.

Göring told Goebbels
:
Overy,
Bombing War,
88.

German scientists had developed
:
Wakefield,
Pfadfinder,
7–12.

The group’s zone of operations
:
Ibid., 45.

C
HAPTER 42:
O
MINOUS
D
OINGS

“PM warmed up”
:
Alanbrooke,
War Diaries,
105.

C
HAPTER 43:
C
AP
B
LANC-
N
EZ

“There were no limits”
:
“The Göring Collection,” Confidential Interrogation Report No. 2, Sept. 15, 1945, 3, 4, 9, and, in attachments, “Objects Acquired by Goering,” Office of Strategic Services and Looting Investigative Unit, T 209/29, UKARCH.

“This moment is a historic one”
:
Bekker,
Luftwaffe Diaries,
172; Feigel,
Love-Charm of Bombs,
13. Remarks quoted in Garry Campion,
The Battle of Britain, 1945–1965: The Air Ministry and the Few
(Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). For a ready resource, see Battle of Britain Historical Society,
www.battleofbritain1940.net/0036.html
.

P
ART FOUR:
BLOOD AND DUST
C
HAPTER 44:
O
N A
Q
UIET
B
LUE
D
AY

“It was so lovely”
:
Diary, Sept. 7, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“At first we couldn’t see”
:
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
434–35.

“I’d never seen so many”
:
Stansky,
First Day of the Blitz,
31–32.

“It was the most amazing”
:
Ziegler,
London at War,
113.

“We all became conscious”
:
Stansky,
First Day of the Blitz,
33–34.

Harold Nicolson, in his diary
:
Nicolson,
War Years,
121.

“What struck one”
:
Stansky,
First Day of the Blitz,
53.

“the purgatorial throng”
:
Feigel,
Love-Charm of Bombs,
129.

“Thick clouds of smoke”
:
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
435.

When dropping their biggest
:
“More About Big Bombs,” Interrogation Report 592/1940, Sept. 22, 1940, AIR 40/2400, UKARCH.

“A blazing girdle”
:
Overy,
Bombing War,
87.

“an appalling shriek”
:
Cockett,
Love and War in London,
165.

“the deep roar”
:
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
439.

“an acute irritation”
:
Feigel,
Love-Charm of Bombs,
53.

“The bombs are lovely”
:
Wyndham,
Love Lessons,
113–16.

“I recognized one head”
:
Stansky,
First Day of the Blitz,
72.

“The day,” he said
:
Adolf Galland Interrogation, May 18, 1945, Spaatz Papers.

“let himself be carried away”
:
Kesselring,
Memoirs,
76.

“It was, I think, inconceivable”
:
Farrer,
G—for God Almighty,
62.

C
HAPTER 45:
U
NPREDICTABLE
M
AGIC

“The destruction was”
:
Ismay,
Memoirs,
183.

“Morale rose immediately”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:788–89.

“he was in one of his most”
:
Ismay,
Memoirs,
184.

“Apparently indiscriminate bombing”
:
“Diary of Brigadier General Carl Spaatz on Tour of Duty in England,” Sept. 8, 1940, Spaatz Papers.

“anybody who imagined”
:
Ismay,
Memoirs,
184.

“dangerously exposed to enemy”
:
Young,
Churchill and Beaverbrook,
152.

“It was high-handed”
:
Farrer,
Sky’s the Limit,
61.

“I had the opportunity”
:
Stafford,
Flight from Reality,
83.

“Buz! Take notice”
:
Ibid., 141.

“I think of you all”
:
Diary, Sept. 8, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“The ‘ordering’ of my life”
:
Soames,
Daughter’s Tale,
173.

“He gave me such”
:
Diary, Sept. 11, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“We cannot tell,” he said
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:801–3.

“largely wild and uncontrolled”
:
“Air Defence of Great Britain,” vol. 3, “Night Air Defence, June 1940–December 1941,” 56, 66, AIR 41/17, UKARCH.

“a momentous sound”
:
Feigel,
Love-Charm of Bombs,
15.

“Tails are up”
:
Martin,
Downing Street,
25.

“The dominating topic”
:
Addison and Crang,
Listening to Britain,
414.

“the severest bombing yet”
:
Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
401.

C
HAPTER 46:
S
LEEP

“to smash as much glass”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:834.

“People living near guns”
:
Addison and Crang,
Listening to Britain,
418.

“It’s not the bombs”
:
Harrisson,
Living Through the Blitz,
102.

A survey found
:
Ibid., 105.

“Conversation was devoted”
:
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
440.

On the night of September 27
:
Harrisson,
Living Through the Blitz,
112. Field, “Nights Underground in Darkest London,” 44n17, notes that in November 1940 only about 4 percent of Londoners sheltered in the tube “and equivalent large shelters.” In October 1940, Home Intelligence quoted a Mass-Observation study that found about 4 percent of Londoners used public shelters. One major reason people gave for not using tube stations as shelters was “fear of being buried.” Home Intelligence Weekly Report for Sept. 30–Oct. 9, 1940, INF 1/292, UKARCH.

“A very formidable discontent”
:
Overy,
Bombing War,
147.

Many more Londoners
:
Harrisson,
Living Through the Blitz,
112. The estimate of 71 percent, derived from a Mass-Observation study, appears in the Home Intelligence Weekly Report for Sept. 30–Oct. 9, 1940, INF 1/292, UKARCH.

“We looked at each other”
:
Wheeler-Bennett,
King George VI,
468.

“It was a ghastly experience”
:
Ibid., 469.

“I’m glad we’ve been bombed”
:
Ibid., 470.

“Everything looks like an invasion”
:
Alanbrooke,
War Diaries,
107.

“We must expect”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:810.

C
HAPTER 47:
T
ERMS OF
I
MPRISONMENT

The room was imbued
:
J. Gilbert Jenkins,
Chequers,
26–30, 120–21; Soames,
Daughter’s Tale,
176–77.

the match as
“monstruoos”
:
J. Gilbert Jenkins,
Chequers,
28.

“Mummie had ordered”
:
Diary, Sept. 15, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“the last day”
:
Ibid., Sept. 14, 1940.

“the weather on this day”
:
Winston Churchill,
Their Finest Hour,
332.

The family took seats
:
Ibid., 333–37.