Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945

by Max Hastings

It is the duty and privilege of historians to deploy relativism in a fashion that cannot be expected of contemporary participants.

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.”

In action, there was a fine line between courage which heartened others and bluster which incurred their contempt.

moment in a dark cellar, unable to see—oh, it’s truly a wonderful life. If only it would stop, they really expect too much of people. Do you still remember the lake? I think you gave me our first kiss there! Everything gone—the lovely cafés Brand and Bohning, the town hall completely burned. It’s impossible even to begin to describe it. But you will be able to imagine it. You have seen Munich. Is everything going to be destroyed? Yet there is no other way out to be seen. Why do people let our soldiers go to their deaths uselessly, why do they let the rest of Germany be ruined, why all the misery, why?” She added later: “If you were still a loyal supporter of these people after the war—you know who I mean—it would inevitably separate us. What have they