Today I am delighted to feature another in the recently released Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics Series: Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes, in the form of an extract from the Second World War novel. This has been published to coincide with the 81st anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk. First published in 1942, Sword of Bone is a lightly fictionalised
memoir based on Anthony Rhodes’own experiences during the Second World War
–firstly during the so-called ‘Phoney War’ from 1939 –40, followed by the terror
of the evacuation of Dunkirk. Shortly after war was declared, he was sent to
France serving with the British Army where his days were filled with billeting,
friendships and administration –the minutiae of Army life. Apart from a visit to the Maginot Line, the
conflict seems a distant prospect. It is
only in the Spring of 1940 that the true situation becomes clear–the Belgian,
British armies and some French divisions are ‘now crowded into a small pocket
in the North of France’. The men are
ordered to retreat to the coast and the beaches of Dunkirk where they face a
desperate and frightening wait for evacuation.
The ‘miracle’ of Dunkirk was a
brilliantly improvised naval operation that extracted more than 338,000 men
from the Dunkirk beaches and brought them safely back to England. Some 850 vessels, including channel steamers
and fishing boats, took part in this, Operation ‘Dynamo’. The final pages of the novel outline Rhodes’
experiences of the chaos of the evacuation where the scenes are depicted in vivid and terrifying detail.
Extract
From the Introduction
On 9 April 1940
Hitler’s armed forces invaded and quickly overwhelmed Denmark, which
surrendered within the day. At the same time neutral Norway was attacked.
Despite intense British naval actions in the North Sea, and Anglo-French
attempts to land troops, by May Norway was largely lost. Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain came under sustained criticism for the Norway failings. Possession
of Norway not only gave Germany access to much needed iron ore, it provided new
airbases with which the Luftwaffe could threaten Britain.
Worse was to come.
On 10 May, Germany launched its westward invasions of the Netherlands, Belgium
and France. On the same day, Chamberlain, unable to retain the support of the
House of Commons, resigned and Winston Churchill assumed the prime
ministership. Within days, it became clear that the fighting on the Continent
would be no repeat of the trench warfare of the First World War. By 20 May
1940, German troops had reached the Channel coast, cutting the Allied forces in
two. Plans were hastily made to withdraw the British Expeditionary Force. As
Rhodes puts it, ‘Today we were, one felt, simply competitors in a sporting race
to the west. Like greyhounds released as the word for the retreat was given,
there was a mad surge for the only two main roads leading to Brussels.’
The latter chapters
of the book detail this retreat, culminating in Rhodes’ experiences at Dunkirk.
By 24 May, things ‘were hourly becoming what the French insisted on telling
everyone they were not – catastrophic’. The Belgian, British armies and
some French divisions were now ‘crowded into a small pocket in the north of
France’.
On 27 May, the
colonel returns from a conference with the general to announce that a mass
evacuation will take place: ‘We are going to attempt something essentially
British; I venture to say that only the British would dare to attempt such a
hare-brained scheme. Let us only hope that it will be as successful as it was
last practised – by Sir John Moore at Corunna.’
The ‘miracle of
Dunkirk’ from 27 May to 4 June was a brilliantly improvised naval operation
that extracted more than 338,000 men – 118,000 of whom were French – from the
Dunkirk beaches and brought them safely back to England. Some 850 vessels,
including channel steamers and fishing boats, took part in this, Operation
‘Dynamo’. Rhodes’ text depicts both the approach to Dunkirk (‘the Grand Queue’)
and the evacuation from the beaches itself. He anticipates the evacuation to be
a simple and orderly affair, but this is not quite borne out by events:
I asked them how
successfully the evacuation had gone on the previous day.
‘The British
ships came in to the docks but they got bombed to hell,’ one of them replied.
‘They all had to go out and wait till dark. I shouldn’t think they’ll come in
at all today.’
This was a nasty
shock to those of us who had hoped to get a bath and breakfast in the town and
catch a boat after it at about ten o’clock. I mentioned this to the Frenchman.
‘Breakfast,’ he
guffawed. ‘You make me laugh. Do you really think that there are any hoteliers
or tradespeople left in the town? Listen to me,’ he said confidentially. ‘I
have just come from near Boulogne. The Germans are there. This port, Dunkirk,
is the only one left in British hands, the only one from which your army can
get away, do you see? Do you think the Boche is going to leave it alone?
Believe me, he isn’t. He’s going to blast it into a ruin. And don't these
people know it?’ He pointed at the long line of civilians passing us on the
road; they were coming away from Dunkirk. We had become so accustomed to
refugees that no-one had given a thought to the direction in which they were
going.
Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes is published by IWM and
can be pre-ordered here:www.iwmshop.org.uk/pg/114/IWM-Wartime-Classics at the
online IWM shop.
About the Author
AnthonyRhodes (1916 –2004) served with the British Army in
France during the so-called ‘PhoneyWar’ and was evacuated from Dunkirk in May
1940. In the latter part of the war he
was sent to Canada as a camouflage officer and was invalided out of the Army in
1947 having served for 12 years. After
the conflict he enjoyed a long academic and literary career and wrote on various
subjects, including the 1956 Hungarian Revolution for the Daily Telegraph and
well-regarded histories of the Vatican.
About the Imperial War Museums Wartime Classics series
In September 2019, to coincide with the 80th Anniversary of the
outbreak of the Second World War, the IWM published the first four
titles in a fiction series -
the Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics. Pathfinders is the next in the series which now amounts to ten.
Alan Jeffreys, (Senior Curator, Second World War, Imperial
War Museums) has written an introduction to each book that sets them in context
and gives the wider historical background.
He says, ‘researching the Wartime Classics has been one of the most
enjoyable projects I’ve worked on in my years at IWM. It’s been
very exciting rediscovering these fantastic novels and
helping to bring them to the wider readership they so deserve’.
IWM (Imperial War
Museums) tells the story of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts
involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the First World War.
Our unique collections, made up of the everyday and the
exceptional, reveal stories of people, places, ideas and events. Using these,
we tell vivid personal stories and create powerful physical experiences across
our five museums that reflect the realities of war as both a destructive and
creative force. We challenge people to look at conflict from different
perspectives, enriching their understanding of the causes, course and
consequences of war and its impact on people’s lives.
IWM’s five branches which attract over 2.5 million visitors
each year are IWM London, IWM’s flagship branch that recently transformed with
new, permanent and free First World War Galleries alongside new displays across
the iconic Atrium to mark the Centenary of the First World War; IWM North,
housed in an iconic award-winning building designed by Daniel Libeskind; IWM
Duxford, a world renowned aviation museum and Britain's best preserved wartime
airfield; Churchill War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below
Whitehall; and the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast.
You can read an extract of From the City, From the Plough here, read an extract from Trial by Battle here , read a review on Plenty Under the Counter here and a guest post on Eight Hours from England here , a review of Patrol here, a review of Warriors for the Working Day here, and a review of Pathfinders here.
Check out the rest of the tour!
Thanks so much for the blog tour support x
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