March 7, 2015

Finest Hour 157, Winter 2012-13

Page 47

By Richard M. Langworth

If Britain Had Fallen, by Norman Longmate, 1972, 2012. Softbound, illus., 276 pages, £12.99 from Pen & Sword Books, http://xrl.us/bny6sz.

LONDON, 1940

“Churchill…drew his pistol and with great satisfaction, for it was a notoriously inaccurate weapon, shot dead the first German to reach the foot of the steps….A burst of bullets from a machine-carbine caught the Prime Minister full in the chest. He died instantly, his back to Downing Street, his face toward the enemy, his pistol still in his hand.”

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“Later that afternoon with the Germans already in Trafalgar Square and advancing down Whitehall to take their position in the rear, the enemy unit advancing across St. James’s Park made their final charge. Several of those in the Downing Street position were already dead…and at last the Bren ceased its chatter, its last magazine emptied. Churchill reluctantly abandoned the machine-gun, drew his pistol and with great satisfaction, for it was a notoriously inaccurate weapon, shot dead the first German to reach the foot of the steps.

“As two more rushed forward, covered by a third in the distance, Winston Churchill moved out of the shelter of the sandbags, as if personally to bar the way up Downing Street. A German NCO, running up to find the cause of the unexpected hold-up, recognised him and shouted to the soldiers not to shoot, but he was too late. A burst of bullets from a machine-carbine caught the Prime Minister full in the chest. He died instantly, his back to Downing Street, his face toward the enemy, his pistol still in his hand.”

This chilling vision is the highlight of Norman Longmate’s recently republished thriller. But his fancied action of a successful German invasion in 1940 is entirely believable, and thus all the more frightening. Based on a BBC1 television film of the same name, If Britain Had Fallen was conceived by Lord Chalfont, Basil Collier and Richard Wade.

This is not the first book to contem- plate a German occupation of the British Isles: there was Erskine Childers’ The Riddle of the Sands (1903), H.H. Munro’s When William Came (1913) and C.S. Forester’s If Hitler had Invaded England (1967). But previous works covered just one phase of the subject—preparations, landings or campaigns. Longmate covers them all. He was the first author to do so.

The first four chapters describe German/British pre-invasion maneuvering. The last thirteen describe in “an entirely non-fictional way what the German occupation would have been like, by reference to captured documents and by the record of how the Germans actually behaved in other countries, especially the one small corner of Britain they did occupy, the Channel Islands.

Only three chapters are entirely fictional. The plot here hinges on what was in fact the crux of the Battle of Britain: Hermann Goering’s decision to stop attacking military targets in an attempt to cow the populace by bombing open cities. In this book, Goering behaves the opposite way (which does not allow for the actual deciding factor, an infuriated Hitler ordering London to be leveled).

Then the Luftwaffe chief orders his forces to redouble their efforts: Knock out the radar stations, then the forward airfields, then the main fighter stations and sector and group headquarters. Every bomb and every bullet was to be aimed at an RAF target. The renewed attack on the radar chain took Fighter Command by surprise and soon ominous gaps were appearing on the plotting boards at 11 Group Headquarters at Uxbridge and at Fighter Command at Bentley Priory, Stanmore…And, final proof that the RAF was losing the battle, the Stuka dive-bombers again flew far inland and got safely home.

Longmate next refers to German documents and plans for “Operation Sea Lion,” and mounts the Nazi offensive on “S-Day,” 24 September 1940, in the small hours under a bright moon. Landings are made from Dover to Lyme Regis, supported by swarms of Junker 88s and Messerschmitts, which “ranged the skies over Britain at will.” Rapidly, the Wehrmacht seals off the Kentish coast and establishes a line from Margate to Brighton. Soon the entire peninsula from Woolwich to Southampton has been occupied, and the Royal Family reluctantly leaves London—followed by the Downing Street scene described above.

We will not spoil a minor nightmare by describing what happens then. Of course, Jews are rounded up; the fascist Sir Oswald Mosley is asked to be Britain’s Quisling. What happens to the King and the government? What would America have done in the event? Would Canada and Australia have been able to come to the rescue? Would the British people have come to accept the occupation—even feel hostile toward the resistance fighters? Would the deportation of friends, the flying of the swastika from Buckingham Palace, incite docility—or resistance? Get a copy and find out! This is a non-essential but thought-provoking addition to the Churchill library.