Home > Work > Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945
61 " The archbishop of Canterbury declared that Christians were allowed to pray for victory, but the archbishop of York disagreed. While the war was a righteous one, he said, it was not a holy one: “We must avoid praying each other down. "
― Max Hastings , Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945
62 " Some Americans responded brutally to such docility: in two separate incidents on 14 July, an officer and an NCO of the U.S. 45th Division murdered large groups of Italians in cold blood. One, Sgt. Horace West, who killed thirty-seven with a Thompson submachine gun, was convicted by a court-martial, but later granted clemency. The other, Capt. John Compton, assembled a firing squad which massacred thirty-six Italian prisoners. "
63 " but human beings measure risk and privation within the compass of their personal knowledge. "
64 " Beveridge Report, published in November 1942, which laid the foundations of Britain’s postwar welfare state. "
65 " a nation of superior, unfriendly, discourteous people, set in the old ways of inefficiency, clinging to old dreams of a greatness which we cannot perpetuate…We deceive ourselves if we think the soil is clean. The seeds of distrust and dislike lie dormant in it. "
66 " Depois de esconder seu avião desarmado debaixo de árvores, Solak dirigia para casa quando viu um camponês na estrada, “puxando um cavalo cujas ancas eram uma manta de sangue congelado. Sua cabeça tocava a poeira com as narinas, e a cada passo ele estremecia de dor”. O jovem aviador perguntou ao camponês aonde ele levava o animal ferido, vítima de um Stuka, avião de bombardeio em picada. “Para a clínica veterinária da cidade.” “Mas faltam seis quilômetros e meio!” Um dar de ombros: “Eu só tenho este cavalo. "
67 " halted: "
68 " While 17,000 American combat casualties lost limbs, during the war years 100,000 workers at home became amputees as a result of industrial accidents. "
69 " The damage to their prestige and confidence would have been immense, and Churchill might not have survived as prime minister through 1941. "
70 " Stalin would ultimately prove the most successful warlord of the conflict, yet no more than Hitler, "
71 " Churchill or Roosevelt was he qualified to direct vast military operations. Ignorant of the concept of defence in depth, he rejected strategic retreat. "
72 " Hachiro’s contemporary Hayashi Tadao was another fatalist, strongly opposed to the war. His diary repeatedly expressed disgust towards his own country. He asked himself: “Japan, why don’t I love and respect you? … I feel that I have to accept the fate of my generation to fight in the war and die … We have to go to the battlefield without being able to express our opinions, criticise and argue pros and cons of issues … it is a great tragedy. "
73 " The cost in men and ships … ran up a score which Irish eyes a-smiling on the day of Allied victory were not going to cancel, "