WORLD WAR II.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Daily wartime diary of Captain Leonard Hammersley Bell, naval assistant to Rear-Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. A thorough and honest narrative by an Admiralty insider well-placed to document the onset of total war and the attitudes - in his view, sometimes misguided - that shaped the navy's decision-making.In October 1939, Bell (b. 1892) transferred from the Plans Division to Phillips's staff. The diary opens a month earlier, one day before the declaration of war, and during its two-year span, Bell writes with a candour only possible in private. In the war's early months, he handled "stupid questions from our ambassadors" (11 October 1939) and viewed British defensive preparations for a German invasion as "nonsense" (29 October 1939). By 1940, amid air-raid warnings, there was far too much to do each day, Bell (like Phillips) working late and more and more "dining at his desk". Pervading the account is a scepticism, common to mid-ranking officers, towards high-level decision makers ("Admiralty suggested [an attack] now, and then at the last moment and God knows why, called off the operation" (8 April 1940). Not even Churchill is immune, especially when the prime minister tries to blame the Royal Navy for decisions he took himself: "Had he been a great man Winston would have accepted the blame himself - since it lies on him squarely" (8 October 1940).In October 1941, Bell became Captain of the Fleet, Eastern Fleet, serving under Phillips onboard HMS P

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