Skip to main content

Literary: correspondence, mainly readers' comments, on volume 5 ("Closing the Ring") of WSC's war memoirs ("The Second World War")., Oct 1951 - Feb 1956

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHUR 4/61

Scope and Contents

Correspondents include: ?Robert Chapman; Michael Wilford and Frederick Leishman [Assistant Private Secretaries to Foreign Secretary]; Francis Fisher on confusion between Monte Camino and Monte Cassino [Italy]; Oswald Frewen on the role of "gooseberries" in artificial harbours; Ross Geddes on supplying petrol from Britain to France; Charles Wood [WSC's proof reader] on Admiral Sir Max Horton's role; Randolph Churchill (2) and 2nd Lord Jellicoe on the SAS' (Special Air Service) role; French General Henry Martin on the liberation of Corsica [France]; Bernard Newman on the identity of a Pole who brought part of a V2 rocket to Britain; 1st Lord Portal of Hungerford [earlier Sir Charles Portal] on the origin of the phrase "Closing the Ring". Also includes: suggested responses to enquiries and notes from WSC's literary advisors and assistants [George] Gordon Allen, William Deakin, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall, and Denis Kelly; and notes and copies of correspondence from: secretaries Lettice Marston [later Lettice Shillingford], Elizabeth Gilliatt, and Jo Sturdee ("N S") [later Lady Onslow]; Prime Minister's Private Secretary John Colville. Subjects covered by the file include: readers' comments on errors and WSC's coverage of matters such as the capitulation of Lampedusa [Italy], ship-borne air defence, the formation of an "anti-fascist" Italian government, United States losses in the raid on Schweinfurt [Germany], the status of the Solomon Islands, the source of a quote on Austria attributed by WSC to Bismarck, Major-General John Lucas' role at Anzio [Italy], Prince Paul of Yugoslavia [later Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia], and Soviet policy towards eastern and central Europe at the Teheran Conference [Iran]. Also includes: material from John Bogert on "flat top" plane carriers; biographical information on John Lucas; material from Ernest Wiederkehr including an essay (in French) on Russian and German policy towards eastern Europe.

Dates

  • Creation: Oct 1951 - Feb 1956

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Extent

1 item(s) (1 file (175 loose folios))

Language of Materials

English