From European War to World War and Victory, 1941–45

’A marvellous morning, with the smell of roses and hay and spring in the air … the 7 o’clock news announced that Germany had invaded Russia… Most people in England will be delighted.’ That was from Harold Nicolson’s diary entry for 22 June 1941. Nicolson was not very happy at the prospects; ‘80 per cent of the War Office experts think that Russia will be knocked out in ten days’. He feared Hitler would get Russian oil and be free to ‘fling his whole force against us’.1