World War II

World War II, story by story.

1. ILondon, May 1940
   

   Chapter I · London, May 1940

   Dunkirk

   You play Winston Churchill

   The army is trapped and France is falling. Is it time to ask Hitler what peace would cost?

   London, May 1940. In two weeks, Hitler's tanks have torn through France, and Britain's only army is trapped with its back to the sea.

   Your first call · Men the Navy hopes to save: 45,000

   Let Halifax write up his planRule out any talks today

   Sources

   • Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. II, Their Finest Hour (1949), ch. I (the War Cabinet of 11 May 1940; the Conservative Party's reserve towards him; Chamberlain still party leader), ch. IV, 'The March to the Sea' (Hitler visiting Rundstedt on 24 May and agreeing that the armour should pause and conserve its strength; his statement that the King of the Belgians had asked the German Command for a suspension of arms), ch. V (Operation Dynamo signalled on the evening of 26 May at 6.57 p.m.; 'the most we could rescue was about forty-five thousand men in two days'; the meeting in his room at the House of Commons with about twenty-five ministers of Cabinet rank, 'Of course, whatever happens at Dunkirk, we shall fight on', ministers jumping up 'shouting and patting me on the back'; the table of 338,226 landed; 'Wars are not won by evacuations'), ch. VI (Reynaud's visit of 26 May and his talk of French withdrawal from the war; his 28 May proposal for an approach to Mussolini)
   • Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. I, The Gathering Storm (1948), ch. XXXVIII, 'The Fall of the Government': the meeting at which Halifax said that as a peer he could not be prime minister in this war; Germany invading Holland and Belgium on the morning of 10 May
   • War Cabinet Conclusions, Confidential Annex, W.M. (40) 139th, 26 May 1940, 9 a.m. (CAB 65/13/20): Halifax, 'it was not so much now a question of imposing a complete defeat upon Germany but of safeguarding the independence of our own Empire'; the Prime Minister, 'peace and security might be achieved under a German domination of Europe. That we could never accept'
   • War Cabinet Conclusions, Confidential Annex, W.M. (40) 140th, 26 May 1940 (CAB 65/13/21): the informal meeting of War Cabinet ministers at Admiralty House after Reynaud's departure; Halifax's record of his talk with Bastianini, 'matters which caused anxiety to Italy must certainly be discussed as part of the general European settlement'; the War Cabinet inviting the Foreign Secretary to circulate a draft for discussion next day
   • War Cabinet Conclusions, Confidential Annex, W.M. (40) 145th, 28 May 1940, 4 p.m. (CAB 65/13/24): the French proposal for a direct approach to Mussolini; Chamberlain, 'no question of our making concessions to Italy while the war continued'; adjourned at 6.15 p.m.; Churchill on the ministers outside the War Cabinet; the reply to Reynaud, 'we cannot feel that this would be the right moment'
   • Guy Nicholas Esnouf, British Government War Aims and Attitudes towards a Negotiated Peace, September 1939 to July 1940 (thesis), ch. on 25 to 28 May 1940: quoting W.M. (40) 142nd, 27 May (Churchill: an approach would be 'futile' and involve 'us in a deadly danger'), and Halifax's diary for 27 May ('if it comes to the point, our ways would separate', and he would resign)
   • 'Britain's darkest hour', BBC History Magazine, January 2018: the three inner-circle meetings (Admiralty House mid-afternoon 26 May, 4.30 p.m. Downing Street 27 May, 4 p.m. in the Commons 28 May); Halifax's resignation threat and 'a private and unminuted conversation in the garden'; the 7 p.m. resumption after the outer-cabinet meeting
   • Anthony McCarten, Darkest Hour (2017), quoting Halifax's diary of 27 May 1940: he found Winston 'full of apologies and affection' (archive.org full-text search)
   • Dunkirk evacuation (Wikipedia): the BEF, the Belgians and three French armies trapped in the north (not found in a fetched primary text)
2. IIEngland, 1940
   

   Chapter II · England, 1940

   The Battle of Britain

   You play Hugh Dowding

   France begs for fighters. If he sends them, what is left to defend Britain?

   Bentley Priory, outside London, May 1940. In its operations room, a giant map of Britain is ready to track every enemy raid.

   Your first call · Your squadrons: about 36 of the 52 needed

   Send the squadrons France needsWrite it down: not one more fighter

   Sources

   • Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, 'The Battle of Britain', despatch of 20 August 1941, Supplement to the London Gazette, 11 September 1946 (issue 37719), paras 14 to 19 (52 squadrons needed, the equivalent of 34 at the outbreak of war; 12 new squadrons asked for, 2 offered, 8 sanctioned on 9 October), 15 (output about 2 Hurricanes and 2 Spitfires a day, no hope of more Spitfires for about a year), 30 to 40 (squadrons sent to France; eight half-squadrons and the composite units left behind; 4 squadrons fighting in France by day and returning at night; 250 Hurricanes lost 8 to 18 May; Spitfires kept out until Dunkirk; only 3 day-fighter squadrons not engaged; 'slipping away like sand in an hour-glass'; his appearance before the War Cabinet in the latter part of May and the decision to send no more fighters except to cover the evacuation), 61 to 74 (the operations room and plotting), 128 to 131 (Park; 12 Group asked to guard the airfields east of London), 170 (16 aircraft a squadron), 192 to 205 (stripping quieter squadrons; Park's pairs of squadrons; four-squadron formations at Dunkirk; 15 September), 210 (end of October)
   • Dowding to the Under Secretary of State, Air Ministry, 16 May 1940 (FC/S.19048), facsimile of the original held at RAF College Cranwell: 'my strength has now been reduced to the equivalent of 36 Squadrons'; 'the more squadrons which are sent to France the higher will be the wastage and the more insistent the demands for reinforcements'; 'if the Home Defence Force is drained away in desperate attempts to remedy the situation in France, defeat in France will involve the final, complete and irremediable defeat of this country'
   • Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour (1949), ch. II, 'The Battle of France: The First Week': flying to Paris on 16 May; the Cabinet's morning authority for four more squadrons; his 9 p.m. telegram asking for six more; the Cabinet's 'Yes'; and the Battle of Britain chapter: the underground control system built by the Air Ministry 'under Dowding's advice and impulse'
   • Denis Richards, Royal Air Force 1939-1945, vol. I, The Fight at Odds (HMSO, 1953): Dowding at Fighter Command from 14 July 1936; Leigh-Mallory's wings of 'usually three, four or five' squadrons; the informal inquiry into Park's handling and the 'warm measure of approval' for Leigh-Mallory's ideas in Whitehall; the Air Ministry deciding in November to rest Dowding and Park, Sholto Douglas taking over at Stanmore
   • Robert Wright, Dowding and the Battle of Britain (1969): the nickname 'Stuffy' from Staff College (archive.org full-text search)
   • Richard Overy, The Battle of Britain: Dowding kept on to March 1940 and then asked 'for the third time' to stay until 31 October (archive.org full-text search)
   • Keith Park (Wikipedia): Park's complaint that 12 Group's cover for his airfields arrived late (not found in a fetched primary text)
3. IIIPearl Harbor, May 1942
   

   Chapter III · Pearl Harbor, May 1942

   Midway

   You play Chester Nimitz

   A few codebreakers think they know where Japan will strike. Is that worth betting the fleet on?

   Pearl Harbor, May 1942. Five months after Japan's surprise attack, America's Pacific fleet is down to a handful of aircraft carriers, and Japan is coming to sink them.

   Your first call · Healthy carriers: 2, both far south

   Keep the carriers south as a hedgeBet on Midway. Call Halsey home

   Sources

   • CINCPAC (Nimitz), report on the Battle of Midway, 28 June 1942 (HyperWar): paras 3 to 10 (Japan concentrating against Midway and the Aleutians after Coral Sea; Task Force 8 formed of all cruisers within reach, five, and the destroyers available, and sent to Alaskan waters; Task Force 16 at Pearl Harbor on 26 May, sailing on the 28th under Spruance; Yorktown fit to fight in three days, arriving on the 27th and sailing on the 30th); results (4 carriers sunk, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu; Yorktown and Hammann lost)
   • Frederick D. Parker, A Priceless Advantage: U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians (NSA Center for Cryptologic History, 1993), Part Two: Doolittle's raid from Hornet ending Japanese objections to the Midway plan; Nimitz ordering Halsey back to Hawaii on 16 May; OP-20-G and War Plans in Washington doubting that AF was Midway and expecting an offensive in the South Pacific between 15 and 20 June; the water-shortage message and the Japanese intercept of 20 May ('we have only enough water for two weeks'); Rochefort's dates of 3 June (Aleutians) and 4 June (Midway)
   • Frederick D. Parker, 'Revisiting the Dispute over the Identification of "AF" as Midway', Cryptologic Quarterly (NSA, released 2011): Admiral Showers's eyewitness account of Holmes proposing the cable instruction for Midway to send a plain-language message reporting an evaporator breakdown; the Japanese report of 20 May intercepted by Melbourne and published 22 May
   • US Navy Combat Narrative, 'The Aleutians Campaign, June 1942 to August 1943', ch. 1 (HyperWar): Task Force Tare established by CINCPAC on 21 May 1942 under Rear Admiral Theobald, 5 cruisers and 11 destroyers; Dutch Harbor attacked on 3 and 4 June; the force never engaged the Japanese carriers
   • 'You've Got Three Days: Repairing the Yorktown After Coral Sea' (Defense Media Network): bomb damage on three decks; Fitch's ninety-day estimate; arrival 27 May, dry dock 28 May; Nimitz inspecting with men in waders, 'We must have this ship back in three days'; 1,400 repairmen around the clock; sailed 30 May 'more patched than repaired'
   • Naval History and Heritage Command photo captions (HyperWar): Nimitz taking command of the Pacific Fleet aboard the submarine Grayling, 31 December 1941; Yorktown in Dry Dock 1 on 29 May, sailing next day; sunk by I-168 after daybreak on 7 June
   • 'Admiral Raymond A. Spruance: Modest Victor of Midway', HistoryNet: Halsey 'confined to a hospital with a skin disease', Nimitz appointing Spruance to Task Force 16; Spruance commanding a cruiser division
   • Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, Shattered Sword (2005): 3,057 Japanese dead (archive.org full-text search); an Osprey title in the same search gives 'Japanese dead totaled 3,057 men, most from the crews of the four carriers'
   • Samantha Seiple, Ghosts in the Fog (2011), and Elliot Carlson, Joe Rochefort's War (2011): Rochefort in 'a red smoking jacket and carpet slippers' over his uniform (archive.org full-text search)
   • CIA Reading Room, 'The Intelligence Jungle: World War II and Today' (review of Layton, And I Was There): Rochefort 'spent most of the rest of the war in command of a floating drydock in San Francisco'
   • Station HYPO, 'Honoring and Remembering Capt. Joseph J. Rochefort': the Distinguished Service Medal presented posthumously by President Reagan on 30 May 1986
   • Battle of Midway (Wikipedia): Midway about 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu (not found in a fetched primary text)
   • Chester W. Nimitz (Wikipedia): born in Fredericksburg, Texas; every battleship at Pearl Harbor sunk or damaged; the carriers absent (not found in a fetched primary text)
4. IVLondon, 1943
   

   Chapter IV · London, 1943

   Operation Mincemeat

   You play Ewen Montagu

   Everyone can see the next target is Sicily. Can a dead man's briefcase make Hitler look elsewhere?

   London, early 1943. The Allies are winning in North Africa, and their next target is so obvious that anyone with a map can see it: Sicily.

   Your first call · Body usable until: about the end of April

   Keep polishing your own draftAsk Nye to write it himself

   Sources

   • Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (1953 US edition), chs. 1 to 15: Churchill approving the operation, 'anybody but a damn' fool would know it is Sicily'; Huelva chosen for 'a very active German agent' with 'excellent contacts with certain Spaniards, both officials and others'; Spilsbury: air-crash victims at sea 'sometimes died from an injury... some died from drowning, but many died from exposure or even from shock'; cold storage and the dry-ice canister; choosing a captain (acting major) and the name Martin from 'a little group' of Royal Marine Martins; Pam, the theatre-ticket stubs and the unpaid engagement-ring bill; Montagu proposing that Nye write the letter, Nye's first try too official, then his own 'magnificent letter' pointing at Greece (Araxos, Kalamata) and a western operation 'Brimstone' with Sicily as cover; the Chiefs of Staff refusing any mention of Sardinia, so Montagu's 'heavy-footed joke' went into Mountbatten's letter ('He might bring some sardines with him'); zero hour 4.30 a.m.; the fisherman on 30 April and the military funeral at Huelva; signals between the Admiralty and the naval attaché, the documents going 'through Naval channels', the briefcase handed back in mid May; the German appreciation spotting the Sardinia joke; 1st Panzer Division sent from France to the Peloponnese
   • Ben Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat (2010): Godfrey's 'Trout Memo' of 29 September 1939 bearing the hallmarks of his assistant Ian Fleming, 'a corpse dressed as an airman, with despatches in his pockets, could be dropped on the coast'; Cholmondeley's 'Trojan Horse' proposal of 31 October 1942; Casablanca, January 1943; Bentley Purchase, 'would have to be used within three months'; Glyndwr Michael born 4 January 1909, rat poison, 'pronounced dead on January 28, 1943. At the age of thirty-four'; the engagement-ring bill; Seraph sailing at 1600 on 19 April; the eyelash; the Germans photographing the letters in the embassy basement; the telegram to Churchill, 'Mincemeat swallowed rod, line and sinker'; aircraft leaving Sicily for Sardinia four hours after the landings; the inscription added in 1997
   • Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate, Civilian Glyndwr Michael, Huelva Roman Catholic Cemetery: 'served his country ... under the assumed rank and name of Major William Martin, Royal Marines'; age 34
5. VSouthern England, May and June 1944
   

   Chapter V · Southern England, May and June 1944

   D-Day

   You play Dwight Eisenhower

   Three days in June have the right tide and moon. Do you go on a gap in the storm, or wait two weeks?

   Southern England, spring 1944. The biggest invasion fleet in history is packed into every harbour, waiting to cross to France.

   Your first call · Losses Leigh-Mallory expects: up to 70 percent

   Keep the drops. Take the riskCancel the American drops

   Sources

   • Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (1948), the chapter 'Planning Overlord' (pp. 263 to 275 of the archive.org copy): moon, tide and sunrise practicable on 5, 6 and 7 June; Leigh-Mallory's protest on 30 May against the 'futile slaughter' of two fine divisions, 'some seventy per cent losses in glider strength and at least fifty per cent in paratroop strength'; cancelling the drops meaning cancelling Utah; 'our experience in Sicily and Italy did not, by any means, support his degree of pessimism'; Bradley and Ridgway backing the drops; 'I telephoned him that the attack would go as planned'; the Meteorologic Committee under Group Captain J. M. Stagg meeting at 9.30 p.m. and 4 a.m.; contingents from the north already ordered to sea before the 4 a.m. meeting of 4 June; postponement and ships recalled; 'the inescapable consequences of postponement were almost too bitter to contemplate'; the 36-hour break and the decision at about 4.15 a.m. on 5 June; assault camps sealed with barbed wire
   • Tim Rives, '"OK, We'll Go": Just What Did Ike Say When He Launched the D-day Invasion 70 Years Ago?', Prologue (US National Archives), Spring 2014: more than 150,000 men, nearly 12,000 aircraft, almost 7,000 vessels; 5, 6 and 7 June, otherwise 19 June; the Southwick House library, empty shelves, French doors, blue rug, meetings at 4 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.; Stagg's 3 June forecast (June 5 cloudy, stormy, windy, cloud base zero to 500 feet); postponement next morning; 9:30 p.m. 4 June, 36 hours of clearer skies, no guarantees, 'The question is just how long can you keep this operation on the end of a limb and let it hang there', provisional orders and the final decision early on 5 June in rain and wind; the note in his wallet misdated 'July 5', 'If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone'; the 101st Airborne at Newbury on 5 June; Cornelius Ryan on four stars, a single ribbon, the SHAEF patch, no flags or signed photographs in his trailer
   • Dave Roos, 'How Many Died on D-Day?', History.com: 'at least 4,414 Allied troops confirmed killed'; 'more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops'
   • Rick Atkinson, D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, 1944: Lucie-Maria Rommel, 'whose fiftieth birthday drew Rommel away from his post' (archive.org full-text search)
6. VIEast Prussia and Berlin, July 1944
   

   Chapter VI · East Prussia and Berlin, July 1944

   Valkyrie

   You play Claus von Stauffenberg

   A man who served the regime for years has a bomb in his briefcase. Will he go through with it, and will Berlin follow?

   East Prussia, 20 July 1944. In a forest camp called the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's midday war briefing is about to begin.

   Your first call · Bombs armed: 1 of 2

   Make them wait. Arm the secondGo in with the one armed bomb

   Sources

   • Peter Hoffmann, The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945 (3rd English ed., 1996): Stauffenberg's career (Polish campaign 1939; wounded in a low-level air attack near Gafsa on 7 April 1943, losing his right hand, two fingers of his left hand and his left eye; posted 15 September 1943 as chief of staff to Olbricht); his early fascination with Hitler's rise and victories; the 'Valkyrie' orders for 'internal disturbances' from sabotage, agents, airborne raids or 'a rising on the part of the millions of foreign workers and prisoners'; Tresckow's message 'The assassination must take place coûte que coûte. Even if it does not succeed, the Berlin action must go forward'; 20 July: Sergeant-Major Vogel at the open door while Stauffenberg and Haeften worked on the explosive; one package used, a ten-minute fuse; the explosion 'between 12.40 and 12.50'; the stenographer Berger dying that afternoon, Brandt and Korten on 22 July, Schmundt on 1 October; Guard Post 1, the southern exit and the airfield barrier; Haeften throwing a package out of the car; take-off 13.15, landing about 15.45 or 16.00; Fromm, 'Keitel is lying as usual', Fromm arrested; Remer speaking to Hitler on the telephone at Goebbels's apartment; Colonel Jäger sent from the Bendlerstrasse to arrest Goebbels, his troops going over to Remer; Hoffmann's rejection of the '7,000 arrested' figure (arrests under 1,000, executions under 200, by the investigators' own counts)
   • Stauffenberg's letter to his wife from Poland, 1939, in the German original: 'Die Bevölkerung ist ein unglaublicher Pöbel, sehr viele Juden und sehr viel Mischvolk. Ein Volk, welches sich nur unter der Knute wohlfühlt' (quoted in Jüdische Allgemeine, 'Problematische Erinnerung')
   • German Resistance Memorial Center, 'Stauffenberg and the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944': raised a Catholic; recognised the criminal nature of National Socialist policy only during the war; chief of staff under Olbricht from September 1943; the bomb shortly before 1 p.m.; Stauffenberg, Haeften, Mertz von Quirnheim and Olbricht shot that night
   • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, 'Hungary after the German Occupation': 'Between May 15 and July 9, 1944, approximately 437,000 Jews were deported from Hungary'; about 420,000 to Auschwitz-Birkenau; 'approximately 330,000 Jews (about 75 percent) were murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival'
   • Danny Orbach, The Plots against Hitler (2016), citing Hoffmann, Stauffenberg, p. 152, and Kuhn's statement: in summer 1942 Stauffenberg told other officers 'they are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue' (archive.org full-text search; also in Frank McDonough, Opposition and Resistance in Nazi Germany)