The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (60 page)

“This is the twentieth century”
:
Diary, Sept. 21, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

Her father ordered
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:862.

“My darling, you must realize”
:
Interview Transcripts, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

“The night,” he wrote, “was cloudless”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:292–93.

The letter was a curious one
:
Stafford,
Flight from Reality,
21, 88–89, 160–63. A copy of the letter is in “The Capture of Rudolf Hess: Reports and Minutes,” WO 199/328, UKARCH.

“proclaims the enemy’s entire abandonment”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:839.

“Alive”
:
Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman Fisk, June n.d., 1941, Correspondence, W. Averell Harriman Papers.

Audiences edged toward tears
:
Panter-Downes,
London War Notes,
26. The pianist’s trick with the orange is mentioned in Fort,
Prof,
49.

“Walked out into the light”
:
Cockett,
Love and War in London,
188.

“I lay there”
:
Harrisson,
Living Through the Blitz,
81.

“Finding we can take it”
:
Cockett,
Love and War in London,
195.

“I am getting a burying-phobia”
:
Ibid., 175.

“Siren Stomach”
:
Wyndham,
Love Lessons,
121.

“If you would also”
:
Elements of this saga reside in the Churchill Archives Centre, at CHAR 1/357, Winston Churchill Papers.

The Chequers Trust
:
For the cost overrun, see “Chequers Household Account,” June–Dec. 1940, and C. F. Penruddock to Kathleen Hill, March 25, 1941; Hill to Penruddock, March 22, 1941, CHAR 1/365, Winston Churchill Papers. The file contains numerous other accountings, for other periods. To come up with the $20,288 figure, I used the equivalence and escalation formulas presented by David Lough in his
No More Champagne,
whereby
£
1 in the period 1939–41 is equivalent to $4, which when multiplied by a factor of 16 comes to an approximation of today’s value. Churchill’s overrun in 1940 pounds was
£
317; in dollars, $1,268. Multiply this by 16 and you get $20,288. Regarding the chauffeurs, see Elletson,
Chequers and the Prime Ministers,
107.

One Chequers order
:
See “Wines Installed in Cellar at Chequers, 23rd October, 1941,” and related correspondence, CHAR 1/365, Winston Churchill Papers.

At least one brand
:
Andrew Roberts,
“Holy Fox,”
292.

“Greetings to our nightly companions”
:
Süss,
Death from the Skies,
314;
Swiss Cottager,
Bulletin Nos. 1–3, digital collection, University of Warwick,
mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/​records/​ABT/​6/2/​6
.

“From its high windows”
:
Cooper,
Trumpets from the Steep,
44.

“Experts agree,” the brochure proclaimed
:
Ziegler,
London at War,
135.

“reminiscent of a transatlantic crossing”
:
Andrew Roberts,
“Holy Fox,”
248.

“Edward only takes three minutes”
:
Ibid., 247.

“Between 6 and 6:30”
:
Cooper,
Trumpets from the Steep,
68.

“They wandered about”
:
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
441.

“Everyone talked to everyone else”
:
Ibid., 442.

“We decided that”
:
Field, “Nights Underground in Darkest London,” 17; Overy,
Bombing War,
146; “On This Day: Occupation of the Savoy, 14th September 1940,” Turbulent London,
turbulentlondon.com/​2017/​09/​14/​on-this-day-occupation-of-the-savoy-14th-september-1940/
.

After one raid set
:
Ziegler,
London at War,
122–23.

Early in the war, the zoo
:
Nicolson,
War Years,
120; “Animals in the Zoo Don’t Mind the Raids,”
The War Illustrated
3, No. 4 (Nov. 15, 1940). See also, “London Zoo During World War Two,” Zoological Society of London, Sept. 1, 2013,
www.zsl.org/​blogs/​artefact-of-the-month/​zsl-london-zoo-during-world-war-two
.

“Among the heaps of brick”
:
Harrisson,
Living Through the Blitz,
82.

“No one wanted to be alone”
:
Cowles,
Looking for Trouble,
441.

“Every night next week”
:
Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman Fisk, June n.d., 1941, Correspondence, W. Averell Harriman Papers.

“For the young it was”
:
Stansky,
First Day of the Blitz,
170–71.

“The normal barriers”
:
Ogden,
Life of the Party,
122.

“only one complete for me”
:
Cockett,
Love and War in London,
186.

“I have never in all my life”
:
Ziegler,
London at War,
91.

He had come close
:
Fort,
Prof,
161–63.

“Now come on”
:
Ibid., 163.

In the first three months
:
Overy,
Bombing War,
97.

“The Fat One promised”
:
Galland,
The First and the Last,
37.

Night bombing, the airman said
:
Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
411–13. British intelligence made it a point to take cooperative prisoners on tours of London, even to the theater, to show them how much of the city had survived the bombing. “Prisoners saw for themselves that London was not lying in ruins as they had been led to believe,” states an intelligence report on the process. Seeing this shook their confidence in what their leaders had been telling them and often made them more cooperative. “Intelligence from Interrogation: Intelligence from Prisoners of War,” 10, AIR 40/1177, UKARCH.

Another intelligence report presents an excerpt of a conversation between two prisoners recorded by British interrogators eavesdropping through microphones, in which one prisoner says, “I still can’t understand that London still exists!”

“Yes,” the other says, “it is inexplicable, though I was driven all round the outer districts, but…more must have been smashed up!” Special Extract No. 57, WO 208/3506, UKARCH. (Interestingly, this file was kept secret until 1992.)

“An airplane carrying Hitler”
:
Shirer,
Berlin Diary,
448.

“an unmistakable wave of optimism”
:
Boelcke,
Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels,
97.

“must expect to find himself”
:
Ibid., 98.

“striding along the middle”
:
Wheeler-Bennett,
Action This Day,
118.

“One thing worries me”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:818–19.

“It may be fun for
you
”
:
Pottle,
Champion Redoubtable,
228.

“When I was at Chequers”
:
Lee to Neville Chamberlain, April 4, 1940, PREM 14/19, UKARCH.

“I don’t know how to fire a gun”
:
Ogden,
Life of the Party,
95; Winston S. Churchill,
Memories and Adventures,
10; Pamela C. Harriman, “Churchill’s Dream,”
American Heritage,
Oct./Nov. 1983.

Compounding Ismay’s worries
:
Ismay to P. Allen, Aug. 29, 1940, PREM 14/33, UKARCH.

Sewage could be a problem
:
Ismay to General Sir Walter K. Venning, Aug. 8, 1940, “Protection of Chequers,” pt. 3, WO 199/303, UKARCH.

“These would provide”
:
J. B. Watney to GHQ Home Forces, Sept. 22, 1940, and “Note for War Diary,” Sept. 14, 1940, “Protection of Chequers,” pt. 3, UKARCH.

One detailed assay
:
“Report on Cigars Presented to the Prime Minister by the National Tobacco Commission of Cuba,” Oct. 14, 1941, CHAR 2/434.

“Gentlemen,” he said
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
3:1238.

The Prof, he told Churchill
:
Ibid., 1238n.

“The Professor thought”
:
Colville to Churchill, June 18, 1941, CHAR 2/434, Winston Churchill Papers.

“The sirens, it must be admitted”
:
Farrer,
Sky’s the Limit,
63.

“The decision might”
:
Beaverbrook to Churchill, June 26, 1940, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.

“It was the appearance”
:
Farrer,
Sky’s the Limit,
65.

“Beaverbrook is a man”
:
Ibid., 63.

In one memorandum
:
Lindemann to Churchill, minute, Aug. 14, 1940, F113/19, Lindemann Papers.

“In my view burning oil”
:
Lindemann to Churchill, Aug. 20, 1940, F114/12, Lindemann Papers.

“Another victory for evacuation”
:
Home Intelligence Weekly Report for Sept. 30–Oct. 9, 1940, INF 1/292, UKARCH.

“I don’t see how”
:
Diary, Sept. 26 and 27, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“All today seemed overcast”
:
Ibid., Sept. 27, 1940.

“I cannot feel”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:902.

The dinner was in full sway
:
Diary, Oct. 8, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers; Soames,
Daughter’s Tale,
179–80.

“I’ve told you five times”
:
Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

“Winston Churchill Junior arrived”
:
Diary, Oct. 10, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

Pamela’s husband, Randolph
:
Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers; Ogden,
Life of the Party,
100; Smith,
Reflected Glory,
72.

“Will they do us any damage”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:307.

“Certainly there is a danger”
:
Ibid., 309.

“Probably, they don’t think”
:
Ibid.

“It is quite a business”
:
Nicolson,
War Years,
128–29.

“I have always been”
:
Roy Jenkins,
Churchill,
640.

“Max knows how”
:
Chisholm and Davie,
Beaverbrook,
445.

“Yes,” Pamela assured him
:
Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

One day after a shopping trip
:
Ibid.; Ogden,
Life of the Party,
92.

“Instead of this”
:
Winston Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Oct. 18, 1931, RDCH 1/3/3, Randolph Churchill Papers.

“as I really cannot run the risk”
:
Winston Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Feb. 14, 1938, RDCH 1/3/3, Randolph Churchill Papers.

“She was wonderfully comforting”
:
Interview Transcript, July 1991, Biographies File, Pamela Harriman Papers.

“What a shock it was”
:
Ogden,
Life of the Party,
102–3.

“Oh! Randy everything would be so nice”
:
Winston S. Churchill,
Memories and Adventures,
14.

“It is a very good thing”
:
Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Sept. 17 and 18, 1940, RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 1, Randolph Churchill Papers.

“Please darling pay”
:
Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, Sept. 9, 1940, RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 1, Randolph Churchill Papers.

“I know it is difficult”
:
Pamela Churchill to Randolph Churchill, [n.d., but likely late Oct. 1940], RDCH 1/3/5 File no. 2, Randolph Churchill Papers.

“We have no gas”
:
Pottle,
Champion Redoubtable,
230.

“They heard the bomb”
:
Nicolson,
War Years,
121.

“Where is Nelson”
:
J. Gilbert Jenkins,
Chequers,
146.

In London that following Saturday
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:318.

“I believe that I can do it!”
:
Ismay,
Memoirs,
175; Elletson,
Chequers and the Prime Ministers,
110.