The Phoney War appears as a documentary reference rather than a narrated episode: a footnote directs readers to a diary volume spanning November 1939 to March 1940, but gives no description of what happened during the period or how it affected the surrounding discussion.

Documentary Reference

The note says that circumstances decided otherwise, then refers readers to War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phoney War November 1939 – March 1940, translated by Quintin Hoare and published in London by Verso in 1984. The remark implies a reversal of circumstances, but the footnote does not identify the prior expectation or explain the reversal. The cited title and date range are the only concrete information it provides about the Phoney War.