October 2016 - Richard M. Langworth

Mosul and Churchill’s Wisdom: Put a Lid on It!

24 October 2016 Comments 1 Comment

Churchill’s wisdom speaks to us across the years. Take the controversy of whether we blab too much in advance about military operations, like Mosul.

In the October 19th presidential debate, Mr. Trump said the U.S. and Iraqis forfeited “the element of surprise” in publicizing the coming offensive against Mosul. This, he insisted, allowed Islamic State ringleaders to remove themselves from the danger zone: “Douglas MacArthur, George Patton [must be] spinning in their graves when they see the stupidity of our country.” Earlier in the week he had asked: “Why don’t we just go in quietly, right?…

Churchill on the Century

18 October 2016 Comments 0 Comments

Who here is in their Forties? Are you as pessimistic as he was?

Winston Churchill was 48 when he penned some “Reflections on the Century,” which may arrest you with their prescience—and their eerie relevance.

His words below are in his original “speech form.” This is the way they were set out on the notes he carried with him, however well he memorized his lines. They appear in this style in my collection of quotations, Churchill by Himself, but differ from the way you may have encountered them in other books:

What a disappointment [this] century has been.……

Nightmare Scenario by Norman Longmate

1 October 2016 Comments 0 Comments

Norman Longmate, If Britain Had Fallen: The Real Nazi Occupation Plans. Published 1972, reprinted 2012, available from Amazon in hardback, paperback and Kindle editions.

A recent kerfuffle over draping Nazi banners on beloved British icons reminds me that this has been going on a long time and is perfectly acceptable in examining historical possiblities. Take the late Norman Longmate, who offered a gripping pastiche about what might have happened in 1940. As a result, we have a glimpse of a possible alternative.

Longmate’s Yarn on the Worst Possibility

Later that afternoon with the Germans already in Trafalgar Square and advancing down Whitehall to take their position in the rear, the enemy unit advancing across St.…