August 2022 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill and the Great London Smog, 1952

30 August 2022 Comments 0 Comments

Churchill took no part in subsequent debates over air pollution. Remarkably, the subject didn’t even come up during the December smog. Not until 12 February 1953 did Marcus Lipton MP raise the issue. The Churchill government assured him that “intensive inquiry” would occur. The Clean Air Act of 1956 eventually followed.

Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

25 August 2022 Comments 0 Comments

Orwell on Churchill: "It is rumoured that after promising to fight in the streets he turned from the microphone and said: 'We'll throw bottles at the bastards; it's about all we've got left!' One may assume that this story is untrue, but at the time it was felt that it ought to be true. It was a fitting tribute from ordinary people to the tough and humorous old man whom they would not accept as a peacetime leader [in 1945] but whom in the moment of disaster they felt to be representative of themselves."

Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

22 August 2022 Comments 3 Comments

Churchill believed Mincemeat had deceived Hitler, but he was always a fan of intelligence operations. Gilbert, Macintyre and Netflix say it did, and some German troops were sent to Greece. But German minefields and port defenses in Greece did not need resources from Sicily. Some motor torpedo boats were transferred, but they did not significantly weaken Sicily’s defenses.