Reading List by Jayne for WWII
Escape From Holland: The dash for the last British boat out of Holland in May 1940 by Chris Hunt
Just before dawn on May 10, 1940, German parachute troops rain down on Holland. Watching from his home on the Dutch coast is former international footballer Billy Marsden. It is ten years to the day since the Germans saved his life in a Berlin hospital after he suffered a devastating injury while playing for England – and now it is the German invasion of Holland that is putting his life in jeopardy. In The Hague, Margot Fonteyn and the Sadler’s Wells Ballet watch the dogfights from the roof of their hotel. In Amsterdam journalist David Woodward and his American wife, NBC war correspondent Margaret Rupli, are trying to find a way to file the story of the invasion, while young British diplomat Peers Carter attempts to organise an evacuation just eight months into the job.
Set across one weekend in May 1940, this is the story of how these people came together to escape with the last official boatload of British evacuees, and two packages of diamonds with a value of £3 million, out of Holland before the country capitulated. This is not just the tale of their escape, but the story of why these fascinating characters were in Holland to begin with.
Review
I was offered a review copy of this book by the author and I’m delighted I got a chance to read it. Never having heard of this story before, I was riveted while I read it. Let me tempt readers by dropping some names – Margot Fonteyn, Billy Marsden, Douglas Slocombe – who were aboard the SS Dotterel after their various desperate dashes for the coast of Holland while under fire from the invading German forces. We also learn who these people are and why they were there, right when the invasion began.
In May of 1940, the phony war ended for Holland, a month after Denmark and Norway. Despite having been warned by authorities to leave for the UK, many people for various reasons, didn’t. Looking back, it’s easy to be exasperated and shake your head but for many of these people, Holland was home and they had deep ties. Holland was also being scrupulously neutral in an attempt to stay out of the conflict. But when explosives and German parachutes began raining down, there was a general awakening to the danger and the British authorities in the country, rather than saying “We told you so,” swung into action.
Journalists, many of whom had covered the invasions of Poland and Denmark and had to escape from those countries, were now faced with being front and center of yet another invasion. They also had to tamp down their frustration at being right in the middle of the action and unable to send their stories out due to communication lines being cut. The dancers of the Sadlers Wells Ballet, who had been sent on a goodwill, “we’re with you” tour of Holland by British authorities, got a journey under fire they’d never expected. Several English footie stars who had spent happy years developing Dutch talent and teams, had to leave behind the lives they’d built with little more than their irreplaceable sport mementos.
There were missteps along the way as the plan the British had depended upon – prestaging two ships near Rotterdam to evacuate citizens – had to be scrapped when the Germans didn’t invade by land from the east but rather by air into Rotterdam. Mines that were being laid in harbors, fear of 5th columnists and Dutch Nazi sympathizers, dive bombers, and the threat of German submarines all added to the tense journey. To add insult to injury, the Dotterel arrived on a Bank Holiday and the crowded passengers had to wait hours to be ferried from the ship to Harwich. It was during this time that one journalist learned that some of the dancers of Sadlers Wells play cutthroat poker. Meanwhile back in Holland, the Consul General was winding down consulate affairs and dealing with those who had waited too long to try to leave.
Chris Hunt has written a very readable and highly entertaining account of people caught up in a war and circumstances some of them never dreamed they’d be dealing with. There are photos, maps, and a “what happened next” chapter. And for those unsure of the people I listed earlier – Margot Fonteyn was a prima ballerina assoluta, Billy Marsden helped win back to back Division One football titles with Sheffield Wednesday, and if you’ve enjoyed the cinematography of the first three Indiana Jones films, you can look to Douglas Slocombe who did it. B+
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Triumph and Tragedy by John Rhodes
1945. World War II is now in its sixth agonizing year. In Europe, the Allies are closing in on Hitler’s horrific Third Reich, but victory remains elusive. In the Pacific, US forces are locked in a grinding island-by-island struggle against Imperial Japan.
Summoned from the battlefields of Europe, veteran tactical analyst Eleanor Shaux finds herself unexpectedly thrust into the greatest secret of the war: the Manhattan Project. Agonizing decisions must be made about the dangerous new weapon that could end the war in both theaters in a single stroke. Eleanor—pulled apart by the moral ambiguities and nuances of war, worn down by the stress of living through years of incessant conflict, and shocked by personal disaster—struggles to survive.
Meanwhile, even as victory beckons, the great alliance between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin is in danger of unraveling, strained to the breaking point by rivalries and ambitions. No one doubts that Germany will lose the war in Europe, but who will win it?
The future of the world hangs in the balance as the war reaches its shattering climax in a time of triumph and tragedy. Which fate awaits Eleanor?
Review
I presume that this is the finale for this series. To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, I used to love it but that’s all over now. Book one was great but after that my grades and opinions of the succeeding books were up and down like a sine wave. I will borrow what I said about the previous book as it’s easier than writing the same thing a different way and I feel the same way about what’s going on in this book.
“In the first book, I loved Eleanor. I still love her smarts and that she doesn’t back down in the face of the inflated egos of the men with whom she works. But dang, she’s getting to be too practically perfect in every way. And though some men enjoy trying to belittle her, the almost fawning attitudes of many major historical figures does not compute with her thoughts on how she has been forced on them by Harry Hopkins (Roosevelt’s advisor) and Churchill.The historical research is, as usual, impeccable though I have to warn readers that unless you are really interested in the nitty-gritty minutia of war, long passages might be mind numbingly detailed. Just to find out What Happens Next, I will be looking for book six.”
Yeah, so I find out what happens next and it’s a lot of the same all over again. Eleanor is, regardless of the time or place, somehow at every major location/event of the final months of the war. World leaders both political and military eagerly wait for her to tell them what she thinks will happen unless they’re assholes and then they’re hoping she’ll fail or they’re trying to seduce her because her fighter pilot husband Johnnie is MPD (missing presumed dead). Leslie Groves and Monty openly loathe her and frankly, this was refreshing given how the rest kowtow. She is also the moral compass of the story, delicately calling out all the problematic actions that have since become points of contention.
As with all the books, the historical research is impressive. But if readers aren’t interested in long passages that detail “the nitty-gritty minutia of war” then they won’t be interested in the book because it’s basically a history book with fictionalized Eleanor leading us through it. I think the title is fantastic as the war and the horrific losses are a tragedy but I’m truly sorry that the series, which started so well, ends on a downer feeling for me
Spoiler: Show
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