Nimitz’s pre-battle instructions are quoted in Smith, P. C. Midway (NEL, 1976), p. 56.
Chapter 10
Cairo I Tel el Kebir
The good Dr Schrumpf is quoted in Hirszowicz, Third Reich and Arab East, p. 263.
Wolfsschanze
Hitler’s obsession with oil is mentioned by Carell on p. 578 of Hitler’s War on Russia.
London
Wavell’s appreciation is quoted in Strawson, Battle for North Africa, p. 18. The Brooke quote is taken from Bryant, Turn of the Tide, p. 366.
Baghdad/Rafah
The British defence of Palestine is based on contingency plans discussed by the War Cabinet’s Joint Planning Staff, now available as War Cabinet paper CAB79. For discussions between the Palestinian Jews and the British authorities in the real war see Hurewitz, J. C. The Struggle for Palestine (Norton, 1950).
Ankara
For Turkey’s role in the real war see Von Papen, F. Memoirs (Andre Deutsch, 1952); Lewis, B. The Emergence of Modern Turkey (OUP, 1968); Hostler, C. W. Turkism and the Soviets (Allen & Unwin, 1957).
Chapter 11
I
Quote from Ciano Diaries, 10.3.42. For other indications of souring German-Japanese relationships see entries for 14.4.42,21.4.42 and 24.4.42.
IV
The Japanese did in fact believe that Saratoga had been sunk.
Chapter 12
II
The ‘impassable’ Wadi Hareidin was used by General Yoffe’s division to split the Egyptian defences in June 1967.
IV
The mountain track leading up from the Jaffa-Jerusalem road to the villages of Biddu and Nebi Samuel was used by both Richard the Lionheart in 1191 and Uri Ben Ari’s armoured brigade in June 1967.
Epilogue
Mordechai Givoni, the German railway guards, the Soviet partisans, and HauptsturmFührer Hanke are all fictitious characters.