Research Topics Archives - Page 3 of 20

Churchill Anecdotes: Epping, Woodford, “Lili Marlene,” Fitzroy Maclean

5 July 2023 Comments 0 Comments

"On 4 July 1942 the 8th army held the line at El Alamein.... You’d see the glow from their cigarettes and pipes, and the little glow from the radio dial. After the news we'd switch over to the "Message from Home" program from Germany. And before long it would go Ompa Ompa—and there was Lili Marlene.... And the 8th Army swept on, capturing on its way 800 miles of desert, 75,000 prisoners, 5000 tanks, 1000 guns, and the famous enemy song of Lili Marlene." —Denis Johnston

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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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Q&A: Churchill Libeled by Lord Alfred Douglas

25 January 2023 Comments 1 Comment

Lord Alfred Douglas, friend of Oscar Wilde, was involved in several scandals, one of the more unfortunate being his accusation that Churcill manipulated press announcements about the Battle of Jutland in order to favor Jewish investors on the New York Stock Market.

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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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How “Goeben” Changed History, by Dal Newfield

10 January 2023 Comments 1 Comment

An obscure "What-If" of history: Had Goeben not passed the Dardanelles, it was very possible Turkey would have remained neutral in WW1. Absent Turkey, the Allies lost their only supply route to Russia. This loss was so serious that in 1915 Churchill felt it imperative to assault the Dardanelles. The resulting debacle was the principal reason Churchill was ousted from the Admiralty. Because of Goeben, the Russian armies starved for food and materiel. The Czar fell and the Bolsheviks took over.

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Pocahontas: Randolph Churchill’s Jibe at the Race Question

4 December 2022 Comments 1 Comment

Pretend Indians

We all know how a certain American politician was nicknamed “Pocahontas,” years after claiming to be, without foundation, a native American. This has often been tried. Sometimes, however, it backfires. “A friend got his son into a better public school by declaring he was tribal,” a colleague writes. “Unfortunately, they didn’t tell the boy, who was then invited to an after-school meeting for those interested in Indians. My friend attempted to correct himself, but he found that in that city, you can change your racial identification only once.” (Who writes these rules?)

During a recent encounter with the medical world I received a questionnaire with the inevitable question, “Race.”…

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Winston Churchill’s Washington Humor

25 November 2022 Comments 0 Comments

Washington, December 1941 press conference: A Texas reporter asked (getting his title wrong): “Mr. Minister, can you tell us when you think we may lick these boys?” There was a pause while someone explained to WSC the meaning of the American slang, “lick.” Then Churchill said: “If we manage it well, it will take only half as long as if we manage it badly.”

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Winston Churchill on War, Part 3: Anthony Montague Browne

30 October 2022 Comments 0 Comments

"I tried to rally him. I spoke of the extraordinary life he had enjoyed...all he had said and done, of how he was almost universally popular and admired. In Germany in 1956, as he drove through the streets he was cheered. It astonished him. After all, it was not very long after the end of the war....How, I concluded, could he be so downcast? I noted his reply verbatim: 'Yes, I worked very hard all my life, and I have achieved a great deal—in the end to achieve nothing.'"

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Winston Churchill on War, Part 2: Atomic Age

25 October 2022 Comments 1 Comment

"Then it may well be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.…The [atomic] deterrent does not cover the case of lunatics or dictators in the mood of Hitler when he found himself in his final dug-out. That is a blank…."

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Battle of the Somme, July 1916: Indian cyclists at a crossroads on the Fricourt-Mametz road. (Photo by John Warwick Brooke, public domain)

Winston Churchill on War, Part 1: 1900-1932

21 October 2022 Comments 0 Comments

Churchill's reputation as a warrior tends to obscure his efforts for peace. Of peace he sometimes despaired, especially toward the end of his life. Herewith are some of Churchill’s words on war and peace from "Churchill by Himself." Part 3 will consider why he regretted, in his final years, that despite all his efforts, peace still did not prevail in the world.

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