In the preparation of this book, I have been helped by many people, who have provided me with historical material and answered my various queries, or who have guided me towards documentary and printed sources. For help on several points of historical detail, I am grateful to Oliver Everett, The Librarian, Royal Archives, and Pamela Clark, Deputy Registrar. Over many years, I have been particularly helped by Dr Christopher Dowling, Keeper of the Department of Museum Services, Imperial War Museum, London, and, on all matters concerning Signals Intelligence, as well as many aspects of military, naval and air history, by Edward Thomas, whose willingness to guide my steps has been much appreciated.
On a wide range of historical matters I have also received considerable help from Winston G. Ramsey, founder and editor of After the Battle magazine, and a pioneer in revisiting and exploring historical episodes both large and small in all the war zones.
For the answers to a wide range of questions concerning the United States, I am indebted to Larry Arnn, President, the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, and to his colleagues Steven Lenzer and Daniel C. Palm.
In response to my enquiries for material and information, I must thank Rupert Allason (Nigel West); Ralph Amelan, Jerusalem Post Archives, Jerusalem; F. Bartlett Watt; Mikhail Beizer; Jeremy Carver; Alan Clark; Reuven Dafni, Vice-Chairman, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Kingston Derry; Barbara Distel, KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, Museum, Archive, Library; John Doble; Professor John Erickson, Defence Studies, University of Edinburgh; Professor M. R. D. Foot; Birthe N. Fraser, Royal Danish Embassy, London; Nechama Gal, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Professor Yoav Gelber, University of Haifa; Katherine Hafner; Peter Halban; Lizzie Haugbyrd, Royal Danish Embassy, London; Dr Cameron Hazlehurst; Dr Hugo Hungerbühler, City Archivist, Zürich; Barbara Jones, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping; Alexander Kitroeff, Centre for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Queens College, City University of New York; Serge Klarsfeld; George Klein, Holocaust Memorial Commission, New York; Igor Kotler; Dr Shmuel Krakowski, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Anita Lasker-Wallfisch; Wim van Leer; Norman Longmate; Lorraine Macknight, Curator, Australian War Memorial, Canberra; H. V. S. Manral, The High Commission of India, London; Mrs M. Milosavljević, Embassy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, London; Kenneth Murphy, Archivist, the Guardian; G. W. Peters, Ambassade de France, London; Heidi Potter, Japan Information Centre, Embassy of Japan, London; David Pryce-Jones; Giorgio Guglielmino, Consolato Generale d’Italia, London; F. de Rochemont, Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, Amsterdam; Mikhail Salman; Eileen Schlesinger; Monsignor C. Sepe, Secretariat of State, Vatican; Michael Sherbourne; Professor Shoji, War Archives Office, Tokyo; Major H. Støvern, Royal Norwegian Embassy, London; Mrs C Laken, Royal Netherlands Embassy, London; Jean Ring; Lieutenant Colonel George Sunderland, Royal Army Medical College, London; W. Tobies, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; A. Vanhaecke, Sous-Archiviste, Service des Archives, Le Havre; Kurt Vonnegut.
In the final stages of my work, further historical material was provided by P. Berninger, Der Magistrat der Stadt Darmstadt, Stadtarchiv; Jack Bresler; Sir William Deakin; Georgette Elgey, Le Conseiller Technique, Présidence de la Republique, Paris; Roy Farran; John E. Franklin, Executive Director, The Fulbright Commission; Herman Friedhoff; Terje H. Holm, Norwegian Defence Museum, Oslo; Igor Kotler; Trevor Martin; Frances Penfold, Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Michael D. Piccola; Gordon Ramsey, Assistant Editor, After The Battle; Dr C. M. Schulten, Head of the Army Historical Section, Royal Netherlands Army Staff, The Hague; Thomas L. Sherlock, Historian, Department of the Army; Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia; Dr Shmuel Spector; Professor Thanos Veremis, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Athens; and Paul Woodman, Royal Geographical Society.
While selecting the illustrations [for the print version], I was helped in my quest by Graham Mason, of the Robert Hunt Picture Library, and Milica Timotic, of the Hulton-Deutsch Collection. I am also grateful to the following photographic archives and photographic copyright holders, for access to, and permission to use, the photographs in their collections:
After The Battle Magazine: photographs number 19, 26, 27, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 56, 58, 62, 66, 80, 83, 84, 87, 88, 93, 111, 117, 118, 121, 123, 130;
Associated Press Ltd: photographs number 66, 92;
Bruce Adams: photograph number 84;
Bundesarchiv: photographs number 98, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110;
Defence Department Photo (Marine Corps): photograph number 68;
Foto-Studio Euler Werl: photograph number 88;
Hulton-Deutsch Collection: photographs number 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22, 31, 42, 44, 50, 86, 102;
Illustrated Copyright: photograph number 125;
Imperial War Museum: photographs number 25, 29, 45, 46, 48, 49, 59, 72, 73, 90, 91, 97, 98, 100, 101, 114, 115, 124, 127;
International Magazine Service, Stockholm: photograph number 38;
Keystone Photo: photograph number 121;
National Archives, Washington DC: photographs number 52, 53, 54, 55, 89, 103, 126, 128;
Novosti Press Agency, Moscow: photographs number 51, 78;
Pan-Asia Photo News: photograph number 129;
Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers Ltd: photograph number 30;
Robert Hunt Library: photographs number 4, 5, 7, 8, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29, 32, 35, 38, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 57, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 84, 85, 89, 92, 95, 96, 98, 99, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 114, 115, 116, 118, 119, 120, 122, 129;
Sado, Brussels: photographs number 71, 118;
Science Museum, London: photographs number 39, 80;
Signal Corps Photo: photographs number 123 (Lieutenant Moore), 128 (Technical Sergeant Sievers);
U.S. Air Force Photo: number 85;
U.S. Army Photograph: photographs number 94, 116, 117;
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem: photographs number 2, 67, 70, 112, 113;
Zenarro: photograph number 82.
For help in sorting the many thousands of folio sheets of material, I am grateful to Jessica Wyman. Tim Aspden has transformed my map drafts into maps of the highest quality. The typing of the manuscript of this book, as of my previous manuscripts for more than a decade, was done by Sue Rampton. All correspondence and extra typing was undertaken by Kay Thomson. The copyediting was under the expert eye of Peter James. While preparing the index, I was helped by Carmi Wurtman, Oren Harman, Ephraim Maisel and my son David.
In preparation for the second edition, I am particularly grateful to Adam O’Riordan for his scrutiny of the text, as well as to all those who also sent me notes of errors. For this help, I should like to thank George Clare, D. S. Goodbrand, George Howard, Hugh Humphrey, A. C. H. Irvine, David Littman, Zvi Loker, D. M. Neale, Colonel Geoffrey Powell, Arthur Farrand Radley, Captain A. B. Sainsbury, Alan L. Shaw, Otto Sigg, P. F. Smith, Sir Alexander Waddell, Andrew Wigmore and A. J. Williamson. For subsequent notes of errors, I am grateful to Ray Bailey, Elihu Bergman, Warren Duke, Kevin McCabe, Richard Smock, L. A. Smith, Tormod Torp, Christopher Niebuhr, Richard Cardosi and Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin.
For the ninth printing (2000) I was able to make factual corrections as suggested by several of those who wrote to me in the decade since the book was first published. I am grateful in this regard to C. J. Amsterdam, John Calder, Richard Cardosi, Edward Cuneo, Blaine M. Gordon, James Harris, William O. Hays, Gary A. Nelson, Christopher Niebuhr, Vispi Petigara, Jo Reilly, Collin Sells, Kathy Sinclair, and Hugh Toye.
At every stage since the book’s inception I have been encouraged by my publisher, David Roberts, and by Ben Helfgott, a survivor of the Holocaust, who gave me the benefit of his considerable knowledge and wisdom.
As with each of my previous books, it is to my wife Susie that I owe both the meticulous scrutiny of the text, and the determination to see fulfilled my aim of a single-volume history of the Second World War which would cover the many different regions of conflict, and the suffering, heroism and achievement of soldiers and civilians alike.
Merton College,
Oxford
22 February 1991