THE SCOURGE OF THE NAZIS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30481, 1 July 1964, Page 26

THE SCOURGE OF THE NAZIS

BEGINNING OF THE END, 1941

This is the third of six. excerpts from the‘memoirs, of Brigadier Jeremy Jonquil.. Although his war record isalmost certainly without' parallel. he may not be as' well remembered as Alex-' under, Montgomery, and that' American fellow, Eisenhower. That, primarily, is', because Jonquil, the master', strategist, had an uncanny, gift of being the man third, from the left in the back, row. Often, indeed, he was. not in the picture at all.. And that, perhaps, was what' made him really great.

I came back from Ireland with a duffle-bag full -of smoked salmon, my majority because of that Fecamp affair, and a list of German spies living in Dublin, given me by a carelessly loquacious Belfast barmaid. Naturally, I made haste to let Ml 5 have the names, and although, as it turned out, none of the men were actually captured, and, indeed, most of the addresses did not exist, it only went to show how cunning the German agents were, and I felt no great surprise when I was summoned to a meeting of the War Cabinet. But I was, I confess, a little put out when I was not put in the picture regarding the lend-lease agreement Roosevelt announced on March 11. This was just the sort of thing in which I could, I think, have been particularly useful. I spoke to Winston about this, rather sharply I fear, but he seemed to be preoccupied and I felt It best not to persist at that moment. They were momentous days, while I was with the War Cabinet. My actual duties were light enough, for apart from the P.M. himself with hte cigars,

On my promotion to Major I was persuaded to have this studio portrait taken.

very few used the ashtrays and I had ample time to listen and learn and, occasionally, to contribute.f The Hess affair in May was one in which I took a particular interest, because I had been working —unknown to anyone—on a plan to fly to Hitler to offer him Scotland in return for a promise of no further territorial demands, and an end to the war. It seemed folly for the fighting to go on. People in the War Office —lucky devils who had lost limbs or were half-blind —were looking at me curiously and, I felt, pointedly. They did not know, of course, that I had organised the printing of millions of Peace in Europe Day post-cards, and proposed to corner the market for Britain as a first step towards winning the Peace. But Hess ruined all that. And soon after-

wards, the Germans attacked Russia, and I bad to shelve all my plans. The printing firm was most unreasonable about it all, but I managed to direct some other Ministry work its way, simply by altering a name or two on a form or two. So everyone was happy. In August, there was the momentous meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt on the U.S.S. Augusta, where they agreed on the terms of the Atlantic Charter. I had very little to do with this, for at the time I was on my way to the middle East to organise the occupation of Bardia by the New Zealanders. I was never a firm favourite with the wild colonial boys.

I fear, and as a liaison officer—although by now a Lieutenant-Colonel—l had some difficult days. Things moved fast. Before the end of the year, I was in a position to announce the declaration of war on Japan. Actually the P.M. had the microphone but I was there, as usual. Immediately, there was some suggestion that I should be sent to the Pacific Theatre. But I had other and, I think history will agree, more important tasks before me. As someone said—and he might have had me in mind, perhaps—“ Give us the tools and we will finish the job.” tSee “Minutes of the War Cabinet, 1939-45.” To Be Continued >