Who wrote this - and about whom?
'The story of that struggle cannot be read without admiration for the courage, the perseverance and the vital force which enabled him to challenge, defy, conciliate or overcome... Those who have met [him]...have found a highly competent, well informed functionary with an agreeable manner, a disarming smile, and few have been unaffected by a subtle personal magnetism.'
Well that was Winston Churchill talking about 'Herr Hitler' in a book called 'Great Contemporaries'.
In some previous posts, I commented on Max Hastings' brilliant account of Churchill at war - and the fact that although the author frequently likes to use the word 'great' to describe his subject, Churchill emerges as stupid, incompetent and racist.
I have recently returned from Malaysia where I talked to Novista TV about their new documentary on the Japanese occupation of British Malaya after the lightning attack that overwhelmed SE Asia at the end of 1941 - 70 years ago. The humiliating defeat of the British, which heralded the end of the biggest empire the world has ever known, has often been blamed on incompetent local commanders who allowed the Japanese to overwhelm the Gibraltar of the East - Singapore. In fact, Singapore was no fortress and had in effect been abandoned by the British government - led in dictatorial style by Churchill.
A crucial reason for this stunning turn of events was a pervasive contempt for the Japanese. Right up to the moment Japanese aircraft rained death and destruction on the Philippines and Pearl Harbour, and their infantry and tanks roared onto Bachok Beach, Kota Bharu in northern Malaya, many Europeans regarded these fanatical soldiers as short sighted dwarves who could not fly their Zero fighters at night and would simply be swatted aside. The racist trail leads straight back to 10 Downing Street and the man who called Gandhi a 'half naked fakir'.
One of the most surprising and perplexing incidents that played a part in the fall of Malaya and Singapore seven decades ago concerned a leaking old tub called the SS Automedon. A year before the Japanese attack on SE Asia, this 20 year old 7500 ton Blue Funnel steamer, capable of just 14 knots, was chugging towards the island of Sumatra on its way to Penang and Singapore. On 11 November, the SS Automedon had the misfortune to run smack into the German surface raider 'Atlantis' somewhere between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Atlantis had an enviable attack record having sunk or captured 22 ships. A boarding party led by Lt. Ulrich Mohr attacked and boarded the ship - killing the captain and two of his officers.
According to one survivor:
In the chart room of the SS Automedon, Lt Mohr soon made a remarkable discovery - a heavy, dark green Foreign Office bag with brass eyelets marked 'Safe Hand - British Master Only'. Evidently, the bag was designed to be quickly disposed of in the event of an emergency: but the German attack had been so swift and ruthless that the Captain had no opportunity to throw it overboard before he and his officers were shot dead. The captain of the Atlantis Bernhard Rogge spoke excellent English and was naturally intrigued by the Foreign Office bag. It did not take him long to realise that he had stumbled (or whatever the nautical equivalent) on a treasure trove. Inside the bag was an envelope addressed to the Commander-in-Chief Far East, Singapore, Air Chief Marshall Sir Robert Brooke-Popham... 'To be opened personally'. The envelope contained a document marked 'Highly Confidential - to be destroyed'.
As soon as he began reading their 'Secret Ultra' document, Rogge realised that he was holding in his hands the equivalent of a diplomatic 'wunder waffen'. The document, apparently prepared a few months earlier in August, was a brutal assessment of the likely impact of Japanese aggression in Britain's Far Eastern territories: Hong Kong was 'insignificant' and would be abandoned; Borneo was indefensible; Malaya and Singapore could not realistically be defended against Japanese attack. It would due highly unlikely that a back up naval fleet could be detached from the European theatre of war and sent to the Far East. For these reasons, an 'open clash' with the Japanese must be avoided until Britain could be assured of American support. To back up these depressing conclusions, the secret document provided detailed assessments of British naval and air resources and the Singapore defences.
Why the British Foreign Office had entrusted this crucial document to an antiquated merchantman has never been explained. It certainly astonished Rogge - 'What the devil were the British about? We could not understand it' he wrote later.
Japan was, of course, an Axis ally and Rogge acted quickly - he commandeered a captured Norwegian tanker the Ole Jacob and assigned a skeleton German crew with orders to steam to Japan and hand over the documents to the German Embassy in Tokyo. The ole Jacob arrived in Kobe on 4 December and the British secret documents were handed over to the German Naval Attaché who despatched the report to Berlin where it was shown to Hitler. From the Reich Chancellery the document was sent to the Japanese Naval Attaché in Berlin - who in turn sent a signal to Tokyo on 12 December. To begin with, tVice Admiral Nobutake Kondo was dubious - he wondered whether this astonishingly detailed assessment of British imperial weakness was a German trick to entice them into the war. But when the circumstances of the discovery were explained by the Germans, Kondo was convinced that a remarkable stroke of good fortune had unlocked the door to Pacific conquest. According to the British Foreign Office itself, the Empire was practically defenceless - the Japanese had only the neutral Americans to be worry about as they made plans to expand their own empire across SE Asia and the Pacific.
As a direct consequence of the German raid on the SS Automedon and the capture of the secret documents, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto reinforced the fleet intended for the attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii - knowing that the Japanese Imperial Army in could cut through British defending forces in Malaya and Singapore like a samurai sword through melting butter.
By the end of 1940, British intelligence must have known that the damning secret Foreign Office report had fallen into enemy hands. And yet no warning was ever issued to Brooke-Popham - and nothing was done to reinforce 'Fortress Singapore'. Nor did Churchill confess the loss to American President Roosevelt, even though the long term implication of the report was that Japan's sole concern in the Pacific would be American forces based in the Philippines and Hawaii.
'The story of that struggle cannot be read without admiration for the courage, the perseverance and the vital force which enabled him to challenge, defy, conciliate or overcome... Those who have met [him]...have found a highly competent, well informed functionary with an agreeable manner, a disarming smile, and few have been unaffected by a subtle personal magnetism.'
Well that was Winston Churchill talking about 'Herr Hitler' in a book called 'Great Contemporaries'.
In some previous posts, I commented on Max Hastings' brilliant account of Churchill at war - and the fact that although the author frequently likes to use the word 'great' to describe his subject, Churchill emerges as stupid, incompetent and racist.
I have recently returned from Malaysia where I talked to Novista TV about their new documentary on the Japanese occupation of British Malaya after the lightning attack that overwhelmed SE Asia at the end of 1941 - 70 years ago. The humiliating defeat of the British, which heralded the end of the biggest empire the world has ever known, has often been blamed on incompetent local commanders who allowed the Japanese to overwhelm the Gibraltar of the East - Singapore. In fact, Singapore was no fortress and had in effect been abandoned by the British government - led in dictatorial style by Churchill.
A crucial reason for this stunning turn of events was a pervasive contempt for the Japanese. Right up to the moment Japanese aircraft rained death and destruction on the Philippines and Pearl Harbour, and their infantry and tanks roared onto Bachok Beach, Kota Bharu in northern Malaya, many Europeans regarded these fanatical soldiers as short sighted dwarves who could not fly their Zero fighters at night and would simply be swatted aside. The racist trail leads straight back to 10 Downing Street and the man who called Gandhi a 'half naked fakir'.
One of the most surprising and perplexing incidents that played a part in the fall of Malaya and Singapore seven decades ago concerned a leaking old tub called the SS Automedon. A year before the Japanese attack on SE Asia, this 20 year old 7500 ton Blue Funnel steamer, capable of just 14 knots, was chugging towards the island of Sumatra on its way to Penang and Singapore. On 11 November, the SS Automedon had the misfortune to run smack into the German surface raider 'Atlantis' somewhere between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Atlantis had an enviable attack record having sunk or captured 22 ships. A boarding party led by Lt. Ulrich Mohr attacked and boarded the ship - killing the captain and two of his officers.
According to one survivor:
On the 11th of November 1940 my Uncle Alec was serving as an 18-year-old steward on board the Blue Funnel ship SS Automedon. The ship was destined for Singapore and sailing up the Indian Ocean. At around 11 am the German surface raider Atlantis sighted her. A shot was fired across Automedon’s bows but she did not stop. Atlantis then fired at the bridge because Automedon was transmitting an SOS. The whole of the bridge was blown up and all the officers were killed including the captain W.B. Ewan.
Uncle Alec had been situated on deck below and to the rear of the bridge when the shelling occurred and he was severely wounded in his upper body and head. Automedon was then boarded by the Germans who searched the ship for important documents and parts of the cargo that could be useful to them. They were certainly delighted to find large amounts of whisky and cigarettes in the holds. The Germans transferred the crew to Atlantis and Uncle Alec and the rest of the wounded were put on stretchers and hauled across to the German ship.
In the chart room of the SS Automedon, Lt Mohr soon made a remarkable discovery - a heavy, dark green Foreign Office bag with brass eyelets marked 'Safe Hand - British Master Only'. Evidently, the bag was designed to be quickly disposed of in the event of an emergency: but the German attack had been so swift and ruthless that the Captain had no opportunity to throw it overboard before he and his officers were shot dead. The captain of the Atlantis Bernhard Rogge spoke excellent English and was naturally intrigued by the Foreign Office bag. It did not take him long to realise that he had stumbled (or whatever the nautical equivalent) on a treasure trove. Inside the bag was an envelope addressed to the Commander-in-Chief Far East, Singapore, Air Chief Marshall Sir Robert Brooke-Popham... 'To be opened personally'. The envelope contained a document marked 'Highly Confidential - to be destroyed'.
As soon as he began reading their 'Secret Ultra' document, Rogge realised that he was holding in his hands the equivalent of a diplomatic 'wunder waffen'. The document, apparently prepared a few months earlier in August, was a brutal assessment of the likely impact of Japanese aggression in Britain's Far Eastern territories: Hong Kong was 'insignificant' and would be abandoned; Borneo was indefensible; Malaya and Singapore could not realistically be defended against Japanese attack. It would due highly unlikely that a back up naval fleet could be detached from the European theatre of war and sent to the Far East. For these reasons, an 'open clash' with the Japanese must be avoided until Britain could be assured of American support. To back up these depressing conclusions, the secret document provided detailed assessments of British naval and air resources and the Singapore defences.
Why the British Foreign Office had entrusted this crucial document to an antiquated merchantman has never been explained. It certainly astonished Rogge - 'What the devil were the British about? We could not understand it' he wrote later.
Japan was, of course, an Axis ally and Rogge acted quickly - he commandeered a captured Norwegian tanker the Ole Jacob and assigned a skeleton German crew with orders to steam to Japan and hand over the documents to the German Embassy in Tokyo. The ole Jacob arrived in Kobe on 4 December and the British secret documents were handed over to the German Naval Attaché who despatched the report to Berlin where it was shown to Hitler. From the Reich Chancellery the document was sent to the Japanese Naval Attaché in Berlin - who in turn sent a signal to Tokyo on 12 December. To begin with, tVice Admiral Nobutake Kondo was dubious - he wondered whether this astonishingly detailed assessment of British imperial weakness was a German trick to entice them into the war. But when the circumstances of the discovery were explained by the Germans, Kondo was convinced that a remarkable stroke of good fortune had unlocked the door to Pacific conquest. According to the British Foreign Office itself, the Empire was practically defenceless - the Japanese had only the neutral Americans to be worry about as they made plans to expand their own empire across SE Asia and the Pacific.
As a direct consequence of the German raid on the SS Automedon and the capture of the secret documents, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto reinforced the fleet intended for the attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii - knowing that the Japanese Imperial Army in could cut through British defending forces in Malaya and Singapore like a samurai sword through melting butter.
By the end of 1940, British intelligence must have known that the damning secret Foreign Office report had fallen into enemy hands. And yet no warning was ever issued to Brooke-Popham - and nothing was done to reinforce 'Fortress Singapore'. Nor did Churchill confess the loss to American President Roosevelt, even though the long term implication of the report was that Japan's sole concern in the Pacific would be American forces based in the Philippines and Hawaii.
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