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AUTUMN 2005 • NUMBER 128JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL CENTRE & SOCIETIE:
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THE CHURCHILL CENTRE AND SOCIETIESUNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • CANADA • PORTUGAL • AUSTRALIA
PATRON: THE LADY SOAMES LG DBE • WWW.WINSTONCHURCHILL.ORG #
Founded in 1968 to foster leadership, statesmanship, vision and boldness among democratic and freedom-loving peoplesworldwide, through the thoughts, words, works and deeds of Winston Spencer Churchill.
BOARD OF GOVERNORSRandy Barber • Paul H. Courtenay • Laurence GellerChristopher Hebb • William C. Ives • Judith KambestadNigel Knocker • James F. Lane • Richard M. LangworthPhilip Larson • James W. Muller • Charles D. PlattDouglas S. Russell • Suzanne Sigman • James R. Thomas
OFFICERSWilliam C. Ives, President20109 Scott, Chapel Hill NC 27517Tel. (919) 967-9100 • Fax (919) 967-9001Email: [email protected]
Charles D. Platt, Vice President14 Blue Heron Drive West, Greenwood Village CO 80121Tel. (303) 721-8550 • Fax (303) 290-0097Email: [email protected]
Hon. Douglas S. Russell, Secretary1432 Buresh Avenue, Iowa City IA 52245Tel. (319) 337-4408 • Fax (319) 354-2868Email: [email protected]
Christopher Hebb, Treasurer''l^jfc-l 111 W. Georgia St., Vancouver BC V6E 4M3
Tet/(604) 209-6400 • Email: [email protected]
BUSINESS OFFICEDaniel N. Myers, Executive Director1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Suite 307Washington DC 20036Tel. (888) WSC-1874 • Fax (202) 223-4944Email: [email protected]
BOARD OF TRUSTEESAmb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr., Chairman Emeritus
Richard M. Langworth CBE, ChairmanPO Box 740, Moultonborough NH 03254Tel. (888) 454-2275 • Fax (603) 253-6122Email: [email protected]
Winston S. Churchill • Sen. Dick Durbin " Laurence GellerThe Hon. Jack Kemp • Christopher MatthewsThe Hon. Celia Sandys • Michael J. ScullyThe Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger GBE
HONORARY MEMBERSWinston S. Churchill • Sir Martin Gilbert CBEThe Lord Deedes KBE MC PC DLRobert Hardy CBE • The Lord Heseltine CH PCThe Duke of Marlborough JP DLSir Anthony Montague Browne KCMG CBE DFCElizabeth Nel • The Hon. Colin L. Powell KCBWendy Russell Reves ' Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr.The Lady Thatcher LG OM PC FRSThe Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger GBE
AFFILIATESChurchillians of the Desert; Churchillians of So. Calif.;North Carolina Churchillians, SWSCS Vancouver Island;Washington Society for Churchill
LOCAL ORGANIZATIONThe Churchill Centre is represented by local organizers inAlaska, Arizona, California, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit,Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, New England, New Orleans,North Carolina, Northern England, Ohio andWashington, DC; and is allied with Churchill organiza-tions in Canada, Portugal, Australia and the UnitedKingdom. Refer to "Datelines" for contacts.
INTERNET SERVICESWebsite: www.winstonchurchill.orgWebmaster: [email protected]
LEADERSHIP & SUPPORTNUMBER TEN CLUBLaurence Geller • Michael D. Rose • Michael J. Scully
CHURCHILL CENTRE ASSOCIATESWinston Churchill Associates
The Annenberg Foundation • David & Diane BolerFred Farrow • Mr. & Mrs. Parker H. Lee IIIMichael & Carol McMenamin • David & Carole NossRay L. & Patricia M. Orban • Wendy Russell RevesElizabeth Churchill Snell • Mr. & Mrs. Matthew B. WillsAlex M. Worth Jr.
Clementine Churchill AssociatesRonald D. Abramson • Winston S. ChurchillJeanette & Angelo Gabriel • Craig & Lorraine HornJames F. Lane • Barbara & Richard LangworthDrs. John H. & Susan H. Mather • Linda & Charles PlattAmbassador & Mrs. Paul H. Robinson Jr.James R. & Lucille I. Thomas
Mary Soames AssociatesSolveig & Randy Barber • Gary J. BonineSusan & Daniel Borinsky • Nancy Bowers • Lois BrownNancy H. Canary • Dona & Bob DalesJeffrey & Karen De Haan • Marcus & Molly FrostGary Garrison • Ruth & Laurence GellerFrederick & Martha Hardman • Leo Hindery, Jr.Bill & Virginia Ives • J. Willis JohnsonMr. & Mrs. Gerald Drake Kambestad • Elaine KendallDavid M. & Barbara A. Kirr • Phillip & Susan LarsonRuth J. Lavine • Mr. & Mrs. Richard A. LeahyCyril & Harriet Mazansky • Michael W. MichelsonMr. & Mrs. James W. Muller • Wendell & Nancy MusserBond Nichols • Earl & Charlotte NicholsonBob & Sandy Odell • Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm PageRuth & John Plumpton* Hon. Douglas S. RussellDaniel & Suzanne Sigman • Shanin SpecterRobert M. Stephenson • Richard & Jenny StreiffPeter J. Travers • Gabriel Urwitz • Damon Wells Jr.Jacqueline & Malcolm Dean Witter
BOARD OF ACADEMIC ADVISERSProf. James W. Muller, Chairman
University of Alaska, Anchorage2410 Galewood Street, Anchorage AK 99508Tel. (907) 786-4740 • Fax (907) 786-4647Email: af][email protected]
Prof. John A. Ramsden, Vice ChairmanQueen Mary College, University of London
Email: [email protected]
Prof. Paul K. Alkon, University of Southern CaliforniaSir Martin Gilbert CBE, Merton College, OxfordProf. Christopher C. Hatmon, Marine Corps UniversityCol. David Jablonsky, U.S. Army War CollegeProf. Warren F. Kimball, Rutgers UniversityProf. Paul A. Rahe, University ofTulsaDr. Jeffrey Wallin, The American Academy
of Liberal Education
The Churchill Centte is the successor to the WinstonS. Churchill Study Unit (founded 1968) and to theInternational Churchill Society USA (founded 1971).
The staff of Finest Hour, journal of The ChurchillCentre & Societies, appears on page 4.
CHURCHILL CENTRE AUSTRALIAAlfred James, Coordinator65 Billyard Avenue, Wahroonga, NSW 2076Tel. 61-2-9557-7108 • Email: [email protected]
INTL. CHURCHILL SOCIETY OF CANADAAmbassador Kenneth W Taylor, Honorary ChairmanRandy Barber, President14 Honeybourne Crescent, Markham ON L3P 1P3Tel. (905) 201-6687 • Email: [email protected]
Jeanette Webber, Membership SecretaryRR4, 14 Carter Road, Lion's Head ON NOH 1W0Tel. (519) 592-3082 • Email: [email protected]
Charles Anderson, Treasurer489 Stanfield Drive, Oakville ON L6L 3R2Tel. (905) 827-0819 • Email: [email protected]
The Other Club of OntarioNorman MacLeod, President16 Glenlauta Court, Ashburn ON LOB 1A0Tel. (905) 655-4051 • Email: [email protected]
INTL. CHURCHILL SOCIETY OF PORTUGALJoao Carlos Espada, PresidentInstitute de Estudos Pol/ticosUniversidade Catolica PortuguesaPalma de Cima 1649-023, LisbonTel. (351) 21 7214129 • Email: [email protected]
INTL. CHURCHILL SOCIETY (UNITED KINGDOM)Nigel Knocker OBE, Chairman:PO Box 1257, Melksham, Wilts. SN12 6GQTel. & Fax (01380) 828609Email: [email protected]
TRUSTEESThe Hon. Celia Sandys, ChairmanThe Duke of Marlborough JP DLThe Rt. Hon. Earl Jellicoe KBE DSO MC PC FRSDavid Boler • David Porter • Geoffrey Wheeler
COMMITTEENigel Knocker OBE, ChairmanPaul H. Courtenay, Vice Chairman & Hon. SecretaryAnthony Woodhead CBE FCA, Hon. TreasurerEric Bingham • Robin Brodhurst • Robert CouttsJohn Crookshank • Geoffrey FletcherJohn Glanvill Smith • Derek GreenwellRafal Heydel-Mankoo • Michael KelionAmanda Laurence • Brian Singleton • Wylma Wayne
ALLIES
THERT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCERCHURCHILL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIAChristopher Hebb, President1806-1111 W. Geotgia St., Vancouver BC V6E 4M3Tel. (604) 209-6400 • Email: [email protected]
WE RT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCERCHURCHILL SOCIETY OF CALGARYRichard N. Billington, President2379 Longridge Drive, Calgary AB T3E 5N7Tel. (403) 249-5016 • Email: rnbill@>telus.net
THE RT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCERCHURCHILL SOCIETY OF EDMONTONRobert Dunn, Executive SectetaryBox 2, Suite 208, RR2, St. Albert, Edmonton AB T8N 1M9Tel. (780) 973-5549 • Email: [email protected]
THERT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCERCHURCHILL SOCIETY OF VANCOUVER ISLANDVictor Burstall, PresidentPO Box 2114, Sidney, BC V8L 3S6Tel. (250) 727-7345 • Email: [email protected]
A U T U M N 2 0 0 5 • N U M B E R 1 2 8
18 Churchill and the Western Desert Campaign 1940-43 • by Robert J. BrownVictories, defeats, intelligence, counterintelligence and deception were ingredients in a very mixed bag.
26 Face-Off: Churchill, Reith and the BBC • by Christopher H. SterlingThe Love-Hate Relationship between the Broadcast Czar and the Prophet in the Wilderness
30 Churchill Leadership Gallery at the Fulton Memorial • by Rob Havers
33 "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat": Evolution of a Phrase • by Richard M. Langworth
35 Will Fitzhugh's Concord Review: An Important Special Relationship • by Suzanne Sigman
43 Angelic Demonology: WSC as Fundamentalist Catholic?44 Watering Holes: Palaces That Made the P.M.s Shortlist • by Martin Symington
45 Moments in Time: Hendaye, France, July 194537 BOOKS, ARTS & CURIOSITIES
"Warts and All": If it diminishes Churchill to regard him as super-human (and it does), consider Richard Holmes's equivocalbiography, In the Footsteps of Churchill; and Paul Addison's "top ten" Churchill books ... Or die challenges thrown at WSC duringQuestion Time in Parliament; or the charges of President Thabo Mbeke ... Not to mention the fictional critique of Dan Brown.
Despatch Box 4 • @ The Centre 5 * Datelines 6 • Local Contacts 10 • Around & About 11 • Calendar 13 • Wit & Wisdom 13Jiddles, Mysteries, Enigmas 14 • Leading Churchill Myths 15 • Action This Day 16 • From the Canon 33 • Education 34
Question Time 41 • Inside the Journals 42 • Woods Corner 43 • Ampersand 44 • Churchilltrivia 46 • Recaps 47 • Immortal Words 52
Cover: The Winston Churchill Memorial and Library at Westminster College, site of Churchill's 1946 "Iron Curtain" speech.A bomb-damaged Wren church in London was laboriously disassembled and rebuilt at Fulton to house rlic Mcmoual. which has nowadded a new Churchill T nrfririAiailfilMMTj1" s t a t u e of Churchill is by Czech sculptor I"r.int>i Rdsky^l921-2000). Mory on page 30.
- 4
* • ' • # • " .
Winston and'Clementine ChurchillW'on the Thames during aninspection of bomb damage
during the London Blitz,^September 1940
JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL CENTRE & SOCIETIES
Li*»J*»PSMr.% * .
DESPATCH BOX
SPEECH-MAKINGFinest Hour 126 was particularly good.
Not only did it contain Sir Martin Gilbert'ssuperb article on Gallipoli (Churchill is stillblamed for this in Australia, as he is forSingapore); but also Betsy Foster's article onChurchill's maiden speech. Please be kindenough to pass the attached note to Ms.Foster. I am a retired Senator fromAustralia, and I have to admit that it wasthe best exposition I have ever seen on theart of Parliamentary oratory.
—W. C. O'CHEE, BRISBANE
To Betsy Foster: What impressed memost was that you understood the impor-tance of sound in conveying emotion. I fre-quently use particular sounds because theymove the audience in particular ways. Imust admit that in all the time I spent inpolitics, I never encountered someone whounderstood these concepts so clearly. I thinkyou have an outstanding future, and I urgeyou to continue in your interest of politics.In looking for your email address I stum-bled over the fact you received a scholarshipfor your journalistic studies under theRonald Reagan Future Leaders Scholarshipprogramme. After Churchill, Reagan wasthe greatest communicator in the Englishlanguage this century. I strongly urge you toobtain a copy of his collected letters, as theyare truly outstanding.
CHURCHILL AND TURKEYWilliam Ives (FH 126) says Churchill
had never seen the Dardanelles. But Peterde Mendelssohn in The Age of Churchill(London: Thames & Hudson; New York:Knopf, 1961) says the 1910 Mediterraneancruise on Baron de Forest's yacht Honourstopped at Constantinople after (obviously)passing through the Dardanelles, whileadmitting that Churchill found "little ofinterest" in the Straits. WSC himself, in thelast chapter of The World Crisis, vol. 1,mentions "...the summer of 1909 [when] Ihad visited Constantinople..." His date wasoff, but do these works not suggest WSCdid actually see the Dardanelles?
—JONATHAN HAYES, SEATTLE
Mr. Ives responds: Mr. Hayes quitetactfully, and I may say properly, calls intoquestion my unqualified statement; andMartin Gilbert's Churchill: A Life seems toconfirm de Mendelssohn. But no one statesthat Churchill was actually on board deForest's yacht when it passed through theDardanelles headed for Constantinople.Presumably he was, though it might havepassed through the Straits at night.
More puzzling (and perhaps more sig-nificant) is why Churchill apparently nei-ther wrote nor said anything anyonerecorded about the Straits. One would havethought the centuries of rich history associ-ated with them, their uncommon beauty,their well-recognized strategic importance—and the two great ancient forts dramaticallyfacing each other across the narrows—would have inspired a suitably Churchilliancomment. De Mendelssohn concurs, as Mr.Hayes notes, writing on pages 482-83:"This is all the more strange, since thepolitical and military position of Turkeyoccupied [Churchill] intensely."
Determining the extent of Churchill'sfirsthand knowledge of the challenges theDardanelles posed to an attacking battlefleet is not just an arid academic exercise,but could contribute substantially to ourunderstanding of his motivations at theAdmiralty in 1914-15.
On behalf of my colleague Mr. Sulutasand myself, I write to thank you warmlyfor your splendid editing of our contribu-tion to Finest Hour 126. Our piece followsfavourably on the accounts of theDardanelles expeditions of 1910, and yourcareful editing has added to its clarity andinterest. We are much indebted to you.—WILLIAM C. BRICE, DIDSBURY, MANCHESTER, UK
I share Mr. Brice's pleasure and amthrilled with the quality, design, layout andcontents. I am pleased that it was publishedon the occasion of the 90th year of theDardanelles and Gallipoli campaign. Youhave opened for me a brand new horizon:the world of Winston Churchill. May Iplease bring this to your attention: the cor-rect spelling of my name is "Sulutas."
—MEHMET ALI SULUTAS, YENlSEHlR, TURKEY
What a gorgeous magazine and so wellpresented. I like the common thread ofTurkey running through the articles. MayI disagree with one conclusion, in "Churchilland Turkey, 1943," that "Churchill's diplo-macy did not meet with obvious success"?Even before the meeting with Inonii therewas a secret body of British soldiersengaged in intelligence work, who laterbuilt airfields to protect Turkish cities,under "aid to Turkey." Some of their fighterplanes were crewed by British airmen.Check their testimony at www.levantine.-plus.com/testi37.htm and the summary atwww.levantine.plus.com/book21.htm. I sus-pect Churchill made sure that the neutralityof Turkey wasn't strict.
—CRAIG ENCER, BEESTON, NOTTINGHAM, UK $S
FINEST HOUR 128/4
PRESIDENT'S LETTER
wo or three years ago Itelephoned Dr. Henry @THE CENTREKissinger's Washington,D.C. office to inquire as
to his availability to address aChurchill Centre benefit dinner.Although I identified myself asone of his former students, Iexplained that I was calling asPresident of The Churchill Centre.His secretary responded: "The whafi
Momentarily taken aback, I repeated"The Churchill Centre" and brieflydescribed who we were and what we did.Again an unwelcome response: "I'venever heard of it." More than a bit irri-tated, I thanked her for her time and ter-minated the brief conversation, vowingthat if I ever called again (which I havenot) my reception would be quite different.
I cannot state with any certainty that,today The Centre would be instantly recognizable byDr. Kissinger's office or a score of other offices like itin the capital of the United States. But I am sure amajor change has occurred since that call. TheCentre's footprint is now much larger and moresharply defined in Washington, D.C, and far beyond.We are on the "radar screens" of many organizationsand people of influence. However one wishes todescribe it, The Churchill Centre is a recognized posi-tive presence in the political hub of the internationalcommunity as well as throughout North America, theUnited Kingdom and elsewhere.
This much higher level of recognition may becredited to a number of factors: our establishedWashington location, no longer new but definitelyimportant; a knowledgeable professional staff; theLibrary of Congress Exhibit and its attendant academ-ic and social functions; meaningful relationships withkindred organizations; numerous continual contactswith congressional and administration leaders; anactive and supportive local affiliate, the WashingtonSociety for Churchill; the Churchill Lecture series;and the willing and valuable assistance of prominentnon-government personalities such Lady Soames,
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME: Officers of The Churchill Centreconstantly strive to create interest in our educational and
historical work among "the Good and the Great." Sometimeswe succeed, sometimes we don't, but the odds of success
are greater today than they were two or three years ago.
Celia Sandys, Winston Churchill, Jack Kempand Chris Matthews.
It should now be apparent that thoseinterested in Churchill, in the conductand lessons of 20th century history, inthe essence of leadership, and in themajor tides and currents of the pasthundred years, must belong to The
Churchill Centre. The Centre is widelyunderstood to be the source of choice for
things Churchill and Churchill-related.Quotations and references are frequently sought
by and supplied to those in government, in the pressand in academia. Recently, statements for both theCongressional Record and for the White House wereprovided on the 40th anniversary of Sir WinstonChurchill's death. Other organizations seek out theCentre to participate with them in joint events.Invitations to attend and become a part of commemo-rative and educational functions are received withincreasing frequency. And through Finest Hour, ourannual conferences, lectures, symposia, publicationsand website, the Centre persistently stokes the fires ofinterest in a great man and a historic era. In otherwords, we are much more than a blank card in therolodex of the worldwide Churchill community.
Regretfully, the Centre and its purposes stillremain unknown among far too many. While substan-tial efforts during the past two years have somewhatreduced that universe, it is still far too large. Althoughwe may say with increasing confidence that the Centreis reaching the end of the beginning in its quest fordeserved recognition, wealso know that it hassome distance yet to go.
FINEST HOUR 128 / 5
COVER STORY
DATELINESLONDON CAN TAKE IT
LONDON, JULY 7TH— We are deeply saddened at thenews of the London bombings and our hearts andprayers go out to the victims of this barbaroustragedy and to our many friends in the UK. It isperhaps ironic that the "Quotation of the Day"onour website today, from The Sir Winston ChurchillBirthday Book, should be this: "People who are notprepared to do unpopular things and to defy clam-our are not fit to be Ministers in times of stress."
—DANIEL N. MYERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Quotation of the Season
n default of geniusnations have to —make war as bestthey can and, ,
since that quality is muchrarer than the largest andpurest diamonds, mostwars are mainly tales of muddle. Butwhen from time to time it flashes upon thescene, order and design with a sensealmost of infallibilty draw out from hazardand confusion."
—WSC, MARLBOROUGH: HIS LIFE AND TIMES 11:93
IT TAKES A VILLAGENEW YORK, JULY 8TH—Yesterday's bomb-
ings in downtown London are pro-foundly disturbing. In part, that isbecause a bombing in our mothercountry and closest ally, Britain, isalmost like a bombing in our owncountry....Every Muslim living in aWestern society suddenly becomes asuspect, becomes a potential walkingbomb. And when that happens, itmeans Western countries are going tobe tempted to crack down even harderon Muslim populations....And becauseI think that would be a disaster, it isessential that the Muslim world wakeup to the fact that it has a jihadistdeath cult in its midst. If it does notfight that death cult, that cancer, with-in its own body politic, it is going toinfect Muslim-Western relations every-where. Only the Muslim world canroot out that cult. It takes a village.
The greatest restraint on humanbehavior is never a policeman or a bor-der guard. The greatest restraint onhuman behavior is what a culture anda religion deem shameful. Many peo-ple said Palestinian suicide bombingwas the spontaneous reaction of frus-trated Palestinian youth. But whenPalestinians decided that it was in theirinterest to have a cease-fire with Israel,those bombings largely stopped. Thevillage said enough was enough.
The Muslim village has beenderelict in condemning the madness ofjihadist attacks. When Salman Rushdiewrote a controversial novel involvingthe prophet Muhammad, he was sen-tenced to death by the leader of Iran.To this day—to this day—no majorMuslim cleric or religious body hasever issued a fatwa condemningOsama bin Laden. The double-deckerbuses of London and the subways ofParis, as well as the covered markets ofRiyadh, Bali and Cairo, will never besecure as long as the Muslim villageand elders do not take on, delegit-imize, condemn and isolate theextremists in their midst.—THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES
* * *EDENFIELD, LANCASHIRE, JULY 9TH— W h a t
an end to last week. After the euphoriaof getting the Olympics, the bombingsin London. Mr. Blair handled it well,even if the G-8 conference appeared totake somewhat of a back seat. Theconsensus seems to be that an attackwas inevitable, but four bombs withinsuch a short time, and so indiscrimi-nate.... The emergency services werewonderful, as they had been fullytrained for such events, but even theywere stretched to their limits. Thereare some really evil people about atpresent in this world.
On a happier note, the 60th
anniversary of the end of the war inEurope was celebrated, mainly inLondon, but around the country too.London put on a superb show. Therewere enactments of wartime entertain-ment and Churchill's speeches, deliv-ered by Robert Hardy, who is lookingmore and more like WSC. The Queenlooked to be enjoying the show. Shereally does work hard, with services toattend, memorials to unveil, veteransto meet, and then the appearance onthe balcony at Buckingham Palace forthe Fly Past and the dropping of a mil-lion poppies. The cameras depicted anamazing sight from the top of thePalace, with people down the Mall asfar as the eye could see. Who says themonarchy's on its way out?
—DOROTHY JONES
ANCHORAGE, JULY 10TH— Stoicism saysmore eloquently than words that terrorcannot change Britain's values or wayof life. Words do have power, however,and that's why people around theworld have been rememberingWinston Churchill's words duringWorld War II. Prime Minister TonyBlair is not Winston Churchill, but hespoke with a simple directness that thewartime leader would have appreciatedwhen he said on Thursday, "We shallprevail and they shall not."
—ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS
FINEST HOUR 127/6
ONLINE HISTORY LESSONLONDON, APRIL 4TH— The family of SirWinston Churchill has put one of hismost famous speeches online in a pro-ject to bring new technology to historylessons. A new website combines thefull audio recording of Sir Winston's"Sinews of Peace" speech of 1946 withhis annotated transcript, backgroundinformation and interpretation, mapsand photographs. It breaks the 45-minute speech into themes and inter-prets them against both events of thetime and their relevance today.
The project is a culmination ofan 18-month collaboration betweenthe Churchill family and MWR, acompany that specialises in using digi-tal archives in education. MWRspokesman Martyn Farrows said, "Wewill now look at doing the same withother Churchill speeches and speechesby other world leaders."
The oration, known as the "IronCurtain" speech because Churchillused the phrase to describe the barrierenclosing the Soviet sphere in Europe,may be found at the following loca-tion: www.churchill-speeches.com.(You need broadband and MacromediaFlash Player to access this material; thewebsite offers downloads.)
BOW TIES ARE BACKNEW YORK, JULY 14TH— When TuckerCarlson and producers at MSNBC satdown to talk about the image he want-ed to project on his new show, "TheSituation," one issue trumped all oth-ers. Would Carlson exchange his trade-mark bow tie for something lessannoying: aconventionaltie, an openshirt or even,say, a bolo?There waswhat Carlsoncalled the"effete weeniefactor" of thebow tie. Itwas hard tosee the upside
of that. But despite obvious draw-backs, Carlson couldn't bring himselfto change neckwear.
Jack Freedman, bow-tie wearerand director of planning at men'sclothier Paul Stuart, says there is noth-ing inherently bothersome about bowties. Wearing one, he says, is simply away of standing out in a crowd: "It's astatement maker because it's not gener-ally in fashion. It tells people you're anindividual."
A list of bow-tie devotees readslike a Who's Who of rugged individual-ists: Theodore Roosevelt, CharlieChaplin, Winston Churchill and FredAstaire wore bow ties, as did SenatorsDaniel Patrick Moynihan of New Yorkand Paul Simon of Illinois. These days,Louis Farrakhan, the leader of theNation of Islam; columnist GeorgeWill; Charles Osgood of CBS News;and OutKasts Andre 3000 and BigBoi wear bow ties. Boi even has a songcalled "Bowtie." Another class of bow-tied men is the comedians who wearthem ironically, such as Mark Russell,Pee-wee Herman and Mo Rocca.
Freedman says about ten percentof his store's customers buy bow ties,which he says offer more opportunitiesfor expression than a simple necktie.Bow ties come in every imaginablecolor and fabric and there is no end tobow-tie shapes.
—WARREN ST. JOHN, THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHURCHILLTRIVIAEDITOR NEEDEDSTARTING 2006
MISSION viEjo, CALIF.— I have decided todonate my Churchill library to theHuntington Library, which they willtransfer to their possession at the endof this year. I have submitted Triviacolumns through Finest Hour 130,which should provide enough time tofind a suitable replacement for me. Ithas been great to work with you and Ienjoyed every minute.
—CURT ZOLLER
Editors response: Curt Zoller has donea wonderful job extending our long-
running "Churchilltrivia" columnfrom Barbara Langworth, to the pointwhere we now have enough questionsand answers to fill a Churchill versionof "Trivial Pursuits." (Now there's anidea....) The column is not easy to do,and requires constant reference to pastcolumns, which we can provide.Though popular with readers, it willbe retired unless someone would liketo step forward and take Curt's place.Please contact the editor. »
Anything for a Quid
)N FIGHTS
artoons and pictures ofChurchill blossomed in
the weeks followingJuly 7th. An advert for low costairline Ryanair which refers to
the London bombings hasreceived almost 200 com-plaints. It features Winston
Churchill saying: "We shall flythem to the beaches, we shall
fly them to the hills, we shall flythem to London!" People
should be encouraged "to livetheir lives as normal and not tobe defeated by terror," repliedPeter Sherrard, head of com-munications for Ryanair. The
Advertising StandardsAuthority received 192 com-plaints, and is consideringwhether to investigate. A
spokesman for the Authoritysaid, "The general nature ofthe complaints are that it iscrass and offensive. Other
complaints are that it is insen-sitive, coming so soon after theLondon bombings last week."
FINEST HOUR 128 / 7
DATELINES
The BBC has paid £50,000 for its newChurchill Memorial. We could have built
them one for half the price.
OUR CRATEST BRITONLONDON, MARCH 18TH— Finest Hour 124(p. 7) asked when the BBC was goingto produce its memorial to Churchill,promised for the winner in its money-making "Greatest Briton" contest in2002. Now we know. The BBC hasspent £50,000 to portray Churchill asa pile of old boxes.
The memorial, by sculptor Paulde Monchaux, first lay in state inWestminster Hall. Its twenty pieces ofoak form a see-through "timbertower." De Monchaux refers to oak's"resilience" and the shape of the pile torepresent "the step-by-step, blockedway that Churchill liked to lay out theparagraphs of speeches for his texts."
Sir Winston's grandson, NicholasSoames MP, said: "My family think itis absurd. It is not serious, not sensi-ble, not dignified, just BBC silly. WillI take my children along to see it? Ofcourse I bloody won't. Why would youtake any child to see such a ridiculousthing?" Mr. Soames said he was speak-ing for most of his family.
Years ago when Churchill wasasked how he wished to be memorial-ized in London, he said he would liketo see a park bearing his name for EastEnd children to play in. Forty yearson, batches of mixed-quality memori-als and an old orange crate later, weare still waiting for the park.
ANNE BANCROFT R.I.P.NEW YORK, JUNE 6TH (AP)— The actress
whose portrayal of Lady RandolphChurchill in Carl Foreman's "YoungWinston" rivalled that of the late LeeRemick in "Jennie," died today ofuterine cancer, leaving her husband of
four decades, Mel Brooks, and a son,Maximilian, born 1972.
In a long list of memorable filmand stage roles, Bancroft was bestknown for her role as Mrs. Robinsonin "The Graduate." It was a part shealmost didn't take. She said in 2003that nearly everyone discouraged herfrom playing the role of DustinHoffman's middle-aged seductress"because it was all about sex with ayounger man." Yet Bancroft saw some-thing deeper, viewing the character ashaving unfulfilled dreams and havingbeen relegated to a conventional lifewith a conventional husband. "Filmcritics said I gave a voice to the fear weall have: that we'll reach a certain pointin our lives, look around and realizethat all the things we said we'd do andbecome will never come to be—andthat we're ordinary."
Anything but ordinary, Bancroftwas among themost laudedactresses of the1960s and1970s, earningfive AcademyAward nomina-tions and one
Oscar, for playing the teacher of ayoung Helen Keller in "The MiracleWorker," a role that also brought herone of two Tony Awards. "Her combi-nation of brains, humor, frankness andsense was unlike any other artist," saidMike Nichols, who directed her in"The Graduate." "Her beauty was con-stantly shifting with her roles, andbecause she was a consummate actressshe changed radically for every part."
Bancroft married comedian-director-producer Brooks in 1964.They met when she was rehearsing amusical number, "Married I CanAlways Get," for the Perry Como TVshow. She told her psychiatrist the nextday: "Let's speed this process up—I'vemet the right man. See, I'd never hadso much pleasure being with anotherhuman being. I wanted him to enjoyme too. It was that simple."
—DINO HAZELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
FINEST HOUR 128 / 8
ERRATA, FH127P13 paragraph 2: It should not be
inferred that Pamela Digby Churchill wasAmerican at the time of Sir Winston'sgrandson's birth, although she was anAmerican citizen from 1971 to 1997.
P47 caption: "King's Navee" is fromHMS Pinafore, not Pirates of Penzance.Apologies to Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan.
P49: The UK publisher of the officialbiography is Heinemann. not Cassell.
P50: Question 1521 should refer to thegrandfather of Pamela Plowden's hus-band, not Pamela. His name is complicat-ed. Born Edward George Earle LyttonBulwer in 1.803, he wrote The Last Days ofPompeii in 1834. In 1844 he changed hissurname to Bulwer Lytton. Raised to thepeerage as Lord Lytton in 1866, he died,as stated, in 1873.
TWO-FINGERED SALUTESNEW YORK, APRIL 26TH—What do you do
when you cut off a car you didn't seein your blind spot? How do you sayyou're sorry going 65 mph on thehighway? The National MotoristsAssociation, a Wisconsin-based lobby-ing group, wants you to give peace achance: hold your two fingers in a "V"with the palm out. This "apology" sig-nal, they insist, "can defuse thedestructive anger and frustration thatfollow these unfortunate encounters."
The peace sign, as it is nowmainly known, has a curious past.Vietnam War protesters supposedlytook the gesture from President Nixon,who used the "V for victory" in imita-tion of Winston Churchill, who madeit universal in World War II. (Thesymbol was originated long before,allegedly by English archers atAgincourt, who held up their bow fin-gers to prove that the enemy Frenchhad not cut them off, as threatened.)
But Churchill's advisers had tocaution the Prime Minister to keep hispalm out when he flashed his signal;when he occasionally forgot andflashed it palm in, he was giving whatthe British charitably describe as "theforks"—a variation of which Yanksknow as "the one-fingered salute."
And there's the rub. Somethingsimple can be easily misconstrued. As
Joanne Gorman of the Twin CountyDriving School in East Northport,New York, says: "There are too manynuts out there. I'd keep my handsdown and just have a look on my facethat says, 'I'm sorry.'"
Robert Sinclair of the Auto-mobile Club of New York says someEuropean drivers point three fingers oftheir right hand horizontally at theirown head to make an "E" for "Excuseme!" But that gesture "hasn't made itacross the pond," he says.
—SPENCER RUMSEY, NEW YORKNEWSDAY
CHURCHILL IN CHICAGOCHICAGO, MAY iiTH— "For the crowd at
the Pritzker Military Library," wroteJon Anderson in the Chicago Tribune,
"there was no doubt who was TheMan. 'What do you call yourselves?'Edward Tracy, the library's executivedirector, wondered before introducingthe evening's speaker. 'Churchillians,'they replied, to a person."
Members and friends of TheChurchill Centre had come to see FHeditor Richard Langworth and to hearnews of the 23rd annual InternationalChurchill Conference, to be held atthe Drake Hotel from September 27thto October 1st, 2006. "We'll also begoing out to Cantigny," said TCCexecutive director Daniel Myers, refer-ring to the Robert R. McCormickMuseum, whose library includes theChurchill Hidden Room (a secret bar)."There, the longtime Republican pub-
lisher of the Chicago Tribune and hisBritish guest would bend elbows forhours even though, as Langworthobserved, Churchill probably wouldhave voted Democratic in the lasttwelve presidential elections of his life,had he been eligible to vote for U.S.presidents," Anderson continued.
The main focus was onChurchill's The Dream, which has justbeen republished by Levenger {FH125:41): a strange 1947 story whichcovered the misfortunes of the 20thcentury, as related in a fictional con-versation between Churchill and hisfather, Lord Randolph, who had diedover half a century before whenChurchill was only twenty.
The artifice of Churchill's tale »
Reflections: Munich, Yalta, and All ThatRIGA, LATVIA, MAY 7TH— The President of the UnitedStates said today that "The agreement at Yalta fol-lowed in the unjust tradition of Munich and theMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when power-ful governments negotiated, the freedom of smallnations was somehow expendable."
This was a remarkably incorrect statement,given that the President, as historian Jon Meachamsaid, has generally been accurate in his historicalreferences. Triumph and Tragedy should be in theOval Office, alongside the bust of Sir Winston.
The Anglo-Americans left Yalta in February1945 holding certain guarantees with respect toPolish self-determination, which was about all theycould hope for. It is true that Yalta confirmed Sovietrule in the Baltic States and much of EasternEurope. With the Red Army occupying half the conti-nent, there were few alternatives except war withRussia. And as conservative John O'Sullivan wrote,"Neither Bush nor any other Western statesmanwould have launched such a war in those circum-stances.... Bush's criticism is therefore exaggeratedand unfair."
Things could have been worse. Greece—thanks to Churchill's oft-denounced "spheres of influ-ence" agreement with Stalin in 1944—was liberated.So in the end was Austria. Stalin agreed to enter thewar against Japan. All these were promises he kept.
But his Polish guarantees proved worthless,
and Churchill and Roosevelt were in communicationabout what to do next when FDR died in April 1945.President Truman moved with caution, unwilling toupset what seemed to him a vital ally. Churchill lostthe July election and was replaced at Potsdam, thelast wartime conference, by Clement Attlee.
In Triumph and Tragedy Churchill wrote thathad he returned to Potsdam, he would have forced a"showdown" over Poland. What the result wouldhave been is a matter for conjecture. Much ofEastern Europe, given reality, had no chance for lib-erty at Yalta; but this should not be an excuse todenounce the efforts of Roosevelt and Churchill asanother Munich. (See, e.g., "Churchill and theBaltic," FH 53-54 or on our website.)
Granted, the President was speaking in thecapital of a country which has its own view, basedon its own experience. I recall a conversation withthe Mayor of Liepaja, the southernmost Latvian port,on a visit to my ancestral land in 1995. "You shouldhave nuked them in 1945," he said of the Russians,telling us about the Soviet occupation he hadendured as a boy. I said the British and Americanpublic in 1945 would never have stood for such athing. The Mayor persisted: "You should have nukedthem. Think of how much blood and treasure youwould have saved yourselves, not to mention us."
As in many things, what you think oftendepends on where you grew up. —Editor
FINEST HOUR 128 / 9
DATELINES
is that, before he can explain his own
substantial role in preventing even
worse disasters, his father says it was a
shame he didn't go into politics—"You
might have done a lot to help." Then,
he disappears. Levenger kindly sup-
plied some fifty copies of the book
which sold to benefit the Centre.
No hagiographer, our Editor
fielded a wide variety of questions
from the audience on a myriad of top-
ics with expert recall and candor:
"Churchill wasn't always right, or even
admirable—-but the average wasn't too
bad." Asked about Charles de Gaulle,
he recalled Churchill's statement that
"He thinks he is Joan of Arc—but my
bishops won't let me burn him!" Yet
despite their disagreements, Langworth
added, their relationship was one of
respect, and when Churchill died de
Gaulle sent a message: "In the great
drama, he was the greatest."
Many questions involved
Churchill the writer, whose collected
works cover some 19,000 pages.
Churchill would work late at night,
padding up and down in his slippers,
dictating to teams of secretaries.
A video of the talk is viewable at
www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/
2005-05-11-richardlangworth.jsp—PHILIP AND SUSAN LARSON
MORE CHICAGO NEWSWHEATON, JUNE 26TH— Philip and Susan
Larson spoke by invitation at
Cantigny, the former estate of Robert
S. McCormick, in celebration of the
Chicago Tribunes Robert R.
McCormick Fiftieth Anniversary. They
spoke in the mansion's library on the
long and unique relationship Churchill
and McCormick shared over nearly
forty years. Other speakers included
McCormick biographer Richard
Norton Smith and Rick Kogan of
WGN Radio.
The Larsons revealed many
interesting comments by McCormick
such as after his first interview with
Churchill in 1915: "...he is the most
aggressive person I have ever met."
They told about the Tribunes front
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FINEST HOUR 128 / 1 0
page article in 1900, entitled"Winston Spencer Churchill WhoMay Some Day Be Premier ofEngland." They indicated that therelationship was unusual in thatMcCormick was well known to bedecidedly anti-British. A feature articleon the Churchill-McCormick relation-ship will be published in FH next year.
In November, Churchill Friendswill join others around the world tocelebrate Winston Churchill's 131stbirthday in Chicago. Details are stillbeing developed. A mailing announc-ing the meeting will be sent to all CCmembers. For further information,please call the Larsons at 708-352-6825 or email [email protected].
WSC AS DUMBLEDORENEW YORK, JULY 15TH— The Wall StreetJournals Jonathan Last contends thatthe latest "Harry Potter" book is anallegory based on Churchill, Hitlerand Roosevelt: "The parallels betweenthis book and Britain's prewar dither-ing are so great that the book is per-haps best read as a light companion toAlone, the second volume of WilliamManchester's biography of WinstonChurchill," writes Last. The arch-fiend-spook Valdemar is based onHitler. Dumbledore, the kindly butwise and righteous master of theschool for little wizards, is Churchill inhis Wilderness Years, warning of theimpending assault by evil, to theannoyance of the witchly establish-ment. Potter, the student, is an imma-ture and undeveloped, but quicklygrowing and potentially mighty force,who can tip the balance: thuslyFDR/America.
Terry McGarry writes: "Theputative allegory gets quite detailed(often the sign of barmily manic allegory-detectors) and there are people/thingsmatchups for, among others, Halifaxand The Times of London. Maybe thisis the way to bring Churchill to theyounger generation: 'You've read HarryPotter—but have you read the original?Here's the exciting true tale of the realDumbledore!'" $
AROUND & ABOUThe predicted fall of the West, and the blithe
I way the West is marching lemming-liketoward the precipice, torments Oriana Fallaci, theItalian historian indicted in her homeland for "vilifying" Islam. In aninterview with The Wall Street Journal's Tunku Varadarajan, Fallacisays: "Look at the school system of the West today. Students do notknow history! They don't know who Churchill was! In Italy they don'teven know who Cavour was! [—the conservative father, with the rad-ical Garibaldi, of modern Italy]....Europe needs a Cavour. I cry,sometimes, because I'm not twenty years younger, and I'm nothealthy. But if I were, I would even sacrifice my writing to enter poli-tics somehow."
* * *
Abill approved March 13th by the Florida Senate Criminal JusticeCommittee would, in part, exempt actors from a state constitu-
tional amendment that limits smoking to stand alone bars, designatedhotel rooms and home offices. Sen. Mike Haridopolos (R-Melboume), tried to remove the language from the bill, saying theconstitutional amendment set clear limits and the Legislature shouldenforce rules instead of finding exemptions to them.
Haridopolos' amendment failed on a 5-3 vote, with those whowant the stage exemption scoffing at the idea. Sen. Jim King (R.-Jacksonville), said he couldn't imagine a play on Mark Twain thatdidn't include a lit pipe, or Winston Churchill being depicted without acigar. Sen. Rod Smith (D.-Alachua) said, "I find it amazing that wewould now think that you could do 'Oh! Calcutta!' on the stage bucknaked, simulating sex as long as you don't light a cigarette. This silli-ness has gone too far." The late Sir Robert Rhodes James wasn'teven sure this liberality would last, remarking to us at a Churchillsymposium: "Some day even sex will be banned in your country." Butmaybe not, as long as you don't light up.
* * *
The old rumor that Jennie Jerome invented the Manhattan cock-tail continues to surface, most recently in a recipe using Maker's
Mark bourbon in the May 4th Cincinnati Post: "Manhattan: bourbon, acouple dashes of bitters, sweet vermouth, served up or on ice, gar-nished with a cherry. This cocktail originated at New York'sManhattan Club in 1870. It was invented at a banquet hosted byJennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston's mother) in honorof presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden."
We have often suspected that the story must be falsebecause in those days, ladies were not admitted to the ManhattanClub, let alone to host banquets. Can anyone put us right on this? $
FlNESTHOUR128/ll
DATELINES
CHURCHILLIANSREVITALIZE THE TORONTO
CHURCHILL MEMORIALTORONTO— Finest Hour 117:12 men-tioned that on 23 October last year afund raising campaign had com-menced, by ICS-Canada and theChurchill Society for the Advancementof Parliamentary Democracy, to im-prove the landscaping around theChurchill statue in Nathan Phillips(City Hall) Square. The date was signif-icant, being the twenty-fifth anniversaryof the installation of the Toronto statue.
Over C$30,000 was raised andused to install eight park benches, treesand four plaques covering aspects of theGreat Man's life. The texts, drafted bylocal members, were reviewed by SirMartin Gilbert, who suggested minorchanges. Framed copies of the plaques(full size 32x22") will be shown at theQuebec Conference. Excerpts from oneof the plaques follows; the full texts areavailable by email from the editor.
—TERRY REARDON
Churchill, Toronto and Canada
"I love coming to Canada. Canadais the master-link in Anglo-Americanunity, apart from her own glories. Godbless your Country."
Churchill had a deep affection forCanada, which he referred to as "thelinchpin of the English-speaking peo-ples." The City of Toronto played a spe-cial role in this Canadian connection.
1 Churchill first visited Canada in1 the winter of 1900-01, the veteran of
four military campaigns, the author offive books, a newly elected Member ofParliament and, as the result of his es-cape from captivity during the BoerWar, world-famous. He spoke about hiswartime experiences to full houses.
In the summer of 1929, he madehis second trip to Canada, travelling byrail from Quebec City to British Co-lumbia. His developing love of Canadaled him to write to his wife: "Darling Iam greatly attracted to this country. Im-mense developments are going for-ward—Never in my whole life have Ibeen welcomed with so much genuine
Winston Cbarchtll
Interpretive plaques ensure this is one Churchill Memorial where no one will ever ask,{ "Who was that man?" Supporters (lower right) include ICS-Canada officers RandyBarber, Jeanette Webber and Charles Anderson, past Churchill Centre President John
Plumpton and their spouses, along with numerous ICS Canada members.
interest & admiration as throughoutthis vast country....I am profoundlytouched; & I intend to devote mystrength to interpreting Canada to ourpeople & vice versa."
In September 1939, Canada joinedGreat Britain in declaring war on Ger-many. In August 1941, Churchill metwith U.S. President Franklin D. Roo-sevelt in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland,where they signed the Atlantic Charter.After Pearl Harbour in December 1941,Churchill addressed the CanadianHouse of Commons on December30th. Recalling the taunt of the Frenchgenerals that Britain would soon haveits neck wrung like a chicken, he coun-tered boldly, "Some chicken!" and,when the laughter died down, "Someneck!" He returned to Canada in 1943and 1944 for the two Quebec Confer-ences with President Roosevelt hosted
by Prime Minister Mackenzie King.Canada's contribution in World
War II was enormous. Of a populationof eleven million, more than one mil-lion served in the armed forces,these, 42,000 were killed and 54,000wounded. Canada spent $18 billion onthe war and also gave $3-5 billion toBritain and the Allies—stupendoussums of money in those days.
In 1958 Churchill became the firstperson to be offered the Freedom of theCity of Toronto. Upon his death on 2January 1965, newspapers across t ecountry published tributes to him withe Toronto Telegram stating:marches today in the glittering P>"oce*sion of history. He marches erect,strong and determined. Probably *man in history has come closer toattainment of immortality thangreat commoner."
FINEST HOUR us /12
CHURCHILLCALENDAR
Contact the Centre for all eventsexcept November 28-30th: (888)
WSC-1874, [email protected]
2005Quebec, September 29th-October 2nd:
22nd Intl. Churchill Conference
Washington, October 18th:Fifth Churchill Lecture: Sir Martin
Gilbert, George Washington University
Chicago, November 8thChurchill Centre Benefit and Award
Dinner for Tom Brokaw
Chicago, November 28thChurchill birthday celebration,
Hotel Intercontinental. Speaker:HM Consul General Andrew Seaton
Anchorage, Boston, and other venues,November 30th: Sir Winston
Churchill's 131st birthday celebrations.Local members will be notified.
2006Chicago, 27 September-1 October:
23rd Intl. Churchill Conference
2007Vancouver, B.C., September 12-15th:
24th Intl. Churchill Conference
HELP WANTEDFinest Hour has recently acquired a fineyoung deputy editor, Robert Courts inEngland, who is playing an importantrole in the magazine's production. Wewish to add another deputy editor inthe USA, with layout experience, andfamiliar with Quark Express (eitherWindows or Mac), along with other as-pects of editing. Contact the Editor.
HARDY LOOKS BACKLONDON, JANUARY 15TH— Honorary mem-ber Robert Hardy, for our money stillthe best Churchill actor ever, in an in-terview with York Membery: "Take eachday as it comes, do everything you do tothe best of your ability, and try not tohurt others. I've always done my best tolive up to this, although I'm not sureI've always succeeded." Good words. $
"REARM TO PARLEY"Churchill famously
remarked, "I do not holdthat we should rearm inorder to fight. I hold thatwe should rearm in orderto parley." Martin Gilbert,said he first heard it in aspeech made by Edward Kennedy in the early 1960s, in whichSenator Kennedy referred back to Churchill's phrase of "ten yearsearlier." Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitzrecently referred to Churchill's using the phrase in 1949.
Sen. Kennedy and Sec. Wolfowitz are close (more than theyusually are!). Churchill used the phrase in a broadcast, "Our PoliticalFuture," on 8 October 1951, just before the general election whichreturned him to power. (Rhodes James, Winston S. Churchill: HisComplete Speeches, 8 vols., New York: Bowker, 1974, VI11:8267.
CORNUCOPIA OF POLITICAL WISDOMCarlos Rivera (www.puertoricopic.com) is the author of an inter-
esting new book, Leadership: Past, Present & Future (Longwood,Fla.: Power Publications, 2005), which includes several examples ofChurchill's wit and wisdom. Mr. Rivera asked us to provide attributionto several quotations, reminding us of how good they were:
• The most important ability of a politician "...is to foretellwhat is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and nextyear—and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't hap-pen." Reply to a reporter who asked, in 1902, "What are the desirablequalifications for any young man who wishes to become a politician?"(Halle, Irrepressible Churchill, Cleveland: World, 1966, 30).
• On words and writing: "Broadly speaking, the short wordsare the best, and the old words best of all." —London, 2Nov49."Personally I like short words and vulgar fractions." —Margate,10Oct53. (Czamomski, The Wisdom of Winston Churchill, London:Allen &Unwin, 1956.)
• The 1898 cavalry charge at Omdurman: "I never felt theslightest nervousness and felt as cool as I do now." —4 September1898, to his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill. (Randolph Churchill,Winston S. Churchill: Youth, London: Heinemann, 1966, 416.)
• "Courage is rightly esteemed the first of humanqualities...because it is the quality which guarantees all others." (OnKing Alfonso of Spain, Churchill's book of essays, GreatContemporaries, London: Thornton Butterworth, 1937, ch. 13.)
BOSSOM, BOTTOM, BOSOMVardan Astrid from Bulgaria asked us when Churchill said (of Sir
Alfred Bossom): "Neither one thing nor the other!"According to Kay Halle's excellent and well-attributed quotations
book, Irrepressible Churchill (page 118), Churchill made this remark in1932, as an aside to a colleague in the House of Commons when SirAlfred Bossom was speaking. He thought the word "Bossom" wasodd because it was neither "bottom" nor "bosom." Halle notes thatAlfred Bossom, a successful modern architect as well as a Member ofParliament, was known for the lavish parties at his house at CarltonHouse Gardens, London. &
FINEST HOUR 128/13
RIDDLES, MYSTERIES, ENIGMAS
It is widely published inSouth Africa that our erst-while Prime Minister, JanSmuts, who was good friends
with Churchill and a member ofWSC'sWar Cabinet, served by an act of defaultas the Prime Minister of Britain for twodays when Churchill was out of thecountry, because he was the senior leaderin Britain at the time. Can you help uson this one?
—Matthew Buckland, Publisher,Mail & Guardian Online, Johannesburg
A Although a member Lloyd-• George's War Cabinet in 1917-
18, Smuts was not a member of theChurchill War Cabinet, though heattended its meetings by invitationwhen visiting England.
Winston Churchill had such ahigh opinion of Smuts that he toyedwith the idea of leaving him in chargewhen he went to the Teheran confer-ence in November 1943, but thisnever happened. The constitutionaldifficulties would have been almostinsuperable; Smuts would probablyhave had to be created a peer, with aseat in the House of Lords, in order tohave been able to govern. Yet as earlyas 1940 Jock Colville (then WSC'sassistant private secretary) thought thatif anything happened to Churchill,Smuts should replace him; Colvillewent so far as mentioning this idea tohis mother, who was a lady-in-waitingto Queen Mary and thus in a positionto mention it to Her Majesty in theexpectation that it would filter throughto her son, the King.
Q ^The famous portrait ofWSC in• RAF uniform shows him sporting
wings of the RAF. Are you able to tell mewhen he was awarded them?
A^ Wings are for pilots only, but on\ 1 April 1943, the 25th anniver-
sary of the creation of the Royal AirForce, the Air Council, with the King'sapproval, awarded Churchill honorarywings. Thus any photo or painting ofWSC in RAF uniform can be instantly
dated as either before or after 1 April1943. Churchill acknowledged thishonor in the following letter to AirMarshal Sir Bertine Sutton (AirMember for Personnel):
"Dear Air Marshal Sutton,"I take it as a high compliment
that the Air Council should wish togive one of their honorary com-modores his honorary wings. I valuethis distinction the more because itcomes to me on the 25 th anniversaryof the formation of the Royal AirForce. My memories go back six yearsearlier, when in 1912, as First Lord ofthe Admiralty, I began to cherish theRoyal Naval Air Service.
"I consider that Marshal of theRoyal Air Force Lord Trenchard is thefounder of the Royal Air Force. He itwas who proposed to me, when I wasAir Minister in 1919, that Mesopo-tamia should be held by air power,thus releasing a number of army divi-sions, which cost us £40,000,000 ayear to maintain in that country. Thisproved, in a manner patent to all intel-ligent minds, the immediate partwhich the air would play not only inwar but in peace.
"Since those now distant days,
Send your questions
to the editor
we have had theepic of the Battle ofBritain, upon which,under Providence, thefreedom of the world,perhaps for several generations, wasstaked. The name of Sir HughDowding is linked with this historicepisode.
"At this moment, we may saywithout vanity that the Royal AirForce—taken all in all—is 'Second toNone.' At this moment it is the spear-point of the British offensive againstthe proud and cruel enemy who boast-ed that he would 'erase' the cities ofour native land, and hoped to lay allthe lands under his toll and thrall. Asthe world conflict deepens, the warfuture of the Royal Air Force glowswith a still brighter and fiercer light.
"I am honoured to be accorded aplace, albeit out of kindness, in thatcomradeship of the air which guardsthe life of our island and carries doomto tyrants, whether they flaunt them-selves or burrow deep."
—PAUL H. COURTENAY
Churchill's Personal Airplanes
Q Churchill's personal aircraft was made available to a• group of British-trained Czechoslovak paratroopers
on 28 June 1944 for actions behind enemy lines and, in fact,took them on that day from airfield in Reading to Algiers.
What was its name? —Dr. Jan A. Klinka, Victoria, B.C.
A:We could find no mention of the mission in the two• books about Churchill's aircraft, and hope a reader
will be able to clarify. The planes were "Ascalon," a DC3; and"Commando," a converted Liberator bomber. The books
were Ascalon by Jerrard Tickell (London: Hodder &Stoughton, 1964); and The Man Who Flew Churchill by Bruce
West (Toronto and New York: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1974). $
FINEST HOUR 128 /14
LEADING CHURCHILL MYTHS
LEGEND OF TONYPANDYhe strike in Tonypandy,Wales, grew from a disputeconcerning wage differen-tials in the working of hardand soft seams. Between
25,000 and 30,000 men and manycoal pits were involved. After lootingbegan, local authorities appealed to theWar Office for troops. Churchill con-sulted the Secretary of War, Haldane,and they agreed instead to send police,but to hold troops in reserve near by.
In the official biography, vol.2*, Churchill's son Randolph wrotethat WSC's conduct was "grotesquelydistorted, and it has become a part ofsocialist demonology that Churchillsent troops who fired upon the miners....Fortunately, a contemporaryaccount of the truth survives in wordswritten before the lie had ever beenborn." (See box at right.)
Although his father's instinctswere as Randolph represented them,Winston Churchill did in the end sendtroops as support to civil authority.And, Geoffrey Best writes in hisChurchill: A Study in Greatness(London: Hambledon, 2001), "he wasto do the same again and again(whether the civil authority asked forthem or not) in the summer of 1911"during strikes by longshoremen, min-ers and railway workers. Not all ofChurchill's Cabinet colleagues becameas worked up as he did....".
But "Churchill did not seehimself as an 'enemy of the people.'He perceived himself as a benevolentfriend to the working class, a promoterof social welfare, and the protector ofunions' rights and of everybody's civilrights; and indeed the record showsthat he was in all those things. But therecord also shows how little he was
* Winston S. Churchill, vol. II, Young Statesman1901-1914, by Randolph S. Churchill.London: Heinemann, 1967, 373-77.
"IN 1911, HOME SECRETARY WINSTON CHURCHILL SENT
TROOPS AGAINST THE STRIKING MINERS OF TONYPANDY."
This legend has been around a long time; subsequent elabora-
tions include the claim that the troops used machine guns.
prepared to see everybody's civil rightsand the security of the state endan-gered by civil disorder and revolution-
ary activism. The legend of 'Tony-pandy' after all had some justice init, though for the wrong reason."
WSC to the King[? 10 November 1910] Copy [? Draft]
Reports today from the whole of the Rhondda Valley are satisfactory.Absolute order has been maintained around all the threatened collieries. Afew trifling incidents of windowbreaking have occurred in two of the villages.The 1,400 Police at the disposal of the Chief Constable will, it is expected, beable not merely to prevent attacks upon the collieries but to control thewhole district and to deal promptly with any sign of a disorderly gatheringlarge or small. No need for the employment of the military is likely tooccur....
With regard to the action taken by the Home Office on Tuesday, thefollowing facts should be known:
The 400 Cavalry and Infantry which were sent for by the ChiefConstable on Monday night were not started by the Secretary of State forWar or by the Home Secretary, but were sent, pending superior instructions,by the General Officer Commanding of the Southern Command. Up to 10o'clock on Tuesday morning the Home Office had no knowledge of thismovement or of the necessity for it. At 11 o'clock Mr. Churchill, after con-sulting with Mr. Haldane and communicating by telephone with the ChiefConstable of Glamorgan at Tonypandy, definitely decided to employ Policeinstead of Military to deal with disorder, and, while moving troops near tothe scene of disturbance, to keep them in the background until it was certainthat Police methods had proved insufficient. From this policy there has beenno change whatever....
The Chief Constable of Glamorgan concurred in the substitution ofthe Metropolitan Police for the Infantry, who were halted at Swindon, andthe Cavalry were told to proceed no further than Cardiff and to await furtherinstructions there. General Macready [Commander of the 2nd InfantryBrigade] was specially selected to take charge of any military forces whichmight be required to support the police....
All the attacks of the rioters upon the Glamorgan Colliery were, how-ever, successfully repulsed by the Chief Constable with the County Police athis disposal, and when the Metropolitan Police arrived the rioters had alreadybeen beaten from the collieries without the aid of any reinforcement either ofLondon Police or Military...
The whole district is now in the effective control of the police, andthere appears to be no reason at present why the policy of keeping the mili-tary out of direct contact with the rioters should be departed from.
FINEST HOUR 128 /15
125-100-75-50 YEARS AGO
125 YEARS AGO:Autumn 1880 • Age 6
"A recurring sense of disgust"
he "Fourth Party," in whichChurchill's father LordRandolph was a key mem-ber, continued to drawattention. The Times wrote:
"The rise of a small body ofConservative free-lances below thegangway, of whom Lord RandolphChurchill and Mr. Gorst are the chiefs,is a curious incident, and has originat-ed the half-serious nickname...."
Prime Minister Gladstone's pre-decessor Benjamin Disraeli, now LordBeaconsfield, noticed them as well. Inhis biography of his father, Churchillwrote that "Dizzy" was the FourthParty's "most powerful antagonist andtheir mainstay. His quick eye discernedvery early in the session the menacethat was growing below the gangway,and he hastened to respond to thechallenge....they returned by otherpaths unwearied to the attack."
Churchill gently suggested thathis father's private letters "do not lendthemselves to publication as readily asthose of some other eminent persons.They are spontaneous and scrappy.They deal with the little ordinary com-monplaces of the writer's life. Theyreflect his mood at the moment....Anypiece of gossip, any quaint conceit orjoke or piece of solemn drollery, anysharp judgment that occurred to himwent upon the paper without an after-thought. Every passing shadow orgleam of sunlight which fell upon himmarked his pages with strong contrastsof feeling often extravagantly and reck-lessly expressed. Nevertheless his corre-spondence with Sir Henry Wolff hasan air of gay and generous friendship,strong with an attractiveness of itsown. But there runs through it a recur-ring sense of weariness and of disgustat politics, which seems to have alter-nated with his periods of great exertioneven during these most merry and suc-cessful years of his life."
by Michael McMenamin
1905: "...the best-hated man in English politics. He will ever be a leader,
whether of a forlorn hope or of a great Party."—Alexander Maccallum Scott
"The first time you meet Winston you see all his faults, and the rest of
your life you spend in discovering his virtues." —Pamela Lytton
100 YEARS AGOAutumn 1905 • Age 31"Thirty-one is very old"
Acentury ago Churchill completedhis biography of his father (for
which he was paid, in current value,over £350,000), and witnessed the firstpublished biography of Churchill him-self. His biographer was the Liberalwriter Alexander MacCallum Scott,who said that except for JosephChamberlain (a party-switcher likeChurchill but in the opposite direc-tion, from Liberals to Tories),Churchill was "probably the best-hatedman in English politics. He will everbe a leader, whether of a forlorn hopeor of a great Party. Already in theHouse of Commons he leads by a nat-ural right which no man can dispute.He does the inevitable act which noone had thought of before; he thinksthe original thought which is so simpleand obvious once it has been uttered;he coins the happy phrase whichexpresses what all men have longed tosay, and which thereafter comes soaptly to every man's tongue."
On 30 November, Churchill cel-ebrated his birthday and wrote to hismother that "Thirty-one is very old."Four days later, the Conservative gov-ernment resigned and ten days afterhis birthday, Churchill became ajunior minister in the new Liberal gov-
FINEST HOUR 128 /16
ernment. Churchill asked for andreceived the post of Under-Secretary ofState at the Colonial Office, where hewould conduct all the department'sbusiness in the House of Commonsbecause the head of the ColonialOffice, Lord Elgin, sat in the Lords.Churchill's cousin, the Duke ofMarlborough, wrote to him: "I amtruly glad....You don't realize yet whata position is now offered to you. Yourspeeches will be read throughout theColonies and you alone will be themouthpiece of the Govt...."
On 13 December, Churchilldined with Edward Marsh, who hadtalked to WSC's old flame, Pamela,Lady Lytton, to learn more about hisnew chief, about whom Marsh hadsome misgivings. Her comment, Marshwrote, "was one of the nicest things thatcan ever have been said about anybody.'The first time you meet Winston yousee all his faults, and the rest of our lifeyou spend in discovering his virtues';and so it proved."
75 YEARS AGO:Autumn 1930 • Age 56"My dearest Mend"
Churchill's autobiography, My EarlyLife: A Roving Commission, was
published in October to widespreadacclaim. His friend T.E. Lawrencewrote to him saying, "A hundred times
as I read it I knocked my handstogether, saying 'That's himself.' Iwonder if those who do not know you(the unfortunate majority today, andall the future) will see the wholeWinston in the book, or not?"
Prime Minister MacDonaldwrote, "When I have the hardihood to
put mine in thewindow you willhave a copy ingratefulexchange forthis. But then,there is nochance of mineever comingunless some oldfishwife turnsbiographer. Youare an interest-ing cuss—I, a
dull dog. May yours bring you bothcredit & cash."
On 14 October, Stanley Baldwinpublicly acquiesced in NevilleChamberlain's demand that theConservatives support tariffs at thenext election, something the stillostensibly free trader Churchill vehe-mently opposed. He drafted a letter toBaldwin stating, "I refuse categoricallyto seek a mandate from the electorateto impose taxes upon the staple foodsof this overcrowded island. There areperhaps twenty million people alive inGreat Britain to-day who would not bein existence but for their power to pur-chase at world prices world wheat andmeat, with neither of which they canever adequately supply themselves....Not only should we lessen and perhapsdestroy our chance of securing aConservative or non-Socialist govern-ment, but we should expose the newly-forged links of Imperial union to themost perilous strains...." But Churchilldid not make the letter public, as hadbeen his intent. Instead, he showedBaldwin, who urged him not to makehis opposition public: "From what yousaid in your letter, I fear this may bethe occasion when you feel it necessaryto express your dissent. I hope not.But I am confident that nothing will
disturb a friendship that I value."Chamberlain wrote in like vein:
"I hope you will consider the wholesituation very carefully before takingany irrevocable step....Whatever youultimately decide to do, I hope weshall not find ourselves driven intoopposite camps when there is so muchabout which we are in agreement."
In the event, Churchill decidednot to make his opposition public,sensing correctly that few Conservativemembers of Parliament would followhis lead.
At thetime, Churchillwas greatly sad-dened by theuntimely deathof his bestfriend, RE.Smith, LordBirkenhead. On30 October, hetold a meetingof The OtherClub, which heand F.E. hadfounded in 1911: "We miss his wis-dom, his gaiety, the broad humancompanionship and comradeshipwhich he always displayed and excitedfrom his friends. We admired hisgrand intellect and massive good sense.He was a rock; a man one could love,a man one could play with, and havehappy jolly times. At this narrow tablewhere he sat so often among us, wefeel his loss now. He loved this Club.He was always happy here....I do notthink anyone knew him better than Idid, and he was, after all, my dearestfriend."
50 YEARS AGOAutumn 1955 • Age 81'Working at the book"
Churchill, seeking warmth and"paintaceous" surroundings, had
decided to spend the autumn season inthe south of France at LordBeaverbrook's villa, La Capponcina,where he painted and worked on a
preface to his History of the English-Speaking Peoples. He wrote to LordBeaverbrook on 6 October: "We havehad a very pleasant three weeks here,and Clemmie is better. The Chef isexcellent, and the garden lovely. I havepainted another picture, and so far Ihave not spoiled it, which is some-thing....! think of you in your cold,bleak, winter-ridden country with won-der and admiration that you havemade this sacrifice for me. But perhapsyou like to do it. That would onlymake it better."
During his stay, Churchill's wifeClementine had returned to Englandand he wrote to her on 15 October:"Today it is raining, and the prophetspredict at least two days of similarweather. There is no doubt you werewell advised to leave when you did. Ihave been working at the book. I hopethat Miss Pugh [Doreen Pugh, one ofhis secretaries, and for many years avolunteer at Chartwell] gave you theninth and tenth sections. You mustnot judge by the end. It is incomplete,and I have not looked at it (except"The Great Republic") for fifteenyears. There is, however, plenty of timeas it is not required until October1958."
On Churchill's 81st birthday on30 November, President Eisenhowerwrote him that the English-speakingpeoples and the entire world "are thebetter for the wisdom of your counsel,for the inspiration of your unflaggingoptimism and for the hearteningexample of your shining courage. Youhave been a towering leader in thequest for peace, as you were in the bat-tle for freedom through the dark daysof war."
Churchill replied: "Your letterhas moved me more than I can tellyou. As you know, it is my deepestconviction that it is on the friendshipbetween our two nations that the hap-piness and security of the free peoplesrests—and indeed that of the wholeworld. Your eloquent words have oncemore given me proof, if it were need-ed, that you share my own feelings andreciprocate my personal affection." M
FINEST HOUR 128/17
Churchill and the WesternDesert Campaign, 1940-43
BY ROBERT J. BROWN
THE DESERT MOSAIC: victories, defeats, intelligence, counterintelligence and
deception were ingredients of the hard-fought campaign that turned the tide for the
Anglo-American allies in World War II. Some of the episodes read like fiction.
n 13 September 1940, Italian MarshalRudolfo Graziani, with considerable misgiv-ings but under pressure from Mussolini,invaded Egypt with 150,000 troops.Graziani felt he lacked sufficient mechanized
armor necessary to oppose the British. Arrayed againsthim was the British Western Desert Force commanded
Mr. Brown, who was in Libya in the British Army in 1949-50and has visited battlefields in Egypt, Tripolitania and Tunisia, is pastpresident of the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill Society of BritishColumbia. Christopher Hebb suggested that Mr. Brown might liketo recast his remarks in article form for FH readers.
Illustration: Computer-generated "mosaic" reproduced bypermission of metalorange.com, illustrators. Originally producedfor The Complete History of the SAS, by Nigel McCreary (2003).
by General Richard O'Connor and General SirArchibald Wavell, C-in-C, Middle East, based in Cairo,whose responsibilities ranged from East Africa, to Egypt,and across the Middle East from Lebanon to Iran.
The Italian invasion stalled sixty miles insideEgypt, near Sidi Barrani. The Italians built a series offortified camps, each manned by an infantry brigade,with supporting tanks and artillery, whose major weak-ness was that they were too widely spread to be mutuallysupporting. O'Connor's Operation Compass wasplanned as a four- or five-day raid, but on 26 November,Churchill wired Wavell:
IF SUCCESS IS ACHIEVED,PRESUME YOU HAVE PLANS
FOR EXPLOITING IT TO THE FULL
FINEST HOUR 128/18
It proved an amazing success, one of the mostbrilliant actions of the entire war, and one of the mostsuccessful campaigns in military history. O'Connor hassometimes been referred to as "the Forgotten Victor," forthere is no other instance in World War II where a smallforce was able to kill or capture an opposing force five orsix times its size.
The Western Desert Force, driving between thefortified camps, attacked them from the rear, one byone. Up to the capture of Tobruk, they captured about100,000 Italian prisoners. The Italians began to retreataround the coast through Derna, Cyrene and Benghazi.O'Connor sent the Seventh Armoured Division (laterknown as the "Desert Rats") across the Jebel Akhdarthrough the interior to Beda Fomm on the Gulf of Sirte.
This small force of about 3,000 waited for theponderously moving Italian Tenth Army to appear.When it did, the entire Italian force was put "into thebag." General Bergonzoli (nicknamed "Barba Electrica"or "Electric Whiskers") went into captivity singingItalian opera. The British troops were startled to see somany Italians carrying well-packed suitcases!
In two months, the British force of about25,000 front line soldiers had advanced 500 miles,destroyed an Italian Army of ten divisions, and capturedabout 130,000 prisoners, some 400 tanks, and over 800
e u n s — a t a cost of less than 2000 killed, wounded andmissing. Anthony Eden merrily paraphrased Churchill'swords about the RAF a few weeks earlier: "Never had somuch been surrendered by so many to so few."
Hitler, far from angered or disappointed by theItalian disaster, was distinctly amused by it, remarking inalmost Churchillian terms: "Failure has had the healthyeffect of once more compressing Italian claims to withinthe natural boundaries of Italian capabilities."
Three factors now prevented a virtually unop-posed British advance to Tripoli, capital of Italian Libya:(1) The Western Desert Force was at an extreme distancefrom its base of supply; (2) Major units were detachedand sent to Greece, which had been attacked byGermany: a political decision which caused the Germansto postpone the invasion of Russia, and had major long-term strategic consequences for Germany*; and (3)German General Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli.
•Churchill's decision to aid Greece is often viewed as a romanticallyinspired misadventure and a very serious mistake, which militarily itmay well have been. But in 1946 General Jodl, formerly FieldMarshal Keitel's deputy at the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht(OKW), told Field Marshal Jan Smuts of South Africa that Germanyhad lost the war "because she had been obliged to divert divisions tomeet the British landing in Greece. That meant that she lost sixweeks. She lost time—and with time, she lost Moscow, Stalingrad,and the war."
The advance of Marshal Graziani (abovecenter), dangerously close to Cairo (seemaps above and opposite), was haltedby Gen. Richard O'Connor (left) of theWestern Desert Force. Gen. "ElectricWhiskers" Bergonzoli (above right)
went into captivity singing Italian opera.
In March 1941, a British Army Intelligencesummary stated: "detachments of a GermanExpeditionary Force, under an obscure German GeneralRommel, have landed in North Africa." He did notremain obscure for long.
Immediately on arrival, Rommel reviewed histroops in Tripoli with the intention of impressing thelocal population, and the British, with a spurious showof strength. Rommel's tank force was not large, but onthe parade in the main square outside the Castelloentrance to the old city, he made sure that the tanksturned into a side street, the Avenida Vittorio Emanuele,and back onto the main square, to pass the saluting baseagain and again. After this they immediately started theireastwards drive towards the British forces in Cyrenaica.
This was one of the first acts of deception in theNorth Africa campaign, and it worked. British spies inTripoli, as Rommel hoped, duly reported the arrival ofhis major tank force, and this news had a negative effecton British forces in the months to come.
Rommel's Afrika Korps made contact with theBritish at El Agheila at the base of the Gulf of Sirte,where the Germans made a reconnaissance in force.These minor probes found that the British were eithervery weak, or had already pulled out. Typically, Rommelignored his orders and took off in pursuit, in a drivewhich would force the British to make a "strategic with-drawal" (a British euphemism for "headlong retreat") allthe way back to Egypt. continued overleaf...
FINEST HOUR 128/19
ANTAGONISTS. Left: Churchill in North Africa with the two British Generals who eventually won the final victory againstRommel's Afrika Korps: Harold Alexander (C-in-C Middle East) and Bernard Montgomery (Commander Eighth Army). WSC is
demonstrating his famous zip suit. Right: Why are these men smiling? Mussolini with Hitler in happier times. The Fuehrer's reac-tion to Italian defeats in North Africa had positively Churchillian overtones: "Failure has had the healthy effect of once more com-
pressing Italian claims to within the natural boundaries of Italian capabilities." This reminds us of the (almost certainly apoc-ryphal) comment Churchill was supposed to have made when von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador to Britain, reminded himin the late Thirties that if another war came, Germany would have Italy on her side: "It seems only fair—we had them last time."
On the way, the Germans captured MajorGeneral Gambier-Parry, and later a much bigger prize,General O'Connor himself, along with General NeameVC. Wavell appointed General Sir Alan Cunningham toreplace them. Tobruk was invested, and remained athorn in Rommel's side until it was relieved on 21December 1941.
In June 1941, Churchill wrote that "at home wehad the feeling that Wavell was a tired man. The extraor-dinary convergence of five or six theatres, with their upsand downs, upon a single commander-in-chief, constitut-ed a strain to which few soldiers have been subjected."Churchill thus appointed Wavell Commander-in-ChiefIndia, and brought in Sir Claude Auchinleck from Indiato command the Middle East.
On 18 November 1941, Auchinleck's OperationCrusader was launched to relieve Tobruk. Auchinleckreplaced General Cunningham with General NeilRitchie, a GHQ staff officer who had never commandedlarge formations of troops in the field. Rommel was dri-ven back to El Agheila, where his initial attack had start-ed. But British supply lines were again very stretched.
On 21 January 1942, Rommel attacked andBenghazi was quickly captured. At this point there werehigh-level German discussions about halting Rommelafter capturing Tobruk, and concentrating on the cap-ture of Malta. But Malta was not attacked. Possibly oneof the factors weighing on this decision was the level ofcasualties suffered by the German airborne forces underGeneral Kurt Student in Crete. Malta would remain avital base from which planes, submarines and shipsinterrupted much of Rommel's urgently needed supplies.
Rommel won the argument that Cairo was
within his grasp, and was allowed to continue the attacktowards Egypt. After the disastrous Battle of Gazala, inwhich the German 88 mm. guns made mincemeat ofBritish tanks, Tobruk, under South African GeneralKlopper, surrendered on June 21st, along with about30,000 prisoners and major stores. Rommel, aged only50 and having been a Lieutenant Colonel a mere fouryears earlier, was now made a Field Marshal.
Tobruk was the second-worst British surrenderin World War II (the worst was Singapore, which fell toa much smaller Japanese force on 15 February 1942). Inthe desert, Rommel was regarded as an almost superhu-man figure, so glamorous and omnipotent thatAuchinleck mounted a campaign to deflate his reputa-tion, saying that he should not be regarded as a "magi-cian" or "bogey-man." Realistically evaluating his enemy,and with customary candour, Churchill told Parliament:"We have a very daring and skilful opponent against usand, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general."
On the black day when Tobruk surrendered,Churchill, visiting Roosevelt in Washington, made noattempt to hide his shock from his American ally. "Iam," he reportedly said, "the most miserable Englishmanin America since Burgoyne" (the English general whosurrendered Saratoga during the American Revolution).Roosevelt anxiously asked what he could do to help, anddiverted a large shipment of about 300 Sherman tanks,and about 100 guns, earmarked for other theatres, toEgypt. These would eventually provide GeneralMontgomery's superiority in weapons and equipment.
After the fall of Tobruk, the Eighth Army begananother headlong retreat into Egypt. On May 27thRommel attacked the First Free French Brigade at Bir
FINEST HOUR 128/20
Hakeim in his attempt to do a "right hook" behind theBritish lines. General Koenig rejected a call to surrenderwith the words, "We are not here to surrender." Rommelis reported to have said, "Nowhere in Africa was I givena suffer fight." During the nights of 10 and 11 June theFrench Brigade broke out of encirclement, and escapedwith its wounded and usable equipment.
Rommel drove the British back to the ElAlamein area, which bordered in the south by theimpassable Qattara Depression. At this point Auchinlecksacked Ritchie, took personal command of the demoral-ized force, and with brilliant generalship and leadership,
halted Rommel at the First Battle of Alamein. Ritchiewas later to become an effective Corps Commanderunder Montgomery in Western Europe. Rommel's careerwas at its zenith.
It is generally known that the British were "read-ing Rommel's mail" through ULTRA. Less well known isthat Rommel, in 1942, was "reading the British mail"from three different sources. Colonel Bonner Fellers, theAmerican Liaison Officer in Cairo, was kept informed ofeverything by GHQ, Cairo, and was sending the infor-mation to Washington in the Black Code used by theAmerican Military and Diplomatic Service. >>
Erwin Rommel : "May I say across the havoc of war, a great general.
rwin Rommel was born in 1891 into a /middle class family (his father, and /grandfather were school teachers), near :
Ulm in the state of Wurttemberg. In 1910 hebecame an officer-cadet in the SixthWurttemberg Regiment. In World War I hewon Germany's highest award, the Pour Le >Merite,* against the Italians at the Battle ofCaporetto in 1917. As a soldier he kept clearof party or political involvement.
A good regimental officer, Rommelcame to Hitler's attention when the Fuehrer Iread Rommel's Infantehe GreiftAn, a manual \ ^ . .of infantry attack. Rommel became commanderof Hitler's personal bodyguard during the Polishcampaign. In the 1940 invasion of France, his SeventhPanzer Division was nicknamed the "Ghost Division"because it moved so fast that sometimes even theGermans did not know where every unit was. It capturedGeneral Victor Fortune and the 51st Highland Division atSt. Valery.
A thoroughly decent man, Rommel had no use forthe Schutz Staffel (SS), and no Waffen SS units servedunder him in North Africa. Hitler ordered that if anyGermans serving in the French Foreign Legion were cap-tured, they were to be shot as traitors. Rommel ignoredthe order. When the British SAS appeared in North Africa,Hitler issued his notorious Kommandobefehl to the effectthat they were to be shot if captured. Rommel ignoredthis, too.
There is a story that Rommel, in his capturedBritish Command vehicle in the desert, came across alarge tented British Field Hospital. He told his driver to lethim out, entered the tent, talked to the British doctors,walked through the tent, and then at the other end reen-tered his vehicle and drove off.
He always "led from the front" and sometimesfound that he had laagered overnight behind British lines.On one occasion he found himself driving parallel to aBritish column, a few hundred yards away. Since he wasin a captured British command vehicle, the British did not
-v. realize what an opportunity they had missed.\ After the Battle of Alam Haifa, his "last
throw," Rommel began to be pessimisticabout the outcome of the war, and ofGermany's future under Hitler. His health wasso bad that he was in Germany at the start ofthe Battle of Alamein on 23 October 1942.
Hitler later appointed Rommel Inspector-General of Festung Europa (Fortess Europe).He wanted to be able to attack the allied
• I landings aggressively on the beaches, but his'I J superior, von Runstedt, kept the panzers far-i y ther back as a mobile reserve. The weather
was bad at the time of D-Day, and Rommelmade a disastrous mistake, going home for his wife'sbirthday. He was in Germany when the Allies landed.
He knew about Schwarze Kapelle ("BlackOrchestra"), the July 1944 conspiracy against Hitler. Hewas not part of it and did not report it, but the conspiratorshad ambitious plans for him if it succeeded.
Though not in favour of assassinating Hitler,Rommel did hope for the overthrow of the Nazi regime. Itis not clear how one could have happened without theother. When the plot failed, General Burgdorf and anothergeneral arrived at Rommel's home from Berlin and gavehim two options: a public trial, with no assurance of safetyfor his wife and son; or leave with them, take poison, andreceive a state funeral, with the safety of his family guar-anteed. He chose the latter.
It was a wise decision. The 1944 conspirators,including Field-Marshal Von Witzleben, were hung onmeat hooks in Plotzenzee prison with piano wire aroundtheir necks. Hitler had their death agonies filmed for hissubsequent satisfaction.
"Germany's highest WW1 military medal, also known as the "BlueMax," had a French name because French was the language of theGerman courts that created it. In 1667, when Frederick William I ofBrandenburg created the Ordre de la Generosite; in 1740, Frederickthe Great changed its name to Pour le Merite, and first awarded it tosubjects displaying particular merit in the conflict with Silesia.
FINEST HOUR 128/21
What was not known at the time was that anItalian employee of the American Ambassador in Rome,before America entered the war, was a skilled safe-crack-er, and had broken into the ambassador's safe, copied theBlack Code, and passed it on to the Italian SecurityService, who, in turn gave it to the Germans.
The German Y-Dienst Company, a front-lineunit at Alamein commanded by Captain AlfredSeebohm, monitored clear voice British radio traffic, andreceived and passed on to Rommel intelligence unwit-tingly provided by Colonel Bonner Fellers. This unit alsoreceived information from two German spies who hadbeen infiltrated into Egypt under the code nameOperation Condor. It was the subject of a fictionalizedHollywood movie called "The Key to Rebecca."
OPERATION CONDORThe two spies providing intelligence to Rommel
were Peter Monkaster, a tall, blond oil mechanic whohad spent many years in East Africa; and John Eppler, a28-year old Abwehr agent born in Alexandria of Germanparents, but with an Egyptian stepfather. Eppler was aMuslim, spoke Arabic, and could pass as an Egyptian.They were guided across the southern Egyptian desert byGerman-Hungarian Arabist Count Ladislaus de Almaszy,who was fictionalized in the film, The English Patient.
A story about Operation Condor, which has lit-tle corroboration from other sources and may not becompletely accurate, was told by Anthony Cave Brownin his two-volume book, Bodyguard of Lies. * It relatesthat the two spies had forged papers showing Eppler tobe an Anglo-Egyptian merchant and Monkaster to be anAmerican oil-rig mechanic. Carrying two U.S.Hallicrafter transmitters and a vast quantity of Englishcurrency, they passed easily as Anglo-Americans.
Arriving in Cairo, they met Egypt's premierbelly dancer, Hekmet-Fahmy, hired for a "navel engage-ment" at the Kit Kat Club. Violently anti-British, shewas spying for the Muslim Brotherhood and theEgyptian Free Officers Association. Her main contactswere two Egyptian officers with now-familiar names—Gamal Abdul Nasser and Anwar el-Sadat, each of whomlater became president of Egypt. Her main source ofinformation, according to Cave Brown, was her Englishlover, one "Major Smith" of British GHQ, Cairo. Epplerand Monkaster rented a nearby houseboat, and Hekmet-Fahmy let them see the contents of Major Smith's brief-case while she was "entertaining" him.
* Bodyguard of Lies should be read circumspectly, since many of itsassertions are doubtful, including the canard that Churchill letCoventry be bombed to protect his sources of secret intelligence. (See"Leading Churchill Myths," by Peter Mclver, Finest Hour 114.)
Left: Hekmet-Fahmy, who spied for Nasser and Sadat butlater "sang like a canary" (www.bellydancermuseum.com).
Right: Eppler and Monkaster, the incompetent German spieswho Impersonated Anglo-Americans (www.MI5.gov.uk).
Eppler then made a comedy of errors. First, atseveral bars, dressed as a British officer, he paid in ster-ling, which he thought was still legal tender. He pickedup a bar girl, Yvette, bought expensive champagne withmore British currency, took her back to his houseboat fora night's romp, and paid her £20 in five-pound notes.
But Yvette was spying for the Jewish Agency,which worked with MI6. Eppler was German, shereported; he had a Saarland accent, and far too muchmoney. The British Paymaster's Office for Egyptian cur-rency had also become suspicious about Eppler's sterlingnotes, which were found to be counterfeit.
Returning, Yvette found both Eppler andMonkaster drunk and asleep, and looked around. Shefound a copy of Rebecca, as well as notepaper coveredwith gridded squares and six-letter groups. Noting thenumbers of the pages which appeared to be used, shecopied the first of the cipher groups on each line of thedocument. This enabled the British to break the Rebecca-based code, and transmit disinformation to the Germanswhich would alter the course of the war in North Africa.
Eppler's and Monkaster's third mistake was buy-ing £300-worth of luxury goods, paying in counterfeitsterling and asking that the goods be delivered to theirhouseboat. Major A. W. Sansom, Chief of Field Security,was informed, and crept aboard the suspect houseboatwith an armed party. Monkaster just had time to dumpthe Hallicrafter, his copy of Rebecca, and the mission'sback traffic into the Nile. The Hallicrafter was recoveredfrom the mud. It was inoperable but the dial was set to atelltale wavelength. The British could now transmit dis-information to the Germans.
Eppler, Monkaster and Hekmet-Fahmy werearrested. The Germans refused to talk, but Hekmet-Fahmy "sang like a canary" about Eppler's contacts.Anwar el Sadat was arrested. Sadat's biography states thatwhen Churchill was in Cairo in August 1942, with thenew commanders, Alexander and Montgomery, he inter-viewed Eppler and Monkaster who, once Churchillpromised that their lives would be spared, talked freely.
FINEST HOUR 12s / 22
David Stirling (front passenger seat) in the Ford V-8 he con-verted to resemble an enemy staff car for the Benghazi raid.The SAS badge was obviously not present on the raid! FromJohnny Cooper, One of the Originals: The Story of a Founder
Member of the SAS (London: Pan Books, 1991).
SPECIAL FORCES IN THE DESERTThere were three separate Special Forces operat-
ing in the Western Desert, under the general commandof the Eighth Army:
The Long-Range Desert Group was founded byMajor Ralph Bagnold, with Wavell's encouragement,before the Italian invasion in 1940. It attacked enemysupply columns and depots, attacked airfields, observedRommel's supply columns on the coastal road fromTripoli, and ran a regular long distance reconnaissanceservice as far as Tunisia in preparation for future battles.
Popski's Private Army roamed behind the linesattacking depots, airfields and even freeing prisoners ofwar. Led by Col. Vladimir Peniakoff, a Belgian-bornofficer of Russian parents, this commando unit operatedinitially from 1942 as a Libyan Arab unit, mainly fromthe Senussi tribe. Later, with a number of hand-pickedBritish and Commonwealth troops usually numberingfewer than 100, it operated in Tripolitania, Tunisia, Italyand even Austria. The New Zealanders found Peniakoff sname rather a tongue-twister so dubbed him POPSKI. Itwas amazing that in two years of fighting, largely behindenemy lines, the PPA lost only twelve killed.
The Special Air Service (SAS) was founded byDavid Stirling with an initial complement of sixty-sixmen. Today the elite unit of the British Army, it special-ized in raiding operations behind enemy lines.
The most bizarre SAS operation was the raid inBenghazi harbour by David Stirling, RandolphChurchill, and Fitzroy Maclean.* It was made easier
*Later named Churchill's personal representative to Tito, Sir FitzroyMaclean enjoyed a long career as soldier, adventurer, writer andMember of Parliament. He spoke twice to Churchill Centre tour par-ties visiting his famous inn at Strachur on Loch Fyne, Scotland, andhis absorbing remarks on his experiences may be found in Proceedingsof the International Churchill Society 1987. He was also the banquetspeaker at the Winston S. Churchill Societies of British Columbia,Edmonton and Calgary in 1980, where he confirmed this story.
because Fitzroy McLean spoke perfect Italian, havinglived in Florence before the war.
They entered Benghazi in a vehicle painted tolook like an Italian staff car, passed the Italian sentries bysaying they were staff officers, and entered the perimeterof the harbour with an inflatable dinghy. Unfortunatelythe dinghy was punctured, and as they were trying toinflate it, an Italian sentry asked what they were doing.Fitzroy told him to mind his own business.
They now had the problem of getting out withtheir damaged dinghy, and unused limpet mines, so theymarched up to the guard room, called out the guard,and Fitzroy then tore a strip off the sergeant guard com-mander for lax security, stating that, for all he knew,they could have been British saboteurs attempting toblow up ships in the harbour! In his best Italian, hebawled them out for being a slovenly bunch of soldiers.
The SAS group then marched out the gate, puttheir arms around each other's shoulders as if they weredrunk, wandered up the main street of Benghazi, wherethe Germans thought they were Italians and the Italiansthought they were Germans. Finding their hidden vehi-cle, they drove off. This story comes from Sir FitzroyMcLean's autobiography, Eastern Approaches.
THE BATTLE OF ALAM HALFAOccurring between 30 August and 6 September
1942, this was Rommel's "last throw." The "Desert Fox"knew tliat the British were building huge reserves of mentanks, stores and equipment for an offensive; and that ifhe was to conquer Egypt, he would have to get in first.He planned a typical Rommel manoeuvre: a huge "righthook" which would swing north behind the Eighth Army.
His maps and intelligence told him that theBritish defenses at the southern end of the line were >>
THE BATTLE OF ALAM EL HALFA' " ' • ' - British dispositions Aug. 31
Later dispositions and movements__ Southern British .
El Rahman*\^S» „ En«my attacks ,
Of
0 A T r * - •'''•"!" ;~S-/,.,...>\u&
MAP FROM CHURCHILL, THE HINGE OF FATE, 1950, Book II, Chapter 10
FINEST HOUR 128/23
I
thin. Here is where he would attack. By night Rommelmoved his units south, leaving dummy vehicles andtrucks behind so as to fool the British. He wired hisintentions to Rome and Berlin. His plans were inMontgomery's and Alexander's hands immediately.
General Sir Francis de Guingand, Montgomery'schief of staff, noticed on maps that the Ragil Depression,where Rommel was expected to strike, had deep, shiftingand treacherous sands. Through the disinformation com-ing from the now British-controlled CONDOR spy sys-tem, a message was sent saying that the British in thesouth were awaiting reinforcements, and not ready formore than a makeshift defence. Then de Guingand hadhis cartographers make a map showing that the groundwas hard and suitable for panzers. The problem was howto get the map to Rommel in such a way that he wouldbelieve it. A scout car loaded with explosives was senttowards the German lines with an already dead driverand detonated. The Germans sent a patrol to investigateand found the corpse, along with the false map.
Rommel's attack began on August 30th, andquickly bogged down in the newly-sown British mine-fields. Tanks, armoured cars, half-tracks, and trucksfound themselves floundering in the "hard ground" onthe false map, and were bombed and strafed by the RAF.Rommel ordered the attack to turn north, just asMontgomery had planned, and ran straight into the fire-power of four armoured divisions where his intelligencehad told him that there was only one.
Rommel withdrew. Montgomery did not pursuehim. His mind was focused on the coming major battlewhich would decide the entire North African campaign.
THE BATTLE OF ALAMEINIn terms of men and material this battle, on 23
October 1942, was an unequal contest. The EighthArmy had about 195,000 men against Rommel's104,000, of whom only about 50,000 were German. Interms of equipment, the British preponderance in fieldguns was 1.6:1, in anti-tank guns 3:1, in tanks 2.7:1.
What happened is well known. What is less wellknown is the deception employed by Montgomery,Operation Bertram, designed to deceive the enemy, min-imize casualties and maximize success.
As General de Guingand said to Col. DudleyClarke, who masterminded the deception: "You mustconceal 150,000 men, with 1000 guns and 1000 tanks,on a plain as flat and hard as a billiard table, and theGermans must know nothing about it, although they willbe watching every movement, listening to every noise,and charting every track. Every bloody wog will bewatching you and telling the Germans what you are
MAP FROM CHURCHILL, THE HINGE OF FATE, 1950, Book II, Chapter 10
THE PIAN OF ATTACK
British altoikj 4
Enemy (defensive 1 (zone S minefield) ) )
-44*7ARMD.Pre
Free French Bde.
doing for the priceof a packet of tea.You cannot do it, ofcourse, but you'vebloody well got to."Clarke and his teamsucceeded brilliantly.
Montgomeryplanned his majorattack in the north,so he had to con-vince Rommel thatit was coming in thesouth. A dummywater pipeline wasbuilt to the south. Afive-mile trench waslaid with empty oildrums. At night,another five-mile trench was dug, the oil drums weremoved into it, and the previous five-mile trench wasfilled in. The pace of construction was such that itwould not reach the south at least forty-eight hours afterthe date of the major attack in the north. Dummypumping stations were also built.
At the southern end of the "pipeline" a nine-square-mile patch of desert was transformed into aphony depot of about 9000 tons of ammunition, foodand petrol, which was simulated by about 700 "stacks."Telegraph poles were laid in gun pits to simulateartillery, with camouflage netting which was allowed torot, so that the Germans would see they were dummiesand take no notice of them.
Then, just before Montgomery mounted anattack to justify all this activity, the telegraph poles wereremoved, and real guns were put in their place.Suddenly, guns the Germans believed to be dummiesbelched fire at them. It was a double bluff.
In the north, multiple "sunshields" of phonyten-ton trucks large enough to hold a tank were con-structed. To the Germans they appeared to be fixtures.Just before the attack, tanks were moved into the shelterof the dummy trucks which appeared not to havemoved. Barrage guns, with their limbers and movers,were similarly in position to resemble three-ton trucks.
That night over 900 guns opened up a fifteen-minute barrage on the German lines in the north. Theobject was to punch a hole in the German lines, thenexploit it with armour. On November 4th, Montgomerybroke the Axis front, precipitating a general retreat, eventhough Hitler had ordered Rommel to stand firm.
FINEST HOUR 128/24
Shortly after the start of the attack, three eventsoccurred which contributed to Rommel's hopeless posi-tion. First, General Stumme, Rommel's deputy duringthe latter's absence in Germany, died of a heart attack.General Ritter Von Thoma, his successor, voluntarilysurrendered and was invited to dinner by Montgomery.
Second, German coast watchers reported thelikelihood of a major British amphibious landing behindtheir lines. Behind a smokescreen there were noises and asmell of engines, the rattling of chains, voices of menshouting over loud-hailers, and flares. It was all a Britishsonic and naval ruse, provided by recordings aboardMTBs close to the beaches.
Finally, Rommel's fuel situation became desper-ate. He prevailed on Mussolini to send five tankers withurgently needed fuel for his tanks. G H Q Cairo knewabout this from ULTRA intercepts, but the danger wasthat if all were sunk, particularly in foggy weather,Rommel would likely conclude that his secure commu-nications were being compromised.
The decision had to go all the way up toChurchill, who (despite the unfounded rumour that hefailed to defend Coventry to protect his intelligencesource in 1941) was quite willing to risk ULTRA if thestakes were high. In short order the tankers Proserpina,Tripolino, Ostia, Zara and Brioni were located from theair and sunk, one of them in Tobruk harbour.
Sure enough, it was soon learned from ULTRAthat Rommel suspected the security of his communica-tions, if not Italian treachery. MI6 in Cairo then sent amessage, in a code which they knew the Germans wouldbe able to read, to a phantom group of agents in Naplescongratulating them on their timely information, andoffering them a raise in pay!
THE END OF THE BEGINNINGOn 10 November 1942, Churchill spoke in the
Guildhall at the Lord Mayor of London's banquet: "Ihave never promised anything but blood, toil, tears andsweat. Now, however, we have a new experience. We havea victory—a remarkable and definite victory. A brightgleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers, andwarmed and cheered all our hearts." (More of this speechwill be found on the back cover.) For the first time intwo years the church bells in Britain were rung. Prior tothat, they would have signaled a German invasion.
Rommel became further disillusioned withHitler on receiving a directive to fight to the last man.Rommel ignored it, and it was rescinded. His forcesretreated skilfully, evading Montgomery's attempts to cuthim off. A brief defence was made at the Homs-Tarhunaline before Rommel fell back to Tripoli, which was aban-
doned on 23 January 1943.Montgomery held a victory parade in Tripoli,
attended by Churchill, who made a speech in which hesaid: "In days to come, when asked by those at homewhat part you played in the war, it will be with pride inyour hearts that you can reply, 'I marched with theEighth Army.'"
Rommel made a stand at Medenine in Tunisia,and again at the Mareth Line which dominated theTripolitanian and Tunisian plains. Montgomery turnedhis flank by pouring through Wilder's Gap in the south,which had been discovered by the Long-Range DesertGroup many months before. The Americans recoveredfrom a "bloody nose" given them by Rommel atKasserine Pass on February 14th and, after the Battle ofWadi Akarit, linked up with the Eighth Army. Rommelleft Tunisia a sick man, never to return. His successor,General Kurt Von Arnim, surrendered about 200,000Axis troops at Cape Bon on 13 May 1943.
On 10 August 1942, Churchill had sent thisdirective to General Alexander:
Your prime and main duty will be to take or destroyat the earliest opportunity the German-Italian army com-manded by Field-Marshal Rommel, together with all its sup-plies and establishments in Egypt and Libya.
2. You will discharge or cause to be discharged suchother duties as pertain to your command, without prejudice tothe task described in paragraph 1, which must be consideredparamount in His Majesty's interests.
While in Tripoli, Churchill received, fromAlexander in Cairo, one of the most famous telegrams ofthe war. Nigel Nicholson, in Alex, his biography ofAlexander, writes that the Prime Minister said toAlexander, "Pray let me have a message which I can readin the House of Commons when I get back—and makeit dramatic and colourful." Alexander, Nicholson writes,rose to the occasion:
Sir, The orders you gave me [on 10] August, 1942,have been fulfilled. His Majesty's enemies, together with theirimpedimenta, have been completely eliminated from Egypt,Cyrenaica, Libya,* and Tripolitania.
I now await your further instructions. Mi
*A slight technical inaccuracy is that Libya includes Cyrenaicaand Tripolitania (as well as the Fezzan in the south, which wasnever a battleground between British and Axis forces)—so theaddition of "Libya" to the message was superfluous. After vonArnim had formally surrendered on 13 May 1943, Alexandersent the Prime Minister a final telegram reporting that "theTunisian campaign is over. All enemy resistance has ceased.We are now masters of the North African shores."
FINEST HOUR 128/25
or nearly three decades Winston Churchill andthe British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)shared a tense relationship which would haveimportant long-term ramifications for both par-ties. Despite the success of his classic wartime
broadcasts, Churchill's views about the BBC, its manage-ment and role were often far less positive.
The British Broadcasting Company had begun inOctober 1922 as a commercially-supported radio broad-casting service based in London. John C.W. Reith (1889-1971)1 was appointed as general manager two monthslater. After a Parliamentary study (and partially in a nega-tive reaction to the confusing rise of commercial radio inthe United States), at the beginning of 1927 the BBC (bythen a Corporation connecting numerous stations), be-came government-supported and thus non-commercial.
At the time of the nine-day General Strike ofMay 1926, however, the BBC was still six months awayfrom renewal of its government-granted commercial li-cense, placing it in a precarious bargaining position in anydisagreement with the establishment. To Reith, the fledg-ling BBC occupied a unique place in the nation's life and
Dr. Sterling is Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The GeorgeWashington University and editor of the Washington Society forChurchill's The Churchillian. His previous articles, on Churchill and airtravel and sea travel, appeared in FH 118 and 121 respectively. Theportrait of Sir John Reith, above, hangs in the BBC Board Room.
Face-Off:Churchill,Reith andthe BBC
THE LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP between
Churchili and the British Broadcasting Corp.tipped mostly toward the latter, especially inthe 1930s, when BBC Director General SirJohn Reith nursed a cordia! antipathytoward the prophet in the wilderness.
BY CHRISTOPHER H. STERLING
therefore had to maintain a neutral tone; indeed a policywas in place banning broadcasts on controversial issues.
Such a position was anathema to Churchill, thenserving as Chancellor of the Exchequer: "I first quarrelledwith Reith in 1926, during the General Strike. He be-haved quite impartially between the strikers and the na-tion. I said he had no right to be impartial between thefire and fire-brigade. The nation was being held up."2
Churchill perceived the BBC as an offshoot of thepress, and spoke strongly for marshalling the BBC to thegovernment's side. Andrew Boyle, a sympathetic Reith bi-ographer, notes that when the British Gazette was launched
the ministerial editor of this unadulterated propa-ganda sheet began to pick holes in BBC output andsought support for his resolute proposal to take it over.The Chancellor could see no reason why the resourcesof broadcasting should not be mobilized as anotherpowerful weapon against the strikers.3
Though often considered, the "formal decision not tocommandeer the BBC was not taken until 11 May," onlythe day before the strike ended.4
For two more years (until March 1928), the BBCmaintained its policy of banning broadcasts on controver-sial issues. Shortly after the ban was lifted, Churchill, stillChancellor, delivered a brief radio address on his forth-
FINESTHOUR128/26
coming budget.5 Given what turned out to be the stronglypolitical nature of that broadcast, with a general electionpending in 1929, the BBC decided not to ask Churchillto speak again. As one BBC official put it to Reith: "Lastyear the Chancellor's speech could not fail to be, in effect,propaganda...though he did it very skilfully. This year itspropaganda effect would be doubled."6 That was the lastthing the BBC wanted in an election year as it navigatedthe shoals of party politics.
hurchill's limited access to radio grew morerestricted when the Tories lost the spring 1929election. His desire to reach the growingnumber of BBC listeners is evident in his De-cember 1929 offer to pay "£100 [then worth
$500 and today equivalent to ten times that] out of[his] own pocket for the right to speak for half an hour onPolitics." Reith turned him down out of concern aboutthe precedent that would be set by a U.S.-style "timefor money" scheme, and pointed out that the BBCaccepted political speakers only as designated by the mainparties, not individuals. Churchill responded that he pre-ferred the American approach to "the present Britishmethods of debarring public men from access to a publicwho wish to hear."7
Two years later, in mid-1931, the BBC refused toallow Churchill to broadcast his views on self-governmentfor India while debate was ongoing in Parliament. Thisdid not originate with Reith (though Churchill thought itdid), but rather reflected the usual BBC practice of adher-ing to reasonable requests of the government in office.8
Similar decisions prevented Churchill from broadcastingabout the economic crisis a year later, though he didbroadcast several times as part of round-table programsfeaturing a variety of points of view. The clear problemwas that "the [public] mood of the 1930s was not conge-nial to the forthright communication of Churchillianthemes, and the BBC did not seek to dispel it."'
While continuing to blame Reith for his broad-cast banishment, however, Churchill could still show hissense of humor. Before the Royal Society of St. George atan April 1934 speech that was carried live by the BBC, hechided its management:
You see these microphones? They have been placed onour tables by the British Broadcasting Corporation.Think of the risk these eminent men are running. Wecan almost see them in our mind's eye, gathered to-gether in that very expensive building with the ques-tionable statues on its front. We can picture Sir JohnReith, with the perspiration mantling on his loftybrow, with his hand on the control switch, wondering,as I utter every word, whether it will not be his duty toprotect his innocent subscribers from some irreverentthing I might say about Mr. Gandhi, or about the Bol-sheviks, or even about our peripatetic Prime Minister.
But let me reassure him. I have much more serioustopics to discuss. I have to speak to you about St.George and the Dragon 10
On 29 January 1935 Churchill finally did get achance to broadcast about India. Reith dubbed the effort"awfully disappointing—a string of bombastic phraseswith little sincerity at the back of it."11 The speech wasone of only a handful of such appearances: Churchill infact spoke more often on the American radio networks(and was well paid for those appearances) than at home.
Reith's first biographer, writing in 1938 just afterReith had resigned his BBC post, and while Churchill wasdeep in his political wilderness, offered what was probablya fairly typical view of Churchill at that time:
Imagine what would have been the case had theB.B.C. been under the direction of WinstonChurchill, whose career does not possess sufficient jus-tification for me to assume that a Churchill-controlledB.B.C. would have been other than a war-fermenting,rabidly imperialistic, recklessly adventuresome, class-warfaring instrument which, sooner than later, wouldhave mortally offended some other nations.12
e need not dwell on Churchill's famouswartime broadcasts, which have beenwidely reprinted and discussed here andelsewhere. But it should be rememberedthat none of those broadcasts was made
from the floor of the House of Commons. Rather, theywere repeat readings of his speeches (and often not asgood as the original, as a tired Churchill readily admitted)for later broadcast.
In January 1942, he asked the House to consideran experiment in recording at least some key speeches anddebate on the floor—both as a record and for possiblesubsequent broadcast—but no action was taken.13
As to the vital roles the BBC performed duringthe war, however, "In the six volumes of WinstonChurchill's epic history [of World War II] there are lessthan ten references to the role of broadcasting or of theBBC, and none of these involve any comprehensive as-sessment."14 In part this may have been because ofChurchill's desire to describe actions rather than words,but it attested also to his continuing discomfort with theBBC. At an October 1940 cabinet meeting, for example,Reith (whom Chamberlain had named Minister of Infor-mation early in the year, but was switched by Churchill toTransport) wrote that evening in his diary: "I becameaware of the intense discontent with the BBC. Churchillspoke with great bitterness: an enemy within the gates,continually causing trouble, doing more harm than good,something drastic must be done about it."15
Some of Churchill's anguish appears to havearisen from his concern about the employment of »
FINEST HOUR 128/27
leftist writers and broadcasters at the BBC (and Ministryof Information) specifically hired to connect working classlisteners to government programs and issues.16
hurchill's discomfort with the BBC may havebeen reflected in his generally poor use of radiofor a series of political speeches made duringhis doomed 1945 reelection campaign. Per-haps feeling burned by that vote, "after 1945
he was to refuse to broadcast on at least nine occasions."17
WSC, Prime Minister Attlee and BBC Director General SirWilliam Haley all agreed on at least one thing: that the re-turning BBC television service (it went back on the air inmid-1946) would not play any political role. Television wasnot thought fit to deal with the complexities of political is-sues. As leader of the opposition, Churchill backed the Bev-eridge Committee's determination that the BBC's monop-oly on broadcasting should continue.18
Churchill's personal aversion to television becamemore pronounced in his second administration (1951-55)when he avoided most coverage by film and TV (which,in any case, he regarded as vulgar). Churchill on TV
never delivered a party political or election broadcast.Only once did he agree to appear on live television. Hespoke a few words at the end of a tribute broadcast onhis eightieth birthday, in November 1954. Churchillmay well have feared that the television cameras wouldhighlight his age and growing frailty. In 1955 he agreedto a secret screen test at 10 Downing street....when hewas shown the screen test he hated it, perhaps...becauseit told an unflattering truth.19
He was, however, very aware of television's potential politi-cal power, and thus the "intolerable burden if one had toconsider how one would appear, what one would look like,all over the land."20 If Churchill had had his way, the June
1953 Coronation wouldnot have been televised: itwas only the youngQueen's personal wish thatallowed the BBC to pro-vide its historic coverage.21
Discussions aboutbroadcast policy, which bynow interested Churchillhardly at all (other thannews, he only occasionallylistened to radio and al-most never watched televi-sion), increasingly focusedon the introduction ofcompetition, a debate dri-ven more by commercialthan political concerns.During a 1952 debate
about his own government's plan to introduce televisioncompetition, Churchill told his doctor, Lord Moran, thatthough he felt the competition issue was "not at all funda-mental,"
I am against the monopoly employed by the BBC. Foreleven years they kept me off the air. They prevented mefrom expressing views which have proved to be right.Their behavior has been tyrannical. They are honey-combed with socialists—probably with communists.22
In late 1952, Sir Ian Jacob (who had been part ofChurchill's wartime inner circle) became director generalof the BBC. However, even he could not modify WSC'sgenerally dour outlook on broadcasting: "...Churchill,even if he was never impressed by claims for commercialtelevision ('Why do we need this peep-show?') and impa-tiently brushed aside arguments in its favor...had neverbeen much impressed either by talk of the BBC as a greatnational institution."23
It was (now Lord) Reith's impassioned speech inthe House of Lords against commercial television thathelped bring Churchill around to argue in support of thecompetition his old adversary so resisted. Still, the realpush for commercial television came from a group ofyoung Tory politicians, not the Prime Minister.24 Paul Ad-dison concludes that "beyond the fact that he allowed it tohappen, the ending of the BBC's monopoly by the Televi-sion Act of 1954 owed nothing to Churchill."25
Given the checkered relationship betweenChurchill and the BBC, it is perhaps a fitting twist to thestory that, when he finally stepped down as Prime Minis-ter in April 1955, a national press strike meant that newsof his departure was carried only by radio, television andthe Manchester Guardian.26 And, while Churchill mayhave harbored doubts about the BBC, its TV coverage ofhis final journey created lasting images, and with them alegend, of which any statesman would be proud.
FINEST HOUR 128/28
Sir John Reith on ChurchillFrom his autobiography, Into the Wind(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1949)
"He cited an itemabout Lord Knutsfordhaving had to arrange
- with a union official tohave power maintainedat the London Hospital.From this a generalargument developed,Mrs. Churchill support-ing him....He was polite
to me; I wished we had had a proper set-to at thebeginning of the General Strike." —1926
"I met Churchill when he came to give his long-deferred broadcast about India. He was veryagreeable; said he much appreciated my staying
°late to meet him. He borrowed 5/- from me for ataxi home, which, to my satisfaction, he neverrepaid."—1935
"At the Admiralty...Churchill said he knew mechiefly as the individual who had kept him frombroadcasting about India. That was a happy wayof greeting a new colleague....it was very unsatis-factory." —1939
"German invasion of Norway....Churchill said wehad the Germans where we wanted them; I won-dered how they had got there." —1940
"My first minute from him was stamped 'PrimeMinister, Personal Minute'; attached was a redlabel with the caption 'Action This Day'....A juniorshould not have to be stimulated or frightenedinto answering quickly a note from the boss (inany business)....! should not have expectedChurchill to admit the possibility of delay in areply to one of his minutes." —1940
"He wrote me in 1945: 'I know what a sacrificeyou made when you gave up your position in orderto join Mr. Chamberlain's Government....! admiredyour abilities and energy, and it was with regret thatI was not able to include you in the reconstructionof the Government in 1942. I was told you were dif-ficult to work with....lf I can be of service to you atany time, pray let me know; for I am very sorry thatthe fortunes of war should have proved so adverseto you, and I feel the State is in your debt.'
"One may be content to take the ending of thatletter as the ending of this story." —1945
Endnotes1. For more on this complex Scotsman, see Ron
Cynewulf Robbins, "Great Contemporaries: Reith of theBBC," Finest Hour 82 [1994], also posted on the Centrewebsite.
2. Lord Moran, Churchill: The Struggle for Survival,1940-1965 (London: Constable, 1966), 390.
3. Andrew Boyle, Only the Wind Will Listen: Reith ofthe BBC (London: Hutchinson, 1972), 195.
4. Ian Mclntyre, The Expense of Glory: A Life of JohnReith (London: Harper/Collins, 1993), 143.
5. Ibid, p. 165.6. Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the
United Kingdom, vol. II: The Golden Age of Wireless (Ox-ford: Oxford University Press, 1965), 132, quoting amemo from Hilda Matheson to Reith, 20 March 1929.
8. J.C.W. Reith, Into the Wind (London: Hodder &Stoughton, 1949), 151.
9. Briggs, 146.10. Boyle, 237. Broadcasting House had opened in
1932, and for its facade Eric Gill had sculpted nude stat-ues of Prospero and Ariel, which raised critical eyebrows.
11. Charles Stuart, ed., The Reith Diaries (London:Collins, 1975), 120. This compilation includes nearlytwenty page references to "Reith's hatred" of Churchill.
12. Garry Allighan, Sir John Reith (London: StanleyPaul, 1938), pp. 251-52.
13. "Broadcasting of Parliamentary Speeches." Re-marks to the House of Commons, 20 January 1942, inRobert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: HisComplete Speeches, 1897-1963, 8 vols. (New York:Bowker, 1974), vol. VI, 6551-52.
14. Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in theUnited Kingdom, vol. Ill: The War of Words (Oxford: Ox-ford University Press, 1970, 4.
15. Boyle, 317.16. Paul Addison, Churchill on the Home Front:
1900-1955 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1992), 344.17. Briggs (vol. Ill, 1970), 723-25.18. Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the
United Kingdom, vol. IV: Sound and Vision (Oxford: Ox-ford University Press, 1979), 48.
19. Addison, 420.20. Churchill as quoted in Moran, 756.21. Cockerell, 19.22. Moran, 390.23. Asa Briggs, The BBC: The First Fifty Years (Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 281-82.24. Cockerell, 25-26.25. Addison, 421.26. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. 8,
"Never Despair," 1945-1965 (London: Heinemann,1988), 1125. M>
FINEST HOUR 128 / 29
COVER STORY
Churchill Leadership Galleryat the Fulton Memorial
BY ROB HAVERS
s the new Churchill Museum opened thisyear in Britain, a major upgrade was beingplanned for the Winston ChurchillMemorial and Library in the United States.The Memorial, at Fulton, Missouri, site of
Churchill's 1946 "Sinews of Peace" or "Iron Curtain"speech, is housed in a Christopher Wren Londonchurch, laboriously dismantled and transported toMissouri, then rebuilt stone by stone in the late 1960s.
Plans to renovate the main exhibition at theMemorial have reached the final design phase. Thesketches and renderings shown here, provided by DesignCraftsmen in Michigan, are what the new ChurchillLeadership Gallery will look like. The new design is animpressive blend of traditional museum form with inno-vative, interactive elements.
The aim is to continue to tell the same story ofthe life and impact of Winston Spencer Churchill, butto update how we do it. To begin, we have considerablyexpanded the scale of the exhibition. What previouslywere administration offices, work rooms and storageareas in the Memorial undercroft have now been givenover to additional exhibition space. This has allowed usto expand our display area by nearly 30 percent.
Mr. Havers ([email protected]) is executive director of theWinston Churchill Memorial and Library in the United States.
AN IMPRESSIVE BLEND
of traditional museumform with innovative,interactive elements, thenew Churchill LeadershipGallery aims to tell thestory of Churchill's life ina new and compellingway, offering a level ofknowledge about WSCand his times to all agesand backgrounds.
In addition to updating the style of theChurchill exhibition, one of the key aims of the renova-tion is to ensure that displays will appeal to as many peo-ple as possible. The new exhibits will work on manyintellectual levels and appeal to differerent levels ofknowledge about Churchill specifically and modern his-tory in general.
For example, while the seasoned and well-informed Churchillian will always come away havinglearned something new, it is important not to excludethose whose knowledge may be less extensive. For someconsiderable time at the Churchill Memorial, muchthought has been expended on how best to interest andengage new generations in the study of WSC: the youngpeople for whom Churchill does not possess the samehistorical resonance as for older generations.
With this constituency in mind, the new exhibi-tions will employ state-of-the-art museum technology toconvey Churchill's life and experience in as thoughtfuland interesting a fashion as possible. Churchill led a longand eventful life; we aim to convey his influence uponthe modern world by examining some of his lesser-known exploits: creating Iraq, for example, and estab-lishing the "two Irelands" that still exist today. Thus theChurchill Memorial will underscore the continuing rele-vance of Churchill in the 21st century.
FINEST HOUR ua 130
New Entry LobbyAlthough all entry lobbies are rather mundane
spaces, it is important that a professional and business-like image is presented. As the above "before and after"illustrations suggest, the new entry space is smart andfunctional, wholly in tune with the wider exhibition, anda considerable improvement on the existing entrance.
The Sinews of Peace RoomIn this new room (page opposite) the visitor is
prompted to push a button located on the stage, trigger-ing the lights at this end of the gallery to dim. Withoutvideo the visitor hears President Truman introduceChurchill. The screen comes to life with footage of thefamous Fulton speech, interspersed with comments fromnoted Churchill experts and others. Once again, thethinking behind this room is to build on what was donebefore while employing new technology to present itmore effectively.
The Gathering Storm RoomOne of the most interesting new features is the
suite entitled "The Gathering Storm." At the left, thespace is dominated by what appear to be "trees." At theright is a an innocuous picture of Adolf Hitler looking,as many people in the 1930s saw him, like a benignGerman politician. The visitor to the new LeadershipGallery can see this picture and then stand on a markedspot on the floor to see the Hitler Churchill saw. Thisplaces the visitor in line with the five tree-like structuresthat are actually multi-media projectors, showing a tapeof Hitler at a political rally, dressed in full Nazi regaliaand conforming to the true image of the man.
The point of this exhibit is to demonstrateclearly and simply that Churchill in the 1930s sawHitler very differently than most of his contemporaries.To many British politicians, and to others in Europe, »
FINEST HOUR 128 / 31
Hitler was no bad thing; he had put Germany back towork through methods similar to those employed suc-cessfully by Roosevelt in the "New Deal"; and a strongGermany offered a bulwark to what many in the 1930sconsidered to be the real menace: communism.
This display will show that Churchill thoughtdifferently about unfolding events. We hope this type ofinnovation will engage visitors, whet their appetites, andencourage them to read in more detail—from more tra-ditional types of museum signage—exactly how and whyChurchill proved so prescient, and why so few wereinterested in much of what he had to say. Yet even if visi-tors stop at the level of these interactive exhibits, they willstill come away with a grounding in modern history and auseful working knowledge of Churchill's life and times.
Wit and Wisdom RoomThe new exhibition attempts also to explore
other dimensions of Churchill's life. Additional high-lights in the design include the "Wit and WisdomRoom," where visitors can learn what Churchill had tosay on a vast range of topics (as well as finding outexactly what he didn't say, an occupation that keeps TheChurchill Centre, as well as the Memorial, busy).
This room brings together, in an accessibleform, many of the verbal and written quotations andquips. They range from the inspiring and amusing to thepleasingly and devastatingly acerbic. The room will fea-ture comfortable chairs where people can search a data-base of Churchill quotations arranged according to sub-ject or "keyword." The interactive element to the exhibi-tion is apparent in all the various rooms, with visitorsencouraged to open "envelopes" containing correspon-dence to and from Churchill and his wife, Clementine.
All in all, the new Churchill Leadership Gallerywill be an exhibition featuring state-of-the art museumtechnology and highly innovative modes of display. This,we are confident, will enable us to continue to fulfill ourmission of promoting the life and achievements ofWinston Churchill and, now, to underscore even moreconvincingly his relevance to, and influence on, themodern contemporary world. $
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FROM THE CANON
"Blood, Toil, Tears and SweatEvolution of a PhraseBY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
alph Keyes, editor of a book of quotations,asked about the origins of WSCs famous"Blood, Sweat and Tears." He refers us to"Churchill the Phrase Forger" by longtimeCC academic contributor Manfred Weidhorn
(Quarterly Journal of Speech, April 1972; reprinted inChurchill's Rhetoric and Political Discourse, Lanham, Md.,University Press of America, 1987):
In the Boer War books, Churchill noted the growing enemymight and worried lest the result would be expressed in termsof "blood and tears".... The phrase in its renowned form firstappeared before World War II and not in a speech. In an articlewritten during the late stages of the Spanish Civil War, heobserved that the Republican side was becoming more disci-plined and civilized; new structures were being erected on"blood, sweat, and tears."
"Blood and Tears"This in turn set us off on an intense search
through our digital archives for the evolution of thephrase. Indeed Churchill first used it in a talk with M.Grobelaar, Boer Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs,during WSCs imprisonment in Pretoria following hiscapture in the armoured train skirmish. See The BoerWar (reprint of London to Ladysmith via Pretoria and IanHamilton's March) New York: Norton, 1990, page 75:
Self. "My opinion [that Britain will win] is unaltered, ex-cept that the necessity for settling the matter has becomemore apparent. As for the result, that, as I think Mr. Gro-belaar knows, is only a question of time and money ex-pressed in terms of blood and tears."
One year later Churchill used the phrase again, inhis article "Officers and Gentlemen," The SaturdayEvening Post, 29 December 1900:
As we have frequent little local manoeuvres, so there mustbe greater ones, all carefully supervised, at longer intervals.And the knowledge gained at every manoeuvre must beused remorselessly to control the progress of mediocre menup the military ladder; to cast the bad ones down and helpthe good ones towards the top. It will all seem very sad andbrutal in times of peace, but there will be less blood andtears when the next war comes.
Churchill's memory for great phrases was long.Nearly forty years later, in his article "Will There Be Warin Europe—and When?" {News of the World, 4 June1939, also published slightly abridged as "War, Now orNever" in Colliers, 3 June 1939 and reprinted entirely inthe Collected Essays, vol. 1, Churchill wrote of the com-ing war in Europe (page 443):
Although the sufferings of the assaulted nations will begreat in proportion as they have neglected their prepara-tions, there is no reason to suppose that they will notemerge living and controlling from the conflict. Withblood and tears they will bear forward faithfully and glo-riously the ark which enshrines the tide deeds of the goodcommonwealth of mankind.
"Blood, Sweat and Tears"Churchill resurrected "blood" and "tears" and
added "sweat" in his World War I memoir, The WorldCrisis, vol. V, The Eastern Front, (London: ThorntonButterworth, 1931, page 17): in the first chapter, whenhe wrote about the devastating battles between theRussians and the Central Powers:
These pages recount dazzling victories and defeats stoutlymade good. They record the toils, perils, sufferings andpassions of millions of men. Their sweat, their tears, theirblood bedewed the endless plain.
"Toil, Waste, Sorrow and Torment"Manfred Weidhorn refers to an article (which con-
tains "toil" but not the others): "How To Stop War" wasindeed written in the late stages of the Spanish CivilWar, and published in The Evening Standard of 12 June1936. It was reprinted in Churchill's book of essays enti-tled Step by Step: 1936-1939 (London: ThorntonButterworth, 1939). From page 25 of that book:
Nearly all the countries and most of the people in everycountry desire above all things to prevent war. And nowonder, since except for a few handfuls of ferocious ro-manticists, or sordid would-be profiteers, war spells noth-ing but toil, waste, sorrow and torment to the vast massof ordinary folk in every land.
Finally, as Weidhorn informs us in his essay, the"renowned phrase" of "blood, sweat and tears" came to-gether in the article "Can Franco Restore Unity andStrength to Spain?" {Daily Telegraph, 23 February 1939),reproduced in Step by Step under title title, "Hope inSpain." From page 319 of the book: >>
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FROM THE CANON
But at length regular armies come into the field. Disci-pline and organisation grip in earnest both sides. Theymarch, manoeuvre, advance, retreat, with all the valourcommon to the leading races of mankind. But here arenew structures of national life erected upon blood, sweatand tears, which are not dissimilar and therefore capableof being united. What milestone of advantage can begained by going farther? Now is the time to stop.
"Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat"But although "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" became
the "renowned phrase" (and the American/Canadian titlefor Churchill's first book of Second World War speech-es) , it was not actually what he said to Parliament on 13May 1940 in one of the two or three most immortalspeeches of the war. What he said was: "I have nothingto offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." And "toil,"although it was a favorite word of his, did not join"blood," "tears" and "sweat" until May 1940. $5
"I would like toask you threequestions..."MESSAGES LIKE THIS reach a crescendoevery spring, we're sure because it is termpaper and final examination time. We don'twrite students' papers, but we try to help...
i
am a student doing a history project on WinstonChurchill as Prime Minster during World War II. Ifyou do not mind I would like to ask you threequestions about him.
1. What were Winston Churchill's goals for theendofWorldWarll?
2. How did he feel about the peace settlement?3. What were his hopes for the United Nations
when it was established after the war?—EUNICE KIM
Variations on email like this from young people allover the world come to us every week. Some sound suspi-ciously like requests to write their essays for them. Butsometimes they are just intriguing enough that we are not
quite sure. Of course they can easily "lift" things from ourwebsite and put them down on paper—but teachers we'vetalked to are fairly talented at spotting plagiarism.
We try to help all comers. As WSC said, "I am onthe side of the optimists...." See what you think of ourreply to Ms. Kim, and whether you can think of anyimprovements we might adopt.
Dear Eunice Kim,These are very broad
questions, and what youneed to do is enter wordslike "endofWorldWarll,""peace settlement" and"United Nations" in ourwebsite search engine, andthen read the articles that itfinds—which will help youa lot. Here are some generalanswers to your questions:
1. Churchill's goals forthe end of World War II are best
represented by the Atlantic Charter, issued by Churchilland Roosevelt in August 1941 (before the USA entered thewar). Check this page on our website:www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=281
2. There was never an official peace settlementamong all the warring parties. Rather there were individualtreaties. The United States, Great Britain and France even-tually combined their German occupation zones to formthe German Federal Republic. The Soviets set up the east-ern "German People's Republic." The two Germanys werenot reunited until 1990.
Churchill's attitude toward the end of the warmight be summarized in his "theme" of his last volume ofwar memoirs, Triumph and Tragedy. "How the GreatDemocracies triumphed, and so were able to resume thefollies which had so nearly cost them their life." He was atfirst concerned, after the war, that the Western allies wouldnot see the danger of the Soviet Union, which he warnedabout, most notably in his speech at Fulton, Missouri in1946 (search for "Fulton speech"). After Stalin's death in1953, and with the advent of the hydrogen bomb whichwas far more powerful than the atomic bomb, Churchillbecame convinced that a summit meeting was necessarybetween Stalin's successors, President Eisenhower and him-self. Eisenhower resisted this. Use our search engine tosearch for articles about "Churchill and Eisenhower." Use italso to search for articles on "Eisenhower" and "Stalin" and"Bermuda Conference."
3. Churchill's hope for the United Nations when itwas established after the war was that it would preventfuture wars, through a security council with five permanentmembers. It didn't work out as he expected. Look up ourwebsite references to "United Nations." $
FINEST HOUR \Z& I 34
EDUCATION
'Vast and fearsome as the human scene has become, personal contact of the rightpeople, in the right places, at the right time, may yet have a potent and valuable
part to play in the cause of peace which is in our hearts."—WSC, Horsi-: <)]•• COMMONS, 14 MARCH 1955
Will Fitzhugh's Concord Review:An Important Special RelationshipBY SUZANNE SIGMAN
hurchill's thinking during his last major speechin Parliament informs The Churchill Centre'spreeminent cause: educating future generationsin his wisdom, courage and leadership. How for-tunate we were, then, when Virginia memberDan Borinsky brokered a personal contact with
Will Fitzhugh, founder of The Concord Review(www.tcr.org): a unique and vital journal.
Will Fitzhugh wears many hats. A lover of historyand "champion of the term paper" (Boston Globe), founderof the National History Club (2002) and the driving forcebehind the National Writing Board (1998), his endeavorsmeet synergistically beneath the broad umbrella he calls"Varsity Academics."
For eighteen years The Concord Review, a quarterlyjournal of scholarly high school history essays, has pub-lished quality research papers by almost 700 high schoolstudents from thirty-four countries. Each year, the five bestessays win $3000 Ralph Waldo Emerson Prizes.
Mr. Fitzhugh is tireless in his efforts to convince stu-dents, teachers and the educational establishment that read-ing "real" history rather than text books, plunging headlonginto an interesting topic rather than superficially surveyingthe centuries—and writing the now-rare research paper—truly allows young people to "fall in love with history."This is certainly a goal we all share.
Much in American high schools is a tail wagged bythe College Board, an organization of 4700 schools, col-leges, universities and educational organizations. Formed in1900, originally to offer a common college entrance exami-nation, this powerful testing organization influences what istaught by deciding what to test. With the College Boardfocused on the five-paragraph essay as part of the collegeentrance exam—and with high school seniors immersed insingle-page college application essays—student research orterm papers of twelve pages or more are rarely assigned.
Ms. Sigman ([email protected]) is educational out-reach coordinator for The Churchill Centre. Mr. Fitzhugh may bereached by email ([email protected]) or telephone: (978) 443-0022.
Most col-lege fresh-men in theU.S. areunskilled inthe process of writingterm papers. This is also be true to agreater or lesser extent in other countries. We must sus-pend our powers of common sense to believe that, for thefive-paragraph essay, facts don't matter-—incredibly, they arenot part of the grade for this new writing test!
A survey of high school history teachers commis-sioned by The Concord Review and conducted by theUniversity of Connecticut in 2002 found that 81 percentnever assign a paper of more than 5000 words. Worse,most high school writing instruction emphasizes "creative"writing, rather than the clear, logical, well-argued exposito-ry variety. How many of today's students will acquire theskills to access and expound on good history writing—letalone on Winston Churchill?
Writing a term paper is just one path to Churchill,but one which Churchill himself, who was largely self-edu-cated, might savor. The Concord Review welcomes submis-sions from all over the world. Mr. Fitzhugh wants toencourage more submissions from students in Canada andGreat Britain. Perhaps you might encourage your »
"FINEST HOUR 128 / 35
NEW YORK TIMES, (WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3,2004favorite student to send hima paper on Churchill or hislife and times.
In 1988, Mr. Fitzhughformed the National WritingBoard, to allow promisingsecondary school students anopportunity to demonstratetheir prowess by submittinga paper to be scored by theBoard's readers—just asaspiring athletes, actors andmusicians offer demonstra-tions to convince their pre-ferred college to acceptthem. The readers are out-standing history teachers andexperts who review and eval-uate essays in history andEnglish, based on interna-tional standards set by TheConcord Review.
This independentassessment yields a three-page report on each paper,with scores and commentssent to the author. Deans ofAdmission from seventy col-leges have received theseunique independent assess-ments, at the student-authors' request. No fresh-man remedial writing cours-es are required here!
You've heard, nodoubt, of chess clubs, rocketclubs, debating clubs andmath clubs. Well, relish thethought of 170 NationalHistory Club chapters atsecondary schools in thirty-six states. Now, thanks toThe Concord Review andFitzhugh, there are groupswhere young people mightdiscover Churchill and hisinfinite connections to mod-ern civilization.
Perhaps you can encourage a history teacher or histo-ry student in your town to consider forming such a club.Refer to www.tcr.org under "National History Club" to seeif there are chapters in your area, or for information onforming one.
Many of Mr. Fitzhugh's efforts are directed at thosewho may likely develop a Churchill interest. His organiza-tions encourage and support the strengths Churchill him-self possessed: a love and knowledge of history, an inquiringmind, a mastery of the written word. These remain the
A Touchstone for the High School EssaySUDBURY.MASS.
TN1987, Will Fitzhugh started theI Concord Review, a scholarly pub-A lication that printed the best highschool history research papers inAmerica. His intent was simple: torecognize students who producedhigh-quality research, to show teach-ers and students what could be done,and to thereby raise the standard forhigh school writing.
On one level, he succeeded bril-liantly. In 17 years, he has published627 student papers in 57 issues of thequarterly, tackling some of history'smost challenging questions. In a6,235-word paper, Rachel Hines ofMontgomery High In Rockville, Md.,asked: Did Chaim Rumkowski, theJewish leader of Poland's Lodz ghet-to, do more good or harm by cooper-ating with the Nazis? Aaron Elhbondof Hunter High In New York City ex-plored to what extent John MaynardKeyneS's economic ideas were trulyrevolutionary, and to what extentthey were borrowed from others.
Jessica Leight of CambridgeRindge and Latin in Massachusettswanted to know why Anne Hutchin-son suffered so much more at thehands of the Puritans than her broth-er-in-law, the Rev. John Wheel-wright, when both attacked the lead-ership. Jennifer Shingleton of Phil-lips Academy in Andover, Mass.,questioned whether Abigail Adamsreally Was a feminist, or was beingtaken out of 18th-century context bycontemporary feminist historians!
Britta Waller of Roosevelt High inKent, Ohio, wrote about the Ferriswheel. "Fascinating," Mr. Fitzhughsays. "The guy who invented it diedbrokenhearted. I tell people, the topicdoesn't matter, it's the quality thatmatters, so a kid learns the joy ofscholarship. If you learn what itmeans to go in depth, you also realizewhen you're being superficial."
Some of America's best-known his-torians — Arthur Schlesinger Jr.,David McCullough, Shelby Foote —have praised the Review. And thepublished students — who often in-clude their Review papers with theircollege applications —' have pros-pered. Seventy-four went on to Har-vard, 57 to Yale, 30 to Princeton.
And yet for much of the time, Mr.Fitzhugh has felt like a boatman onthe Lewis and Clark expedition, pad-dling upstream on the Mississippiand making little headway. He fearsthe high school research paper is onthe verge of extinction, shoved asideas students prepare for the five-
E-mail: [email protected]
paragraph essays now demanded onstate tests, the SAT II and soon, theSAT. "I'm convinced the majority ofhigh school students graduate with-out reading a nonf iciton book coverto cover," he says. Mr. Fitzhugh is of-fended that the National Endowmentfor the Humanities sponsors a $5,000history essay contest with a 1,200-word limit "I have kids writing bril-liant 5,000-word papers, and they'renot eligible," he says. He is saddenedby a letter from the chairman of thehistory department at Boston Latin,that city's premier high school."Over the past 10 years, historyteachers have largely stopped as-signing the traditional term papers,"Walter Lambert, the chairman,wrote.
While much of the education estab-lishment crows about how standard-ized testing and the SAT writingsample are raising standards, Mr.Fitzhugh is not alone in seeing adumbing down. Ken Fox, a collegecounselor at Ladue Horton WatkinsHigh in St Louis says that in testpreparation courses, his studentslearn to write a generic five-para-graph essay that can be modifiedwhen they take the SAT. "They'retrained to write-to formula," he says.
He has urged students to submitpapers to the Review, and RobertLevin did — on the emancipationproclamation that John Fremont, aUnion Army commander, issued inMissouri in 1861, two years beforeLincoln's took effect. "The big thing,"says Robert, who wrote the paper onhis own time, "is I've been living heremy whole Uf e, interested in the CivilWar, and never knew there was thiswhole huge deal of an emancipationproclamation in Missouri."
"I loved breaking free from thewriting formula they teach us. I thinkthat hampers your writing," he says.
Mr. Fitzhugh has been called elit-ist, but Bruce Gans, a professor tothe Chicago community college sys-tem who teaches a course on writingresearch papers, says students needto begin in high school., Mr. Ganssays English 101—which requiresan eight-page paper with eightsources—is taught at Chicago's sev-en community colleges and has thehighest class dropout rate in the sys-tem. "Kids are terrified of that pa-per," Mr. Gans says. "Will Fitzhughis fighting by himself on this. I don'tknow how he does it"
BARELY. After graduating fromHarvard In 1962, Mr. Fitzhughheld several jobs, including
teaching high school history nearbyfor 10 years. That was when he cameto believe that if you asked more ofstudents, they would respond. Hestarted the Review with his "last$100,000," a family inheritance, plusthe cashed-in value of his teachingpension. "I'm stupid," he says, "Ithought people would subscribe." Af-ter 17 years, he has 1,100 subscribersand requires a $40 fee when a paperis submitted. .
Twice he has stopped publishingwhen he rah out of money. Most foun-dations —145 at last count — haveturned him down. His savior hasbeen John Abele, co-founder of Bos-ton Scientific; a medical equipmentfirm that has provided $185,000 ayear, enabling Mr. Fitzhugh to movethe Review but of his house and tohire an assistant. They have starteda National History Club in hopes ofbroadening its constituency.
Each year, Mr. Fitzhugh offersfour $3,000 awards, the Emersonprizes, for the best Review pieces.His dream is that the Emersons willdo for high school history what theIntel research awards have done forscience. But he never knows if he willbe financed from year to year' "JohnAbele has been wonderful," he says,"but he had a stroke a few years ago.Thank God he recovered, but Ifsomething happens to him, we' re his-tory, so to speak."
Mr. Fitzhugh lives with his wife,Sophia, a retired teacher, in the samehouse they bought for $43,000 in 1971.His Review salary is $36,000 — com-pared with $38,000 he made his lastyear teaching, 1988. "I'll be 68 in Au-gust," he says. "I'd like to retire afterthe 70th issue. What I need is to bringsomeone In before I fall over, but Idon't have the money. The problemis, it's not a very prestigious job."
strengths of a good liberal arts education. And Fitzhugh'scontacts are teachers who believe in his mission.
David Driscoll, the Massachusetts Commissioner ofEducation, calls The Concord Review "a publication we needto promote" and a "strategic external partner"—somethingakin, I suspect, to being "the right people, in the rightplaces, at the right time," with "a potent and valuable partto play" in the cause not only of history, but of TheChurchill Centre. For without students who can read, writeand appreciate history, what will become of us? $5
FINEST HOUR 128/36
Books. Am
Sc Curiosities
"WSC'S failings as a politician were the reverse side of hisgreatness as a statesman: he was protean where most peoplecan only sustain a narrow expertise, brave where most aretimid, decisive where most dither, strong where most are weak,diligent where most are casual, a brilliant manager of his owntime where most are disorganised." —RICHARD HOLMES
The Churchill CentreBook Club
The book club is now managed byChartwell Booksellers
(www.churchill-books.com), whichoffers member discounts up to
25%. To order contact ChartwellBooksellers, 55 East 52nd Street,
New York, New York 10055, [email protected], tel. (212) 308-0643,
facsimile (212) 838-7423.
WARTS AND ALL...Greatness FlawedPAUL H.COURTENAY
In the Footsteps of Churchill, byRichard Holmes, 316 pages. BBCBooks, £20; Basic Books $27.50.Member price $22.
T ) ichardxVHolmes,a well-knownBritish mili-tary historian,is Professor ofMilitary andSecurityStudies atCranfieldUniversityand the RoyalMilitaryCollege ofScience. His
previous books include Wellington,Redcoat and Tommy and he is a familiarfigure on television, where he has writ-ten and presented a number of series,notably on the two world wars. Thisbook accompanies and supplements hismost recent series, which should not bemissed if it comes your way.
Holmes is no hagiographer andtold this writer that he thinks ofChurchill as "the greatest Englishmanever, warts and all." His theme doesnot reveal any major surprises and hecovers the key points of his subject'slife with commendable accuracy.Where the book scores is in highlyreadable commentaries on contempo-rary events which shaped Churchill'spolicies and career, some of whichwould be hard to find elsewhere; ineach instance the identified context isinstructive.
Early in the book Holmes seizeson paradoxes: Churchill was fascinatedby the drama of war but repelled by itsrealities. He was a patriot but not anationalist. Though a child of distantand uncaring parents, he was the cen-tre of a doting coterie. His characteris-tics were not those of a deprived child,but of one excessively indulged. Theearly death of his father and his conse-quent proprietary attitude towards hismother were the most important fac-tors in his life, colouring every subse-quent action. Nevertheless Holmesconsiders (sadly) that a close study ofthe first Companion Volumes to theOfficial Biography made it impossible
to like young Winston, and findsWSC's "unvarnished egomania andcynical exploitation of people whocared for him frankly detestable."
An early clue to Churchill's con-cern as to how he might be seen byothers was to be found in a revealingincident with the Malakand FieldForce; he was ordered by a senior offi-cer urgently to ride and summon aBritish battalion to reinforce the hard-pressed Indian unit to which he wasthen attached. WSC replied, "I musthave that order in writing, sir"; he didnot wish to return to find himself thesole survivor, without a witness to theorder he had been given.
Holmes considers that, despiteChurchill's energetic first tenure asFirst Lord of the Admiralty, WSC fellfar short of transforming the culture ofthe Royal Navy. The volcanic Fisherappealed to Churchill, Holmes says,because the old admiral permittedWSC to present a knowledgeablefacade to the Royal Navy and Houseof Commons. Moving forward toChurchill's second tenure, in 1939-40,Holmes quotes Stephen Roskill (offi-cial historian of the war at sea and amajor critic) to the effect that »
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Churchill's understanding of navaloperations had stuck fast in 1915. Healso quotes General Hastings Ismay, asteadfast Churchill supporter, whowrote that the worst shortcomings ofthe First World War, as exemplified bythe conduct of the Dardanelles opera-tion, were faithfully repeated in theNorway operation (in such matters asthe lack of effective coordinationbetween the Navy and Army.)
The background to Britain'sreturn to the Gold Standard underChancellor of the Exchequer Churchillin 1925 is particularly well covered.Even opponents of the idea, such asJohn Maynard Keynes, conceded thatChurchill had no choice in the matter,though this did not stop Keynes fromattacking him for it. Holmes makes agood point when he says that "WSC'sfailings as a politician were the reverseside of his greatness as a statesman: hewas protean where most people canonly sustain a narrow expertise, bravewhere most are timid, decisive wheremost dither, strong where most areweak, diligent where most are casual, abrilliant manager of his own timewhere most are disorganised." Holmesis also very perceptive when setting thecontexts of the 1929 Depression andthe India Bill.
The author is interesting in hiscommentary on the volte-face by theLabour Party over national defence.Until 1935 Labour had been stronglyopposed to rearmament in competi-tion with another power; but then theComintern responded to the Nazidestruction of the GermanCommunist party by calling for anti-Fascist unity among Communists,Socialists and progressives. This hadthe unexpected effect of clusteringassorted leftists around Churchill, whosuddenly found himself popularamong people who had spent the pasttwenty-five years denouncing him.
Turning to the policy on prewaraircraft procurement for the RAF,Holmes is informative on strategic andtactical bombers and the weaknesses ofthe decisions put forward—a subject
which might take a lot of research ifone wanted independently to under-stand the pros and cons. This is a typi-cal example of his flair for identifyinga context, aided by his historian's skilland military background. (He was aTerritorial Army Brigadier.)
The author opines that the greatparadox of Churchill's public life wasthat, as Prime Minister in defence offreedom, he presided over the greatestand most irrevocable shift of powerfrom the citizen to the state in Britishhistory. Yet Churchill refused to acceptarbitrary power. The moral power ofhis administration lay in his creationof a structure that permitted him toimpart energy to the war effort, butwhich also—by design—placed limitson him. Holmes identifies a passagefrom Churchill's Marlborough whichdefines the standard he set for himself:
Almost any intelligent scribe candraw up a lucid and logical treatisefull of laboriously ascertained factsand technical phrases on a particu-lar war situation....Nothing but ge-nius, the daemon in common man,can answer the riddles of war, andgenius—though it may be armed—cannot be acquired either by read-ing or by experience. In default ofgenius nations have to make war asbest they can and, since that qualityis much rarer than the largest andpurest diamonds, most wars aremainly tales of muddle. But whenfrom time to time it flashes uponthe scene, order and design with asense almost of infallibility drawout from hazard and confusion.
The author makes a valid andneglected point about the part playedby Imperial forces during the SecondWorld War, stressing that Britain wasnot really "alone" in 1940 in the wayhistory generally asserts. The contribu-tions and sacrifices made by Canada,Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,India and British colonies throughoutthe world were very large in propor-tion to their respective populations. Itis important that this is understoodand not overlooked.
Holmes says that, if it were pos-
sible precisely to date the change inU.S. perceptions on Britain's determi-nation to save civilisation (and thus todeserve more support from America),the London visit by Harry Hopkins inJanuary 1941 was probably thatmoment. Churchill handled the visitmasterfully. By the time of his returnto Washington, Hopkins was con-vinced that the nation was indeedunited behind his host, and briefed thePresident accordingly.
But Churchill's failure to attendRoosevelt's funeral rankles Holmes:
It is not unreasonable to wonderwhether FDR's death...did notstrike Winston as robbing him ofthe timely finale to which he him-self aspired. Nothing he said tothose closest to him at the time orwrote later offers a clue to why hechose not to pay his last respects tothe man with whom his fate hadbeen so closely bound, and tospurn an invitation to confer withHarry Truman...who was anxiousto meet him.
Really? Churchill told his wife:"I decided not to fly to Roosevelt'sfuneral on account of much that wasgoing on here." (Soames, PersonalLetters, 526). He wrote to HarryHopkins: "...everyone here thought myduty next week lay at home, at a timewhen so many Ministers are out of thecountry." (Gilbert, Winston S.Churchill'VII: 1294.) "P.M. of coursewanted to go. A[nthony Eden]thought they oughtn't both to be awaytogether....P.M. says he'll go and A. canstay. I told A. that, if P.M. goes, hemust....Churchill deeply regretted inafter years that he allowed himself tobe persuaded not to go at once toWashington." {Diaries of AlexanderCadogan, 727).
Holmes continues: "Such a fla-grant departure from Winston's nor-mal standards of behaviour, and such alapse in his duty as prime minister of anation that needed U.S. good willmore than ever, argues that some irra-tional factor was at work." This is real-ly quite a leap. Some consider that >>
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Churchill's was a calculated decision:Warren Kimball in Blake and Lewis,Churchill: A Major New Assessment,concludes that he wished "to bring themountain to Mohammed"—eventhough Roosevelt had offered to cometo Britain for their next meeting, andTruman might have wished to makegood that pledge. Jon Meacham'sFranklin and Winston (FH 122:42)believes Churchill's acted out of envytoward Roosevelt's preeminence. Eventhen, his decision can hardly bedeemed irrational. But is it so hard tobelieve that, with victory approachingafter so many terrible years, Churchillwould wish to be close at hand?
The final paradox of WSC'spublic life identified by RichardHolmes is that while he valued free-dom, he loved power more—whichcould apply to his last years in officebut may be too broad a judgment. Atthe height of the rearmament contro-versy in 1936, Churchill declared: "I
would endure with patience the roar ofexultation that would go up when Iwas proved wrong....What does it mat-ter who gets exposed or discomfited? Ifthe country is safe, who cares for indi-vidual politicians, in or out of office?"
This book will undoubtedlycause a few eyebrows to be raised, butthe "warts"—though starkly identi-fied—only serve to highlightChurchill's achievements as a whole.This offering, both in print and on thescreen, by an author with gift for lucidexposition (both written and oral),makes an interesting and valuableaddition to the scholarship. Theauthor ends with Skakespeare's wordsspoken by Mark Antony in "JuliusCaesar" (written at a time when "gen-tle" meant "noble"):
His life was gentle; and the elementsSo mixed up in him, that nature might
stand up,And say to all the world. "This was a
maw.
THE "TOP TENMy FavouriteChurchill BooksPAUL ADDISON
Editor's Note:Professor PaulAddison is director of the
Centre for Second World War studies at the
University of Edinburgh. He is a former visit-
ing fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and the
author o/Churchill: The Unexpected Hero(reviewed in Finest Hour 127). When we saw
his choices for the ten best Churchill books, we
immediately wanted readers to see them,
knowing of the esteem which so many
Churchillians hold for his canny and balanced
views. Republished by kind permission of the
author, from The Guardian Unlimited, 13
April 2005.
Note to readers: Want to get in on the
top ten game? Send us your lists, together with
your cases (briefly and succinctly written, as
here) for your ten favorite books by and about
Churchill. We will publish as many as we can.
1. My Early Life, byWinston S.Churchill.My top ten have notbeen arranged inorder of merit, but ifthey had been, thiswould still be numberone. The best source
on the making of Winston Churchill isstill Churchill himself. Written in latemiddle age, his autobiography recalledhis unhappy childhood and his youth-ful quest for glory as a soldier and warcorrespondent. A classic adventurestory, it was also a lament for a van-ished age of aristocracy and empire.
2. Churchill: Four Faces and the Man(ChurchillRevised m USA), edited byA.J.P. Taylor. First published in 1969,this sparkling collection of essaysanatomised Churchill's qualities as a
statesman (A.J.P. Taylor), politician(Robert Rhodes James), historian (J.H.Plumb), military strategist (BasilLiddell Hart) and depressive humanbeing (Anthony Storr). Research hasmoved on since then, but as an analy-sis of the essential Churchill the bookhas never been surpassed. It foundedthe British school of Churchillianswho admire him "warts and all."
3. In Search of Churchill, by MartinGilbert. Political biography was a gen-tlemanly affair of delving into one ortwo archives until Martin Gilbert cameon the scene. As Churchill's officialbiographer he set rigorous new stan-dards of research, working throughscores of manuscript collections andtravelling far and wide in search of newmaterial. The six volumes of Gilbertsofficial biography are a toweringachievement but not many people havethe leisure, this side of retirement, tosavour all 7285 pages. In the meantimethere could be no better introductionthan Gilbert's highly entertainingaccount of his methods of writing, andhis search for buried treasure: eye wit-nesses whose recollections had neverbeen recorded, and caches of docu-ments that had lain hidden for decades.
4. WinstonChurchill: His Life asa Painter, by MarySoames. DenisHealey used to saythat every politicianneeds a hinterland—
an absorbing outside interest. WSCfound it in painting. He seldom trav-elled without his brushes and oils, andthe moment he set up his easel he waslost to the world. Churchill neverclaimed to be a great artist but hedelighted in the landscapes he saw onhis travels, domestic scenes from hishome at Chartwell, and portraits of hisfamily and friends. The story of his lifeas a painter, delightfully told by hisdaughter Mary Soames, is a revelationof the private self who kept the states-man human.
FINEST HOUR 128/39
5. Churchill andSecret Service, byDavid Stafford.Churchill's lifelongfascination withsecret intelligence isthe theme of this riv-eting book whichcovers everythingfrom his first
encounter with the "Great Game" onthe north-west frontier of India to hisinvolvement in the Anglo-American-inspired coup that led to the overthrowof Mussadiq in Iran in 1953. ThoughStafford is at pains to disprove some ofthe conspiracy theories which implicateChurchill in episodes like the sinkingof the Lusitania or the attack on PearlHarbor, he shows that Churchill playeda crucial part in the development of theintelligence services and was no meanhand with a cloak and dagger.
6. Man of theCentury: WinstonChurchill and hisLegend since 1945,by John Ramsden.Ramsden has addeda new dimension toChurchill studieswith a richly detailedanalysis of the
growth of WSC's legend since 1945.His book sets out "to understand howthat fame was created, perceived, mar-keted, spun and in some cases evenfabricated." In the course of a fascinat-ing conducted tour of perceptions ofChurchill around the English-speakingworld, Ramsden identifies the publi-cists and politicians who constructedthe legend and the monuments andmemorabilia which celebrated him.Such is his eye for detail that he evenremarks on Churchill's unassailablelead in commemorative toby jugs:twenty-two different designs, com-pared with two each for Baldwin,Chamberlain and Lloyd George.
7. In Command of History: ChurchillFighting and Writing the SecondWorld War, by David Reynolds.
In writing hiswar memoirsChurchill hadtwo main aims.The first was tomake a fortunefor himself andhis family whileprotecting itfrom the tax-man. The sec-ond was to cre-ate a useable past that would vindicatehis judgment as a war leader and assisthis activities as a postwar statesman. Ina masterly feat of sustained scholarlyanalysis, Reynolds explains howChurchill achieved a triumphant suc-cess on both counts. In anyone elseChurchill's profiteering, manipulationof the documents, and unacknowl-edged use of ghost writers would lookdisreputable, but all is forgiven the sav-iour of his country.
8. Churchill: The End of Glory, byJohn Charmley. The furore over theso-called "Charmley thesis"—the casefor a compromise peace with Hitler in1940—has distracted attention from anotherwise perceptive political lifegrounded in a coherent critique ofChurchill's flaws, and a far fromungenerous appreciation of his abilities.Charmley adopts the skeptical view ofChurchill held by most of his contem-poraries before 1939, and extends it toapply to his conduct of the war—adebatable but stimulating exercise.
9. The Iron Curtain: Churchill,America and the Origins of the ColdWar, by Fraser J. Harbutt. It is nosecret that Churchill is revered bymany Americans as a philosopher-kingand role model for leadership. Whereasin Britain we see him as a man of thepast, he is admired in the U.S. as aguide to the present and the future.Churchill's unique stature on the west-ern side of the Atlantic owes some-thing to his wartime alliance withRoosevelt, but as Fraser Harbutt showsin a powerfully argued book, the deci-sive factor was the part Churchill
FINEST HOUR 128/40
played, while he was out of office, infacilitating the entry of the UnitedStates into the Cold War. The tippingpoint was his "Iron Curtain" speech atFulton, Missouri in March 1946.
10. Churchill, by Roy Jenkins;Churchill: A Study in Greatness, byGeoffrey Best. The competition forthe title of best one-volume life ofChurchill is intense and the result, itseems to me, is a tie between RoyJenkins and Geoffrey Best. Bothauthors are comprehensive, accurate,and stylish, but in different ways.
Jenkins brings to the subject a veteranpolitician's feel for office and power, aworldly appreciation of Churchill'slove of the good life, and an ency-clopaedic appetite for detail. Hisaccount is richly descriptive but tendsto stick to the surface of events.Best is a more reflective and specula-tive writer with a historian's flair forthe insights that lie just beyond thetangible evidence. By different routesboth authors come to the same conclu-sion, or as Best puts it: "His achieve-ments, taken all in all, justify his titleto be known as the greatestEnglishman of his age...in this latertime we are diminished if, admittingChurchill's failings and failures, we canno longer appreciate his virtues andvictories."
Coming up: Readers constantly ask forthe best books to read in the vastChurchill field. Finest Hour will shortlyproduce an updated set of nominationsfor the thirty top books about Winston S.Churchill in six categories, and the fivebest books by the man himself. $
CHURCHILL IN PARLIAMENT
uestion Time EDITED BY PAUL H. COURTENAY
CHURCHILL was a master of Parliamentary Questions, whereinfriends and opponents tried to put him on the spot...and someof the issues from 1943 sound eerily familiar at the moment.
Security DetaineesOn 4 August 1943 a
Member urged thatthe emergency powers
of Regulation 18b (detentionwithout trial of potential security risks) be transferred fromthe Home Secretary to a properly constituted legal tribunal.WSC: "The issue raised has been debated in the House onmore than one occasion, and it has been pointed out thatthe responsibility for deciding whether circumstances ofsuspicion exist, warranting the restraint of some individualon grounds of public security, could not properly be placedon a legal tribunal. So long as exceptional powers are need-ed in the interests of national security, they must be exer-cised by a Minister responsible to Parliament."
Apologies for BombingA Member asked on 28 July 1943 whether there had
been any official reply to the request to the Italians tocapitulate, and also whether the Prime Minister was satis-fied that "apologies for bombing Rome serve any usefulpurpose." WSC: "No official reply has been received...unless the disappearance of Mussolini is to be construed ashis own reply to it. As regards the second part of theQuestion, His Majesty's Government have not made anyapology for bombing the marshalling yards near Rome. Onthe contrary, if they are repaired, and hostile traffic isresumed, they will no doubt have to be bombed again."
The Perils of Nation-BuildingChurchill was asked on 3 August 1943 whether the
Allies would recognise an Italian Government consisting ofSocialists and other leftists expressing a desire to negotiatepeace. WSC: "His Majesty's Government will be prepared,in consultation with their principal Allies, to deal with allsituations as they arise." He was asked to be "more specif-ic." WSC: "I have nothing to add to what I have said,which I think is explicit and, I think, has the additionalmerit of being comprehensive."
Disposition of a FleetOn 12 October 1943 a Member asked for details of
the surrendered Italian fleet. WSC (in a written reply):"The major part of the Italian fleet, totalling over 100 war-ships of all categories, is in Allied hands. This includes fiveout of the six battleships in commission, and eight out ofthe eleven cruisers. More than 150,000 tons of merchantships have so far been accounted for in ports under Allied
control. It would not be in the public interest to go intofurther details."
Senators in the War ZoneOn 19 October 1943 a Member asked the Prime
Minister to place on record the British view of a criticalreport by five United States Senators who recently visitedthe fighting areas. WSC: "Sir, the report in question wasmade to the Congress of the United States in SecretSession, and I am therefore neither fully nor accuratelyacquainted with its nature. A summary of ten conclusionsreached by the Senators has been printed in the Record ofthe United States Senate. These conclusions bring nocharges of the kind referred to by my hon. and gallantFriend. However, apart from the above, many stories havebeen published purporting to represent what individualSenators have said. I am well aware of the pain which someof these unfair and probably unauthorised statements havecaused. I have carefully considered whether to make a pub-lic reply. I have come to the conclusion that there would beno advantage in his Majesty's Government taking part inthis wordy warfare, especially at a time when the Britishand United States Armies are engaged shoulder to shoulderin the battles taking place or impending..."
Demand for Removal of a ColleagueOn 21 October 1943 a Member asked what reply the
Prime Minister had sent to a resolution addressed to himby the Lea Bridge Works Factory Committee demandingthe removal from office of the Secretary of State for India.WSC: "Such matters hardly seem to fall within theprovince of the Lea Bridge Works Factory Committee, andI have accordingly directed that no answer should be sentto them. Perhaps if they send me a communication onsome subject on which they are specially qualified toexpress an opinion, I shall have the opportunity, which Ishould greatly value, of corresponding with them."
Aid to the Republic of ChinaA Member asked on 11 November 1943 about the
duties of General Carton de Wiart in Chungking. WSC:"General Carton de Wiart will act as my personal represen-tative with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and he will alsobe under Admiral Mountbatten's orders as Principal LiaisonOfficer at Chungking. I am sure this will be welcomed....Icannot make any statement on the forms of military aidthat we intend to give to China, except to say that every-thing in human power is being done." $
FINEST HOUR 128/41
INSIDE THE JOURNALS
"Churchill and Black Africa," byRoland Quinault, History Today,55:6, June 2005.
discordant note during thefortieth anniversary of thedeath of WinstonChurchill was sounded bythe President of South
Africa, Thabo Mbeke, who alleged thatChurchill's attitude towards black peo-ples was racist and patronizing. Hisview has been shared by some whitecritics, but Churchill's attitude wasmore complex and, in some ways,more sympathetic than has generallybeen recognized.
Churchill's views on blackAfricans cannot be simply summarizedor categorized because they varied con-siderably according to time, place andcircumstance. He recognized that thevarious countries and peoples of Africahad their own diverse characteristics.
As a military man Churchill wasparticularly impressed by the courageand loyalty of African soldiers whoserved the British. But he did notregard black Africans simply as usefulcannon-fodder, for he opposed theirexploitation by slave traders, white set-tlers or colonial authorities. He alsorejected discrimination on the groundsof color.
It is true that Churchill was reluc-tant to grant universal suffrage andmajority rule to black Africans. Thatwas partly because the overwhelmingmajority of white settlers in Africawere opposed to political equality onthe basis of "one man one vote."Churchill could not ignore their viewsbecause European Africans dominatedthe dominion of South Africa and thegovernment of several other Crowncolonies. He tolerated a system ofpolitical discrimination against blackAfricans that did not accord with ourcontemporary notions of equality anddemocracy.
Churchill was a Victorian byupbringing, who never visited sub-Saharan Africa after 1907; and mostBritons of his generation regarded
black Africans as backward and rela-tively "uncivilized." Churchill's ownoutlook was more informed and rela-tively enlightened. His reservationsabout black majority rule were basedon considerations of class, educationand culture, rather than race and color.In that respect, Churchill's attituderesembled that of the mid-Victoriansto the working classes—they should becautiously and gradually admitted tothe body politic.
Abstracted for FH by David Freeman
464 passengers and 180 cars or fortytrailer trucks that made drive-thoughuse of doors in her bow and stern.After being named by Lady Churchillin a ceremony at Greenwich, sheentered service in June 1967, sailingfrom Harwich across the North Sea toEsbjerg in Denmark. At a smart 21knots, the crossing took eighteenhours. Just three years into her career,her passenger capacity was raised to850 by building cabins in former cargoholds and reducing the previous three
LAST RITESGONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: WINSTON AND WINSTON.
Thabo Mbeki believes Churchill was racist and patronizingtoward black Africans; Roland Quinault counters that WSC'sattitude was more complex, and indeed more sympathetic,than can be represented by sound-bites. Russell Plummer,meanwhile, recalls another departed Churchill, the once-handsome North Sea ferry, a derelict hulk since 1996.
classes to a single class.While on a run to Sweden in
August 1979 she ran aground off theGothenburg Archipelago, requiringrepairs involving a new double bottomand propellers; she returned to servicein March 1980. By 1987, WinstonChurchill was running spring andautumn cruises up to Norway and theNorth Cape, though with reduced pas-senger load of 400. Refitted in 1989,she cruised as far as Leningrad andeven sailed around Britain—eventuallyshe visited forty ports.
Alas her end came with a fire inauxiliary engine electrical installationsin April 1996, her twenty-ninth year.Given her age, she was declared a lossand sold to a small cruise line whichplanned to fix her up for cruisesbetween Florida and Mexico. Butthose plans fell through, and for thepast nine years, the Winston Churchillhas moldered away in a Norwegianfjord, unlikely ever to sail again.
Abstracted for FH by Chris Sterling #
Russell Plummer, "Remembering theWinston Churchill," Ships Monthly,February 2002, pp. 38-39.
ne of the more obscurevessels named after SirWinston was launchedtwo years after his deathby the Italian CNRshipyard: the 8600-ton,
Diesel-driven Winston Churchill, aNorth Sea ferry. She was operated fornearly three decades by the DKDS(Union Steamship Co., established inDenmark in 1866), doing businessmost of that time as ScandinavianSeaways.
The handsome, one-funnel, two-masted, 430-foot vessel had space for
FINEST HOUR 128/42
WOODS CORNER
ANGELIC DEMONOLOGYCHURCHILL AS FUNDAMENTALIST CATHOLIC? Now indeedwe have heard everything, thanks to Angels and Demons, DanBrown's best-selling novel about the "Illuminati."
"The Illuminati are well docu-mented throughout history.... You everheard of a guy called Winston Churchill?....BBC did a historical a while back onChurchill's life. Staunch Catholic by theway. Did you know that in 1920Churchill published a statement con-demning the Illuminati and warningBrits of a worldwide conspiracy againstmorality?....London Herald. February 8,1920." —Angels and Demons, by DanBrown (New York: Atria, 2000, 255).
as Churchill a RomanCatholic? We are askedthis question often lately.Since Dan Brown's novels,led by The Da Vinci Code,
assumed cult status, many Brown fansapparently think they have some basisin fact. Enjoy Brown's yarns, but don'ttake them seriously. On the meritsthey are perhaps best described byJohn J. Reilly's blog (http://pages.prodi-gy.net/aesir/23FebO4.htm):
The count of bloopers [in Angels andDemons] is so great that one begins towonder whether they Mean Some-thing. Mere ignorance could explainwhy the book translates "Novus OrdoSeclorum" as "New Secular Order."*The assertion that Catholic HolyCommunion "comes from" Aztec rit-ual cannibalism might be just badlycompressed comparative anthropology.But what are we to make of the asser-tion that Winston Churchill was astaunch Catholic?
*The correct translation is "New Order of theAges": the motto on the Great Seal of the UnitedStates (see a dollat bill) that hints at the high-flownpretensions of the American Revolution. Accordingto www.greatseal.com, the motto otiginates withthe Roman poet Virgil, "from a line in his EclogueIV, the pastoral poem that expresses the longing ofthe world for a new era of peace and happiness."
What indeed, Mr. Reilly!Churchill was raised in the Church ofEngland, though in his short story TheDream (1947) he refers to himself as"Episcopalian" (North AmericanAnglican). His "religion" was probablythat of an optimistic agnostic. He saidhe was "not a pillar of the Church buta flying buttress—I support it from theoutside." He wrote that having madeso many deposits in the "Bank ofObservance" as a boy, he had been"drawing confidently on it" ever since,never enquiring as to the state of hisaccount—lest he find an "overdraft."
Churchill did write the articleBrown cites ("Zionism versus Bolshe-vism" Illustrated Sunday Herald, 25January 1920, Collected Essays TV: 26-30, Woods C73). But it had nothingto do with the sinister group Browncalls the "Illuminati"—a cult allegedlydating at least back to Galileo, whichchallenges the teachings of theCatholic church. Churchill was never aCatholic, and did not express the sen-timents ascribed to him in the novel.The threat to morality Churchillattacked was Bolshevism—and hewent on to explain why he thought so.
"Zionism versus Bolshevism" issometimes produced as evidence thatChurchill was an anti-semite, since hisarticle notes the preponderance of Jewsamong Bolsheviks, "a sinister confeder-acy...mostly men reared up among theunhappy populations of countrieswhere Jews are persecuted on accountof their race....Trotsky (Russia), BelaKun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg(Germany), and Emma Goldman(United States), this world-wide con-spiracy for the overthrow of civilizationand for the reconstitution of society on
FINEST HOUR 128/43
DAN BROWNthe basis ofarrested develop-ment, of enviousmalevolence, andimpossible equal-ity, has beensteadily grow-ing.... with theexception ofLenin, the major-ity of leading fig-ures are Jews."
To quote this paragraph out ofcontext from the rest of the article is tomisrepresent Churchill, who addedthat such figures comprise only a smallportion of Jews, whom he calls "themost formidable and the most remark-able race which has ever appeared inthe world." Prefiguring his later indict-ment of Nazi Germany, he writes:"Nothing is more wrong than to denyan individual, on account of race ororigin, his right to be judged on hispersonal merits and conduct."
Jews in every country, Churchillcontinued, "identify themselves withthat country, enter into its nationallife....a Jew living in England wouldsay, T am an Englishman practisingthe Jewish faith.' This is a worthy con-ception, and useful in the highestdegree...and in our own Army Jewishsoldiers have played a most distin-guished part, some rising to the com-mand of armies, others winning theVictoria Cross for valour."
The context is extracted fromsuch popular condemnations ofChurchill's article. No one but themost ardent Churchillophobe can use"Zionism vs. Bolshevism" to indictChurchill for anti-semitism. And noone but an imaginative novelist canuse it to portray WSC as a fundamen-talist churchman. —RML $S
"Woods Corner" is a book column named for thelate Churchill bibliographer Frederick Woods.
AMPERSAND
WATERING HOLESPALACES THAT MADE THE P.M.'S SHORTLISTMartin Symington on Winston Churchill's favourite haunts.
He was "easily satisfied by the best ofeverything," declared Sir Winston
Churchill, who resigned as PrimeMinister fifty years ago last April. As aninveterate traveller and epicure, he wasthe natural customer of grand hotels.Many properties still trumpet Churchill'spatronage. The following are six with theclosest connections.
"• f i i i i s ^ 4 J i L # _, •-'$%&- Sf~t
The MountNelson Hotel,Cape Town.
Churchillarrived in SouthAfrica in 1899 as
Boer War correspondent for TheMorning Post, and made himself at homeat the Mount Nelson, where he filed dis-patches from a luxury suite. The com-fortable living came to an end when theyoung reporter took to the field and wastaken prisoner. His subsequent heroicescape gave him a first taste of fame. Acentury later, pink-washed "Nellie" (asthe hotel is known by devotees), set insubtropical gardens at the foot of TableMountain, prides itself on colonial-styleambience with afternoon tea and ban-quets at the Cape Colony restaurant.Mount Nelson Hotel (020-7960 0500,www.orient-express.com). Doubles from£313, per night, including breakfast.
Mena House,Cairo.
The cata-logue of famouspeople to havestayed at Mena
House, next to the Pyramids at Giza, islengthy. But only Churchill andMontgomery have suites named afterthem. Churchill's stays spanned several
Reprinted by permssion from The Times, 2April 2005. Telephone numbers are from theUK but may easily be understood elsewhere.
decades, as recorded in sepia pho-tographs lining the hotel's corridors. Hedescribed it as an "oasis of good living."These days, the original, extravagantPalace Wing is supplemented by a mod-ern 500-room Garden Wing, whichoffers five-star comforts and pyramidpanoramas, but not the same atmos-phere. Mena House Oberoi (00 800 12340101, www.-oberoihotels.com). Doublesfrom £95. The Churchill Suite is £761.
KnockinaamLodge, Dumfries& Galloway.
Churchillwas known torehearse speeches
for the House of Commons in the bath.Appropriately, the Churchill Suite at thisformer shooting lodge has a huge stonebath. Knockinaam's finest hour came afew days before the Normandy Landingsin 1944, when the P.M. arrived here byseaplane for a secret meeting withEisenhower. These days American andBritish guests have no need to be furtiveas they dine in the lodge, now at theMichelin one-star restaurant.Knockinaam Lodge (01776 810471,www.prideojbritainhotels. com). Dinner,B&Bfrom £250 per couple. The ChurchillSuite is £370.
LaMamounia,Marrakesh.
"It isthe mostlovely spot inthe world,"Churchill is said to have assuredRoosevelt about Marrakesh, persuadingthe latter to join him at the art decostyled grand hotel, La Mamounia, aftertheir Casablanca Conference in 1943.He described the views from the balcony
over the roofs of Marrakesh and the pinkAtlas Mountains beyond as "painta-ceous." World leaders from RonaldReagan to Nelson Mandela have alsostayed here. La Mamounia (00 212 44388643, www.mamounia.com). Doublesfrom £238. The Churchill Suite is £940.
Reid's Palace,Madeira.
Winstonand his wifeClementine firststayed at thisEdwardian hotel over the 1949-50 NewYear, while Winston recuperated from amild stroke. They occupied ground-floorrooms, today called The Churchill Suiteand adorned with caricatures of thefamous visitor. While on the island,Churchill indulged his passion for paint-ing. Despite a revamp by Orient-Expressto make the hotel feel lighter and fresher,elderly aristocrats still dress for dinnerand play bridge during the "winter sea-son" at Reid's. Reid's Palace Hotel (020-7960 0500, www.orient-express.comj.B&B doubles from £274. The ChurchillSuite is £1829.
Hotel de Paris,Monte Carlo.
Churchill stayedhere several times,including 1963 whenhe collapsed and wastaken by stretcherthrough the lobby andflown home. In those final years, WSCkept the suite on the top floor that stillbears his name. Today, it is yours for£5600 a night. It has 360-degree viewsover Monaco and the Mediterranean.More recent occupants include rock starPrince. Hotel de Paris (00 37792 162525, www.montecarloresort.com). Doublerooms from £273. I
FINEST HOUR 128/44
M O M E N T S IN T IME
Hendaye, France, July 1945Andrew Carless ([email protected])writes: "I am trying to track for a friendthe date of a photograph. My friend'sgrandfather (on the extreme right withhis face almost out of the shot) wasapparently Churchill's temporary chauf-feur when he visited Hendaye in the PaysBasque sometime in 1945. Do you haveany way of tracing Churchill's move-ments in the Pays Basque?"
e are always pleased tohelp track photos offriends or relatives withthe Great Man. Here wecan reliably advise that this
photo was taken between July 7th and14th, 1945. Sir Martin Gilbert recordsin the official biography that Churchillwith his daughter Mary arrived inHendaye on the 7th, for a breakbetween polling-day for the GeneralElection and the start of the Potsdamconference with Stalin and Truman.During that conference, Churchillwould leave for London to hear thepolling results, which had been delayedwhile the service vote came in. To hisshock, he would learn that his parryhad lost dramatically; he was no longerprime minister, and Clement Attleewould take his place at Potsdam.
Diary of John Colville, WSC'sprivate secretary, Fringes of Power:Downing Street Diaries 1940-1955(New York: Norton, 1986), 258-59:
Sir John Colville:[A]fter a reception in Edinburgh
as warm and moving as in Glasgow, hesaid to me that nobody who had seenwhat he had that day could have anydoubt as to the result of the comingelection. I said that I would agree if itwere a presidential election.
July 5th was polling-day. TheConservative Central Office and LordBeaverbrook both forecast a majorityof at least a hundred seats for theGovernment. Churchill decided totake a fortnight's holiday, the first hehad had since war began. A hospitableCanadian, Brigadier-General Brutinel,who owned the Chateau Margauxvineyard, offered his house, Bordaberry,near Hendaye. The General had some-how contrived to remain in Francethroughout the German occupationand had been a leading conspirator inarranging for escaping Allied airmenand prisoners of war to cross thePyrenees into Spain.
So on July 7th Mr. and Mrs.Churchill, Mary, Lord Moran [WSC's
physician] and I flew to Bordeaux. ThePM. devoted most of the time to paint-ing. He was accompanied and advisedon his artistic expeditions by a talentedartist, Mrs. Nairn, wife of the BritishConsul at Bordeaux, who had been atMarrakech when we were there inJanuary 1944 and had won Churchill'sesteem. The rest of us walked, visitedBiarritz, St. Jean de Luz and Bayonne,watched Basque dancing at Hendayeand drank the finest clarets.
In the mornings we bathed froma sandy beach. The Prime Ministerfloated, like a benevolent hippo, in themiddle of a large circle of protectiveFrench policemen who duly donnedbathing suits for the purpose. HisBritish detective had also beenequipped by the thoughtful authoritiesat Scotland Yard for such aquaticduties. Round and round this circleswam a persistent French Countess, anotorious collaborateuse who hopedby speaking to Churchill to escape thefate which the implacable Resistancewere probably planning for her. Itreminded me of the medieval practiceof "touching for the King's evil."
The encircling gendarmes,patiently treading water, thwarted herplot, but she did entrap me on thebeach. Looking at her golden locks Ifelt pity and hoped she would not suf-fer the fate of those shorn girls I hadseen at Bayeux the preceding summer.I believe that in the end her goodlooks, and no doubt her influentialconnections, saved her from anythingworse than a short prison sentence.
Before we left for FranceChurchill asked President Truman totelegraph the result of the test of thefirst atomic bomb due to take place inthe Nevada desert. "Let me know," hehad signalled, "whether it is a flop or aplop." When we were about to leaveBordaberry a telegram came from thePresident to the Prime Minister. Itread: "It's a plop. Truman." A new,glaring light was shed on the future ofthe war against Japan.
On July 15th Winston Churchillleft for the Potsdam Conference. M>
FINEST HOUR 128 / 45
CURT ZOLLER'S
CHURCHILLTRIVIAuestions on contemporaries (C), liter-
(L), miscellaneous (M), personal(P), statesmanship (S) and war (W) arearranged in four sets of six. Answers in-verted at right.
1543. Whom did Churchill describe as"the only man on either side who couldlose the war [WWI] in an afternoon"? (C)
1544. Churchill wrote a foreword to abook concerning another great BritishPrime Minister. What was his name? (L)
1545. To what did Churchill refer whenhe commented, "news of the kindthat never fails"? (M)
1546. Who wrote in 1943, "MaryChurchill is so nice....She is wonderfullyunspoilt, ready to be excited and inter-ested in everything"? (P)
1547. In 1917 Churchill outlined whatattack using concrete caissons, towed tothe scene and "sunk to create a weather-proof harbour in the open sea"? (It led tothe WW2 Mulberry harbours.) (S)
1548. Speaking in January 1942, whatdid WSC add to his prescription of"blood, toil, tears and sweat"? (W)
1549. According to his son and biogra-pher, who was Churchill's closest politi-cal friend until he crossed the floor fromTories to Liberals? (C)
1550. Churchill wrote a foreword to theautobiography of Field-MarshalLord Birdwood. What was its title? (L)
1551. When Churchill in 1904 referredto Sir W. E. M. Tomlinson as "a miser-able old man," a friend of Tomlinsonchallenged him to what? (M)
1552. In 1901 Churchill became associ-ated with what group of dissidentyoung Tory Members? (P)
1553. According to Churchill, what isthe most important qualificationof a politician? (S)
1554. Who was the founder of the RoyalNaval Air Service? (W)
1555. Whom was Churchill describingin this eulogy? "A voice had becomeaudible, a note had been struck, moretrue, more thrilling, more able to do jus-tice to the nobility of our youth in armsengaged in this present war...." (C)
1556. In 1937 Churchill wrote a chap-ter on the achievements of the BritishEmpire in a small booklet entitledResponsibilities of Empire. What was thetitle of the chapter? (L)
1557. The notes between Churchill andLloyd George in Cabinet meetings in1914 were torn up by Lloyd George.Why did they survive? (M)
1558. As Home Secretary, WSC wroteto Edward VII to keep him informed.Why did the King not respond? (P).
1559. When Churchill traveled toTurkey in January 1943, the Britishhid the trip with a deceptive announce-ment. Where did they announce thatChurchill was going? (S)
1560. When was the first torpedodropped from a British aircraft? (W)
1561. On what occasion is Churchillalleged to have remarked, "thetwo most talkative people in the worldare meeting the most silent"? (C)
1562. Who was the well-knownPortuguese novelist, who held formany years a high position in thePortuguese Foreign Office, who deliv-ered a lecture about Churchill which wastranslated into English on WSC's 80thbirthday? (L)
1563. After the Casablanca Conference,where did Churchill drive FDR toshow him the sunset? (M)
1564. To what was Gen. Brooke refer-ring in his diary on 13Oct43: "I cannow control him no more. He has
worked himself into a frenzy
of excitement about the...attack"? (P)
1565. In January 1943, Gen. Alexander
visited the American front lines in
Tunisia and requested Churchill to send
the best British officers. W h a t
did Alexander want them for? (S)
1566. When Churchill sent the fleet to
battle stations in 1914, where did he
send the battleships and where did he
send the battle-cruisers? (W) $!
ANSWERS
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F I N E S T H O U R 128 / 46
RECAPSWho Photographed the "Gathering of Eagles"? »
hen Churchill was about to leave the USA inMay 1943 he prevailed upon General Marshallto accompany his entourage on a visit to Algiersthat would enable the P.M. to confer withEisenhower. Out of that meeting came theunforgettable "gathering-of-eagles" photograph
at the Villa dar el Ouard, showing WSC in a white linensuit surrounded by the chief Anglo-American military lead-ers. The Prime Minister is smiling impishly as he preparesto open a policy paper of some sort, holding the stage asthe great captains await his remarks.
Several other photos were taken at this occasion.In one, Tedder, Cunningham and Alexander have brokeninto laughter and Montgomery has given way to a smile.Eisenhower, Marshall, Brooke and Eden maintain theirserious demeanor, but Churchill appears to be cajoling Ikeand Marshall into joining the fun. A third photo taken justbefore or just after the meeting shows WSC standing withMarshall and Montgomery engaged in serious conversation.
I have looked far and wide for the name of thephotographer, not least of all because he must have takenmany other pictures on that occasion. The closest I've comeis an (uncertain) attribution of the famous first photo tothe U.S. Army Signal Corps. Can anyone provide the pho-tographer's name and the location of all the shots thatnever made it into the history books?
—ROBERT H. PILPEL
Paris, Armistice Day 1944
Readers may recallthe photo of WSCand de Gaulle (FH119:51). The tallman in a homburgon the extreme left,whom we couldn'tidentify, is HarryBattley, ScotlandYard bodyguardattached to Eden, who, according to Churchill's 1946bodyguard Ronald Golding (FH 55:15), "was killed in aplane crash returning from Moscow after Eden." Eden'smemoirs correct Golding in that Battley was killed en routeto Yalta: "The day [2Feb45] had been a sad one for me, forI learned of the death of three able young members of theForeign Service and of my personal detective, InspectorBattley. Flying out from London to join us [at Yalta], theirpilot had failed to find Malta in the mist, the aircraft camedown in the sea off Lampedusa and they, with elevenothers, had drowned." —PHC M>
Algiers, May 1943. Left to right surrounding Churchill:Anthony Eden (Foreign Secretary), General Sir Alan Brooke (Chief
of Imperial General Staff), Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder(C-in-C, Allied Air Forces Mediterranean), Admiral of the Fleet
Sir Andrew Cunningham (C-in-C, Allied Naval ForcesMediterranean), General Sir Harold Alexander (Deputy C-in-C,
Allied Forces Mediterranean), General George C. Marshall(Chairman, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff), General Dwight D.Eisenhower (C-inC, Allied Forces Mediterranean), General
Sir Bernard Montgomery (Commander Eighth Army).
UKNEWS International Churchill Society
of the United Kingdom
• Bletchley Park Weekend was held from 10.30am to4pm on 3/4 September. Featured were memorabilia, items inconnection with the Order of the Garter, stamps and BevinBoy exhibits, also the inside story of "Station X." On SaturdayChurchill biographer Geoffrey Best spoke; die Sunday speakerwas a Bevin Boy, Ray Leaf. (Bevin Boys were youths conscript-ed by Ernest Bevin, WW2 Minister of Labour, to work in thecoal mines instead of the armed forces.)
• Berlin 2006. As noted in FH 127, plans to unveil aplaque at the house occupied by WSC during the Potsdamconference were postponed. New arrangements are beingmade for May 2006; members will be notified of details.
• Members' Addresses. A new list is nearing comple-tion and it is hoped to distribute it with the next mailing.
• Portsmouth 2004. A DVD of the Portsmouth phaseof the conference is also nearing completion; it is hoped tocirculate full details shordy. This will be of great interest bothto those who were present and to those who did not attend.
• University Undergraduate Membership. A very gen-erous member is funding die first year's subscriptions for anumber of undergraduates; it is hoped that this will generatean increasing interest in Churchill and lead to long-termmembership by those concerned. Very many thanks to thebenefactor for his initiative and generosity. M>
FINEST HOUR 128/47
IMMORTAL WORDS: VICTORY AT ALAMEIN
i g I have never promised anything but blood, tears, toil, and sweat.Now, however, we have a new experience.
We have victory—a remarkable and definite victory.The bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers,
and warmed and cheered all our hearts....Rommel's army has been defeated. It has been routed.
It has been very largely destroyed as a fighting force....Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning...I recall to you some lines of Byron,
which seem to me to fit the event, the hour, and the theme:'Millions of tongues record thee, and anew
Their children's lips shall echo them, and say"Here, where the sword united nations drew,
Our countrymen were warring on that day!"And this is much,
and all which will not pass away.'
—WSC, LORD MAYOR'S BANQUET,GUILDHALL, LONDON,10 NOVEMBER 1942