User talk:Dkahn400

This may seem random, but recently I've been trying to track down the source of a supposed historical event, and my searches brought me upon the discussion page for the Dunkirk evacuation where I found you had apparently undertaken the same endeavor some years before. Yes, I'm referring to the alleged "But if not" telegram. The earliest mention I have found of it was 2004 column by George Will. You mentioned in your comment that you had also traced the comment back to Will, albeit you say you traced it back further to his 1986 book "The Morning After."

Well, after reading your comment I checked out "The Morning After" from the library, however I have not been able to find any mention of the anecdote in the book. I admit I have no read the book from cover to cover, and I do not plan to. However I checked the index for numerous relevant keywords, and have not had any luck (the three references to "Bible" all have nothing to do with Dunkirk, and nothing else even appears in the index). I've also manually flipped to many essays that seemed like likely candidates based on their titles, but still nothing. So my question is, did you actually see the anecdote in the book? Or were you going by word of mouth?

(Incidentally, I actually emailed Mr. Will a few days ago asking for his input. I don't expect a response, but here's hoping.)--Foolishgrunt (talk) 04:04, 20 January 2018 (UTC)

@Foolishgrunt: When I first read this I was highly skeptical as it's not in British folklore about Dunkirk at all. It's hard to believe, however, that Will simply invented the episode, but published references certainly appear to originate with him. This Google Books search confirms my original contribution on the Talk page so if you still have the book try checking on page 392. I look forward, incidentally, to hearing about any response you may get from Mr. Will. Dkahn400 (talk) 10:40, 22 January 2018 (UTC)