Search Results for: EU

Straits
“Mount Ida and Plains of Troy” by William Wyllie, with HMS Queen Elizabeth bombarding of Turkish forts, March 1915, covered inshore by HMS Canopus. Wyllie’s title relates the nearby site of Homeric Troy, excavated a few years earlier. (Royal Museums, Greenwich, public domain)
Dardanelles Straits 1915: Success Has a Thousand Fathers

Dardanelles Straits 1915: Success Has a Thousand Fathers

It is widely believed that Churchill proposed the expedition to the Dardanelles Straits to bypass the static slaughter in Europe’s trenches. While this is true in the abstract, the plan was not his original vision, nor was it hatched overnight. Churchill and others first contemplated assaulting Germany and Austria-Hungary from the south. Churchill also proposed attacking Germany from the north, even as the Dardanelles operation was being approved by the War Cabinet.

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Marlborough
John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough. (Dulwich Picture Gallery, public domain)
Marlborough Drift: The Dallying Duke

Marlborough Drift: The Dallying Duke

John Churchill (not yet a Duke) "was hidden in the cupboard of Barbara Palmer (not yet a Duchess). After having prowled about the chamber the King, much upset, asked for sweets and liqueurs. His mistress declared that the key of the cupboard was lost. The King replied that he would break down the door.On this she opened the door, and fell on her knees on one side while Churchill, discovered, knelt on the other...."

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The Gates of Auschwitz, with the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “Work Sets You Free.” (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill, Terrorism of Any Stripe, and Bombing Auschwitz

Churchill, Terrorism of Any Stripe, and Bombing Auschwitz

"There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilised men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe.... Declarations should be made in public, so that everyone connected with it will be hunted down and put to death." —WSC, 1945

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Benito
Churchill wasn’t the last British statesman to wend his way to Rome. Chamberlain arrived in 1939, posed at the Rome Opera House with Il Duce and their respective foreign ministers, Halifax and Ciano. (Wikimedia Commons)
Myths of Dear Benito: Churchill’s Alleged Mussolini Complex

Myths of Dear Benito: Churchill’s Alleged Mussolini Complex

Churchill agreed to defer Italian war debt payments until 1930. Mussolini sent “the warmest expressions of gratitude” and offered him a decoration. Er, no, said WSC. (Imagine if that was among Churchill’s medals.) But Churchill's diplomatic boilerplate in Rome has been used to brand him as a fascist. In context, he referred to the Italians, not the British. And you tend to say polite things about a foreign leader when he has promised to pay back a lot of money.  

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Australia
American Embassy, Canberra. U.S. Ambassador to Washington after laying the cornerstone, 7 December 1941: “What do we do now?” State Department to Ambassador: “Keep building the thing or the Aussies will think we’re on the run.” (Photo by T. Luxwolda, Creative Commons)
Australia Stories: Peace in 1918, War in 1941

Australia Stories: Peace in 1918, War in 1941

1918: "If the peace which we are going to make in Europe should lead, as I trust it will, to the​ liberation of captive nationalities...it will remove for ever most of the causes of possible wars. The only sure foundation for a State is a Government freely elected by millions of people, and as many millions as possible. It is fatal to swerve from that conception." This brief letter abounds with Churchillian wisdom. Had only we followed it. If only we were following it today....

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bombing
WSC with General Eisenhower during a tour of Allied invasion forces near Lydd and Hastings. Kent, 12 May 1944. (Capt. Horton, War Office, public domain)
Did Eisenhower Offer to Quit Over WW2 Bombing Policy?

Did Eisenhower Offer to Quit Over WW2 Bombing Policy?

As supporters of Israel argue over the civilian casualties in Gaza, this history lesson is relevant. It seems that civilian casualties only occur to leaders of civilized governments. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and certainly Hamas never worried about them. In 1944, the arguments, heart searchings and constant changes of targets continued almost up to D-Day. In 1945, the battle of Manila resulted in 250,000 civilian casualties including 100,000 deaths. When told that statistic recently, Prime Minister Netanyahu was astonished. "100,000...well, we have incurred considerably fewer."

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Sesquicentennial
“No, I don’t think it was Mr. Churchill. It’s been like that quite a long time.” (Punch, 14 August 1940, by kind permission of Gary Stiles and Topfoto)
Get Ready for Churchill’s Anti-Sesquicentennial

Get Ready for Churchill’s Anti-Sesquicentennial

"Don't worry about attacks on Churchill. He is alive and kicking and haunts the British imagination like no other. He will always be caricatured, as he was in his lifetime. But freedom of speech and expression was one of the things he fought for, and in his time he gave as good as he got. The more provocative comments about him are a backhanded tribute, as they work on the assumption that most people admire him." —Paul Addison

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Nye
Churchill broadcasting on VE-Day, 8 May 1945. On national health he earlier told Lord Moran: “The doctors aren’t going to dictate to the country, they tried that with Lloyd George.” (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Gotcher in the Nye: Winston Churchill on the National Health

Gotcher in the Nye: Winston Churchill on the National Health

Winston Churchill was fighting for national health services when Nye Bevan was still in short pants. After July 1945, national health policy fell to Labour, Robert Colville writes: "In other words, we owe to Bevan not THE National Health Service but THIS National Health Service—the one that turned the existing profusion of provision into something regimented, standardised, centralised and nationalised.... Bevan’s role in persuading America to enter the war is grossly overblown; his enthusiasm for Soviet Russia completely unmentioned. In John Bew’s biography of Attlee, Bevan’s index entry starts with 'tries to undermine Attlee and his supporters,' and goes on from there."

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Teague
Dick Teague in his Packard studio. (Photo courtesy Stuart Blond and The Packard Cormorant)
Facing Disaster with a Smile: The Dick Teague I Knew

Facing Disaster with a Smile: The Dick Teague I Knew

"So I told Red Lux to cut up the last Packard prototype. This welder had been there since the cornerstone, and was hanging on by his thumbnails. I came back and the pieces were lying all around like a bomb had gone off. It was probably the dirtiest trick I ever played but I said: 'My God, Red, what have you done? Not this one, man—the one over in the corner!' The poor guy had to have had a strong heart, because if he didn’t, he would have died right there. His face drained, and when I told him I was just kidding he chased me around the room. You’ve got to have a sense of humor in this business." —Dick Teague

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Bowman
US Coast Guard-manned LCVP disembarks First Army Division troops at Normandy. Don’t even think of D-Day without thinking Churchill. (Photo by CPHOM Robert F. Sargent USCG, Wikimedia Commons)
“Empire First”: the Bowman War on Churchill’s D-Day

“Empire First”: the Bowman War on Churchill’s D-Day

Greenock, Scotland, played a noble part in Britain’s war effort. Perhaps its historians might now busy themselves with a travelogue. They could tell of an old man’s courageous journeys from Greenock into U-boat-infested seas in pursuit of victory in a global war. Or they could describe the ships and munitions built in Greenock to support the “lodgment on the continent” the old man had supported since 1941. They might even mention the Mulberry Harbors, the old man’s conception that made possible a successful D-Day. 

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