Tag: Second World War

Memoirs
An immaculate set of the true first edition, by Houghton Mifflin, Boston. WSC, insisting that the UK edition be definitive, held up British proofs with last-minute corrections, allowing the Americans into print first—much to the discomfort of Cassell in London. (Photo courtesy Marc Kuritz, churchillbookcollector.com)
Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

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"No other wartime leader in history has given us a work of two million words written only a few years after the events and filled with messages among world potentates which had so recently been heated and secret. The Memoirs are not just a unique revelation of the exercise of power from atop an empire in duress but also one of the fascinating products of the human spirit, both as an expression of a personality and as a somewhat anomalous epic tale filled with the depravities, miseries and glories of man." —Manfred Weidhorn

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Buchanan
Detail from the cover.
Pat Buchanan and the Art of the Selective Quote

Pat Buchanan and the Art of the Selective Quote

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No animus toward Pat. I admired him and even voted for him in a NH Primary. I helped him with a couple of items during his research (while lampooning his beliefs in friendly banter). “I like a man who grins when he fights,” as Churchill said. But a problem with his book is the rampant use of selective quotes. Partial quotations edited to distort reality, or to fit a predetermined conclusion are out of bounds.

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December 7th
USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 Deecember 1941. (National Archives)
Churchill Quotations for December 7th

Churchill Quotations for December 7th

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"In two or three minutes Mr. Roosevelt came through. 'Mr. President, what’s this about Japan?' 'It’s quite true,' he replied. 'They have attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We are all in the same boat now.' I put Winant on to the line and some interchanges took place, the Ambassador at first saying, 'Good, Good'—and then, apparently graver, 'Ah!' I got on again and said, 'This certainly simplifies things. God be with you,' or words to that effect."

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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?

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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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crodociles
Crocodile analogies weren’t new to Churchill. In 1798 after the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay, cartoonist James Gillray depicted Nelson (with a club of “British oak”) slaying “Revolutionary Crocodiles” colored with the French Tricolor. The original caption read: “The British hero cleansing the mouth of the Nile.” (Wikimedia Commons)
Crocodiles: Churchill’s Animal Analogies

Crocodiles: Churchill’s Animal Analogies

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"[The Bolshevik] crocodiles with master minds entered upon their responsibilities upon November 8 [1917]. Many tears and guttural purrings were employed in inditing the decree of peace.… But the Petrograd wireless stirred the ether in vain. The crocodiles listened attentively for the response; but there was only silence."

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evacuate
Operation Sea Lion invasion routes. (Italian Wikimedia Commons)
Would the Royal Family and Churchill Had Left if the Germans Invaded?

Would the Royal Family and Churchill Had Left if the Germans Invaded?

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“Would the Roy­al Fam­i­ly and Chrchill Evac­u­ate?” is excerpt­ed from an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text with end­notes, please click here.

Q: Evacuate the Royals?

I am argu­ing with a per­son in anoth­er forum that there was a plan in the Sec­ond World War to evac­u­ate Churchill and the Roy­al Fam­i­ly to Cana­da if the Nazis invad­ed.  I believe it was called Oper­a­tion Coates, but the ref­er­ence I found doesn’t men­tion Churchill.

Churchill doesn’t seem like the sort of per­son to evac­u­ate. At Sid­ney Street he was in the front line.…

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National Geographic
Churchill on Foreign Aliens: Did He Say, “Collar the Lot”?

Churchill on Foreign Aliens: Did He Say, “Collar the Lot”?

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"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him judgement by his peers for an indefinite period, is in the highest degree odious….Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilisation." —WSC

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Shigemitsu
Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government, on board USS Missouri. 2 September 1945. Lieutentant General Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, stands opposite. Foreign Ministry representative Toshikazu Kase is assisting Mr. Shigemitsu. Interestingly, the U.S. uniform of the day was working khaki, contrasting with the formal dress of the Japanese. (U.S. Army Signal Corps, National Archives, public doman)
Mamoru Shigemitsu: “When you have to kill a man…”

Mamoru Shigemitsu: “When you have to kill a man…”

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Q: Ambassador Shigemitsu

Churchill was crit­i­cized for his extreme­ly respect­ful let­ter to the Japan­ese Ambas­sador to Britain in Decem­ber 1941, when inform­ing him that their coun­tries were at war. Churchill’s response to crit­ics was, “After all, when you have to kill a man it costs noth­ing to be polite.” Was Shigemit­su acual­ly killed?  —W.H., New York

A: No, he lived on

Churchill was writ­ing in the abstract, so did not actu­al­ly pro­pose to slay the Ambas­sador. Mamoru Shigemit­su  was Japan­ese ambas­sador to the Sovi­et Union 1936–38 and to Britain 1938–41. Fol­low­ing Japan’s attacks of Decem­ber 1941 he received unham­pered pas­sage home.…

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war books
“I asked him what he had thought when the 21st Lancers had gone headlong into a gully filled with quite unexpected and extremely bad-tempered Dervishes. He said, ‘It was very stimulating, but I did think: Suppose there is a spoil-sport in the hole with a machine gun?'” —Anthony Montague Browne. The Battle of Omdurman, 2 September 1898. Oil on canvas by William Barnes Wollen, 1857-1936. (Walker Art Gallery, Wikimedia Commons)
Winston S. Churchill’s Three Best War Books (Excerpt)

Winston S. Churchill’s Three Best War Books (Excerpt)

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“Three Out­stand­ing War Books” is Excerpt­ed from an essay for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. Why set­tle for the excerpt when you can read the whole thing full-strength? Click here.

Bet­ter yet, join 60,000 read­ers of Hills­dale essays by the world’s best Churchill his­to­ri­ans by sub­scrib­ing. You will receive reg­u­lar notices (“Week­ly Win­stons”) of new arti­cles as pub­lished. Sim­ply vis­it https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/, scroll to bot­tom, and fill in your email in the box enti­tled “Stay in touch with us.” (Your email remains strict­ly pri­vate and is nev­er sold to pur­vey­ors, sales­per­sons, auc­tion hous­es, or Things that go Bump in the Night.)…

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

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