DOCSLIB.ORG

Alanbrooke's War Diaries

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Alanbrooke's War Diaries Alanbrooke A Life in Books West Coast Rare Books [1] Introduction In a small leaflet, published for the 1957 launch of Arthur Bryant’s book ‘The Turn of the Tide’ Collins Publishers wrote: ‘It was ALANBROOKE who: • saved the British Army at Dunkirk • was entrusted with the defence of Britain against invasion • was appointed by Churchill C.I.G.S. [Chief of Imperial General Staff] • was offered command of the Eighth Army, • was offered Supreme Command for the invasion’ and quoted Field Marshal Montgomery: ‘He was the greatest soldier, sailor or airman pro- duced by any country taking part in the last war.’ The American General Douglas MacArthur wrote in a letter (Item 69): ‘Alanbrooke was the best general the British have had going back to the days of Marlborough’. A sentiment he repeated in his memoirs ‘Reminiscences’ in which he calls Alanbrooke ‘En- gland’s leading soldier’ and ‘the finest strategic mind I had as yet encountered during or after West Coast Rare Books the war’ (MacArthur, 1964). In the eyes of many, Alanbrooke was an outstanding military strategist and played an all important role in defining the military strategy that eventually led to the victory of the allied Proprietor: Steffen Kowalsky forces. James Street Today, the names Alan Francis Brooke or Field Marshal Westport, F28 WD59 Alanbrooke have virtually disappeared from public County Mayo knowledge. Ireland More than a thousand books have been published +353 (0) 86 220 6668 (and continue to be published) about Winston Chur- chill alone; many more about ‘fighting generals’ such [email protected] as Montgomery, Alexander, Eisenhower, Rommel and others. www.westcoastrarebooks.com Besides the three books based on Alanbrooke’s own war diaries only one biography was published about Alanbrooke himself: David Fraser’s ‘Alanbrooke’, pub- lished in 1982. In Memoriam Maybe this should not come as a surprise; as the His- torian Philip Terzian pointed out: ‘The Romance of Peter Kowalsky battlefield is very different from and of much greater interest to the public than the drama of plotting strat- egy and attending conferences.’ (Terzian, 2018) 1939 - 2018 [2] [3] About this Collection Alan Francis Brooke (1883 – 1963) – Biographical Sketch This catalogue contains a selection of books from the library of Alan Francis Brooke, later 1883 Born: 23 July 1883 Field Marshal and Viscount Alanbrooke. 1883- 99 Childhood and early education, Pau, France 1902 Graduated Royal Military Academy Woolwich, Royal Field Artillery This is a core selection from roughly 400 books of the Alanbrooke’s family library. At some 1902 - 06 Stationed in Ireland (Fethard, Waterford, Curragh), volunteered for India point after his death in 1963 these books were boxed up and remained in storage (at times 1906 - 14 Stationed in India. Joined Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) in 1909. unsuitable) until 2018. As a result of the long storage period some of the volumes are damp stained. The condition of each book is described. WORLD WAR 1: 1914 – 1918 ‘A person’s library can [ ] mean a lifetime’s accumulation of books. Some are acquired in 1915 Staff Captain RA, 18th Infantry Division youth [ ]. Some are added early in a collector’s career [ ]. Books pass in and out of a collection 1916 Battle of the Somme, introduced ‘creeping barrage’ over the years, and are never all assembled at one time. Thus, the broader definition of a 1917 Staff Officer, Royal Artillery with Canadian Corps at Battle of Vimy Ridge library is one that is lifelong and intergenerational’ (Seymour, 2016). 1918 Senior Artillery Staff Officer 1st Army, Lieutenant Colonel Alanbrooke’s library contained many books which initially belonged to other members of his POST WW1 family; such as his father, older brother and son (all named ‘Victor Brooke’), his wife Benita Blanche Brooke, née Pelly; and other members of her family (Pelly, Poore, Lees). Where the 1919 Student Staff College Camberley provenance is clear; it has been mentioned in the description of each item. 1920 – 23 General Staff Officer, 50th (Northhumbrian Division) Territorial Army 1923 – 26 Instructor Staff College Camberley This selection contains items from all life stages of Alan Francis Brooke, his childhood, his 1927 Instructor, Imperial Defence College, London early military career in Britain, Ireland and India, WW1 and his inter-war career, resulting in 1929 – 32 Commandant, Larkhill, School of Artillery (Brigadier) his appointment as Chief of Imperial Military Staff, a position he held from 1941 to 1946. 1932 – 34 Instructor, Imperial Defence College, London 1934 – 35 Commander 8th Infantry Brigade After retiring from military duties Alanbrooke was finally free to pursue his lifelong interest 1935 – 36 Inspector of Royal Artillery (Major General) in ornithology and many of his books reflect this interest. 1936 – 37 Director of Military Training, War Office Directorate 1937 – 38 Commander, Mobile Division (Salisbury Plain) There are books related to the various honorary positions (Lord Constable of London, Chan- 1938 – 39 Commander Anti-Aircraft Corps (Stanmore) - Lieutenant General cellor of Queen’s University Belfast, President of the Severn Wildfowl Trust, President of the Zoological Society of London and others). WORLD WAR 2: 1939 – 1945 Note to Readers: 1939 – 40 General Officer, C-i-C Anti-Aircraft Command and Southern Command 1939 – 40 Commander 2nd Army Corps BEF in France & Belgium This catalogue contains more than catalogue entries and bibliographical descriptions of the 1939 – 57 Col Commandant Royal Artillery individual items in the Alanbrooke Collection: 1940 – 41 Commander-in-Chief UK Home Forces 1941 – 46 Chief of the Imperial General Staff / ADC General to King George VI Catalogue entries and book / item descriptions are shown in brown. POST WAR All other information concerning Alanbrooke’s life, contemporaries, quotes from the books and other sources are shown in black. 1946 – 54 Colonel Commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company 1946 – 57 Government Directors of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP) Individual items in this catalogue are not priced. 1948 – 59 Director Hudson’s Bay Company 1949 – 63 Chancellor Queen’s University of Belfast Since the collection has grown over decades, I feel it should be kept together. 1949 Vice President Society for the Protection of Birds 1950 – 55 Constable of the Tower of London 1950 – 57 Lord Lieutenant of the County of London 1951 - 54 President Zoological Society of London [4] [5] Family & Childhood Frontispiece Item 4 [6] [7] The Father: Victor Alexander Brooke Sportsman & Naturalist Sir Victor Alexander Brooke, family and friends. Victor Brooke died of pneumo- Alanbrooke’s father was born nia in Pau in November 1891, at Colebrooke, the ancestral Under the title ‘Sir Victor aged 48, and was succeeded home of the family on the 5th Brooke – Sportsman and in the baronetcy by his eldest January 1843. Naturalist’ Oscar Leslie Ste- son, Arthur. phen edited a selection of his Growing up on a large estate, letters and diaries and pub- Lady Brooke died in July 1920. Victor Brooke soon developed lished them, together with a a strong interest in the natural short biographical sketch and Although Alanbrooke’s fa- sciences and hunting. a chapter about his scientific ther died in 1891 when Alan studies in 1894 by John Murray, was only eight years old, he His father died in 1854 when London (Leslie, 1894 ). seemed to have inherited he was only ten years old. As a many of his father’s interests child he was educated at Har- Victor Brooke married Alice and passions. row in London. Sophia Bellingham in 1864, the couple had six children, A keen hunter and fisherman Returning home, but too of which Alan Brooke was the throughout his life, he later young to take over his fa- youngest. developed a strong interest in ther’s estate, Victor Brooke bird watching and photogra- decided to travel. After trips Due to the delicate health of phy, interests he pursued, even to Switzerland and Norway, he his wife, the family moved to during the busiest times of started a shooting expedition Pau, in the south of France in WW2, when bird watching and to southern India in October 1879. the study of his ornithological 1862 which lasted for sixteen books became a balance to his months. Later in life he traveled exten- work as CIGS. sively in Europe, Africa, the Victor Brooke was a man of Middle-East, The US and Can- many interests. Throughout ada. Item # 1 his travels he kept diaries and wrote long detailed letters to [8] [9] 1 Poetry for the Indian Jungle Tennyson, Alfred. Poems. Signature of Victor Brooke Victor Brooke started his Thirteenth Edition. London, again on title page, dated ‘En- sixteen months long hunting Edward Moxon, 1860. gland 1864’. Small pencilled expedition in October 1862. inscription on title page: ‘I 16.5 x 10.5 cm. xii, 379 pages. leave To Alan’. Upon his arrival in India, at the Half Morocco with gilt decora- beginning of his trip, he pur- tions and title on spine. Mar- Various comments, marks chased and signed this book: bled boards and end papers. and lines in text. Coloured Marbled edges. drawing of a green plant on ‘Victor A. Brooke. Mysore-India page 142 with ‘India’ penciled January 22nd, 1863’. Good condition. Leather parts next to it. Handwritten poem of binding very good, but (four verses) following the Consequently, he noted the boards seriously worn (see last printed page in the book. various stations of his journey images). Marbled edges faded Coloured drawing of a stag on through India and his return and worn. Binding good, but a verso of rear free end paper. trip to Ireland on the verso of few lose pages. Occasional foxing, dust dull- the half-title and on the title ing and minor soiling. page. Ex Libris (‘Alan Francis Brooke’) on front paste down.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46100 I I
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again - beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Arthur Bryant
    UNFINISHED VICTORY by ARTHUR BRYANT LONDON MACMILLAN £sf CO. LTD 1940 IN MEMORY OF HENRY TENNANT KILLED IN FRANCE 1917 “ History is philosophy learned from examples.” Thucydides “ When we had achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out and took from us our victory and remade in the likeness of the former world they knew. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace. When we are their age no doubt we shall serve our children so.” T. E. Lawrence CONTENTS PAGE Introduction : Historian’s Testament . ix CHAPTER i Famine over Europe i CHAPTER 2 The Pound of Flesh . .28 CHAPTER 3 In Time of the Breaking of Nations . 101 CHAPTER 4 The Dreamer of Munich . .170 CHAPTER 5 Rise of the Men of Iron .... 227 Index 2 ^5 • Vll INTRODUCTION HISTORIAN’S TESTAMENT THIS book, which is based upon a larger work now it » laid aside, was written before the war. I wrote as an historian’s attempt to retell the story of those events — forgotten in the press and clamour of con- temporary news — which after 1918 set the course of mankind for a second time down the fatal and ever- steepening incline towards a second Armageddon. I did so with a full realisation that much that I had to relate ran counter to the prevailing view held both in this country and in Germany. I knew that many would blame me for reminding them of what they preferred to forget.
    [Show full text]
  • British Appeasement 1936-1939: the Debate Between Parliament and the Public
    University Libraries Lance and Elena Calvert Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards Award for Undergraduate Research 2017 British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate between Parliament and the Public Kylie D. Johnson College of Liberal Arts- History and Political Science, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/award Part of the Diplomatic History Commons, European History Commons, Military History Commons, Political History Commons, and the Public History Commons Repository Citation Johnson, K. D. (2017). British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate between Parliament and the Public. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/award/31 This Research Paper is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Research Paper in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Research Paper has been accepted for inclusion in Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate between Parliament and the Public Kylie Johnson Dr. Michelle Tusan Johnson 2 Following the Great War, the countries in Europe were wary of another devastating war plaguing the world. The years of fighting and the immense loss of life permeated the minds of the people of the world for decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Download (352Kb)
    1 Historical Pageants and the Medieval Past in Twentieth-century England For much of the twentieth century, historical pageants were one of the most widespread and popular forms of public engagement with the past. Following the success of the first modern historical pageant at Sherborne in Dorset in 1905 (see Figure 1), England succumbed to what contemporaries called ‘pageant fever’ or ‘pageantitis’.1 Towns and cities across the country staged historical pageants, involving hundreds or thousands of amateur performers, and watched by sometimes tens of thousands of spectators over several performances. The ubiquity of pageants in Edwardian England is now coming to be appreciated by scholars, not least due to the work of Ayako Yoshino, who has written the only monograph thus far devoted to the topic.2 The typical historical pageant contained around ten scenes of local history. It showcased moments at which the history of the particular town had intersected with the larger national story, but also key moments in its medieval history, the latter often including the establishment of a monastery or castle, or the receipt of a royal charter. Historical pageants remained important during the interwar period, when many towns and cities staged them for the first time, notably in the industrial north and midlands of England.3 Village, country house and church pageants were also popular, and this was reflected in their frequent appearance in the literature of the time, such as Virginia Woolf’s novel Between the Acts.4 In the 1940s and early 1950s there was a revival of historical pageants, largely but by no means exclusively centred on the Festival of Britain (1951) and the coronation of 1 D.S.
    [Show full text]
  • The Illustrated London News and ‘Our Note Book’
    Gale Primary Sources Start at the source. The Illustrated London News and ‘Our Note Book’ Julia Stapleton Durham University Various source media, Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003 EMPOWER™ RESEARCH Introduction Book’s character in a letter to G.K. Chesterton (1874- 1936) in 1905, inviting him to become its next author: it The history of ‘Our Note Book’ is closely bound up with was, he said, ‘a very light discussion on matters of the the history of the Ingram family who were central to the moment, ... treated without political bias.’ By ‘political foundation and management of The Illustrated London bias’, Ingram clearly meant overt party political bias. On News for well over a century. Self-effacing to a fault, the rare occasions when he felt that the authors of Our they generally allowed their eminent contributors to Note Book had overstepped the mark, he merely added speak for themselves. This was often at the expense of a note emphasising that their views did not necessarily the editor’s independence in the few decades when reflect those of the journal. As the longest-serving editors were appointed from outside the family (for writer of the column, Arthur Bryant (1899-1985), example, Clement Shorter, who was editor from 1891 recalled on Ingram’s death, Ingram extended a until 1900). generous ‘tolerance and liberty’ to trusted contributors. It was very generous indeed. The Ingrams and ‘Our Note Book’ Our Note Book was introduced in July 1884 by the Contributors proprietor and editor Sir William James Ingram (1847- Stability and continuity were bywords for The Illustrated 1924).
    [Show full text]
  • Clifford Cross Auctions Ltd Wisbech Auction Halls
    IMPORTANT 2 DAY ANTIQUE AND COLLECTORS’ SALE By direction of Executors and Others CLIFFORD CROSS AUCTIONS LTD WISBECH AUCTION HALLS, WISBECH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE __________________ On Thursday, 19th November, 2015 OVER 400 LOTS WILL BE SOLD BY AUCTION Comprising VINTAGE WATER PUMP, 7 EASTERN RUGS, CLOTHES, SAMURAI SUIT OF ARMOUR, ETC., ANTIQUARIAN AND OTHER BOOKS; WISBECH HISTORIES AND FENLAND INTEREST; LARGE QUANTITY OF 1950s-1980s CHILDREN’S BOOKS OIL PAINTINGS, WATERCOLOURS, PRINTS AND MAPS INCLUDING FENLAND AND WISBECH MAPS AND PRINTS BRIC-A-BRAC including BOXES, CADDIES, TOYS, RECORDS, GRAMOPHONE, TRANMER 3 RADIO, also VINTAGE SIGNS, ETC., BRASS, COPPER, METAL, LAMPS AND MIRRORS CUT AND OTHER GLASS Sale to commence at 12 noon On view morning of sale from 9am ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Friday, 20th November, 2015 OVER 300 LOTS WILL BE SOLD BY AUCTION Comprising ANTIQUE AND OTHER POTTERY AND PORCELAIN, FIGURINES, TOBY JUGS, ETC., CROWN DERBY, BESWICK, TEK SING WRECK, and ORIENTAL ITEMS SILVER AND SILVER-PLATE JEWELLERY, WATCHES, COINS and STAMPS CABINET ITEMS including PENS, BAYONETS, BEADWORK, SILVER MOUNTED BATON, HARDY ROD, ETC., 3 LONGCASE AND SIX OTHER CLOCKS ANTIQUE, VICTORIAN, EDWARDIAN, REPRODUCTION, 20TH AND OTHER FURNITURE Sale to commence at 10am On view morning of sale from 9am ___________ CLIFFORD CROSS AUCTIONS LTD., AUCTIONEERS (established 1946) Wisbech Auction Halls, The Chase, Chapel Road, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE13 1RF Telephone 01945 584200 Fax 01945 584560 - view catalogue online at “the-saleroom.com”, also available at www.cliffordcrossauctions.co.uk e-mail: [email protected] Find Us on Facebook CATALOGUE £3.00 1 SPECIAL NOTES 1. Purchasers who are unable to collect their items on the day of the auction will need to make special arrangements with the auctioneers to collect any purchases.
    [Show full text]
  • The Existential Question – Will Britain Ever ‘Actually’ Join the EU?
    SPEECH/04/52 The Rt Hon Chris Patten Commissioner for External Relations The Existential Question – Will Britain Ever ‘Actually’ Join The EU? Alcuin Lecture University Of Cambridge, 30 January 2004 Flying back from Tokyo to Brussels a couple of years ago, I was confronted by the existential question that continues to curdle Britain’s relationship with its European partners. My visit to Japan had itself been revealing. I had gone there just after the eruption of a media controversy at home about whether Britain’s absence from the euro-zone would have any damaging impact on the enthusiasm of Asians to invest in our country. Most of the press had pooh-poohed the idea. At my first meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Koizumi, I embarked on a long over-view of the satisfactory state of European relations with his country. As I finished my remarks, Mr Koizumi (barely containing his impatience) came directly to his point. “When,” he asked, “is Britain going to enter the Euro-zone?” And so it continued, at meeting after meeting. Reflecting on this at 40.000 feet, as dawn broke over the frozen Russian landscape below, my reverie was interrupted by a charming stewardess – from Basingstoke, as I recall – who set about laying my table for breakfast. “Do you mind, Mr Patten, if I ask you a personal question?” Wondering what was coming next, I nervously welcomed the enquiry. “Do you think,” she said, “that Britain will ever actually join Europe?” Quite so. Roll away the years. Throw the dust sheets over the conference tables.
    [Show full text]
  • National Braille Reserve Collection List June 2007
    NATIONAL BRAILLE RESERVE COLLECTION LIST JUNE 2007 The National Library maintains a Reserve Collection of seldom-used braille books of a serious or reference nature. The books have been transferred to the National Library from braille libraries throughout Australia. The ownership of the books in the Reserve Collection has been transferred to the National Library. It is a lending collection of infrequently used braille books which are perceived to have continuing value to braille readers because of their usefulness for education and reference. The material includes standard works, classics, and works the contents of which do not date. Titles which contain obsolete information or which are considered to have no lasting value as information or literature are not accepted for the Collection. The Collection also includes some Australian braille material received by the National Library on deposit. Anyone visiting the Library can use the e-callslip facility to request items for delivery to the reading room. It is first necessary to register to use the Library's Collection and this can be done online at the Register <http://www.nla.gov.au/getalibrarycard/> page on the website. The National Braille Reserve Collection is held offsite so it is advisable to check with the Reading Room staff beforehand about use of the Collection. Various facilities are available in the Reading Room to assist vision impaired readers. For details please see the Accessibility <http://www.nla.gov.au/disabcol.html> page on the website. Braille reading skills are not required to access this material. Normally not more than one copy of any title is retained.
    [Show full text]
  • First World War Collections in the UK a Preliminary Horizon-Scan
    First World War Collections in the UK A preliminary horizon-scan JISC Content February 2012 © IWM Q 10661 © IWM Q 1563 © IWM Q 1789 © IWM Q 4349 © IWM Q 3990 © IWM Q 4662 © IWM Q 580 © IWM CO 874 First World War Collections in the UK A preliminary horizon-scan First World War Resources Online Introduction Foreword The Imperial War Museums, commissioned, funded and supported by JISC and the The legacy of First World War in terms of social, economic and political global change of a growing body Wellcome Trust, have produced the attached guide to First World War collections held cannot be overstated; it changed the individual’s view of society and their place within of research on this across the UK. The guide provides information on which archive, museum or library it with far-reaching effects into their future and our past. In the words of H.G. Wells: topic and should not across the UK has material relevant to the First World War. ‘This is the end and the beginning of an age’. be considered in any way as a complete This is the first iteration of a growing body of research on this topic and is not To mark this event is therefore a key landmark for custodians of heritage and appraisal, especially comprehensive. Further research on First World War content and collections educators alike. The commemoration provides the opportunity for museums, as many collections available to education in analogue and digital form will be undertaken as part of galleries, archives, libraries, the creative industries, universities, colleges and schools are conspicuous by the JISC WW1 Discovery programme by King’s College London and will be openly to work together to provide a user experience made possible through innovative their absence e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Durham Research Online
    Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 11 January 2013 Version of attached le: Submitted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Not peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Stapleton, J. (2006) 'The England of G.K. Chesterton.', The Chesterton review., 32 (3 4). pp. 339-355. Further information on publisher's website: http://www.isi.org/journals/chestertonreview.html Publisher's copyright statement: Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk 1 The England of G.K. Chesterton1 JULIA STAPLETON Julia Stapleton is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Durham, UK. Her research interests lie in British intellectual history during the twentieth century. She has just completed a book on Sir Arthur Bryant (Sir Arthur Bryant and National History in Twentieth-Century Britain, Lanham, Md., Lexington Books, 2005), who was Chesterton’s successor as the author of the column, ‘Our Notebook’, in the Illustrated London News.
    [Show full text]
  • British Reaction to the Munich Crisis by David Lilly
    British Reaction to the Munich Crisis by David Lilly This paper was selected by the Department of History as the Outstanding Paper for the 1993-1994 academic year. I want to say that the settlement of the Czechoslovak problem which has now been achieved is, in my view, only a prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. -- Neville Chamberlain, 30 September 1938 < 1> On 20 September 1938, the world appeared to be on the brink of war. The controversy concerning the 3.5 million Germans living in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia had been escalated to massive proportions by the German Fuhrer , Adolf Hitler. The Nazi dictator, claiming that the Sudeten Germans were being mistreated by the tyrannical Czechs, demanded that they be incorporated into the Greater German Reich on the basis of national self-determination. The Czechs resisted these demands because it would have meant a partition of their country, depriving them of the fortified frontier facing Germany that they acquired when Czechoslovakia was created at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The Allies gave this frontier to the new Czechoslovak state to contain a possibly resurgent Germany. The Czechoslovaks also resisted because they had faith in their small but well-trained army and in their alliances with France and the Soviet Union. Great Britain, which was committed to defend Czechoslovakia only if France committed itself as well, feared being dragged into another world war. The British Conservative Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, led the crusade for peace with his attempts to negotiate a settlement to the problem.
    [Show full text]
  • WRAP THESIS Ashford 1983.Pdf
    University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/34787 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION 1945-1975 Nigel Ashford. Submitted for a Doctorate in Politics University of Warwick, Department of Politics, February, 1983. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Summary iv. Abbreviations v. Introduction 1 1. The Nature of the Conservative Party 9 2. The European Party, 1945-1951 36 3. "With, but not of, Europe", 1951-1960 89 4. The First Application, 1961-1963 134 5. A Renewed Commitment, 1963-1970 204 6. To Be Or Not To Be, 1970-1972 262 7. Still the Party of Europe, 1972-1975 312 8. The Distribution of Power within the Conservative 361 Party and the European Issue Bibliography 400 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Large numbers of people assisted in the preparation of this dissertation, so I hope they will appreciate if they are not all mentioned by name. My thanks are due to: all those interviewed for background information and confirmation, many of whom requested that they remain anonymous; the librarians at the University of Warwick, the University of London, Paisley College of Technology and especially the Conservative Party Archivist at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Conservative Central Office for providing access to material, much of which was not made generally available to researchers, and especially to Lord Thorneycroft, Geoffrey Block, Alan Smith and Tessa Eardle; and to the following organisations for permission to examine their records, the Conservative Grou p for Europe, the Anti-Common Market League, the Conservative Anti-Common Market Information Service, the Bow Group and the Monday Club.
    [Show full text]