Extrapolating from a particular case, the article argues that experience of the Second World War was capable of broadening combatants’ minds, and of helping to shape their post-war attitudes. Before the war, Hector Davies was a Bank of England official. From 1940 he served in Nigeria and Chad, where he was responsible for British military liaison with the Free French Equatorial commander, Jacques Leclerc. After a period in Gaza and Cairo, he joined the French division of SOE's mission near Algiers, and was infiltrated into the Tarn in 1944, there receiving accolades for his diplomacy and bravery. His mainly unpublished and hitherto unexploited memoirs and scrapbook help especially to rectify an evidential gap created by the incineration of official SOE/Massingham/France records. In 1945, he moved to Austria and Germany to help with economic reconstruction, and after the war was active in Liberal Party politics. Davies shared some common prejudices at the outset of the war. In the course of the conflict, he came to support the idea of African federal autonomy, and defended the record of the maquis including its leftist component. After the war and at a time of semi-racial prejudice against the defeated powers, he promoted the principle of German economic reconstruction.

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赫克托·戴维斯：战争中的自由主义者

文章从一个特定案例中推断，第二次世界大战的经历能够拓宽战斗人员的思维，并有助于塑造他们的战后态度。战前，赫克托·戴维斯是英格兰银行的一名官员。从 1940 年起，他在尼日利亚和乍得服役，负责英国与自由法国赤道指挥官雅克·勒克莱尔 (Jacques Leclerc) 的军事联络。在加沙和开罗待过一段时间后，他加入了 SOE 在阿尔及尔附近的法国分部，并于 1944 年潜入塔恩，在那里因其外交和勇敢而获得赞誉。他的主要未出版和迄今为止未开发的回忆录和剪贴簿尤其有助于纠正因国有企业/马辛厄姆/法国官方记录被焚毁而造成的证据空白。1945 年，他移居奥地利和德国帮助经济重建，战后积极参与自由党政治。戴维斯在战争开始时有一些共同的偏见。在冲突过程中，他开始支持非洲联邦自治的想法，并捍卫马基斯的记录，包括其左翼部分。战后，在对战败国存有半种族偏见的时候，他提倡德国经济重建的原则。