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Literary: correspondence, mainly readers' comments on volume 4 ("The Hinge of Fate") of WSC's war memoirs ("The Second World War")., Oct 1950 - Aug 1961

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHUR 4/57A-B

Scope and Contents

Correspondents include: General Sir Kenneth Anderson on 1st Army in north Africa; Anthony Moir of Fladgate and Company [WSC's solicitor] (6); Lieutenant-Colonel L V S Blacker (6); Captain John Broome on convoy PQ17; Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning on the raid on Bruneval [France]; ?Robert Chapman; Admiral John Godfrey; R G Gregory (4) and Josiah Francis, Australian Minister for the Army, on Australian troops and the Burma campaign; R V Jones on German use of "Window" [the code name for metallised paper used to confuse enemy radar]; Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton; Sylvia Lynd; Colin Coote [Managing Editor] of the Daily Telegraph; Samuel Morison; Brigadier Sir Christopher Peto (2); Brigadier John Smyth on the Japanese invasion of Burma [later Myanmar]; Sir Griffith Williams. Also includes suggested responses to enquiries and notes from WSC's literary advisors and assistants William Deakin, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall, Denis Kelly, [George] Gordon Allen, and Charles Wood; and notes and copies of correspondence from: secretaries Maud Stanley, Penelope Wall, Jane Portal [later Lady Williams of Elvel], Anthony Montague Browne, Lettice Marston [later Lettice Shillingford], Monica Graham, Chips Gemmell, Elizabeth Gilliatt, Jo Sturdee ("N S") [later Lady Onslow], Vanda Salmon, and Edmund Oddy; [Prime Minister's Private Secretary] John Colville.Subjects covered by the file include: reader's comments on errors and WSC's coverage of matters such as China, Malta, Gibraltar, operations in north Africa involving 1st Armoured Division, 1st Parachute Brigade, 5th Indian Division, and concerning Agheila [Libya], Alamein [Egypt], and Tobruk [Libya], the invention of the Projector Anti-Tank (PIAT), Marshal Stalin on the Dardanelles campaign, Gandhi and his fast, the naval war in the Mediterranean, the loss of HMS Hood, German battle-cruisers leaving Brest [France], Officer Cadet Training Units, the Transiranian railway, and the origins of the "unconditional surrender" policy [additional copy of notes at CHUR 5/41]; a photograph of a "Sergeant Blewett" allegedly illustrating the Life serialisation; the possibility of libel action for a minute of 4 September 1942 and by [Brigadier Eric] Dorman-Smith [later Eric O'Gowan].Also includes: Novel Platoon weapon leaflet and patent information from Blacker; Ministry of Supply minute on the anti-tank weapon; information on the historical basis of Whittier's "Barbara Fritchie"; copy of "Faith of a historian" by Morison; cuttings of readers' letters to the Johannesburg Star [South Africa] and the Times.

Dates

  • Creation: Oct 1950 - Aug 1961

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Extent

2 file(s) (2 files (309 loose folios))

Language of Materials

English