Search Results for: EU

Atomic
“Beware the Bogeyman”: A week after WSC’s Iron Curtain Speech at Fulton, Stalin began warning Russians of the lurking warmonger. Leslie Illingworth in the “Daily Mail,” 13 March 1946. (Public domain)
Winston Churchill on War, Part 2: Atomic Age

Winston Churchill on War, Part 2: Atomic Age

"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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War
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

Winston Churchill on War, Part 1: 1900-1932

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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shocking
Winston Churchill with MacKenzie King, Quebec, August 1943. (Wikimedia Commons)
Shocking Facts: “Nuclear Armageddon” Then and Now

Shocking Facts: “Nuclear Armageddon” Then and Now

"Churchill's style of tossing ideas around with his companion, often to test their effect, mistakenly inclined Moran to give these half-formed thoughts and suggestions a status of hard fact." And not just Moran. Bridges and King were certainly taken aback sufficiently to record Churchill's contemplation of nuclear war.

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Sybarite
Churchill’s Laurania: “It was the first rain after the summer heats, and it marked the beginning of that delightful autumn climate which has made the Lauranian capital the home of the artist, the invalid, and the sybarite.” (Woodcut by André Collot from the 1950 Monaco edition)
Churchill Quotations: “The Artist, the Invalid, and the Sybarite”

Churchill Quotations: “The Artist, the Invalid, and the Sybarite”

Churchill only used "artist - invalid - sybarite" twice, and very early on. Evidently it didn't "stick" as well as others he repeated decades apart. If it had, he might have applied it to Morocco or the South of France, where he was all three of those things from time to time. He found both to be perfect for convalescing, painting, or enjoying the luxuries of life. (Of course, he knew where to stay!)

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Queen
Churchill bids good-night to The Queen after a final dinner at Downing Street, 4 April 1955, before retiring as Prime Minister. In the doorway are Lady Churchill and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. (Hillsdale College Press)
Valedictory: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Valedictory: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

It fell to Winston Churchill to define “this fair and youthful figure…heir to all our traditions and glories... Gazing at her photo “in a white dress and with long white gloves, displaying that enchanting smile which lights up her face as if a blind had suddenly been raised,” he mused: “Lovely, inspiring. All the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part.” Admiration grew to attachment, attachment to adoration. Every week during their meetings her private secretary reported “gales of laughter” coming from the audience room: “Winston generally came out wiping his eyes.”

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Orwell
Publicity photo for the CBS Studio One production of “1984,” 1953: L-R: scenic designer Kim Swados, Norma Crane, Eddie Albert, director Paul Nickell. (CBS, public domain)
Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

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."

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Mincemeat
Operation Husky, The Sicily Landings 9-10 July 1943: signalling waiting landing craft by semaphore at dawn of the opening day. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

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.

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reputation
Sketches that failed in execution, 1915. (Political Cartoon Gallery)
Train-Spotting: Churchill’s Reputation in the First World War

Train-Spotting: Churchill’s Reputation in the First World War

On 20 May 1915 Allies did silence the “Ace of Spades” and other Dardanelles Narrows forts. But the invasion languished with great losses for the ANZAC and British forces. Thus the cartoon: Churchill “promises” that fell short in execution. By October, Gallipoli was nearing evacuation. Churchill, his reputation shattered, would soon leave the cabinet and report to the front. We may understand why he saw events as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Boris
Whom will they announce in September? Boris Johnson in 2019, leaving for the Queen Elizabeth II Centre and the Conservative Party leadership announcement. (Steve Nimmons, Creative Commons)
Bring Boris Back? British Politicians, Churchillian Nicknames

Bring Boris Back? British Politicians, Churchillian Nicknames

British politicians have such wonderful names. If your own isn't fun enough, your fellow MPs may provide a more amusing one. In the postwar Labour government, Attorney General Sir Hartley Shawcross began sounding more and more Conservative. So his fellow MPs dubbed him Sir Shortly Floorcross....

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"Peaky Blinders"
Neil Maskell nicely portrays Churchill’s collegiality toward Labour MP Tommy Shelby in “Peaky Blinders” (Netflix, https://bit.ly/3aItS2e)
Winston Churchill in “Peaky Blinders” and On the Art of Sleep

Winston Churchill in “Peaky Blinders” and On the Art of Sleep

Given the differences in ages, Maskell's makeup and mannerisms are excellent. Close-ups are better than full figure shots. Unfortunately the scriptwriter didn't consult the right experts. For example, Churchill wouldn't have lorded over Tommy Shelby for being lesser born than he. That simply was not Churchill's style. Nor did he regard Oswald Mosley as a serious a threat as "Peaky Blinders" makes him.

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