Phoney War Research Articles

An Epidemic of Nervous Breakdowns and Crisis Suicides in Britain’s War of Nerves, 1938–1940

Abstract As contemporaries noted, the long months from the Munich Crisis (autumn 1938) through to the end of the Phoney War (spring 1940) felt like a ‘war of nerves’. The battlefields were physical and material as much as psychological and imagined. Turning to sources that reveal visceral experience, we can explore the internal and internalized history of the international crisis. First, I listen to writers, politicians, academics, anthropological researchers, psychiatrists, and advertisers as one after the other they projected this overwhelming nervous disorder onto bodies and onto the body politic. In his largely forgotten Journal under the terror, 1938 (1939), the Bloomsburyite, prolific man of letters, and literary scholar F. L. Lucas emerges as a perspicacious narrator of the war of nerves, and he was both witness and victim of a world he described as filled with ‘nervous breakdowns’. Second, I exhume the casualties of this war of nerves, a group of people who exercised their bodily autonomy and self-determination to free themselves from the world in crisis. Based on a dataset of 185 cases, the ‘crisis suicides’ – ‘committed daily by people terrorised at the thought of a war’ – constituted an apparent epidemic. Together these bodies of evidence of bodily experience make a case for reframing and renaming the period, and identifying the first battle of Britain’s ‘People’s War’.

Neutral Paradoxes. Switzerland and the Allies at the Beginning of the Second World War

ABSTRACT The article offers a new perspective on the history of Swiss foreign policy between 1938 and 1940 by focusing on Switzerland’s relations with the Allies. It argues that the Allies were well-disposed towards Swiss foreign policy between 1938 and 1940. France and Britain respected Switzerland’s wish to appear completely neutral in international relations until the eve of the war, and when the Swiss Confederation adapted to the new international situation from the summer of 1940, the British rulers tended to welcome the preservation of Swiss democracy in the midst of an authoritarian Europe. It should not be forgotten, however, that in between these two moments, relations went through a period of tension during the Phoney War, as the Allies tried to use economic ties with Switzerland to bring the Confederation closer to them. By providing a nuanced analysis of the often-paradoxical interaction between economic and diplomatic relations, the article contributes to a new understanding of Swiss neutrality at the beginning of the Second World War and the way it was appreciated by the foreign powers.

‘The Biggest Aspidistra in the World’

During the period known as the ‘Phoney War,’ the comedic song ‘The Biggest Aspidistra in the World’ became a significant cultural reference point in the UK, along with its singer, the renowned Gracie Fields. This was a notable achievement given the shifting public tastes within the country during a period of widespread uncertainty and transformation. However, despite the song’s wartime popularity, it has received little scholarly attention. This paper traces the rise and fall of ‘The Biggest Aspidistra’ in the UK during the Phoney War, exploring its impact through an analysis of the national symbols in its lyrics, its comedic delivery by Fields, and its collaborative musical approach. By bridging musicology and cultural history, this paper clarifies the importance of comprehensive song analysis to Second World War studies and underscores the role of humour in bolstering wartime morale.

L’ENNUI DES SYRTES OR THE BOREDOM OF EMPIRES

The paper presents the phenomenon of boredom in Julien Gracq’s novel Le Rivage des Syrtes (The opposing shore). The book describes Orsenna, oligarchic city-state loosely based on Venetian republic and empire, which is in a state of phoney war with Farghestan, a mysterious country across the closed sea of Syrtes. The story, narrated by Aldo, young aristocrat assigned for civic duty on the outskirts of empire, depicts the collective mood of anxious anticipation and boredom of the citizens of Orsenna “waiting for barbarians.” The paper analyses Gracq’s novel as a literary illustration of the theories of civilization demise, primarily that of Oswald Spengler, and of the decadence state of society led by bored and languorous elite. In the article, I hypothesize that the demise of empires can be partially attribute to them being boring for their civic agents and subjects alike. The sense of meaninglessness and the feeling of interminable ennui seem to contribute to the attitude of carelessness in both these groups resulting in lack of loyalty and low morale. I suggest that Orsenna’s citizens suffer from societal existential boredom and that similar affliction might have been observed in late British Empire.

ФРАНЦИЯ В МЕЖВОЕННЫЙ ПЕРИОД: ИСТОКИ КАТАСТРОФЫ [Рец. на кн.: Вершинин А.А., Наумова Н.Н. От триумфа к катастрофе: военно-политическое поражение Франции 1940 г. и его истоки. – СПб.: Алетейя, 2022

This article reviews A.A. Vershinin and N.N. Naumova’s monograph devoted to the analysis of the causes of the military and political collapse of the French Third Republic. The following key points covered by the authors are considered here: the problems with finding strong allies, rearmament, and military security, all discussed during the interwar period. In addition, special attention is paid to the events that led to the crushing defeat of the French army and to the general political state of France by the downfall of the French Third Republic. Some controversial issues resulting from different opinions on the events of diplomatic and military history are explored. The features of the foreign and defense policy of France and its participation in the early stage of World War II (the Phoney War), the circumstances associated with Marshal Ph. Pétain’s coming to power and the establishment of the collaborationist regime are outlined.

Greenland (1940) as an Instance of Pickwickian ‘Cooperation’ Between King’s Ottawa and Roosevelt’s Washington

The German invasion of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, which is usually regarded as marking the end of the so-called Phoney War between Germany and the Allies, also led to a short-lived diplomatic stand-off between the United States and Canada. The tension stemmed primarily from misapprehensions in both North American countries over what should be done about Greenland, the Danish colony whose political and legal status had suddenly been placed in question by the German move. It soon subsided, but in the process it resulted in a pronounced overreaction by some on the US side of the dispute. The quarrel largely took place behind the scenes and has attracted relatively little attention from historians. In fact, although the US government mostly got its way at the expense of Canada, the Greenland episode was presented by Prime Minister Mackenzie King as an instance of diplomatic cooperation to the benefit of both countries – a view that has been repeated by later commentators. If the episode really did represent an instance of close cooperation between Canada and the United States, then it was only in a Pickwickian sense, that is, one in which the reality of the situation was very different from the roseate view offered by its apologists.

Sylvia Beach and women’s scholarly communities under Occupation: The diary of Madeleine Blaess

In 1939 Madeleine Blaess, a languages graduate, left her home in England for Paris to begin doctoral research at the Sorbonne. Unable to escape Paris before the German invasion in spring 1940, she was trapped in France for the duration of the war. The letters she wrote to her parents during the Phoney War, and the diary she began in October 1940 and continued until after the Liberation, are a fascinating account of her life as a postgraduate scholar in wartime. Through these written traces we glimpse women-run social and intellectual communities and businesses to which many women students turned for scholarly and moral support and, occasionally, practical and financial succour. This article draws on Madeleine’s letters and diary to describe and evaluate the importance of these extra-curricular networks in supporting women students during wartime with a particular focus on the bookshop and library Shakespeare and Company, run by Sylvia Beach.

Promoting Britain’s fight: Duff Cooper’s 1939–40 lecture tour and American public opinion during the ‘Phoney War’

Abstract From October 1939 to March 1940, Conservative member of parliament Alfred Duff Cooper and his wife Diana toured the United States. Their public appearances drew thousands of audience members and provoked the ire of isolationists, but the true importance of the Coopers’ tour lay in the conversations they undertook with prominent Americans. This article examines the controversy surrounding the Coopers’ wartime tour of the U.S., the significance of the trip and the conclusions both drew from their visit. These would have a demonstrable impact on British public relations efforts, particularly after Duff Cooper’s appointment as minister of information.

Gender and the “Jews’ War”: Women, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-War Campaigns in Britain, 1938-1940

ABSTRACT The study of the gender complexion of pacifist movements has greatly expanded in recent decades, a product of the convergence of the new international history and study of transnationalism with the ever firmer rooting of women’s and gender history. Yet the study of pacifism in wartime has received less attention, and that of unlikelier pacifists emerging from the far Right even less. The British Union of Fascists and National Socialists [BU] launched its ‘Peace Campaign’ in 1938, and women fascists played leading roles on both practical and symbolic levels. It culminated in the launch of their own Women’s Peace Campaign in 1940, relying heavily on tropes of women’s innate pacifism and, more narrowly, domestic concerns in the home and on the home front. The BU’s policy shift from para-militarism to a militant non-interventionism and a racially motivated isolationism was more accurately an anti-war and stop-the-war campaign. Even before 1939, they dubbed the world war the ‘Jews’ War’, and women contributed in equal measure to the xenophobic and racialist charge of the BU’s campaign. However, situating anti-war fascist women amongst other women’s groups who organised to oppose the Second World War, in particularly in the Peace Pledge Union – which had launched a Women’s Peace Campaign in December 1939 – exposes the variegated nature of British women’s activism and attitudes from the high water mark of appeasement to the end of the Phoney War.

A beggar became a banker: Financial relations between Switzerland and France and the implications for foreign policy, from the Belle Epoque to the Phoney war

This paper aims to analyse the changing course of financial relations between France and Switzerland and their political repercussions from the Belle Epoque to the beginning of the Second World War. During this period, a decisive shift occurred: while France was the main lender of the Swiss Confederation and had clear monetary ascendency over this country before the war, the latter, because of its neutrality and the rise of its offshore financial centre, became an important creditor of the former. This transition started during the hostility and continued until the 1930s. For instance, the Swiss banking centre played a crucial role in the stabilisation of the French franc (FF) in 1926, as well as during the financial preparation for the Second World War. While a few case studies have dealt with this historical issue, this paper is the first to examine the impact of this changing course of financial relations over the long term. It demonstrates that, paradoxically, the French government did not profit from its financial ascendency over Switzerland during the Belle Epoque, whereas the small Swiss Confederation was able to reinforce its political and economic position over France because of credits during the interwar period. The monetary environment, the internal political situation, and the general goals of both countries’ foreign policy explain this difference.

War is in the Air: Networks of Enemy Radio Broadcasting in France and Germany During the Phoney War (1939–1940)

The enemy radio broadcasting took a great part in the propaganda war between France and Germany during the Phoney War. Its roots can be found in the Interwar Period when radio became a central media in both countries. With the declaration of war on 2 September 1939, the war was definitely in the air. On both sides of the border, the state provoked the enemy. The aims were clear: agitate the population against the enemy state and destabilise enemy civilians as well as troops. Both states reacted to enemy radio attacks: they not only created new radio programs, responded to enemy allegations but also forbade the listening of enemy radios and scrambled enemy broadcasts. It was a war of words, which became more and more intense and technically sophisticated. Behind this broadcasting, a dense international network was needed to transform these programs into real propaganda weapons. Credible information, language knowledge and technical equipment were required to try to influence the enemy population. On which information channels and contacts both states could rely on? How did these programs in the enemy’s language emerge? This article focuses on the development of enemy broadcasting, its international networks and its impact in both countries.

Signal Failure: Communications in the British Expeditionary Force, September 1939–June 1940

The article examines the communication difficulties faced by the British Expeditionary Force during the France campaign of 1939–40 and determines the extent to which they were self-inflicted. Among the many assessments of the German invasion of May 1940 and associated collapse of the French, the British acceptance of long-standing deficiencies in vital systems has been overlooked. The Phoney War encouraged unrealistic expectation and insatiable demand, which compounded flawed equipment, personnel, and procedure. Opportunities to ease vulnerabilities, via efficiencies and best practice, were missed. Combat and, in particular, mobile operations, were the final straw, prompting immediate collapse and, eventually, evacuation.

THE MEMORY OF THE GREAT WAR AND MORALE DURING BRITAIN'S PHONEY WAR

AbstractThis article examines the memory of the Great War and the underexplored topic of morale during the Phoney War, and contributes to, and connects, their historiographies. Analysis of previously unexamined Mass Observation (MO) material confirms and qualifies some of the concerns about morale that MO expressed at the time. It also reveals that many Britons looked backwards to the Great War during the Phoney War, whether they had lived through the Great War or not, and their memories and understandings of the Great War informed their attitudes to the Second World War. Memories of wartime trauma were just one facet of the varied legacy of the Great War that Britons drew upon. Importantly, Britons of different ages drew upon post-war representations and personal and vicarious experiences to different extents, but those who were able to typically ascribed influence to personal rather than cultural memories of the Great War. This complicates the assumption that the latter determined Britons’ responses to the outbreak of the Second World War and contributes to understandings of both the reception and influence of cultural representations of the Great War, and the place of the Great War in the subjective worlds of Britons during the Second World War.

Sartre’s “Guerre Fantôme”: A Kafkaesque Subtext in the Postwar Writings

While ample attention has been paid to the impact of the Second World War on Sartre’s turn to commitment, the earliest phase of the global conflict in which he was involved, the so-called Phoney War, is seldom mentioned in discussions of his postwar writings. Sartre’s experience of this period, which featured the dread of waiting for a conflict that would not set in, offers additional clues for interpreting the meaning of history in relation to the concept of commitment. This interpretation is intimately linked with a sustained reading of Sartre’s prime literary inspiration of the time, Franz Kafka. At various stages, including the mobilization, the journey to the front, life during the Phoney War, and the complexities of the postwar period, Sartre alludes to Kafka. It will become clear that The Trial acts as a historical metaphor, designating the impossibility to understand the historical meaning of one’s actions. As a source of influence on the concept of commitment, Sartre’s reading of Kafka unearths the paradoxical meaning of commitment, which is less the voicing of a political stance and more of an absurd pursuit carried out in ignorance.

Confrontation and Insurgency in Borneo, 1960–90

A considerable literature has accumulated on the ‘Confrontation’ conflict over the formation of Malaysia in the mid-1960s. Many accounts are of variable quality, especially where they lack knowledge of the local political and social context or ignore the complexity of often intertwined events. Conclusions from such limited studies can be misleading. This article identifies some aspects of the conventional narrative that should be revisited, particularly the crucial role of the related anti-colonial insurgency and its social and economic roots, the dynamics of the Indonesian intervention and the wider historical context in which the conflict should be placed. Despite British claims of military success and undoubted logistical and diplomatic achievement, Confrontation was in many respects a ‘phoney war'. Nevertheless, the Borneo conflict had far-reaching consequences, as well as providing valuable lessons in the development and containment of insurgency. It secured the establishment of Malaysia. It accelerated Britain's withdrawal from its long imperial presence ‘East of Suez', while confirming American dominance for the next 50 years of one of the world's strategic keypoints. It underpinned the development of authoritarian government in democratic guise. Hence it eased the way to the devastation of the Borneo rainforest with still incalculable global consequences.

The dogs that didn't bark in the Blitz: transpecies and transpersonal emotional geographies on the British home front

This paper uses a case study of animals in wartime to ask how historical animal geographers might approach the historical geography of emotions. Its substantive focus is the entangled emotional experiences of humans and companion animals during the Second World War on the British home front. Arguing against a focus on the practical and political difficulties of keeping pets, this paper moves away from the preemptive killing of pets during the phoney war of 1939–1940 to evidence for the value placed on pets by pet owners, civilians in general and the British state. Drawing principally on Mass-Observation surveys, this paper investigates the complexities of the emotional dynamics of the home front, where affect and emotion between people and individual companion animals were transmitted and amplified. Moreover, it is emphasised that transpecies emotions were portrayed as valuable to wartime morale, and thus became part of governmental calculation. Taking morale as a distinct form of collective affect targeted by the wartime state, we can thus add a more-than-human dimension to historical geographies of emotion. In sum, this paper argues that emotion should be considered as both a transpersonal and a transpecies phenomenon: transpersonal because collectively mediated, and transpecies because of the emotional interactions between people and nonhuman animals.

BBC Features, Radio Voices and the Propaganda of War 1939–1941

BBC Radio drama, and especially feature programmes, became a crucial vehicle at the beginning of the Second World War for articulating a sense of national unity and for providing accounts of the war that could counteract Nazi propaganda. This essay will explore the feature series Shadow of the Swastika (1939–40), Terence Horsley’s Narvik (1940) and Cecil McGivern’s The Battle of Britain (1941), examining how the aesthetics of this radiogenic genre developed through encounters with the propaganda politics of the British nation at the outbreak of war and in response to the reactions of radio listeners. For the writers of Shadow of the Swastika, the ‘sound alone’ of radio was crucial for creating an effective actuality in a feature, but the empathetic force of this sound actuality—its ability to stand as/for the real—raised important political and moral questions at a time of national crisis. Examining the broadcasts themselves, and drawing on audience responses to features, the essay will uncover the tensions between political and aesthetic conceptions of the radio feature between 1939 and 1941. As the essay will argue it was in this period, which spans the Phoney War and the first major British military campaigns, that friction arose between anxieties about the presence of the radio voice and its reception by listeners, and the BBC’s attempt to use the power of the radio medium to present a real account of the war. Political expediency, technology, radio aesthetics, the exigencies of war and the affectivity of sound were all negotiated through radio features as the Second World War escalated. By 1941, in response to these competing factors, the key parameters of BBC war features had solidified and they would go on to function, in the subsequent years of the war, as white propaganda binding the nation together in the struggle against Nazi Germany.

Fear of China: Economic and Political Challenge in the 21st Century: A Pacific Society, Weapons, Roots and Trends

While the world has been distracted since the American war in Vietnam and the Soviet and western adventures in Afghanistan, as well as a rising tide of rebellion directed against symbols of the west by Islamic fundamentalists, a curious contest has appeared on two fronts: Russia and China. At the same time the west is distracted by populist movements whose theme is focused on immigrants from former colonial nations or non-whites in a context, as in America, where aboriginal peoples have been slaughtered and marginalized. The specific nature of this conflict is economic in general form, yet political in rhetoric, especially from western sources. From the Ukraine to the Pacific a kind of “Phoney War” has crept along in starts and stops with overtures of friendship interrupted with threats of violence and minor acts of aggression. Investigation of some of the underlying factors in the East illuminate potential trends for the future. At the same time a new revitalization movement is reshaping the Anglo-American west, one that challenges the role of China in trade and policy.

Fear of China: Economic and Political Challenge in the 21st Century: Roots and Trends

While the world has been distracted since the American war in Vietnam and the Soviet and western adventures in Afghanistan, as well as a rising tide of rebellion directed against symbols of the west by Islamic fundamentalists, a curious contest has appeared on two fronts: Russia and China. At the same time the west is distracted by populist movements whose theme is focused on immigrants from former colonial nations or non-whites in a context, as in America, where aboriginal peoples have been slaughtered and marginalized. The specific nature of this conflict is economic in general form, yet political in rhetoric, especially from western sources. From the Ukraine to the Pacific a kind of “Phoney War” has crept along in starts and stops with overtures of friendship interrupted with threats of violence and minor acts of aggression. Investigation of some of the underlying factors in the East illuminate potential trends for the future.

Offline: WHO's phoney war

Margaret Chan closed last week's World Health Assembly, a festival to display the best of global health diplomacy or an Olympics of broken promises (depending on your view of global health realpolitik), by claiming that, “We can do anything in the world we want to, provided we speak with a united voice.” Whoever wrote this line should be dispatched to the deepest bunker of WHO's most corrupt member state (there are a good few to choose from). “Speaking” is what the World Health Assembly does supremely well. “Doing” is another matter. When one examines the resolutions passed, official side-events held, technical briefings convened, and exhibits displayed one can't help marvelling at the vanity of it all. You can count on the fingers of one hand those ministers who speak the truth about their government's failures to take health seriously. You will never find a WHO official prepared to state on the record that a country is betraying its people by ignoring their wellbeing. The politesse of international health is dishonest, duplicitous, contemptible, venal, and, sometimes, even criminal. And yet we continue to applaud. The phoney war has begun. Three declared candidates standing to be the next Director-General of this most important, but weakened, institution, were in Geneva last week to launch their campaigns. The candidate who visibly wants the job more than any other is France's Philippe Douste-Blazy. A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Health, and Minister of Culture, he has the active support of President Hollande. Douste-Blazy has a fine global health pedigree, leading UNITAID and being an expert on innovative financing for health. In the events I saw him attend, he was silent, but studious, listening intently and writing voluminously. He behaved like a keen student attending his first university semester. The rumours surrounding his campaign have already become legendary. Is it true the French Government has allocated €250 million to his campaign? Will Douste-Blazy run with Bernice Dahn, Liberia's Minister of Health, on a joint ticket? Did President Hollande call Angela Merkel and ask her to support Douste-Blazy? Has France lobbied Francophone nations in Africa, with the offer of development assistance, to split the continent's vote (Ethiopia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is the official candidate of the African Union)? France has a great deal to offer global health—its respected international institutions and networks, its long history of global engagement. But Douste-Blazy must step through this haze of backroom solicitation and set out publicly what he stands for. Pakistan's Sania Nishtar, a respected civil society activist and former minister of multiple portfolios in her country's 2013 caretaker government, made a quieter launch. She hosted a reception to discuss her campaign, held meetings with official delegations, and published a brochure setting out her credentials and experience. Nishtar has a strong track record and has sought high office before—she was Pakistan's official candidate for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Her Head of State has some catching up to do to match France's energetic start. Minister Tedros was also to be found in the delegates lounge of Geneva's Palais des Nations, holding discreet meetings with colleagues. At a formal launch of his candidacy, he described WHO as “at a crossroads”. He set out his achievements as Minister of Health, stressed his global experience, and offered three priorities: ensuring access to basic health care as a human right, strengthening emergency preparedness and response, and improving the lives of women and girls. “It's time for a Director-General who has lived some of the most pressing challenges facing our world today, as I have lived in Africa”, he said. WHO's next Director-General must love the organisation and its staff. S/he should be the chief advocate for what it stands for and does. S/he needs to see its regional offices as strengths not weaknesses. S/he needs to encourage WHO's directors to use science as a lever for political and social change. S/he should not waste time on more internal reform. Instead, focus on performance. Three priorities will determine success—advancing health equity, delivering sustainable development, and optimising execution. The chief tasks for a new Director-General are to inspire and motivate, strengthen confidence and credibility, and deliver results. The phoney war will soon end. Countries need to know what actions candidates will take. Speaking is important. But achievements matter more.