Please send my greetings to my siblings,
All my love from your Herbert
By the time Herbert sent this letter, optimistic officials in Berlin were already drafting memos on the post-war strategy for the European countries under German control.
In Britain, the War Cabinet, under new Prime Minister Winston Churchill, held a meeting to assess Britain’s ability to withstand an invasion were France to fall and Germany commit its full forces across the Channel. Much of Britain’s arms and ammunition had been left behind in northern France when 300,000 BEF soldiers escaped across the Channel from Dunkirk.
From Cheshire, Brian wrote to Trudie about his own small contribution in the aftermath of Dunkirk.
5 June 1940
Dear Trudie,
Please excuse my writing as I have broken my finger, the one next to my little finger on my right hand. We were camping and the scout master woke us up at five in the morning to say that 2,500 of the BEF were arriving that morning [from Dunkirk] at a certain place 5 miles away. Of course, we were only too glad to put up tents, 400 in number. It was misty and we raced down the road, a steep hill with a bend in it, I did not pull out quick enough, hit the curb, did a headlong dive over my [bicycle] handlebars and crashed.
I’ll never forget those men all my life. All smiling not a grumble, some had only the clothes they stood up in. I talked to some of them. I am enclosing a French coin which was in a soldier’s pocket in the most successful retreat in history.
We are all now resolved to give the Germans Hell!!! And we’ll fight like that too. I’m feeling okay at present. I’ve just heard from a friend who was in Belgium. I was getting very worried about him.
Your letter arrived today. The snaps are very good. You look very good in your new frock. I’ll get my snap done quickly.
Food. I like plenty. I am very fond of fried potatoes, so have plenty.
MENU
| Breakfast | Lunch | Tea | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Kellogg’s’ Corn Flakes, egg, bacon, fried bread | cold beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, gravy | fruit, jelly, cream |
| Tuesday | fried fish and potatoes | eggs boiled | |
| Wednesday | fried potatoes, steak and kidney pie | salmon, salad | |
| Thursday | fried liver, bacon, gravy | cold meat pie | |
| Friday | stew, potatoes | Welsh rarebit | |
| Saturday | sausage and cheese | Cornish pasties |
We all dine together on Sunday. This is bumper day:
| Breakfast | Lunch | Tea |
|---|---|---|
| grapefruit eggs, bacon, toast | beef or mutton, roast potatoes cabbage, cauliflower, peas | salad, cold ham or tongue fruit trifle, cream, rice pudding |
That’s a typical week with the war on. I might add Mother is a fine hand at making steak and kidney pie. She likes baking. What do you eat?
I’m same as you, much immune from love. I once thought I was but afterwards I realized I wasn’t. Certainly when I saw her, my heart went boom-boom. How old was your dentist?
You’re certainly going to have a holiday. I don’t know whether I shall have a holiday this year. Dad thinks it’s not fair to go enjoying ourselves when men are fighting for our lives.
Do you let the chaps chase you or do you chase the chaps?
How do you like your men?
Do you like fishing?
You and yours keep well.
Yours,
Brian
It’s a lovely boiling hot day so I’m going to sit in the sun by the river and do a little fishing.
Across the Channel the Germans used that day’s good weather to launch their biggest attack on France yet. Many civilians abandoned their homes in a panicked exodus south. By the end of the week one sixth of the population of France was on the move. In Verneuil, just 100km west of Paris, Micheline, her mother and sister, Nicole, were caught up in the chaos and a week went by before Micheline was able to record the events in her diary.
9 June 1940
Everything’s gone wrong. The Bosches are everywhere, every day they make terrible gains. Daddy says he is going to send a message to Aunt Laura, asking if we can go to hers. Between Sunday evening and Monday morning Evreux was bombed six or seven times. It’s in ruins.
10 June 1940
Verneuil was bombed at 1:30. There was a train full of soldiers at the station. It is always so stupid to leave the trains sitting there like that. A bomb dropped on it: 30 dead and 100 wounded. I watched the bombs fall. I wasn’t afraid, I don’t know why. I just thought it was disgusting to attack such a small town. It’s funny a plane on a bombing raid looks a bit like a big bird. During the bombardment we prayed with the little boy from downstairs, who said: ‘The animals! The pigs! The bastards!’ He and Nicole were very frightened. The Krauts made a big racket. All three of us were breathless. Weird…
We can’t stay in Verneuil. All the shopkeepers have fled. As the RAF troops went past in convoy we asked if they could take us with them. But none of them could.
For dinner we have rotten hard-boiled eggs.
11 June 1940
Morning: I am really sick! It must have been the hard-boiled eggs…I threw up twice but then I felt better afterwards. In the afternoon we left by bus with Brunetier the dentist and his daughter, wife, cousin and his horrible other daughter. We all just about managed to fit in. Mummy asks why my case is so heavy, but it’s not surprising as I have my diary in it and the first five volumes of my novel. Result: I have only the one dress, and I forgot my handbag.
We have a dog with us, Mme Bissell’s, she abandoned it. The bus had barely set off when it was sick, all over Nicole’s new skirt. The smell was so bad that three officers sitting behind us put on their gas masks. We reach La Loupe. There’s a bomb alert.
We were