LIST OF PRINCIPAL
CHARACTERS FEATURED
(Ranks at September 1941)
General Sir Harold Alexander – British
Commander of 1st Division in France, last man to leave Dunkirk, later commander, Southern Division, then British Forces in Burma, before becoming C-in-C Middle East in August 1942. Appointed commander, 18th Army Group, in February 1943.
Sergeant Cyril ‘Bam’ Bamberger – British
An NCO fighter pilot in 610 and 41 Squadrons during the Battle of Britain, he was later commissioned and flew with 261 Squadron on Malta and then 93 Squadron in Tunisia.
Capitaine Daniel Barlone – French
Reserve officer commanding 92/20th Horse Transport Company in 2nd North African Division.
Capitaine André Beaufre – French
Staff officer at General Headquarters.
Jean-Mathieu Boris – French
Officer in the Free French Army.
Pfc Henry ‘Dee’ Bowles – American
Served in 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, in North Africa.
Pfc Tom Bowles – American
Served in 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, in North Africa.
Air Commodore Sydney Bufton – British
Commander, 10 and 76 Squadrons, RAF Bomber Command, then became Station Commander at RAF Pocklington before being made Deputy Director of Bomber Operations at the Air Ministry.
Gino Cappozzo – Italian
Gunner in 17th Battery, 3rd Alpine Artillery Regiment.
Capitaine René de Chambrun – French
Reserve officer in 162e Régiment d’Infanterie de Forteresse, Reynaud’s personal emissary to the United States.
Count Galeazzo Ciano – Italian
Italian Foreign Secretary and son-in-law of Mussolini.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Clark – American
G3 Staff Officer at General Headquarters, US Army.
Jock Colville – British
One of the secretaries to the Prime Minister, first Neville Chamberlain and then Winston Churchill.
Gwladys Cox – British
Civilian living in London.
William Cremonini – Italian
Soldier in the Giovani Fascisti division.
Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham – British
Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet until 1942, then posted to Washington.
Pilot Officer Roald Dahl – British
Hurricane pilot with 80 Squadron in Greece.
Général Charles de Gaulle – French
Army officer then leader of the Free French.
Admiral Karl Dönitz – German
Commander of the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat fleet.
Margarete Dos – German
Teenage girl living in Berlin at the beginning of the war, and a member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the girls’ wing of the Nazi Youth Movement.
Captain Norman Field – British
Officer in the Royal Fusiliers in France and Belgium, then an officer in the Auxiliary Units in the UK, before joining the airborne forces.
Andrée Griotteray – French
French civilian and member of the Resistance.
Ted Hardy – Australian
Sapper in 2/3rd Field Company, 9th Australian Division, serving in North Africa and the Middle East.
Major Hajo Herrmann – German
Flew Heinkel 111s in Poland and Norway with KG4 before becoming a Staffel commander and switching to Ju88s. He later served in the Mediterranean before transferring to Norway to command III/KG30. In July 1942, he joined the Luftwaffe General Staff.
Harry Hopkins – American
President Roosevelt’s closest friend and advisor, and unofficial emissary to Winston Churchill.
Henry Kaiser – American
Construction tycoon and director of Todd California Shipbuilding Corporation.
Feldmarschall Albert Kesselring – German
Commanded Luftflotte I in Poland, then Luftflotte II in France and during the Battle of Britain. Later transferred to the Mediterranean.
Major Siegfried Knappe – German
An artillery officer, he took part in the invasion of France and then served on the Eastern Front.
Heinz Knocke – German
Trainee fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe.
Bill Knudsen – American
Chairman of General Motors and then Chairman of the Office of Production Management, and later, in 1942, Director of Production at the Office of the Under-Secretary of War.
Private Joseph ‘Lofty’ Kynoch – British
Served in 2/5th Leicestershire Regiment in Norway.
Oberst Helmut Lent – German
A Luftwaffe nightfighter ace, who served in Norway then in Holland with NJGI and later NJGII.
Corinne Luchaire – French
French film star and daughter of Vichyist Jean Luchaire, and married to a Frenchman serving with the Luftwaffe.
Hauptmann Hans von Luck – German
Served with Rommel during the invasion of France and then throughout most of the North African campaign. He later commanded a panzer battalion in 21. Panzerdivision in Normandy and north-west Europe.
Oliver Lyttelton – British
Appointed Controller of Non-Ferrous Metals at the outbreak of war, became President of the Board of Trade in 1940, was elected MP for Aldershot and later joined the War Cabinet as Minister of State, Middle East. He returned to the UK in 1942 as Minister of Production.
Commander Donald Macintyre – British
Served as a convoy escort commander on destroyers, firstly on HMS Hesperus and then on HMS Walker.
Maggiore Publio Magini – Italian
Pilot and staff officer in the Regia Aeronautica.
Hauptmann Helmut Mahlke – German
Stuka pilot serving in France then the Balkans and Mediterranean.
General George C. Marshall – American
Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
Walter Mazzucato – Italian
Sailor in the Regia Marina, serving first on the battleship Vittorio Veneto and then on escort destroyers in the Mediterranean.
Flight Lieutenant Jean Offenberg – Belgian
A fighter pilot who flew with 4e Escadrille, 2e Groupe, 2e Régiment Aéronautique I, of the Belgian Air Force, then later joined 145 and 609 Squadrons of the RAF.
Martin Pöppel – German
Served as a Fallschirmjäger – paratrooper – over Holland and Norway in 1940, in Crete and Russia the following year, and later in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and the Lower Rhine.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal – British
Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command from April 1940, then became Chief of the Air Staff in October the same year.
Ernie Pyle – American
A journalist and war correspondent for Scripps Howard Newspapers.
Paul Reynaud – French
French politician and Finance Minister, then Prime Minister from March to June 1940, and was later imprisoned first by the Vichy Government and then the Germans.
Generalmajor Erwin Rommel – German
Commanded 7. Panzerdivision in France in 1940, then took command of the Deutsche Panzerkorps in North Africa in February 1942, and later became commander of the Italo-German Panzerarmee Afrika. Promoted to Feldmarschall in July 1942.
Leutnant Günther Sack – German
In the RAD – Reichsarbeitsdienst – at the start of the war, Sack became a Fahnenjunker with a heavy flak unit, then switched to light flak in March 1940. After serving in the invasion of France and the Low Countries, he served in the Balkans and Greece, then returned to France. After briefly serving at Leningrad, he returned to the Western Front.
Giuseppe Santaniello – Italian
Soldier in 48th Artillery Regiment, Bari Division.
Generalmajor Adolf von Schell – German
General Plenipotentiary of Motor Vehicles within the War Economics and Armaments Office.
Hans Schlange-Schöningen – German
First World War veteran and former politician, during the war he continued his family duties as owner of a large estate in Pomerania.
Eric Sevareid – American
War correspondent and broadcaster for CBS.
Flight Lieutenant Tony Smyth – British
Bomber pilot with RAF Bomber Command then later RAF Middle East.
Gunnar Sonsteby – Norwegian
Fought in the Norwegian Army in 1940, then joined the Resistance Movement. He later joined the British SOE and went to Britain for saboteur training, and became chief of operations in the Resistance.
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Spears – British
Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Anglo-French Committee, and then Churchill’s Personal Representative to the French Prime Minister. Later became the PM’s Personal Representative to the Free French.
Reichsminister Albert Speer – German
Hitler’s chief architect, and from November 1942 Minister of Armaments and War Production.
Hauptmann Johannes ‘Macky’ Steinhoff – German
Fighter pilot and commander with JG2 and JG52.
Henry L. Stimson – American
US Secretary of State for War.
Arthur ‘A. G.’ Street – British
Wiltshire farmer, writer and broadcaster for the Ministry of Information.
Korvettenkapitän Reinhard ‘Teddy’ Suhren – German
First Watch Officer on U-48, then took command of U-564, before leaving the service in October 1942 to become an instructor.
Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder – British
Director of Research at the Ministry of Aircraft Production then posted to the Middle East to become Air Officer Commanding. Later, in February 1943, he became C-in-C Mediterranean Air Command.
Generalleutnant Georg Thomas – German
Head of the War Economics and Armaments Office and chief economic advisor to the Army from 1939 to 1942.
Robert Cyril Thompson – British
Ship designer at Joseph L. Thompson in Sunderland.
Oberleutnant zur See Erich Topp – German
1WO on U-46 and then commander of U-57 and U-552.
Lieutenant Hedley Verity – British
Officer in 1st Green Howards.
Pilot Officer Adrian Warburton – British
RAF reconnaissance pilot.
General Walter Warlimont – German
Served as Deputy Chief of the Operations Staff to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW).
Else Wendel – German
Civilian living in Berlin and working at Kraft durch Freude.
Lieutenant-Commander Vere Wight-Boycott – British
First Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Delight and served in the Norwegian campaign until he took command of his own destroyers, HMS Roxborough and then HMS Ilex, carrying out convoy escort work in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.