The Grand Alliance (181 page)

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1087

1
The total losses in the undermentioned five months in 1941 from air attack, including Allied and neutral shipping, and the losses in Greece, are now known to be as follows:
Chapter 9

1
Ullein Reviczy,
Guerre Allemande: Paix Russe,
page 89.

Chapter 10

1
Nuremberg Documents,
Part X, page 200.

2
This refers to the sortie by the
Scharnhorst
and the
Gneisenau
into the Atlantic in February and March.

3
Kordt,
Wahn und Wirklichkeit,
page 303.

Chapter 11

1
Major-General R. J. Collins,
Lord Wavell,
page 355.

Chapter 12

1
Papagos has since claimed that his first agreement to the holding of the Aliakhmon line was contingent on a The Grand Alliance

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clarification of the situation with the Government of Yugoslavia, which never was reached.

2
King Peter was evacuated from Kotor in an R.A.F.

Sunderland flying-boat. Mr. Ronald Campbell had made his way to the Adriatic coast. On April 18 he and his staff fell into Italian hands. An attempt was made to rescue him and his staff, and a week later the British submarine
Regent
was sent to the Bay of Kotor. She found the Italians in possession. An Italian officer was taken on board as a hostage, while an officer from the submarine parleyed with the Italians for the release of the British diplomatic party.

Meanwhile three Stukas arrived and bombed and machine-gunned the
Regent,
wounding the captain and members of the crew. She had to put to sea under fire from the shore batteries and escape through the minefields. The British diplomats and staff were moved to Italy and interned. In June they were repatriated to England in accordance with international usage after negotiations with the Kalian Government.

3
My subsequent italics. – Author.

Chapter 13

1
A ship to be sacrificed as a blockship or a fireship requires, after being brought near the objective, only a skeleton crew.

2
This proved an excessive estimate.

Chapter 14

1
The British Ambassador in Baghdad.

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Chapter 15

1
Caique: a type of schooner, now usually motor-driven.

Chapter 16

1
See map, page 302.

Chapter 17

1
The British ships were keeping double British Summer Time (two hours in advance of Greenwich). Furthermore, they were by now a long way to the west of the meridian of Greenwich, and therefore their clock time was about four hours ahead of the sun. Thus the attack took place about 8

by sun time.

2
One aircraft signalled to the
Sheffield,
“Sorry for the kipper!”

Chapter 20

1
Oxford English Dictionary.

2
Prime Minister to General Ismay 5 Aug. 40

I do not wish such reports as are received to be sifted and digested by the various Intelligence authorities. For the present Major Morton will inspect them for me and submit what he considers of major importance. He is to be shown everything, and submit authentic documents to me in their original form

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3
Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939-1941, published by the State Department of the United States, 1948, page 279.

4
Ibid.,
page 332.

5
This was the last act of Count Schulenburg’s diplomatic career. Late in 1943 his name appears in the secret circles of conspiracy against Hitler in Germany as possible Foreign Minister of a Government to succeed the Nazi régime in view of his special qualifications to negotiate a separate peace with Stalin He was arrested by the Nazis after the attempted assassination of Hitler in July, 1944, and imprisoned in the Gestapo cells. On November 10 he was executed.

6
Nuremberg Documents,
Part VI, page 310.

7
Ibid.,
Part XI, page 16.

Book Two

Chapter 2

1
Appendix B. Book Two, pages 844–46.

2
Appendix B, Book Two, pages 844–46.

Chapter 3

1
A novel by C. S. Forester.

Chapter 4

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1
Appendix C, Book Two.

2
To avoid confusion with Ireland, I had directed that Iceland was always to be written by the British authorities as Iceland (C). This was indeed a necessary precaution.

Chapter 5

1
Author’s italics.

2
Author’s italics.

3
Appendix D, Book Two.

Chapter 8

1
See Appendix D, Book Two.

Chapter 9

1
The invasion of Sicily.

2
The actual date and the code-name “Crusader” were given in a separate note.

3
See Chapter VII, page 509.

4
See Chapter VII, page 510.

5
Oberkommando des Wehrmacht, Supreme Command of the German Army.

Chapter 10

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1
The following was the composition of the Eighth Army: XIII Corps (Godwin-Austen): 4th Indian Division, New Zealand Division, 1st Army Tank Brigade.

XXX Corps (Norrie): 7th Armoured Division (7th Armoured Brigade, 22d Armoured Brigade), 4th Armoured Brigade Group, 1st South African Division (two brigades), 22d Guards Brigade Group.

2
The sea was too rough for the re-embarkation of the survivors of the two raiding parties, and under fierce pursuit Colonel Laycock ordered them to scatter and hide in the broken country. Only Colonel Laycock and Sergeant Terry, who had been conspicuous in the attack on the German Headquarters, eventually regained our lines, after five weeks of privation and desperate adventures.

Chapter 11

1
For those who wish to study this matter in more detail, the correspondence which passed between me and the First Sea Lord at this time is printed in Appendix E, Book Two.

For reasons which could not at this time be foreseen, the
Prince of Wales
and not the
Nelson
or
Rodney
was sent.

2
The Memoirs of Cordell Hull,
Volume II, page 1081.

3
The reader need not be puzzled by the datings of the telegrams, so long as they are in their proper sequence. I worked up till two or three in the morning (British time), and any message I sent took two or three hours to code and decode. Nevertheless, any message which I drafted before I went to bed would reach the President almost The Grand Alliance

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instantaneously for practical purposes – i.e., when he woke up, or was, if need be, awakened.

Chapter 14

1
See Chapter IX, pages 544–48.

2
This paragraph was to be falsified by General Auchinleck’s later defeats. At this time we had good grounds for hope.

3
Part I, paragraph 11.

Chapter 15

1
Author’s italics.

2
Author’s italics.

Chapter 16

1
History of the War Production Board,
1940–1945.

2
Sir Charles Wilson, now Lord Moran.

3
Head of the United States Army Air Force.

Chapter 17

1
Paragraphs 9, 10, 14, 15, and 16 are omitted for reasons of space.

2
Commander Thompson, R.N.

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3
Thomas Campbell’s
Lord Ullin’s Daughter.

Appendix C, Book One

1
P.F.: An early type of proximity fuze.

2
A.D.: A rocket and parachute device for use against aircraft.

3
A Communist circular addressed to all active working men and women.

4
A highly successful raid was carried out in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway on March 4, 1941, by two Commandos. Important enemy supplies and much shipping were destroyed, two hundred German prisoners taken and 314 Norwegian volunteers brought safely out.

In a second raid, carried out December 26, the port was again occupied temporarily by our forces.

5
This is a reply to a minute from the Minister of Home Security, the Secretary of State for Air, and the Minister of Information about measures to check the spread of harmful rumours about air-raid casualties and damage.

6
Castelorizzo Island lies midway between Rhodes and Cyprus and forms a link in the chain reaching out from the Dodecanese towards Syria. A British Commando occupied this island on February 25 after slight opposition. The naval forces then withdrew to Cyprus without watching events.

Later heavy air attacks developed and the enemy landed reinforcement, unopposed by our naval forces. It was necessary to abandon the island.

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7
D.F.:
Direction-finding equipment used to determine the direction of the source of a wireless signal.

8
A.S.V.:
Airborne radar.

9
The Actaeon net defence against torpedoes was being developed for use in merchant ships. It could not be towed by escort vessels without seriously hampering their freedom of movement. See Volume I, page 727.

10
The
Gneisenau
had in fact been torpedoed in Brest Harbour on April 6 by an aircraft of Coastal Command. In this gallant attack the aircraft and all the crew were lost.

The pilot was awarded a posthumous V.C. A few days later Bomber Command aircraft scored four hits on the same ship with bombs. These successes were not known to us at the time. In July the
Scharnhorst
moved from Brest to La Pallice, in the Bay of Biscay, for trials and sea training, but three days later she was successfully bombed in harbour there and severely damaged. She returned to Brest for further extensive repairs.

11
General Ismay, for C.O.S. Committee 1.IX.40

Of course, if the glider scheme is better than parachutes, we should pursue it, but is it being seriously taken up? Are we not in danger of being fobbed off with one doubtful and experimental policy and losing the other which has already been proved? Let me have a full report of what has been done about the gliders.

12

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13
See footnote at page 760.

14
About four hundred Polish officers were sent as proposed to the West African Division and served with high credit.

15
This minute shows the genesis of the landing-craft flak (L.

C.F.) which was a converted tank-landing-craft carrying a powerful battery of light and anti-aircraft guns. It was used to provide close air defence to landing-craft during an assault. Six of these were in service by May, 1942, and thereafter the numbers greatly increased.

Appendix D, Book One

16
See Book One, Chapter 3, page 39
et seq.

Appendix E, Book One

17
The losses in December include about 270,000 tons lost in the Far East. Of this 194,000 tons was British.

Appendix F, Book One

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18
Extra to original 57.

19
One South African division extra to original 57.

Appendix A, Book Two

20
C.I.G.S.’s Minute of 5.VII.41, referring to the Prime Minister’s request for a detailed distribution list of equipment, by formations, in the Middle East.

21
About deliveries of Martlet II aircraft.

22
About the action of the 2d Armoured Division during the withdrawal from Cyrenaica, in March and April, 1941.

23
This refers to a Minute from Mr. Amery about conditions in Burma and a proposed visit to this country by the Burmese Premier, U Saw.