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This glossary thread is for the book The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by
Eric Larson.

by Erik Larson

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

by Erik Larson

Synopsis:

On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally--and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.

Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports--some released only recently--Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill's "Secret Circle," to whom he turns in the hardest moments.

About the Author:



Alternative Biography
To begin with, I was born in Brooklyn. Like half the planet. Birthdate: Jan. 3, 1954. I spent a couple of years in Brooklyn, but have really only one clear recollection—of being bitten by my upstairs friend/neighbor, John H—. I lived briefly in Central Islip and Massapequa, but mostly grew up in Freeport, Long Island, a suburb of New York City, and had three main pursuits: climbing tall trees, riding my bike to the far reaches of the island (typically without my parents’ knowledge), and body-surfing at Jones Beach.

At first I wanted to be a New Yorker cartoonist. For a year or so during my junior-high years I sent my work to the magazine. I seem to recall my cartoons being returned within 24 hours, though surely that can’t be the case. Next I wrote a novel. It was 75 pages long and had a sex scene, even though I had no idea what sex was. I loved it when I got to stay home from school for a cold or some other illness. Yes, once I feigned being ill by putting the thermometer under the hot-water faucet. When I think about it now I’m pretty sure my mother guessed, because a 112-degree F temperature is pretty high. When I did get to stay home from school I read the Dumas brothers and drew things. I drew for hours and hours on end.

I did have a high-school girlfriend, Michelle G—, who in fact shaped my destiny. It was because of her that I went to the University of Pennsylvania. She dumped me two weeks later. This was hard. I recovered. She undumped me. We dated another six months. Then she dumped me again. But I was happy. I studied Russian, learned to drink vodka from a real Russian prince, fought acne by wearing underwear on my head to keep the hair off my face, and graduated summa cum laude.

My first job was in New York as an editorial assistant, meaning gopher, for a publisher in New York. On the way to my interview I stopped in Penn Station to use the men’s room. When I flushed the john, a plume of blue water sprayed out onto my white shirt. I got the job anyway, a pity hire, clearly. But I enjoyed the work. Two editors fought over me, not because I was particuarly talented or good looking, but because they hated each other and had offices with big glass windows that faced each other across a narrow corridor, which only amplified their hatred. I became their pawn. Each would sit me down in front of the big glass window and try to be charming, so that the other saw and suspected that gossip was being traded. This was hard until I caught on. Then it became fun, and again I was happy.

I saw All the President’s Men, and again my life was changed. I went to journalism grad school at Columbia University. On one of my first assignments I was standing under the West Side Highway when a pigeon, or possibly a large goose, crapped down the face of my new London Fog raincoat. I didn’t know it until I began conducting man-on-the-street interviews and one of my subjects kindly pointed out that I stunk like hell and should go look at myself in a fucking mirror.

On graduation day former-mayor John Lindsay was sitting in the row behind my family. At the conclusion of the ceremony, my mother stood up and told him he was the handsomest man she had ever met. This was embarrassing.

My first journalism job was for the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pa., a great spot to start my career. One day they passed me over for a promotion I dearly wanted and hired a new guy instead.

I immediately shipped my resume to newspapers all over the planet and got hired by the Wall Street Journal. The job changed my life and shaped my future in ways I cannot even begin to describe.

I tried as much as possible to avoid the main mission of the journal, which was to write business news, and concentrated instead on feature stories for Page One.

My favorite: A story on video-dating that caused Bob Woodward to launch an investigation of me. So there WAS something that Nixon and I had in common. I hit it off so well with one of my video women that we ended up dating for about nine months. In the story I called her Emily; after it ran I received maybe 500 letters, including at least one marriage proposal. I also got a call from a female reporter for the Washington Post who told me that Woodward didn’t believe the dating story and its result. This struck me as very funny, given that the Post had only recently won a Pulitzer for a story that had been fabricated from the ground up. However, I arranged a clandestine conversation between the reporter and “Emily.”

I never heard from the Post again, at least not in that capacity. At some point I grew tired of writing journalism. One day the managing editor summoned me to New York, to a breakfast at Windows on the World in the World Trade Center, where I knew he planned to offer me a job as bureau chief in one of the paper’s key bureaus. I told him no.

Soon afterward, I got married—blind date, of all things—and my wife and I moved to Baltimore, where I wrote a couple of unpublished novels, did some respectable free-lance pieces, helped raise some babies, and wrote my first book, The Naked Consumer, about how companies spied on individual consumers. I loved that book. No one else did. This was hard, but I was happy.

One thing led to another and now I’ve got seven books under my belt, with an eighth on the way. I live in Manhattan with my blind-date wife; we have three daughters, all of whom are gainfully employed. I love to cook and play tennis—not simultaneously, though that would be interesting. I drink too much red wine; I like martinis and humor dry; I think Airplane is the finest comedy ever made; and I have a passion for dark, gloomy Scandinavian detective stories. As a friend says, “The Scandinavians really know how to kill people.”

The Realistic One:

Erik Larson is the author of eight books, six of which became New York Times bestsellers.

His latest books, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch.

His saga of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing; it lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade.

Hulu plans to adapt the book for a limited TV series, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese as executive producers. Erik’s In the Garden of Beasts, about how America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler’s rule, has been optioned by Tom Hanks for development as a feature film.

Erik’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Erik became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and other publications.

He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Wash., and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast.

A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist, who is also the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, “could make a stone cry.”

They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions. Their beloved dog Molly resides in an urn on a shelf overlooking Central Park, where they like to think she now spends most of her time.

by Carl Bernstein

by Erik Larson

by Erik Larson

by Erik Larson

by Erik Larson

by Erik Larson

by Erik Larson

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

A Note to Readers

Map

Bleak Expectations

Part One: The Rising Threat

Chapter 1: The Coroner Departs
Chapter 2: A Night at the Savoy
Chapter 3: London and Washington
Chapter 4: Galvanized
Chapter 5: Moondread
Chapter 6: Göring
Chapter 7: Sufficient Bliss
Chapter 8: The First Bombs
Chapter 9: Mirror Image
Chapter 10: Apparition

Part Two: A Certain Eventuality

Chapter 11: The Mystery of Swan Castle
Chapter 12: The Ghosts of Dull People
Chapter 13: Scarification
Chapter 14: “This Queer and Deadly Game”
Chapter 15: London and Berlin
Chapter 16: The Red Warning
Chapter 17: “Tofrek!”
Chapter 18: Resignation No. 1
Chapter 19: Force H
Chapter 20: Berlin
Chapter 21: Champagne and Garbo
Chapter 22: Have We Sunk So Low?
Chapter 23: What’s in a Name?
Chapter 24: The Tyrant’s Appeal
Chapter 25: The Prof’s Surprise
Chapter 26: White Gloves at Dawn
Chapter 27: Directive No. 17
Chapter 28: “Oh, Moon, Lovely Moon” Part Three: Dread
Chapter 29: Eagle Day
Chapter 30: Perplexity
Chapter 31: Göring
Chapter 32: The Bomber in the Pasture
Chapter 33: Berlin
Chapter 34: Ol’ Man River
Chapter 35: Berlin
Chapter 36: Teatime
Chapter 37: The Lost Bombers
Chapter 38: Berlin
Chapter 39: Ah, Youth!
Chapter 40: Berlin and Washington
Chapter 41: He Is Coming
Chapter 42: Ominous Doings
Chapter 43: Cap Blanc-Nez

Part Four: Blood and Dust

Chapter 44: On a Quiet Blue Day
Chapter 45: Unpredictable Magic
Chapter 46: Sleep
Chapter 47: Terms of Imprisonment
Chapter 48: Berlin
Chapter 49: Fear
Chapter 50: Hess
Chapter 51: Sanctuary
Chapter 52: Berlin
Chapter 53: Target Churchill
Chapter 54: Spendthrift
Chapter 55: Washington and Berlin
Chapter 56: The Frog Speech
Chapter 57: The Ovipositor
Chapter 58: Our Special Source
Chapter 59: A Coventry Farewell
Chapter 60: Distraction
Chapter 61: Special Delivery
Chapter 62: Directive
Chapter 63: That Silly Old Dollar Sign
Chapter 64: A Toad at the Gate
Chapter 44: On a Quiet Blue Day Chapter 45: Unpredictable Magic Chapter 46: Sleep
Chapter 47: Terms of Imprisonment
Chapter 48: Berlin
Chapter 49: Fear
Chapter 50: Hess
Chapter 51: Sanctuary
Chapter 52: Berlin
Chapter 53: Target Churchill
Chapter 54: Spendthrift
Chapter 55: Washington and Berlin
Chapter 56: The Frog Speech
Chapter 57: The Ovipositor
Chapter 58: Our Special Source
Chapter 59: A Coventry Farewell
Chapter 60: Distraction
Chapter 61: Special Delivery
Chapter 62: Directive
Chapter 63: That Silly Old Dollar Sign
Chapter 64: A Toad at the Gate
Chapter 65: Weihnachten
Chapter 66: Rumors
Chapter 67: Christmas
Chapter 68: Egglayer
Chapter 69: Auld Lang Syne

Part Five: The Americans

Chapter 70: Secrets
Chapter 71: The Eleven-thirty Special
Chapter 72: To Scapa Flow
Chapter 73: “Whither Thou Goest”
Chapter 74: Directive No. 23
Chapter 75: The Coming Violence
Chapter 76: London, Washington, and Berlin
Chapter 77: Saturday Night
Chapter 78: The Tall Man with the Smile
Chapter 79: Snakehips
Chapter 80: Bayonet Quadrille
Chapter 81: The Gambler
Chapter 82: A Treat for Clementine
Chapter 83: Men

Part Six: Love amid the Flames

Chapter 84: Grave News
Chapter 85: Scorn
Chapter 86: That Night at the Dorchester
Chapter 87: The White Cliffs
Chapter 88: Berlin
Chapter 89: This Scowling Valley
Chapter 90: Gloom
Chapter 91: Eric
Chapter 92: Le Coeur Dit
Chapter 93: Of Panzers and Pansies
Chapter 94: Le Coeur Encore
Chapter 95: Moonrise

Part Seven: One Year to the Day

Chapter 96: A Beam Named Anton
Chapter 97: Interloper
Chapter 98: The Cruelest Raid
Chapter 99: A Surprise for Hitler
Chapter 100: Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Chapter 101: A Weekend at Chequers

Epilogue: As Time Went By

Dedication

Sources and Acknowledgments

Bibliography A Reader’s Guide

Also by Erik Larson

About the Author

Bibliography

ARCHIVES AND DOCUMENT COLLECTIONS

Beaverbrook, Lord (Max Aitken). Papers. Parliamentary Archives, London.

Burgis, Lawrence. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Clementine (Baroness Spencer-Churchill). Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Mary (Mary Churchill Soames). Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Randolph. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Winston. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Colville, John R. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Eade, Charles. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Gallup Polls. ibiblio.org. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Gilbert, Martin. The Churchill War Papers. Vol. 2, Never Surrender, May 1940–December 1940. New York: Norton, 1995.
———. The Churchill War Papers. Vol. 3, The Ever-Widening War, 1941. New York: Norton, 2000.

Hansard. Proceedings in the House of Commons. London.

Harriman, Pamela Digby. Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Harriman, W. Averell. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Ismay, General Hastings Lionel. Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives, King’s College London.

Lindemann, Frederick A. (Viscount Cherwell). Papers. Nuffield College, Oxford.

Meiklejohn, Robert P. Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, England (UKARCH).

National Meteorological Library and Archive, Exeter, U.K. Digital archive: www.metoffice.gov.uk/​research/​libra... (link not working)

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Papers as President: Map Room Papers, 1941–1945 (FDR/Map).

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Papers as President: The President’s Secretary’s File, 1933–1945. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Presidential Library & Museum. Digital collection: www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/​archives/​...
———. Confidential File (FDR/Conf).
———. Diplomatic File (FDR/Diplo).
———. Safe File (FDR/Safe).
———. Subject File (FDR/Subject).

Spaatz, Carl. Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Bentley, the amount of research and reading that goes into a book such as this is simply staggering. No wonder Erik Larson generates best-sellers!
Regards,
Andrea

Andrea that is very true. The best non fiction and historical books usually have astonishing bibliographies attached.

Reviews:

“An enthralling page-turner.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Through the remarkably skillful use of intimate diaries as well as public documents, some newly released, Larson has transformed the well-known record of 12 turbulent months, stretching from May of 1940 through May of 1941, into a book that is fresh, fast and deeply moving.”—Candice Millard, The New York Times Book Review

“Fascinating . . . The entire book comes at the reader with breakneck speed. So much happened so quickly in those 12 months, yet Larson deftly weaves all the strands of his tale into a coherent and compelling whole.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“I have an early copy of this book on my desk and idly began reading the first pages—and suddenly time disappeared.”—The Seattle Times

“The popular historian Erik Larson has done it again. As I read this book, I kept wondering what the swelling of powerful emotion was that I felt, sometimes in an almost physical sense.”—Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny, in Air Mail

“Still, it is a time of sadness, fear, grief and uncertainty for so many, and I find myself comforted by reading about other supremely challenging times in human history, and about resilience, and hope. For this, there is no better book right now than The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson.”—Mackenzie Dawson, New York Post

“Nonfiction king Erik Larson is back.”—PopSugar

“Spectacular . . . Larson, as America’s most compelling popular historian, is at his best in this fast-moving, immensely readable, and even warmhearted account of the battle to save Britain.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“William Shakespeare once wrote, ‘There is a history in all men’s lives.’ Certainly, this has been lived out in the remarkable writing career of Erik Larson. His dynamic ability to tell tales from deep within the dusty pages of history in a gripping and cinematic way has earned him wide acclaim. What sets his work apart is his signature way of using painstaking research through personal journals and historical records to spin a gripping nonfiction tale through the ordinary lives of the men and women who succeeded, failed, and perished as a result.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“The Splendid and the Vile delivers the great saga with a novelist’s touch. It’s like you’re watching and hearing the days and nights of 1940 as a passenger on a double-decker London bus.”—Chris Matthews, Churchill Bulletin

“A propulsive, character-driven account of Winston Churchill’s first year as British prime minister . . . Readers will rejoice.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Larson’s skill at integrating vast research and talent for capturing compelling human dramas culminate in an inspirational portrait of one of history’s finest, most fearless leaders.”—Booklist (starred review)

ARCHIVES AND DOCUMENT COLLECTIONS

Beaverbrook, Lord (Max Aitken). Papers. Parliamentary Archives, London.

Burgis, Lawrence. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Clementine (Baroness Spencer-Churchill). Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Mary (Mary Churchill Soames). Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Randolph. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Churchill, Winston. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.

Colville, John R. Papers. Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.
Winston S. Churchill
Gallup Polls. ibiblio.org University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Gilbert, Martin. The Churchill War Papers. Vol. 2, Never Surrender, May 1940–December 1940. New York: Norton, 1995.
———. The Churchill War Papers. Vol. 3, The Ever-Widening War, 1941. New York: Norton, 2000.

by Martin Gilbert

by Martin Gilbert

Hansard. Proceedings in the House of Commons. London.

Harriman, Pamela Digby. Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Harriman, W. Averell. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Ismay, General Hastings Lionel. Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives, King’s College London.

Lindemann, Frederick A. (Viscount Cherwell). Papers. Nuffield College, Oxford.

Meiklejohn, Robert P. Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, England (UKARCH).

National Meteorological Library and Archive, Exeter, U.K. Digital archive: www.metoffice.gov.uk/​research/​libra... (non working link)

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Papers as President: Map Room Papers, 1941–1945 (FDR/Map).

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Papers as President: The President’s Secretary’s File, 1933–1945. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. Digital collection: www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/​archives/​... ———. Confidential File (FDR/Conf).
———. Diplomatic File (FDR/Diplo).
———. Safe File (FDR/Safe).
———. Subject File (FDR/Subject).

Spaatz, Carl. Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

Books and Periodicals

A

by Paul Addison (no photo)

by Paul Addison (no photo)

by Peter Adey (no photo)

by Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke (no photo)

by Margery Allingham

Source not found in goodreads: “The Animals in the Zoo Don’t Mind the Raids.” War Illustrated, Nov. 15, 1940. Link: https://www.thewarillustrated.info/63...

Source not found in goodreads: Awcock, Hannah. “On This Day: Occupation of the Savoy, 14th September 1940.” Turbulent London. https://turbulentlondon.com/2017/09/1...

Here is an interesting source used by Larson:

On This Day: Occupation of the Savoy, 14th September 1940
SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 / HANNAH AWCOCK

When we think of London during the Second World War, we think of the Blitz. When we think of the Blitz, we think of the Blitz spirit epitomising the British stiff upper lip.

There is a collective imaginary of Londoners banding stoically together, facing down the Nazis with a grim smile, a cup of tea, and maybe a sing song. But London was not always united in the face of the enemy.

The occupation of the Savoy Hotel on the night of the 14th September 1940, the 8th night of the Blitz, was a manifestation of some of these divisions.


Londoners sheltering in Elephant and Castle Underground station during an air raid. At first, the government were reluctant to let people shelter in the underground (Source: IWM)

Remainder of article:
https://turbulentlondon.com/2017/09/1...

Source: On this Day

More:
Sweet, Matthew. “When Max Levitas Stormed the Savoy.” Spitalfields Life. Last modified 3 November, 2011. Accessed 23 August, 2017.
Link: https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/11/...

by John Rees (no photo)

by Phil Piratin (no photo)

by Matthew Sweet (no photo)

Graf Zeppelin video of 1929

Graf Zeppelin returns to New York after world tour 1929

After an exhausting world tour over Berlin and Japan the airship returns via the west coast to New York where it received a big welcome and ticker parade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG_wn...

Source: Youtube

Hindenburg Disaster - Real Footage (1937) | British Pathé

Footage of the Nazi airship catching fire, crashing and burning to the ground: This original footage from the British Pathe archive shows impressive shots of the Hindenburg flying overheaon on Thursday, May 6, 1937, flying over its landing ground at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and then finally there is footage of the famous crash. 13 out of 36 passengers died, whilst 22 out of 61 crew members died, so many survived the disaster.

Link: https://youtu.be/7oPnhXVBK1A

Source: Youtube

Source: Youtube

Zeppelins - Majestic and Deadly Airships of WW1 I THE GREAT WAR Special

Zeppelins pioneered the skyways, could fly long distances and reached heights like none of the British fighter-interceptor aircrafts before.

Because of that, they were used for scouting and tactical bombing early in the First World War.

In this special episode we introduce these majestic floating whales and their usage in WW1.

Source: Youtube

Sources:

by Martin Gilbert

by Peter Hart

by Peter Hart

by Norman Stone

by John Keegan

by Max Hastings

(no image) Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War by Enzyklopdie Erster Weltkrieg English (no photo)

by Jörn Leonhard (no photo)

First World War tech: Zeppelins

When a German aristocrat Brigadier General Ferdinand Zeppelin retired from the army in 1891, he devoted himself to the study of aeronautics.

His proposals to the government for a lighter-than-air flying machine were rejected in 1894, but nevertheless he would invest all his money into a company producing airships.

By 1898 Zeppelin had constructed his first airship.

https://youtu.be/uZqqWSUirls

Source: Youtube

by Daniel Turner (no photo)

WWI The First Modern War: The Zeppelin LZ 4 Meets With Disaster | History

In this scene, the first German zeppelin is destroyed before completing a single mission.

Link: https://youtu.be/hfaA4TrSPPA

Source: Youtube

Modern Zeppelins

Link: https://www.britannica.com/video/1797...

TRANSCRIPT

NARRATOR: Even airships need to hoist the anchor every now and then. Two men are required to operate the giant corkscrew-like anchor that secures the ship to the ground. Now, it's all hands to the pumps to control this enormous machine. It takes 17 men just to get the zeppelin ready for take-off. But sometimes all you need is the right attitude and a presentable appearance.

UWE POCH: "We don't lift a finger, really. The pump forces the air into the ship to give it its classic shape."

NARRATOR: Helium gives the ship its buoyancy and enables it to fly. As with any normal flight, so with a zeppelin flight, the pilot has to give his craft one final inspection.

FRANK LUDERER: "It's one of the rules of flying: Four eyes are better than two. It's better to be doubly safe, than not be safe at all."

NARRATOR: Once the pilot has given the crew the thumbs up, it's time to go. The sandbags that act as ballast are taken away and the crew get into take-off positions. In the cockpit, the pilot has all manner of buttons and switches to control the craft. Then it's ropes away and the zeppelin lifts gracefully into the air. To make things a little easier, the airship is equipped with two propellers for extra power. Its top speed is approximately 100 kilometers an hour - much more sedate than an ordinary airplane.

LUDERER: "You can see quite a lot from up here - much more, in fact, than a pilot in a conventional airplane. In good conditions you have the chance to watch what's going on down below. You can see people moving about very clearly - it's a much better view than you'd get from a plane."

NARRATOR: Nowadays, zeppelins mostly serve as advertising in the sky. Even so, some do still accept passengers. But it's a costly affair - an hour's flight costs €300 per person. Back on the ground, the crew are waiting. Before the airship can land safely, the crew need to grab hold of the mooring lines and secure them. This latest generation of airships are much smaller than their 19th century predecessors, but it still takes a lot of hands to keep these 60-meter-long ships from floating away.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica, Youtube

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT
I Didn't Know That: Airships

Airships once dominated long-distance travel, until a series of high-profiles disasters-like the Hindenburg—damaged their reputation.

Link: https://video.nationalgeographic.com/...

Source: National Geographic

The Zeppelin: History of the World's Greatest Airships

This DVD outlines the complete story of the world's greatest airships--from the pioneering efforts of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin to the career of the Hindenburg's sister ship the "Graf Zeppelin." Using archival film, photographs and graphics, the Zeppelin follows the progress of airships from their deployment in World War I to their present uses today.

Link: https://youtu.be/0e-Zvu_CC_Q

Source: Youtube

HISTORY OF HEAVY DIRIGIBLES & AIRSHIPS HINDENBURG DISASTER 34280

Link:https://youtu.be/Es3EEEO24E4

Produced by the United States Department of War, this rather lengthy, black-and-white is titled “Lighter-Than-Air History Rigid Airship.” (Although the Roman numeral copyright date is 1947, it is most likely mean to be 1937). The film opens as one of the US Navy’s airships passes effortlessly above the camera and the narrator references the history of the rigid airship, “a story full of excitement and adventure,” and envisions a future in which the airships serve military and commercial purposes.

Of course, the narrator admits, no mention of a dirigible can take place without a reference to the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. The now-familiar footage of the dirigible exploding into flames and crashing to the ground is shown at mark 01:14, as the narrator discusses possible causes. (The incident shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and ultimately led to the end of the airship era.)

The view is taken back in time to 1897 with a discussion of the history of the airship starting at mark 02:47, as early drawings from aviation pioneer David Schwarz are shown on the screen. (Schwarz is credited with creating the first airship with an external hull made of metal. He died before it was flown.) The “real father” of the airship, the narrator continues, was Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German general and aircraft manufacturer, who is shown at mark 03:00. He used his knowledge of balloons garnered as a Union Army observer during the Civil War to craft the first dirigible. The first practical rigid, the Zeppelin LZ 1, flew on July 2, 1900, and various animations show how the aircraft was constructed and able to take flight.

Come mark 05:56, the film introduces its viewer to Hugo Eckener, one of Zeppelin’s colleagues and following his 1917 death, Zeppelin’s successor in Germany’s airship development. We then take a look inside an early commercial airship, including its promenade deck, restaurant, and cabins. Overtime, the German military began to use such airships as weapons, the narrator comments at mark 08:18 — something that caught Allied Forces in World War I unprepared. “For the first time in history it was possible to carry a large cargo of bombs hundreds of enemies by air to enemy territory,” we are told, as images of German Zeppelins are shown flying overhead. One of the most successful uses of a Zeppelin was during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 in the North Sea, as the Imperial German Navy battled the British Royal Navy. A Zeppelin spotted Navy vessels and were able to radio their location. After WWI, the Allies studied a few handful of captured German airships. The British were able to develop their own rigid airship, with the R34 becoming the first aircraft to make a successful nonstop east to west transatlantic flight.

The US Navy attempted their own construction of a rigid airship with the USS Shenandoah (ZR-1). It was destroyed in a storm in 1925, killing 14 people onboard. At mark 17:55, the viewer learns of the USS California (ZR-3), a rigid airship built by Germany as war reparation. It was used for experimental work, making more than 300 flights, before the airship program was dismantled in 1932. The Goodyear Tire Company would later team with German manufacturers to create airships including the USS Akron (ZRS-4), the Navy's fourth rigid airship used for several tests including as a flying aircraft carrier.

At mark 29:15, we see Germany’s new airship, the Graf Zeppelin (LZ 127), launched in 1928. The film shows crowds of people surrounding the massive as it takes to the sky. The ship operated commercially from 1928 to 1937, and was the first commercial passenger transatlantic flight service in the world. The Hindenburg (LZ 129) is discussed again at mark 31:49, as the narrator discusses its various transatlantic ships and accommodations such as staterooms, showers, lounge, and smoking room. “The big airship provided the acknowledged maximum comfort in oceanic travel.”

Although the film notes at mark 35:40 that many aeronautic experts envision airships as being viable means of transportation in both military and commercial settings, their development was all but abandoned following World War II.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA.

Source: Youtube

Books and Periodicals

B

by David Baker (no photo)

by Werner Baumbach (no photo)

by Cecil Beaton

by Cajus Bekker (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Bell, Amy. “Landscapes of Fear: Wartime London, 1939–1945.” Journal of British Studies 48, no. 1 (Jan. 2009).

by Nicolaus von Below (no photo)

by Isaiah Berlin

Source not found in goodreads: Berrington, Hugh. “When Does Personality Make a Difference? Lord Cherwell and the Area Bombing of Germany.” International Political Science Review 10, no. 1 (Jan. 1989).

Book not found in goodreads: Bessborough, Lord. Enchanted Forest: The Story of Stansted in Sussex. With Clive Aslet. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984.

by Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith Birkenhead (no photo)

(no image) The Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels 1939-43 by Willi A Boelcke (no photo)

by Nicholas Booth

(no photo) Journey Down a Blind Alley by Mary Borden

by Alan Bullock

C

by Alexander Cadogan (no photo)

by Violet Bonham Carter

by Henry Channon

by John Charmley (no photo)

by Anne Chisholm (no photo)

by Anne Chisholm (no photo)

by Sarah Churchill (no photo)

by Winston S. Churchill

by Winston S. Churchill

by Winston S. Churchill

by Winston S. Churchill

by Mark Clapson (no photo)

by Olivia Cockett

by Basil Collier (no photo)

(no image) The City That Would Not Die The Bombing Of London May 10 11 1941 by Richard Collier

by Sir John Rupert Colville (no photo)

by John Colville (no photo)

(no image) Winston Churchill And His Inner Circle by John Colville (no photo)

by James Bryant Conant (no photo)

by Diana Cooper

Source not found in goodreads: Costigliola, Frank. “Pamela Churchill, Wartime London, and the Making of the Special Relationship.” Diplomatic History 36, no. 4 (Sept. 2012).

by Virginia Cowles

by Virginia Cowles

D

(no image) The Fateful Years. Memoirs. 1931-1945 by Hugh Dalton (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Danchev, Alex.“ ‘Dilly-Dally,’ or Having the Last Word: Field Marshal Sir John Dill and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.” Journal of Contemporary History 22, no. 1 (Jan. 1987).

Source not found in goodreads: Davis, Jeffrey. “Atfero: The Atlantic Ferry Organization.” Journal of Contemporary History 20, no. 1 (Jan. 1985).

Source not found in goodreads: Dockter, Warren, and Richard Toye. “Who Commanded History? Sir John Colville, Churchillian Networks, and the ‘Castlerosse Affair.’" Journal of Contemporary History 54, no. 2 (2019).

by Clara Emily Milburn (no photo)

by James Douglas-Hamilton (no photo)

E

by Wolfgang Wagner (no photo)

by Anthony Eden

by Clarissa Eden (no photo)

(no photo) Chequers And The Prime Ministers by Daniel Hope Elletson (no photo)

F

(no image) G - For God Almighty: A Personal Memoir of Lord Beaverbrook

Book not found in goodreads: Farrer, David G. - The sky's the limit,: The story of Beaverbrook at M.A.P

by Lara Feigel (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Field, Geoffrey. “Nights Underground in Darkest London: The Blitz, 1940–41.” International Labor and Working-Class History, no. 62 (Fall 2002).

by Adrian Fort (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Fox, Jo. “Propaganda and the Flight of Rudolf Hess, 1941–45.” Journal of Modern History 83, no. 1 (March 2011).

Book not found in goodreads: Fry, Plantagenet Somerset. Chequers: The Country Home of Britain’s Prime Ministers. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1977.

G

by Adolf Galland

by Martin Gilbert

by Leon Goldensohn

by Philip Goodhart (no photo)

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Book not found in goodreads: Graves, Charles. Champagne and Chandeliers: The Story of the Café de Paris. London: Odhams Press, 1958.

by Graham Greene

Source not found in goodreads: Gullan, Harold I. “Expectations of Infamy: Roosevelt and Marshall Prepare for War, 1938–41.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 28, no. 3 (Summer 1998).

H

edited by Charles B. Burdick (no photo) and by Franz Halder (no photo)

by Winston S. Churchill and compiled by Kay Halle (no photo)

(no image) Randolph Churchill by Kay Halle (no photo)

by W. Averell Harriman

by Tom Harrisson (no photo)

Book not found in goodreads: Harrod, Roy. The Prof: A Personal Memoir of Lord Cherwell. London: Macmillan, 1959.

by Max Hastings

by Tom Hickman (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Hindley, Meredith. “Christmas at the White House with Winston Churchill.” Humanities 37, no. 4 (Fall 2016).

by James Hinton (no photo)

edited by Norman Cameron (no photo) and by Adolf Hitler

by Stuart Hylton (no photo)

I

by Hastings Lionel Ismay (no photo)

J

Book not found in goodreads: Jenkins, J. Gilbert. Chequers: A History of the Prime Minister’s Buckinghamshire Home. London: Pergamon, 1967.

by Roy Jenkins

by R.V. Jones (no photo)

K

Source not found in goodreads: Kendall, David, and Kenneth Post. “The British 3-Inch Anti-aircraft Rocket. Part One: Dive-Bombers.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 50, no. 2 (July 1996).

by David M. Kennedy

by Ian Kershaw (no photo)

by Albert Kesselring (no photo)

by Winston S. Churchill and compiled by Warren F. Kimball (no photo)

by William K. Klingaman (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Koch, H. W. “Hitler’s ‘Programme’ and the Genesis of Operation ‘Barbarossa.’ ” Historical Journal 26, no. 4 (Dec. 1983).

Source not found in goodreads: Koch, H. W. “The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany: The Early Phase, May–September 1940.” Historical Journal 34, no. 1 (March 1991).

L

by Georgina Landemare (no photo) - this book was titled in the bibliography as Recipes from No. 10 (possibly updated title)

(no image) The London Observer: the Journal of General Raymond E. Lee, 1940-1941 by Raymond Eliot Lee (no photo)

by Anita Leslie (no photo)

Source not found in goodreads: Leutze, James. “The Secret of the Churchill-Roosevelt Correspondence: September 1939–May 1940.” Journal of Contemporary History 10, no. 3 (July 1975).

(no image) Churchill As Warlord by Ronald Lewin (no photo)

(no image) Air Raid: The Bombing Of Coventry, 1940 by Norman Longmate (no photo)

by David Lough

by John Lukacs

M

by Robert Mackay (no photo)

by Thomas Maier

by Norma Major (no photo)

by William Manchester

by John Martin (no photo)

by David Matless (no photo)

by Edith Starr Miller (no photo)

by Charles McMoran Wilson Moran

by Williamson Murray (no photo)

Winston Churchill: Hero or villain? - BBC News - Today's News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIZiS...

Source: BBC News

This is another interesting tidbit about the photo on our discussion page showing a baby (Harriet Jane Colville) being held by her mother Lady Margaret Colville - Jack Colville's wife with then Princess Elizabeth on one side and Winston Churchill on the other - come to find out they were the baby Harriet Jane's godparents - great godparents indeed! The father was Princess Elizabeth's first private secretary and when the baby was born he was joint principal private secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Link to article: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ar...

Source: Trove

Obituary of John Colville:

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/22/ob...

Link: https://apnews.com/57885e230bad2534a0...

Source: New York Times, AP News

Note: I did not know that Colville was an RAF pilot who had flown over 40 missions or that Colville later became a merchant banker and wrote book reviews and obituaries for newspapers!

by John Colville (no photo)

I believe that the lady on the left is the Harriet Jane in the photo (the baby who had Winston Churchill and then Princess Elizabeth) as her god parents) - daughter of Colville.



Royal Ascot 2013 - Day 3

ASCOT, ENGLAND - JUNE 20: Mrs. David Bowes-Lyon, Lady Carolyn Warren and Captain David Bowes-Lyon attends Ladies' Day on day three of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse on June 20, 2013 in Ascot, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse)

Note: Harriet Jane had multiple names including Elizabeth - but she did marry a David Bowes-Lyon. Queen Elizabeth's mother was a Bowes-Lyon.

Protests threat to Churchill statue shameful, says Boris Johnson
49 minutes ago



It is "absurd and shameful" that a statue of Winston Churchill has had to be boarded up because of fears it could be vandalised, the prime minister says.

Boris Johnson said the war-time leader had expressed opinions which were "unacceptable to us today" but remained a hero for saving the country from "fascist and racist tyranny".

Protesters daubed "was a racist" on the monument last weekend.

Mr Johnson said "we cannot try to edit or censor our past".

In a series of tweets, he said such monuments were put up by previous generations and urged people to "stay away" amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Remainder of article:
Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53023351

British Ration Week: Episode 1 and Introduction

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5993l...

Synopsis: Did you know that under World War II rationing, the health of the British public improved by virtually every objective measure? Caloric intake increased, lifespan increased, and infant mortality decreased. Despite being an island nation under severe submarine blockade, the United Kingdom managed to not just provide food for its millions of inhabitants, but actually build and maintain the public trust in government rationing. How did this happen? We will explore the question all week, while Ian eats a diet of only what a typical British family would have eaten during the dark days of the Blitz.

Day 1 Menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal Porridge, tea
Lunch: Leek & Potato Soup, bread & margarine, water
Tea: Vanilla Depression Cake, tea
Dinner: Cottage Pie, ale

British Ration Week Episode 2: Food for the Week

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnjVX...

Synopsis: What does a week's worth of food for two people in World War Two London look like? We bought the whole week's groceries and we will explain what the rations entailed and what we have to work with (this episode was actually filmed the day before the experiment began).

Of course, the typical British family during the war did not have a refrigerator, and the wife would have been shopping for groceries on a daily basis.

Day 2 Menu:

Breakfast: Whole Grain Pancakes, tea
Lunch: Split Pea Soup, bread
Tea: Pumpkin Spice Cookies, tea
Dinner: Spam, Vegetable Mash, ale

Source: In Range TV on Youtube

British Ration Week Episode 3: Creative Cooking

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/9kqcfzWy3E0

Synopsis: Much of the popular media about wartime rationing spends a lot of time looking at the crazy examples of weird and frightening recipes that appeared during this time - because that's what attracts audience attention. In reality, the strange recipes are not attempts to make terrible foods palatable, but rather attempts to make repetitive ingredients more interesting. Today's Welsh Eggs, for instance, are a way to use powdered eggs in a way that hides their lack of texture.

Day 3 Menu:

Breakfast: Potato, Bacon and Green Onion hash, tea
Lunch: Split Pea Soup (made with Spam instead of bacon)
Tea: Peach Clafouti, tea
Dinner: Welsh Eggs on toast, sauteed kale

Source: In Range TV on Youtube

British Ration Week Episode 4: The National Loaf

Link to Video:https://youtu.be/p_3PZw7756Q

One of the major initiatives of the Ministry of Food was ensuring the availability of bread and the supply of wheat to the British Isles. To help stretch the use of wheat, a national bread recipe was instituted, using minimally processed brown flour. This was not a particularly appealing item to most of the British populace, used to highly refined fluffy white bread - but they accepted it as a necessity of war. Interestingly, the National Loaf was not that unlike today's whole wheat breads which are so popular for their better nutritional value than WonderBread.

Day 4 Menu:

Breakfast: Cheese toast, tea
Lunch: Cheese and Tomato Sandwich, pickle, leftover split pea soup
Tea: Beetroot pudding, tea
Dinner: Leek and Hamburger Gravy over toast

Source: In Range TV on Youtube

British Ration Week Episode 5: Woolton Pie

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/4-6aZD-VpDE

The Minister of Food who was really the heart of the rationing program was Frederick Marquis, Lord Woolton. A prominent businessman who entered government as a political novice when the war began, Woolton took his responsibility as a charge not simply to ensure that Britain survived the war, but as a mission to use the opportunity to improve public health, particularly among the lower classes. He was a refreshing example of a political figure who eschewed personal power and political strife in favor of the betterment of his society.

The head chef of the Savoy Hotel created a wartime dish which they named Woolton Pie after the Minister of Food, and which has become an excellent example of the whole rationing program in microcosm.

Woolton Pie (makes 1 pie):
½ lb potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled and cut into chunks
½ lb carrots, washed and sliced
½ lb cauliflower, broken into chunks
½ lb swedes (rutabagas), peeled and cut into chunks
3-4 green onions (we used a quarter leek, both white and green), sliced
1 tsp vegetable extract*
1 tsp oatmeal **

Preheat oven to 350. Add all vegetables to a saucepan and just cover with water. Simmer until tender, approximately 10-15 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Put vegetables in a pie plate and add half the reserved liquid. Cover with a pastry or potato crust and bake until crust is golden brown.

Use the remaining liquid to make a gravy for serving:in a saucepan, bring liquid to a boil; in a separate cup, mix about 2 T flour with ½ c water and slowly add mixture to boiling liquid whisking constantly. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

* I don’t know what vegetable extract is, but I’m assuming something similar to bouillon cubes. We didn’t have those, so I just used turkey stock instead of water to cook the vegetables.
** This is supposed to thicken the liquid into a gravy. It doesn’t.

Day 5 Menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins, tea
Lunch: Beans with Bacon, Skillet Biscuits
Tea: Bread Pudding, tea
Dinner: Woolton Pie, ale

Source: InRange TV on Youtube

British Ration Week Episode 6: Cafeterias & Restaurants

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/lV6J24V1G6I

One of the Food Ministry's programs during the war was the creation of the British Restaurants - cafeteria like establishments which offered a hot 3-course meals for just a few pence and without the use of any ration coupons. More than 2000 would be established by the end of the war, and eating out exploded in popularity among the British population because of them. The food was often not exciting, but it was hot, cheap, and readily available.

Private restaurants were able to remain open and in business through the war, but were restricted in several key ways to ensure that they did not become a loophole in rationing for the wealthy. A restaurant could serve only 3 courses, only one could include meat, and a limit was put on what could be charged for a meal.

Day 6 Menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with jam, tea
Lunch: Liver, onions and kale
Tea: Leftover Peach Clafouti, tea
Dinner: Lamb Pasties with Gravy

Source: InRange TV on Youtube

British Ration Week Episode 7: Black Markets and Luxuries

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/T7aKET0Izs0

One would expect a strict rationing program like the British instituted to create a massive black market - as indeed happened in France and Germany at the same time. Remarkably, this did not happen. There were of course violations of the rationing and people who either cheated or exploited the system, but no organized substantial black market ever developed. This can be seen as a credit to the British population's sincere willingness to sacrifice for the war effort, but it is also deeply rooted in the several key decisions and successes by Lord Woolton and his Ministry.

The rationing was enforced across class lines (even the King and Queen legitimately participated), and being seen as truly egalitarian reinforced public willingness to obey the rules. In addition, the Ministry of Food was able to successfully ensure that the rations promised were always available. One did not have to rush to get a share of a shipment of bacon or eggs or sugar - there was always enough to meet the needs of the ration, and the significance of this cannot be underestimated.

Day 7 Menu:

Breakfast: Skillet Biscuits with cheese, tea
Lunch: Fried Vegetable Fritters with leftover gray
Tea: Tea, leftover skillet biscuits
Dinner: Pheasant, sweet potatoes

Source: InRange TV on Youtube

British Ration Week Episode 8: Conclusions (with Karl)

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/UjxyChfHOX0

At the end of British Ration Week, Karl joins Ian for a hearty slice of Woolton Pie and a discussion of everything learned through the project!

Want to know more about rationing and Lord Woolton? We strong recommend William Sitwell's "Eggs or Anarchy: The remarkable story of the man tasked with the impossible: to feed a nation at war"

by William Sitwell (no photo)

I included all of the British Ration episodes that were done and honestly they are quite good and very informative and fun.

I hope you enjoy all of the episodes. I did.

Note: Odd videos for a gun guy but he does a great job with these videos and it was a surprising find on the subject which is excellent. There was a lot of primary source material shown and it was "well done".

N

by Elizabeth Nel (no photo) or Susan Elia MacNeal - Note: In the bibliography, the author listed Elizabeth Nel as the author - in goodreads - the author is listed as Susan Elia MacNeal

by
Harold Nicolson

by David Niven

by Barbara Marion Nixon (no photo)

Inside the Book: Erik Larson (THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE)

Link to Youtube video: https://youtu.be/vEEoKShsDPY

Source: Youtube

O

by Christopher Ogden (no photo)

by Lynne Olson

by Richard Overy

by Richard Overy
Note: In the Bibliography, the author cited another title for this book - The Bombing War: Europe, 1939–1945 - I will look for another book by this author with that title.

by Richard Overy
Note: Here is the book cited.

by Richard Overy