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Hayward, James. “Myths and Legends of the Second World War”. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003. Hbk, x, 214pp. illus, index, bibliography, notes. ISBN 0-7509-3047-0. £17.99
This is, apparently, the author’s follow-up to a similarly titled work on the First World War, and if this is anything to go by, I shall be hunting down a copy next time I visit the library.
Hayward’s book is mainly, but exclusively, focused on British stories and covers a wide range of subject areas from invasion scares to foo fighters. Throughout he examines the evidence and sorts out those authors whose work contributed to the creation and perpetuation of various myths and legends to those who can be relied upon to be reasonably accurate and believable.
Given the pagination and the wide scope of the topics none are examined in great detail, indeed on some of them he admits it would take a volume of their own to do the full justice but he seems to be on top of his material. For example, his discussion on the myths surrounding Rudolf Hess seems very level headed, willing to take from some writers in certain respects, without swallowing their case in their entirety. Thus the Picknett, Prince and Prior book “Double Standards” is applauded for its discussion on the details of Hess’s initial flight to Scotland, but he doesn’t follow their more sensational claims regarding the “switch” to Hess’s double having anything to do with the death of the Duke of Hamilton in a plane crash in 1942. Indeed Hayward is fairly robust in dismissing all talk of there ever having been a double for Hess to “switch”, as one of the cornerstones of those theories, about Hess having massive scars from WWI injuries have been dealt a hammer blow by the discovery of Hess’s actual medical record which showed the scars to have been minimal. (Now we wait for the “switch” in the medical records theory to emerge!!!)
The author shows that British Intelligence deliberately started many of the myths, often or related organisations, for various strategic purposes, whilst others were came from elsewhere but weren’t denied as it suited British purposes. Among the canards shot down include the deliberate allowing of Coventry to be bombed to avoid letting the Germans know that the British were intercepting and deciphering their signals. In fact no signals for the relevant date and target were intercepted. The truth, as given by R.V. Jones, is more interesting but I’ll leave the details for readers to discover when they read the book.
Other myths exploded include the re-runs of First World War propaganda about the German military disguising paratroopers as nuns; that Dunkirk was a miracle and the part played by the little ships; the non-existent massacre of German troops that didn’t occur near Arras during the BEF’s counter-attack on 21st May 1940; all manner of myths about Adolf Hitler including his survival (and, en passant, many other Nazi “survivors”); a German invasion being burnt alive off the English coast on 1940 (with the interesting detail that the Germans were working on counter-technologies to the burning sea defences before the English had got them working); Admiral Canaris as a British agent and so on.
There is an interesting piece included as an appendix about how rumours spread in battlefield conditions and the (doubtless apocryphal) consequences, as presented by the US Army in 1945. One aspect that could have been included would have been some reference to the “urban legend” phenomenon. Of passing interest to ufologists are is remarks, albeit brief about Foo fighters and Nazi UFO’s. He’s rightly dismissive of the Nazi UFO stories but evidently couldn’t make his mind up about the so-called Foo fighters.
Overall this is a pleasant ride through what is vaguely familiar territory. I’m sure most readers will find at least one of their favourite WWII stories turns out to have been a myth, whilst others will wish for more details on other stories. However, as an introduction to the subject, it serves its purpose very well and I can thoroughly recommend it if you are at all interested in military history, “urban legends” or mass psychology.
8/10