1945: The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder

by Tom Pocock

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. But by the end of the year, even by VJ Day, it had become clear that the dawn was coming up like thunder. In 1945 Tom Pocock travelled widely and saw the final collapse of the German armies; the horror of concentration camps and destroyed cities; retribution reaching war criminals; and the unpredictable strangers from the east, the Red Army. In Berlin, he climbed through the ruins of Hitler’s Chancellery. In Vienna, he roistered with the Russians only to be arrested by them on a trip to Budapest. By the end of the year, he had paid his first visit to the El Dorado of that now distant world, New York, the glittering, happy, prosperous, democratic centre of hopes and affections of the Western World. Here indeed is the very form and pressure of the the awful stench of death and wholesale destruction; the casual murders and cruelties where over large tracts of territory law and order had collapsed; worst of all, the concentration camps still peopled by the ghosts of human beings, starved, tortured, terrified and degraded. Tom Pocock’s friends had served and died in the war from which he himself had been invalided, but when Hitler was defeated, he shared their feelings of exultation and relief. He was in London for VE Day and his account of it is not easily forgotten. Praise for 1945: The Dawn Came Up Like ‘Future historians will bless Tom Pocock's name, for other pivotal periods of our world's troubled life were less well served ... one would have given much for Mr. Pocock's presence, accompanied by a Leica, at the Battle of Hastings’ - Sunday Telegraph ‘A picture of that extraordinary year which will be an eye-opener to those (now a large majority) who did not live through it and intensely evocative to those who did. Tom Pocock writes unusually well ... His idealism never inhibits his curiosity or his lively sense of the absurd ... The book conveys to perfection the atmosphere of 1945, in which exhilaration was tinged with doubt and disgust’ - Evening Standard Tom Pocock was the author of eighteen books (and editor of two more), mostly biographies but including two about his experiences as a newspaper war correspondent. Born in London in 1925, he was educated at Westminster School and Cheltenham College, joining the Royal Navy in 1943. He was at sea during the invasion of Normandy and, having suffered from ill health, returned to civilian life and in 1945 became a war correspondent at the age of nineteen, the youngest of the Second World War. He has contributed to many magazines and appeared on television documentaries about Nelson and the subject of another of his biographies, the novelist and imperialist Sir Rider Haggard.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2013

About the author

Tom Pocock was the author of 18 books (and editor of two more), mostly biographies but including two about his experiences as a newspaper war correspondent.

Born in London in 1925 - the son of the novelist and educationist Guy Pocock - he was educated at Westminster School and Cheltenham College, joining the Royal Navy in 1943. He was at sea during the invasion of Normandy and, having suffered from ill-health, returned to civilian life and in 1945 became a war correspondent at the age of 19, the youngest of the Second World War.

After four years wth the Hulton Press current affairs magazine group, he moved to the Daily Mail as feature-writer and then Naval Correspondent, becoming Naval Correspondent of The Times in 1952. In 1956, he was a foreign corresponent and special writer for the Daily Express and from 1959 was on the staff of the Evening Standard,as feature writer,Defence Correspondent and war correspondent. For the last decade of his time on the Standard he was Travel Editor.

He wrote his first book, NELSON AND HIS WORLD in 1967 on his return from reporting the violence in Aden and his interest in Nelson has continued. Indeed, eight of his books are about the admiral and his contemporaries; his HORATIO NELSON was runner-up for the Whitbread Biography Award of 1987.

Tom Pocock has contributed to many magazines and appeared on television documentaries about Nelson and the subject of another of his biographies,the novelist and imperialist Sir Rider Haggard.