After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe (55 page)

Chapter 11: The War That Did Not End

Material from ‘VE Day in Grajewo, Poland’ is used with acknowledgement to
www.doomedsoldiers.com
. The biography of Stefan Korbonski is drawn from
www.en.korbonski.ipn.gov.pl
. The accounts of Buczek and Krzystek are from IWM/10618, 16626. Szczepanik’s comments are from Cabell and Richards,
VE Day.
On Churchill, Poland and the end of the war, see Hastings,
Finest Years
and Colville,
Downing Street Diaries.
General Anders’s 8 May telegram to the British Prime Minister, hoping for a peace ‘where justice will prevail’, is CCA, CHAR20/227A/10. Alan Brooke’s comments are from Danchev and Todman (eds.),
Alanbrooke: Diaries.
Reactions of Macmillan and Smuts are from
Tides of Fortune
and
Jan Christian Smuts.
For Churchill’s telegrams to Truman, appreciating the efforts of Eisenhower but also warning that ‘an iron curtain is drawn down upon their front’: Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy.
On Russia keeping her word: TNA, CAB 195/3, part 1; Folly,
Churchill, Whitehall and the Soviet Union
; and Ryan, ‘Polish crisis’. Also see Rees,
Behind Closed Doors.
Bohlen’s comments are from his
Witness to History.
Broader context is found in Mastny,
Russia’s Road to the Cold War
(critical of the Soviet Union) and Roberts,
Stalin’s Wars
(more positive)
.
Fresh information on the battle for Slivice is provided in Jaroslav Cvancara, ‘The end of the Second World War in Europe in May 1945’,
Loyalty Is Our Honour
, 4 (2010). Alexei Kuchikov’s account is from an interview with me. For the combat at Benesov, see Mikhin,
Guns against the Reich.
On the surrender of General Lohr, see Tomasevich,
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav reaction to VE-Day is from Djilas,
Wartime.
For the last stand of the Georgians on Texel, material in Dick van Reewijk,
Sondermeldung Texel
has been supplemented by the work of Alan Newark, ‘The Texel Island Battle’, set out on the Axis History Forum:
www.forum.axishistory.com
. Marshal Konev’s secret plans for the capture of Vlasov are from
Russian Archives: Great Patriotic War
(vol. XV)
.
I am grateful to Artem Drabkin for the testimony of Grigory Sukhorukov, from his ‘I Remember’ website. Wilberforce’s visit to Flensburg is from IWM/12931. The end of the Dönitz regime is drawn from Marlis Steinert, ‘The allied decision to arrest the Dönitz government’,
Historical Journal
, 31 (1988); see also Longerich,
Himmler
. Boris Komsky’s account of the Red Army’s return march through East Prussia and Poland is from the Blavatnik Archive. Captain Andrew Yates’s comments are from IWM/10525. For ‘rumours abound about an upcoming clash between Britain and the Soviet Union’, the Intelligence Report of the 2nd Belorussian Front, May 1945 is to be found in
Russian Archives: Great Patriotic War
(vol. XV). General Milstein’s comments on the interception of the ‘Stacking Order’ are from Zubok,
Failed Empire.
On Hopkins and his May mission to Moscow, see Roll,
Hopkins Touch
and archive information from ‘Harry Hopkins: a Glimpse into the Russian Records’ at
www.documentstalk.com/wp/harry-hopkins
and ‘The Hopkins mission to Moscow’ at
www.digicoll.library.wisc.edu
. Stalin’s contrasting opinions of Eisenhower and Montgomery are related in Khrushchev,
Memoirs.
For Robert Frank’s account I am grateful to the US 87th Infantry Division Legacy Association:
www.87thinfantrydivision.com
.

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