Category: FAQs

Stalin
Stalin as Churchill’s Delphic Oracle (Nazi version): “Wird Englands Grosse und Macht erhalten? Ja, eine Macht wird sie erhalten!” (“Will England’s greatness and might get preserved? Yes, a power will preserve it.”) Cartoon by Erich Schilling, 1943 (Wikimedia Commons)
No Cards, No Flowers: Churchill on the Death of Stalin

No Cards, No Flowers: Churchill on the Death of Stalin

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Stalin redux

A cor­re­spon­dent to the Finan­cial Times slipped a red her­ring into our store of Churchill quo­ta­tions, and thanks to the news­pa­per for pub­lish­ing my correction.

In a let­ter to the FT, Mary Ellen Syn­on defend­ed Irish Taoiseach Eamon de Valera’s expres­sion of con­do­lences at the Ger­man Embassy upon the death of Adolf Hitler. Ms. Syn­on sug­gest­ed that this was just an ordi­nary diplo­mat­ic gesture—a for­mal­i­ty. After all, didn’t Churchill offer con­do­lences or a homi­ly fol­low­ing the death of Stalin?

Churchill was out­raged by de Valera’s action, but was not guilty of the same lack of pro­pri­ety (or hypocrisy).…

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resistance
German resistance to Hitler did operate early on. Georg Elser’s 7 November 1939 bomb in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller killed seven, and would certainly have killed Hitler, but after an unexpected short speech he left early. Elser was executed in 1945. (German Federal archives, public doman)
German Resistance: “Driven by the Restlessness of their Conscience”

German Resistance: “Driven by the Restlessness of their Conscience”

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Questions on the Weiss Rose resistance

A Ger­man par­lia­men­tary jour­nal quotes Churchill on the Ger­man resis­tance to Hitler: “These men and women fought with­out help from with­in or with­out, dri­ven only by the rest­less­ness of their con­science.  As long as they lived they were invis­i­ble and unrec­og­niz­able to us. In their death, the resis­tance became vis­i­ble. Their deeds and sac­ri­fices are the foun­da­tion of the recon­struc­tion.” (Hans-Adolf Jacob­sen, Ger­mans Against Hitler, 3rd ed., Berto-Ver­lag, Bonn, 1960; Bar­ry Sul­li­van, Thresh­olds of Peace, 1979).  I can­not find the orig­i­nal doc­u­ment and some­what doubt its authen­tic­i­ty. …

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Danzig
Danzig in 1939. Yellow areas are Poland. (Map by Ziegelbrenner, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Albrecht Forster and Churchill’s Danzig Moment, 1939

Albrecht Forster and Churchill’s Danzig Moment, 1939

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An article argues that WSC supported appeasement and approved of Fascism. While this is a well-written critique, it tends to magnify specifics to justify generalities. It does not establish Churchill’s attachment to Fascism and Appeasement (although he approved of some forms of the latter). It does instruct us on the kinds of fascists Churchill dealt with in the 1920s and 1930s.

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jaw-jaw
President John F. Kennedy (L) meets with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Hamilton, Bermuda, 22 December 1961. (Photo by Robert Knudsen. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, public domain)
“Jaw to Jaw” Versus “Jaw-Jaw”: Supermac Still Owns the Latter

“Jaw to Jaw” Versus “Jaw-Jaw”: Supermac Still Owns the Latter

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“Jaw-Jaw” be-jaws the dialogue (from 2008):

On 27 June 1954, Churchill was quot­ed as say­ing “jaw-jaw is always bet­ter than to war-war.” (William H. Lawrence, “Churchill urges Patience in Cop­ing with Red Dan­gers,” The New York Times, page 1; and Wal­ter Tro­han, “‘Vig­i­lance and Time’ Asked by Churchill,” Chica­go Dai­ly Tri­bune, page 1. Did Churchill say this? —M.D.

No. From my Defin­i­tive Wit of Win­ston Churchill, page 37:

“Meet­ing jaw to jaw is bet­ter than war.” —1954 Com­mon­ly mis­quot­ed as ‘Jaw-jaw is bet­ter than war-war,’ an expres­sion coined four years lat­er by Prime Min­is­ter Harold Macmil­lan, on a vis­it to Australia.…

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alliance
View from St. Paul’s Cathedral toward the Old Bailey after the Blitz, 3 January 1941. (H. Mason, Daily Mail, public domain)
Grand Alliance: A Way Out of the Second World War?

Grand Alliance: A Way Out of the Second World War?

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Question:

“Pro­fes­sor John Charm­ley says in a pod­cast that Neville Cham­ber­lain believed a pre­war grand alliance against Hitler was not fea­si­ble. He was refer­ring to alliance between the UK and France and the Unit­ed States and USSR. Do you agree?”

Answer:

As Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) tells the Dis­trict Attor­ney (Lane Smith) in “My Cousin Vin­ny” (1992), “that’s a B.S. question.”

(To voir dire Miss Vito on “gen­er­al auto­mo­tive knowl­edge” the D.A. had demand­ed the igni­tion tim­ing of “a 1955 Chevro­let 327 V-8.” (Read­ers less mechan­i­cal­ly inclined than Miss Vito may enjoy her dev­as­tat­ing two-minute rebut­tal to this “trick question.”)…

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Paintatious
Paul Rafferty’s elegant book is reviewed at https://bit.ly/2ZTwktD
Paintatious – Paintaceous – Paintacious: What Was Churchill’s Word?

Paintatious – Paintaceous – Paintacious: What Was Churchill’s Word?

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Paul Rafferty’s mag­nif­i­cent Win­ston Churchill: Paint­ing on the French Riv­iera is being trans­lat­ed for a French edi­tion by Dr. Antoine Capet. The author and trans­la­tor posed an inter­est­ing ques­tion. How did Win­ston Churchill spell “painta­tious”?

(Any read­er bored by pedan­tic, picayune, obscure mean­der­ings about noth­ing of impor­tance should stop read­ing now. For my review of Paul’s book see: “Book of the Year.”)

“Painta­tious” was artist Churchill’s word for a scene wor­thy of his brush. He found many such venues on the French Riv­iera, which Paul explores so well. But this is a tricky ques­tion because “painta­tioius” not a real word.…

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cartoon
Left: “Modesty, my dear Winston, is the secret of all success in the House of Commons, look at ME!! Cultivate it, my boy, I beseech you!” Right: “Nothing like a quiet, unobtrusive manner, my dear Churchill, to make you popular in the House! Keep your eye on ME!” (“Punch,” 5 December 1900)
In Search of Winston Churchill’s First Political Cartoon

In Search of Winston Churchill’s First Political Cartoon

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First Cartoon? The Current Contender

We are asked: what was the first Win­ston Churchill polit­i­cal car­toon? The ear­li­est dis­cov­ered so far is this one, from the “Essence of Par­lia­ment” col­umn in Punch on 5 Decem­ber 1900. It appeared about two months after young Win­ston was elect­ed Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Old­ham, Lan­cashire, on 1 Octo­ber. Alas the car­toon (artist unknown) pos­es more ques­tions than it answers. Churchill is being urged to exhib­it mod­esty, a qual­i­ty he was not known for. But who is doing the urg­ing? We asked sev­er­al authorities.

I first thought the man at right might be Joseph Cham­ber­lain, known for his mon­o­cle.…

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Darlan
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” —Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart. right) in “Casablanca,” with Henreid, Bergman and Rains, 1942. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
“Casablanca,” Admiral Darlan, and Rick’s Letters of Transit

“Casablanca,” Admiral Darlan, and Rick’s Letters of Transit

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"Casablanca's" famous Letters of Transit were signed by General Maxime Weygand, not de Gaulle and not Darlan. This is confirmed by watching the Peter Lorre episode on YouTube. Lorres's character can clearly be heard saying "General Weygand." There is no evidence that a subtitle ever appeared substituting the names of Darlan or de Gaulle for American audiences. (Thanks to reader James Overmeyer for pointing this out.

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V1
A V1 flying bomb coming down on London, 1944. (Creative Commons, www.strijdbewijs.nl)
Churchill on the V1: Praise for Ingenuity, Horror over Effects

Churchill on the V1: Praise for Ingenuity, Horror over Effects

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Excerpt­ed from a Q&A post on the V1 for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the unabridged arti­cle, please click here.

Robert Lusser and the V1 “Flying Bomb”

A jour­nal­ist writes about the life of her grand­fa­ther, Robert Lusser, chief design­er of the V1 fly­ing bomb. She searched for what Churchill said about the V1 in his mem­oirs of the Sec­ond World War. “He men­tions the weapon’s destruc­tion in 1944 but noth­ing of what he thought of the V1 mil­i­tar­i­ly. My grandfather’s papers sug­gest that Churchill praised the weapon after the war.…

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Athens
Have you seen this much of your desktop in years? Not I! Archbishop Regent Damaskinos of Greece with his service advisors: Wing Cdr. Angelopoulos (Air Force) Lt. Col. Vassilikopoulos (Army), Lt. Cdr. Boudouris (Navy), Athens, 15 February 1945. (Imperial War Museum, Wikimedia Commons)
Athens, 1944: Some Lighter Moments in a Serious Situation

Athens, 1944: Some Lighter Moments in a Serious Situation

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“There’s a lot of ruin in any nation…”

The Greeks are still not laugh­ing about their mid-1940s civ­il war, so lev­i­ty may be inap­pro­pri­ate. Nor was at the time was Win­ston Churchill. “There is a lot of ruin in any nation,” he once mused. In Athens, 1944, Britain was “respon­si­ble for build­ing up the nest of cock­a­tri­ces for EAM [com­mu­nist par­ti­sans] in Greece.” (His vocab­u­lary was broad: A cock­a­trice is a myth­i­cal, two-legged drag­on or ser­pent-like crea­ture with a cock’s head.)

Nev­er­the­less, the peace deal Churchill bro­kered between war­ring Greeks in 1944 had so many hilar­i­ous moments that, 75 years lat­er, we may be per­mit­ted to indulge in lighter aspects.…

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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