The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

by Erik Larson

Second Great Fire of London,” the first having occurred

raid caused fifteen hundred fires and destroyed 90 percent of the City.

Beaverbrook was never predictable. Exasperating, yes, but always a source of energy and cold-eyed clarity, with a mind like an electric storm. Both

Harry Hopkins,

presented his vision of a United States of Europe, with Britain as its architect. He

cruelty of air raids. In addition to killing and maiming, they destroyed the commodities that kept England alive, and that

We do not need the gallant armies which are forming throughout the American Union.

What he did need, he said, were supplies and ships.

“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”

destroying factories that made cod-liver oil, crucial to helping Germany supply much-needed vitamins A and D to its populace, and glycerin, a component of explosives.

capturing a key component of a German Enigma cipher machine and a document containing the cipher keys the

Senate had

passed

the Lend-Leas...

the midst of all this she lost her new pregnancy, and blamed the loss on the stress and turmoil in her life. She knew by this point that her marriage was over. She began to feel a new sense of freedom, helped too by the fact that

“watch the fun.”

anti-aircraft guns blasted away. The night sky filled with spears of light as

COURAGE; there was despair. On Friday, March 28, the writer Virginia Woolf, her depression worsened by the war and the destruction of both her house

Chequers was a clear and obvious target, well within the reach of German bombers and fighters.

That Harriman was married struck her as irrelevant. It struck him the same way. By the time of his arrival in London, his

was a terrible war, but if you were the right age, [at] the right time and in the right place, it was spectacular.” Given Harriman’s ubiquity within

WO MEETINGS, TWO COUNTRY homes, one lovely weekend in March, with victory suddenly seeming a bit more near: Of such moments are great family upheavals sown.

see the spirit of an unconquerable people.” Afterward, as Churchill, Clementine,

president notified Churchill that he had decided to extend the American naval security zone in the North Atlantic to include all waters between the U.S. coast and the 25th meridian west—roughly two-thirds of the Atlantic Ocean—and to take

Churchill was elated.

Bombs fell; clothes were shed.

“that the life and honor of Great Britain depends upon the successful defense of Egypt.”

Roosevelt added a callow rejoinder: “Keep up the good work.”

Ian Fleming, who later credited Captain Hillgarth as being one of the inspirations for James Bond.

“This evening Eric proposed to me,” Mary wrote in her diary. “I’m in a daze—I think I’ve said ‘yes’—but

“We want a panzer and not a pansy Government.”

vote of confidence,

have never promised anything or offered anything but blood, tears, toil and sweat, to which I will now

By now, what had long been clear to Churchill was also clear to Harriman: that Britain had no hope of winning the war without the direct intervention of the United States.

Colville’s resolve only grew. His goal now was to become a fighter pilot, “if humanly possible.” The first step was to begin the process of getting fitted for contact lenses, an arduous venture. The lenses were made of plastic but were still “scleral” lenses that covered most of the

The tally in the end was 447 to 3. “Pretty good,” Harold

Goebbels confessed in his diary to feeling a new respect for Churchill. “This man is a strange mixture of heroism and cunning,” he wrote. “If he had come to power in 1933, we

“The beam is on London.”

raid was the worst of the war. It killed 1,436 Londoners, a record for a single night, and caused grave injury to another 1,792 people. It left some 12,000 people without homes, among them the novelist Rose

I loved my books so much, and can never replace them.” Among the lost was a

single loss that caused her the greatest sorrow was her Oxford English Dictionary

too, there was a different attitude, this in tune with the overall feeling that England had shown beyond a doubt that it could endure Hitler’s onslaught; now it was time to return the favor.

TURMOIL, civic trauma, and Hitler’s deputy falling from the sky, the first year of Churchill’s leadership came to an end. Against all odds, Britain stood firm, its citizens more emboldened than cowed. Somehow, through it all, Churchill had managed to teach them the art of being fearless.

invaders were struggling against the two eternal weapons of Russia: its sheer size and its winter weather. Hitler was still expected to

Pearl Harbor,

Roosevelt told Churchill that

he would declare war on Japan the next day; Churchill promised to do likewise immediately after him. Late that night, at one thirty-five

11, Hitler declared war on America, and America returned the favor. Churchill and Roosevelt

The fun of it all was back, Wilson saw: “Now suddenly the war is as

“Winston Churchill was stark naked, a drink in one hand, a cigar