Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 Read online

  Fateful Choices

  IAN KERSHAW

  Fateful Choices

  Ten Decisions That Changed the World,

  1940–1941

  THE PENGUIN PRESS

  NEW YORK

  THE PENGUIN PRESS

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  First published in 2007 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © Ian Kershaw, 2007

  All rights reserved

  ISBN: 9781101404737

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  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  Acknowledgements

  Dramatis Personae

  Forethoughts

  1 London, Spring 1940

  Great Britain Decides to Fight On

  2 Berlin, Summer and Autumn 1940

  Hitler Decides to Attack the Soviet Union

  3 Tokyo, Summer and Autumn 1940

  Japan Decides to Seize the ‘Golden Opportunity’

  4 Rome, Summer and Autumn 1940

  Mussolini Decides to Grab His Share

  5 Washington, DC, Summer 1940–Spring 1941

  Roosevelt Decides to Lend a Hand

  6 Moscow, Spring–Summer 1941

  Stalin Decides He Knows Best

  7 Washington, DC, Summer–Autumn 1941

  Roosevelt Decides to Wage Undeclared War

  8 Tokyo, Autumn 1941

  Japan Decides to Go to War

  9 Berlin, Autumn 1941

  Hitler Decides to Declare War on the United States

  10 Berlin/East Prussia, Summer–Autumn 1941

  Hitler Decides to Kill the Jews

  Afterthoughts

  Notes

  List of Works Cited

  Index

  List of Illustrations

  Photographic acknowledgements are given in parentheses.

  1 French infantry soldiers surrender, May 1940 (akg-images)

  2 Allied troops, Dunkirk, 1940 (Alinari Archives)

  3 Churchill with Lord Halifax in Downing Street, 1940 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

  4 Grand Admiral Erich Raeder (akg-images)

  5 Hitler and Franco at a French border station, October 1940 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

  6 Molotov with Ribbentrop in Berlin, 1940 (akg-images)

  7 Japanese Panzer tanks in southern China, 1941 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

  8 Prince Konoe Fumimaro (akg-images)

  9 The signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, September 1940 (Alinari Archives)

  10 Rally at the Italian entry into the war, June 1940 (akg-images)

  11 Mussolini, Hitler, Ciano and Ribbentrop, October 1940 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

  12 Italian artillery fire on Greek positions, March 1941 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

  13 Roosevelt talking to Cordell Hull, 1940 (akg-images)

  14 George C. Marshall and Henry L. Stimson (Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  15 Stalin and Molotov (akg-images)

  16 Captured Soviet soldiers, June 1941 (Roger-Viollet/Topfoto)

  17 Stranded Soviet tanks, summer 1941 (Topfoto)

  18 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill aboard HMS Prince of Wales, August 1941 (AP/Empics)

  19 General Tojo Hideki (Bettmann/Corbis)

  20 Emperor Hirohito conducting a military review, December 1941 (akg-images)

  21 Japanese air-raid on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 (akg-images)

  22 Nazi column advancing towards Moscow, August 1941 (Topfoto)

  23 German Panzer tank near Moscow, 1941 (AP/Empics)

  24 Hitler declares war on the USA, 11 December 1941 (akg-images)

  25 Heinrich Himmler (Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  26 Reinhard Heydrich (Corbis)

  27 The Babi Yar massacre, Poland, September 1941 (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

  28 Men and women search among the dead after mass shootings in Lemberg, July 1941 (akg-images)

  List of Maps

  1 Western Europe, 1940

  2 The Far East, 1940–41

  3 The Balkans, 1940–41

  4 The North Atlantic, 1941

  5 The Eastern front, 1941

  Map 1 Western Europe, 1940

  Map 2 The Far East, 1940–41

  Map 3 The Balkans, 1940–41

  Map 4 The North Atlantic, 1941

  Map 5 The Eastern front, 1941

  Acknowledgements

  A chance conversation in our kitchen gave me the idea for this book. Laurence Rees had come up to Manchester to discuss with me the concept for what would become the television series Auschwitz. The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’–the third series on which we had collaborated. While we were waiting for the kettle to boil, Laurence happened to mention that, were he a historian, he would want to write a book about the year 1941–in his view, the most momentous year in modern history. The thought stuck. But it was obvious that the crucial events of 1941–most obviously the German invasion of the Soviet Union (which triggered the rapid descent into full-scale genocide against the Jews), the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the European war–were the logical consequence of a number of vital decisions that had flowed from Hitler’s astonishing triumph in western Europe in spring 1940. A study of the interlocking key decisions by the leaders of the major powers during those extraordinary months between May 1940 and December 1941 started to take embryonic shape in my mind. So my first warm thanks are owing to Laurence for the initial impulse to undertake this book.

  As usual, numerous other debts of gratitude have been incurred along the way and my brief acknowledgement here can only offer a cursory expression of my thanks. It is right, however, to single out the Leverhulme Foundation, for whose generosity I am once more deeply grateful. Much of the book was written during the final year of a wonderfully generous award which freed me from university commi
tments.

  Finding my way through the less familiar territory that I had to traverse in the research and writing was greatly eased through being able to call upon the expertise of colleagues. I am extremely grateful to David Reynolds, who made very helpful comments on the typescript and shared with me some of his profound knowledge of Churchill and of British relations with the United States. Patrick Higgins kindly let me see his unpublished paper on R. A. Butler, and offered valuable comments on the May crisis of 1940. MacGregor Knox, beyond his own superb work on Fascist Italy, not only answered some detailed queries about the Italian armed forces but also, most generously, made available photocopies of the unpublished Roatta letter-diaries. The late Derek Watson (especially), Robert Davies, Robert Service, Moshe Lewin and, in Moscow, Sergei Slutsch were of enormous help on Stalin and the Soviet Union. Patrick Renshaw, Richard Carwardine and Hugh Wilford answered queries about the workings of the Roosevelt administration. In Tokyo Maurice Jenkins and Ms Owako Iwama were extraordinarily helpful in locating materials I required. I also received useful advice from Ken Ishida and, closer to home, Sue Townsend and Gordon Daniels. On more familiar terrain, Otto Dov Kulka in Jerusalem offered, as always, valuable reflections on the harrowing subject of the Nazi onslaught on the Jews. I profited, too, from a discussion about the emergence of the ‘final solution’ with Édouard Husson, a younger French historian of Nazi Germany, whose fine work will surely soon become more widely known. I also benefited greatly from discussions, during a stay in Freiburg, with Gerhard Schreiber, Jürgen Förster and Manfred Kehrig. To all these colleagues and friends I offer my sincere thanks. Naturally, they have no responsibility for any errors or flaws in what I have written.

  Part of Chapter 2 appeared as a contribution to Jeremy Noakes’ Festschrift (Nazism, War and Genocide, Exeter, 2005), and I am grateful to the editor, Neil Gregor, and the University of Exeter Press for their agreement to its inclusion here.

  Lack of linguistic competence was a severe shortcoming and enormous frustration in researching the chapters on the Soviet Union, Japan and, to some extent, also Italy (where Latin and French helped with the gist, but not with a refined understanding). So I am extremely grateful to my good friend Constantine Brancovan (under great pressure of time) and to Christopher Joyce, who willingly and ably stepped in to help, for translating important documents from Russian for me; to Darren Ashmore for providing translations of some works in Japanese; and to Anna Ferrarese for speedily translating some Italian material I needed.

  The staff of Sheffield University Library, and especially of the Inter-Library Loans section, who had to labour under my numerous requests, offered, as always, extremely friendly as well as efficient help. I also encountered only the best possible service at the Public Record Office (now renamed the National Archives), the British Library and the London School of Economics Library, the Churchill Centre in Cambridge, the Borthwick Institute in York, Birmingham University Library, the Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes in Berlin, the Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich.

  I would like to thank my colleagues, academic and secretarial, in the excellent Department of History at the University of Sheffield for their continued collegial support. Quite especially, it is a great pleasure to express my gratitude once more to Beverley Eaton, my long-standing (and long-suffering) Personal Assistant, who helped greatly in locating obscure and arcane works as well as dealing, with legendary courtesy and efficiency (if not always legendary patience), with an array of matters which would otherwise have proved most time-consuming. In addition, and a very big help, she took it upon herself to compile the List of Works Cited for me.

  I would also like once more to thank my agent, the remarkable Andrew Wylie, for his constant and invaluable help and advice, and the wonderful team at Penguin, both in London and in New York, who make publishing under this particular imprint something special. I am grateful to Cecilia Mackay for her work in locating the illustrations. And my editors, Simon Winder in London and, in New York, Scott Moyers, stand proxy for all those involved in the publication process, but deserve especial thanks for both their constant encouragement and for their sharp, vigilant criticism.

  Finally, as always, the last thanks go to my family. Without them, writing books on history would give me no satisfaction at all. So my deepest thanks–as well as my love, of course–go to Betty, to David, Katie, Joe and Ella, and to Stephen, Becky and Sophie for all that they have done and continue to do to help in my work but, above all, for giving me a constant reminder of a proper sense of priorities.

  Ian Kershaw

  Manchester/Sheffield, November 2006

  Dramatis Personae

  Only the principal players of the major countries in the unfolding drama are listed here, with a brief indication of their position and standing during the crucial events of 1940–41.

  GREAT BRITAIN

  Attlee, Clement. Leader of the Labour Party from 1935; Lord Privy Seal in Churchill’s War Cabinet.

  Cadogan, Sir Alexander. Permanent Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office (head of the diplomatic staff).

  Chamberlain, Neville. Prime Minister from 1937 until his resignation on 10 May 1940; thereafter Lord President of the Council and member of the War Cabinet until serious illness forced his resignation from government (and from the leadership of the Conservative Party) a few weeks before his death on 9 November 1940.

  Churchill, Winston. Appointed Prime Minister on 10 May 1940 after a decade in the political wilderness; also took on the responsibilities of Minister of Defence. Leader of the Conservative Party following Chamberlain’s resignation.

  Cripps, Sir Stafford. Ambassador to the USSR from May 1940.

  Greenwood, Arthur. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 1935; Minister without Portfolio, responsible for economic affairs, in Churchill’s War Cabinet.

  Gort, Field Marshal Lord. Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, who took the decision in May 1940 to withdraw to Dunkirk for evacuation.

  Halifax, Lord. Foreign Secretary from 1938 until his appointment as British ambassador to the United States in January 1941.

  Lloyd George, David. Former Prime Minister (1916–22), seen by some (including himself) in 1940 as the likely head of government if peace terms with Germany could be attained.

  Lothian, Lord. British ambassador to Washington; exposed Britain’s financial plight to the Americans in November 1940, prompting the moves that led to lend-lease; died the following month.

  Sinclair, Archibald. Chairman of the Parliamentary Liberal Party from 1935; Secretary of State for Air in the Churchill government; participated in the War Cabinet deliberations in late May 1940.

  GERMANY

  Brauchitsch, Field Marshal Werner von. Commander-in-Chief of the army from 1938 until December 1941.

  Dönitz, Rear Admiral Karl. Commander of the German U-boat fleet.

  Eichmann, Adolf. Head of the Jewish Affairs Desk in the Reich Security Headquarters; responsible to Heydrich for organizing the deportation of the Jews; in effect, ‘manager’ of the ‘final solution’.

  Frank, Hans. Governor General of occupied Poland.

  Goebbels, Joseph. Reich Minister for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda since March 1933.

  Göring, Hermann. Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe; head of the Four-Year Plan (since 1936); Hitler’s designated successor.

  Greiser, Arthur. Provincial head of government, and of the Nazi Party, in the annexed region of western Poland centring on Posen, known as the ‘Warthegau’.

  Halder, Colonel-General Franz. Chief of the General Staff of the army, responsible for army strategic planning.

  Heydrich, Reinhard. Directly subordinate to Himmler; head of Reich Security Headquarters; in charge of the implementation of the ‘final solution of the Jewish Question’.

  Himmler, Heinrich. Head of the SS since 1929; appointed chief of the German police in 1936; in addition, since October 1939, Reich Co
mmissar for the Consolidation of German Nationality (giving him sweeping powers over the programme of population resettlement in eastern Europe).

  Hitler, Adolf. Leader of the Nazi Party since 1921; Reich Chancellor (head of the German government) from January 1933; head of state from August 1934; in supreme and direct control of the newly created High Command of the Wehrmacht from February 1938; addressed officially only as ‘Führer’ (‘Leader’) from 1939; at the height of his powers following the victory over France in 1940.