Michael Korda was a child of 7 when the war began, he writes on the Korda family and their relationship with Churchill in the period when Britian fought Germany alone. 5/7/21
All wars occur from a
succession of mistakes. Alexander Korda was a
famous film director and producer his wife Merle Oberon a major movie star. Because they had come from Hungary which was
under a dictator Miklos Horty's fascist regime, they had no difficulty
understanding what Hitler stood for. There was a constant flow of refugees
towards America with Alexander Korda's help.
His father was Vincent
Korda, screen designer and mother Gertrude Musgrove a London stage actress. The
third brother who worked with them was Zoltan. Alexander had a studio in Paris
and those who worked there also worked for M16. Alexander's years in Berlin
were his most productive and his friends included the pro-Nazi Leni Riefenstahl
and General Ernst Udet as well as anti-Nazis like Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya.
Who married Kurt Weil who died in 1950. Otto Preminger and Billie Wilder were
part of the German film industry move to Paris then London then Hollywood.
French Filmmaker Georges Perinal and Rene Clair. Fleeing French Car Licenses showed how
far the German had advanced. The French air force disintegrated at once as
predicted by French political circles. German airplanes were immediately based
behind their troops. Petain was a pessimist, vain and disliked the British.
Mussolini calculated
that Germany would win the war and had to join to get the spoils.
The British army has no
term Private it has guardsman, gunners, sappers and rifleman or fusiliers. A
rifle or pistol are never called a gun.
Destroyers went to Ijmuiden
and brought the Dutch Royal Family as well as the gold reserves and a large
stock of diamonds from the Netherlands
Captain W. G Tennant was
sent to be the SNO at Dunkirk in charge of evacuation. Dunkirk survivors later
go a patch on their sleeve with the word Dunkirk. SS Totenkopf troops executed
French Moroccan troops.
French premier Edouard
Daladier dragged reluctantly into appeasement by Chamberlain at the Munich
conference 1938. Chamberlain claimed that he could tell at a glance if a person’s
word was their bond. The Poles under foreign minister Josef Beck refused
to negotiate even small issues with the Germans. Britain and France were
reluctant to have an alliance with Russia so Hitler managed to. The Poles refused
to allow Russian troops to cross their border in case of German aggression. The
Poles regarded Russia as a more dangerous enemy than Germany. British talk of
loans to Poland broke down as there was pessimism of their ability to pay
back.
Litvinov was a Jew
married to an English women and it would have been impossible for him to
negotiate with Hitler so Molotov was appointed by Stalin.
1939 August 23 Molotov Ribbentrop
Treaty. WW1 had cost France 1.35 million lives, so the Maginot line
and French Army was to prevent a war not win one, but this did not protect the
Ardennes Forest. France could mobilize 3 and a half million men. Birgen
Dahlerus a Swedish diplomat was supported by British to negotiate between
Poland and Germany, they did not know he had a German wife and was a friend of
Goring.
Reinhardt Heydrich SS
orchestrated Kristallnacht and in 1938 rounded up Jews after the Anschluss.
Chamberlain would fall
unless he could announce a ultimatum had been sent to Germany, the French also
did 2 hours later after trying to get Mussolini to intervene. Poland was
defeated in 8 weeks and the Phony War lasted 8 months
1941 Dec Hungary only
then joined the war. On the Axis side.
Belgium, Netherland were
neutral so foreign troops could not come to help till war was declared.
1939 March. Germany
occupied Prague, so Britain started war preparation.
Danzig had its own
currency, postage stamps and anthem.
In the Katyn forest
20,000 Polish officers were killed by the Soviets. Germany's program was to depopulate Poland
and turn it into a German agricultural colony.
There was a air defense gun near
the London studio and Vincent used to go chat to the Polish manning it in his
Miklosdeutch. After the war a list was made public of the British citizens that
the Germans intended to round up immediately including the Korda family. When
the brothers argued in Hungarian nobody was informed what the conversation
was about.
Chamberlain had been
shamed into declaring war while the French were bullied to follow suit.
Churchill “History will judge me kindly for I shall write it". Hitler and Mussolini
did not live to write memoirs, Roosevelt and Stalin chose not to.
Professor Frederich
Lindman a scientist worked and advised Churchill directly.
1939 The British navy
was still the world largest and most powerful. 1700 letters written between
Churchill and Roosevelt during the war. De Gaul’s book on armored warfare
sold less than 700 in France while over 7000 in Germany. The tank a British
invention was not developed due to lack of funds and government policy to avoid
a continental war. German tanks had been tried out in the Spanish Civil War.
German tank warfare was
developed by Heinz Guderian, the crews must be able to communicate and receive
orders. Tanks had to keep moving at all costs as stationary they were
targets for artillery and airplanes.
Germany defeated Poland
by superior numbers 1and a half million against 950,000.
The French army was over
5 million strong under commander in chief Maurice Gamelin. His worst judgement
was that it would take the Germans 2 weeks to cross the Ardennes forest. The
Germans attacking Belgium, Holland automatically brought Britain into the war.
As neutral the Belgium and Dutch could not begin mobilizing their armies till
attacked. In 1914 Belgium had declared war on Germany slowing down their
advance by 3 weeks leading to the French victory at Marne. During the
occupation then, the Germans had deliberately burned down the University
liberary of Louvain.
The British liked French
General Georges but he had never fully recovered the wound received being next
to King Alexander of Yugoslavia’s assassination in Marseilles 1934.
The German attack had 3
and a half million men 3000 tanks and 3000 aircraft, the infantry followed
using half a million horses.
Since 1856 when the
Victoria Cross was given only1,358 recipients.
The RAF had no aircraft
suitable for dive-bombing nor pilots trained for it. 1940 was one of the
coldest winters in 100 years; the French army had a lack of enthusiasm for war
and were indifferent to sanitation and lived in filth. British troops were
better paid and looked after than the French and also had sports equipment to
keep healthy. Because of the widespread presents of prostitution condoms were
sold in the army canteen and soldiers were instructed how to use them. The
British Pioneers were convicts let out of jail to go to war they were not
trained or given rifles but brought to dig trenches.
Nearly half of Germanys
iron or came from Lulea and was transported to the Norwegian port of Narvik and
shipped to Germany.
In France Daladier was
replaced by Paul Reynaud. Both had mistresses and bitter rivalry between them.
In 48 hours every main
Norwegian port were in German hands. It had cost Germany10 destroyers and 3
warships damaging heavily the German navy. Pro German fascist government was
set up in Norway under Major Vidkun Quisling.
In WW2 Switzerland
Sweden Spain Portugal were neutral and the US until Dec7 1941.
Chamberlain had a
majority of 200 seats. He was criticized for missing the bus on Norway; this
lost him the loyalty of the party.
Leo Amery a Jew was one
of 4 conservative who protested on Chamberlain going to Munich. Chamberlain was
told to resign to be an example of the sacrifice to come.
1940 10 May phony war
ended with Germany's attack on Belgium Holland France. Holland opened the dykes
to flood the land and slow the Germans.
W.H. Thomson had been
Churchill bodyguard since 1921. It had taken Churchill 41 years in politics to
become PM. Sir Henry Strakosch was a SA Jewish banker financier, pushed against appeasement.
Churchill had supported
Edward VIII in marrying Mrs. Simpson and had not yet been forgiven by the Queen
1941 May 21 the German
ship Bismarck was sunk. After this the German specialized in Uboats.
German militaristic
boastful propaganda movies were never played in America.
In Belgium civilian
refugees were fleeing the fighting slowing down the advance of the British and
French armies while the Luftwaffe attacked them mercilessly. The French dependence
on telephones rather than radio cost hem dear.
The Belgium King had
been educated in Eton but failed to make a good impression on the English. The
lack of British Fighter aircraft would become a French explanation for the
failure. It was thought it would take the Germans 3 weeks to reach the Dyle
River they arrived in 4 days and they reached Sedan through the Ardennes in 2
days. The Meuse is north of the Dyle and this is where a stand was taken.
Rommel was neither a Nazi nor a Prussian. His breakout of the Ardennes was
north and not towards Paris as expected. Almost half the tanks used were taken
from Czechoslovakia. With the bridges destroyed on the Meuse soldiers could
walk across the weir but if it had been destroyed the upstream level would
have been fordable by the Germans.
1940 May 15 the
Netherlands surrendered. In Rotterdam 900 civilians killed and a firestorm
destroyed the city centre making 90,000 homeless. Belgium has 300 years of wars
with British graves left behind.
Ralph Richardson and Lawrence
Olivier became pilots till Churchill asked them to return to
acting. France lost most of her aircraft trying to bomb the bridges that
the German engineers were building. Britain had to keep her fighter squadrons
to fight the war alone. François Darlan never ceased to reminding people that
his grandfather had been killed by the English at Trafalgar, he later supported
the Vishy regime with people who admired Hitler. Joan of Arc was killed by the
English.
The Luftwaffe lost 1266
aircraft during the entire campaign 300 of them by accidents. US Ambassador
Joseph Kennedy was a tea totaler but owned a liquor company gave bad reports of
Churchill drinking, but these were ignored.
Germanys priority was
defeating the French army rather than dealing with the "pocket of the BEF. British Expedition Force.
The British counterattacked at Arras to get behind the tanks and in the gap and insert a wedge in the infantry
and this shocked Rommel, thinking it was a full scale counterattack, but Lord
Gort withdrew before British forces were surrounded.
4 VCs were awarded in
the Dunkirk retreat. Where circumstances put French and British together they
all fought bravely. Most British entered France through Boulogne, Calais and
Dunkirk so by the late 19C these all had signs in English and English style
pubs. The Dover Strait is 21 miles at its narrowest. Le Harve, Cherbourg or
Brest had bigger harbours. To Protect Dunkirk the Calais forces
under Brigadier Nicholson would not be withdrawn. Victory has
a hundred fathers defeat is an orphan.
The French divisions
behind the Maginot could have been flung against the Germans at this
point.
Vice Admiral Sir Bertram
Ramsey was in charge of Dover a month before he had all private boats
registered for "minesweeping duty" He later became Eisenhower
trusted planner in North African 1942 and Sicily 1943 and Normandy 1944.
He was brought out of retirement as a friend of Churchill. He gave thought to
the rescue of the BEF long before Lord Gort. The British Morris armored
car had been designed for warfare against dessert tribes. The French General
Waygand and Lord Gort failed to meet to agree on a plan.
If the German invaded
England, Dover would be attacked. During the war public were supposed to
use the phones as little as possible to leave the lines open for official use.
Robert Vansittart in the
Foreign Office was the most anti appeaser. Churchill “The nations which went
down fighting rose again, those who tamely surrendered were finished.
Sir Oswald Mosely -
British Fascist Party would be Hitler’s puppet, if Germany invaded. The
Fuhrer was a witness to his weddding to Diana Mitford in Berlin. They were both
imprisoned for much of the war.
At Dunkirk bad weather
and black smoke diminished the accuracy of the air attacks, and the beach sand
absorbed the bomb explosions. Many officers took the first chance to get boat
leaving soldiers unorganized. There was 12 miles of beach.
Both French and British
defenders kept the thin line of defense for 5 days. The navy lost 2 destroyers.
The wounded were embarked from the eastern mole of the harbour. Life
boats were formed into “trots” and towed out by a tug that avoided minefields
and taken right up to the beaches and load 30 soldiers and take them to bigger
boats and spent 3 days and night doing this till they were towed to Ramsgate.
The Dover Straits are shallow with sandbanks not suitable for U-boats to
hunt.
The French Vice Admiral
Jean Marie Abrial in Dunkirk was evacuated and returned to became a
collaborationist to Petain. Lord Gort got a firm order to return to England and
Major General Alexander took over, the one who later became a Field Marshall.
Hundreds of packets of cigarettes littered the NAAFI stores in Dunkirk. 860 vessels
of all kinds were used. 10% of privately owned boats were lost Navy seamen
"pull" oars while civilian "row" oars.
198 thousand British and
140 thousand French were evacuated except for 3000 French who chose to fight
for De Gaul the rest were repatriated to fight and ended up as POWs The ships
returned to get French defending soldiers but due to poor discipline, the
missed the ships and the ships missed them.
Hitler though that the
political crises would cause the right people to come to power in Britian that
would make peace.
Halifax was sent to be Ambassador
in Washington, Sir Samuel Hoare to Madrid and the Duke of Windsor (Edward
VIII)1 to the Bahamas to get rid of the remaining appeasers. 569 trains were
sent to collect the troops in Dover and most were routed around London.
1940 June 14, fall of
Paris. The war cost France 90,000 dead, 2 million French became POW slave workers for 5 years about 10% of the male population .
1940July 4 the
destruction of the French fleet at Maers el Kebir in Morocco showed that
Churchill had decisive power.
1940 July to Sept the
Battle of Britain
Churchill and M16 wanted
Alexander Korda to produce movies that would be an American product and would
cause sympathy for the British cause. Both Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh
were under contract to Korda and made the movie "The Hamilton
Woman" At the London studio more workers were called up for military
service.
1941 Where Alexander
worked both his Vincent and uncle Zoltan worked and this was exactly the time
that the plan to evacuate children in the belief that they faced gigantic air
raids.
Operation Pied Piper.
Nearly 3 and a half million people were evacuated out of cities a scale better
suited to totalitarian regimes. Moved to places they were not wanted. Churchill
disliked this scheme. The writer's mother felt ashamed to be moving to Hollywood as if a
coward. Over 17000 children were sent by
their parents abroad (including historians Martin Gilbert,
Alistair Horne)when U boats were lurking around and 2 of these ships were
torpedoed. Anne Freud concluded that the separation of children and parent was
a worse shock for the children than the bombing.
1941 June 22, Hitler attacked the Soviets but till then
Britain stood alone.
1941 Dec Japan attacked
the USA. Hitler declared war on the USA.
