In the News Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Winston Churchill’s Revulsion over Napalm Bombing

25 July 2023 Comments 0 Comments

"My own feeling is that Napalm ought not to be used in the way it is being done by the American Forces. This is I am sure the overwhelming feeling of the House of Commons, but I do not take my opinion from them. I certainly could not agree to our taking any responsibility for it, otherwise than in the general duty of serving with and under the United Nations Commander. I do not see how Press articles and jabber of that kind compares with splashing about this burning fluid on the necks of humble people...."

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One Last Shining Moment: Churchill’s Paean to Beaverbrook

16 June 2023 Comments 0 Comments

"I was glad to be able sometimes to lean on him. He did not fail. This was his hour. Time has but added to the intensity of what I then felt, and to my regard and affection." —Sir Winston Churchill on the 85th birthday of Lord Beaverbrook, 25 May 1964.

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OMG — “Lord Fisher comes aboard.” Cartoon on Churchill’s reappointment of retired Admiral Fisher as First Sea Lord shortly after the start of the First World War. (Cartoon by F.H. Townsend in Punch, public domain)

OMG: Churchillian Origins of the Popular Texters’ Phrase

31 May 2023 Comments 0 Comments

Yes, credit OMG to Admiral Fisher. He had a flamboyant writing style, often signing his letters to Churchill, “Yours till a cinder” or "Yours till Hell freezes over." Many other other loquacious salutations made his lexicon of salubrious sign-offs. Given his sudden resignation and disappearance from the Admiralty in May 1915, they were rather less than sincere.

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Enduring Legacy: U.S. National Churchill Day April 9th

9 April 2023 Comments 1 Comment

"In this century of storm and tragedy, I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples.... Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands. Nor has our partnership any exclusive nature." —WSC

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Girlfriends: Was Winston Churchill a Young Bacchanal?

30 March 2023 Comments 0 Comments

Churchill and Lord Rosebery once dated a pair of “Gaiety Girls.” Each of them took one home. Alas, Winston’s date later told Rosebery he’d “done nothing but talk into the small hours on the subject of himself.” This sounds familiar from reports by his actual lady friends. (Clementine Hozier said the same.)

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“Churchill Drank 42,000 Bottles of Champagne”?

28 February 2023 Comments 0 Comments

WSC: "Prof! Pray calculate the total quantity of champagne, wine and spirits I have consumed thus far in my life and tell us how much of this room it would fill." Professor Lindemann (pretending a slide rule calculation): "I'm sorry, Winston, it would only reach our ankles." WSC: "How much to do—how little time remains."

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Nashville (6): The Myth of Dresden and “Revenge Firebombing”

8 February 2023 Comments 2 Comments

The Martin Gilbert Learning Centre offers a free Zoom presentation by Lady Gilbert herself, on the 1945 bombing of Dresden. The date is Monday 13 February 2023 at 2pm Eastern, 11 am Pacific, 7pm Greenwich Mean Time. Email Deputy Director Dr. Bethany Gaunt to be put on the Zoom invitation list. Lady Gilbert will include Sir Martin's story about how a Soviet general corroborated the truth about who ordered the bombing—in Moscow!

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Churchill, Ripka, Appeasement and the Czech Debacle

20 January 2023 Comments 0 Comments

When Ripka said the Czechs would defend themselves, Churchill waxed emotional: “Tomáš.Masaryk was right,” he cried. “Death is better than slavery.” If war did come, he continued, mopping his eyes, this time they must wage it against the Boche so thoroughly that he wouldn’t recover for generations.... After a while he spoke of “Herr Beans,” as he pronounced the name of Czechoslovakia’s president, Edvard Beneš, Ripka continued: "Churchill called him one of the greatest men of our epoch, and praised the resolution of the Czechs to fight for freedom with such vehemence that he began to cry all over again."

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Telling Off the Prez: “Love Actually” Still Sings

15 December 2022 Comments 0 Comments

"I love that word 'relationship.' Covers all manner of sins, doesn't it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship.... We may be a small country, but we're a great one too—the country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter—David Beckham's right foot. David Beckham's left foot for that matter." Hugh Grant at his best.

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A Battle of Britain Memory on Churchill’s Birthday

30 November 2022 Comments 0 Comments

"The British Empire and the United States will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage. For my own part, looking out upon the future, I do not view the process with any misgivings. I could not stop it if I wished; no one can stop it. Like the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling along. Let it roll. Let it roll on full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and better days."

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