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The Splendid and the Vile
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ARCHIVE - BUDDY READ - THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A SAGA OF CHURCHILL, FAMILY, AND DEFIANCE DURING THE BLITZ - DISCUSSION THREAD (No Spoilers, please)
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I find the book engaging so far and easy reading.
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Week Three - June 8th - June 14th - beginning
✓Chapter 6: Göring - The moderator has completed adding material, discussion questions, etc. for this chapter - Complete
✓Chapter 7: Sufficient Bliss - an odd little chapter - The moderator has completed adding material, discussion questions, etc. for this chapter - Complete
✓Chapter 8: The First Bombs - completed on June 14th
Good night!
Please post and discuss any aspect of any pages through the end of Chapter 8 - with no spoilers necessary, If you go ahead - use spoiler html or post on the glossary thread.
It is up to you to respond to some of the discussion topics and questions as we move ahead.
Chapter Eight will be next this week.
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Link to article: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ar...
Source: Trove
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Link: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/22/ob...
Link: https://apnews.com/57885e230bad2534a0...
Source: New York Times, AP News
Note: I did not know that Colville was an RAF pilot who had flown over 40 missions or that Colville later became a merchant banker and wrote book reviews and obituaries for newspapers!
by John Colville (no photo)
Hello allI am # 11 on the waiting list now. I think its going to take a bit longer to get it than normal. The libraries are letting books "sit" for 72 hours before checking the books back in and circulating them.
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You will catch up in no time and I imagine that there are multiple copies out so it may go faster than you think. We have our fingers crossed; but at least your library system is taking into consideration everybody's safety and that of the librarians.
And you are doing the right thing by keeping us all posted - we hope you are able to join soon and get caught up - keep us posted as the library gets more copies back. It is too bad that they did not have a way to disinfect the books like they are able to do with surgical masks without hurting them. You know I never thought about the fact that you are touching books that others have read; and that this might be a risk factor. It is good that they are thinking about these things. Supposedly, the virus can only live on cardboard and paper for 24 hours - your library system is taking triple safety measures.
Right now I am relying on my Kindle and Audible with whisper-sync - I can have all of my current books in one place and mark them up to my hearts content with all of my notes. But there is nothing like a hardcover book for me. I grew up appreciating books and loving to read and being able to discover a different world than my own back yard. Books opened vistas for me.
Yay! Just checked my library account and the book is in transit!
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Yes, I am guessing that 11 copies of the book came off their 72 hour corona virus hold. Its now traveling to my home library.
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British troops escaping from Dunkirk in lifeboats (France, 1940). Screenshot taken from the 1943 United States Army propaganda film Divide and Conquer (Why We Fight #3) directed by Frank Capra and partially based on, news archives, animations, restaged scenes and captured propaganda material from both sides.
CHAPTER 8
The First Bombs
THE ESCAPE RIVETED THE WORLD. In his diary, the king kept a daily count of how many men had gotten away.
The Foreign Office sent Roosevelt detailed daily updates. Initially the Admiralty had expected that at best 45,000 men would escape; Churchill himself estimated a maximum of 50,000.
The tally for the first day—just 7,700 men—seemed to suggest that both estimates were generous.
The second day, Tuesday, May 28, was better, with 17,800 men evacuated, but still nowhere near the kind of volume Britain would need to reconstitute a viable army. Throughout, however, Churchill never flagged. Far from it. He seemed almost enthusiastic.
He understood, however, that others did not share his positive outlook; this was underlined on that Tuesday when one member of his War Cabinet said the BEF’s prospects looked “blacker than ever.”
Recognizing that confidence and fearlessness were attitudes that could be adopted and taught by example, Churchill issued a directive to all ministers to put on a strong, positive front. “In these dark days the Prime Minister would be grateful if all his colleagues in the Government, as well as high officials, would maintain a high morale in their circles; not minimizing the gravity of events, but showing confidence in our ability and inflexible resolve to continue the war till we have broken the will of the enemy to bring all Europe under his domination.”
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. In the end - "887 vessels carried out the Dunkirk evacuation, of which only a quarter belonged to the Royal Navy. Another 91 were passenger ships, the rest an armada of fishing boats, yachts, and other small craft. In all, 338,226 men got away, including 125,000 French soldiers. Another 120,000 British soldiers still remained in France, including John Colville’s older brother Philip, but were making their way toward evacuation points elsewhere on the coast". Though Churchill was ecstatic that so many had been rescued - he applauded the success but also said "Wars are not won by evacuation". What were the short term goals that Churchill had at Dunkirk and what did Churchill foresee were his long range goals and why?
2. Why were Americans the target of his speech rather than his own fellow Englishmen? And why did the author humorously suggest that the Americans could safely applaud Churchill's speech suggesting through inference that the Americans were over 4000 miles away and did not have to fear an incursion by Hitler any time soon? What was Churchill trying to convey to the Americans in order to get their support?
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 56 and 57). Crown. Kindle
Edition.
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Week Four - June 15th - June 21st (pages 60 - 80)
Chapter 9: Mirror Image - 60
Chapter 10: Apparition - 61
Part Two: A Certain Eventuality - 65
Chapter 11: The Mystery of Swan Castle - 67
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Chapter 9: Mirror Image
Worries over the possibility of a "reverse Dunkirk".
Chapter 10: Apparition
Italy had declared war on Britain and France putting Churchill in a foul mood. Churchill's main preoccupation was France. He told the French since they seemed "defeated in spirit" and ready to capitulate that he could not afford sending the RAF because they would now be needed at home. Colville wants to serve. Joseph Kennedy Sr. was once again sending disparaging remarks home saying that all that England had was courage and they were not prepared. They only hoped that some incident would bring America into the war and that worried Kennedy.
Part Two: A Certain Eventuality
Chapter 11: The Mystery of Swan Castle
Churchill brought in a technology expert. The British had cracked the German Enigma Machine. Jones who was Lindemann's asst. was sure that the Germans had a secret wireless navigation system. The Germans could have planted devices in Britain (beam or possibly radio beacons installed in England by spies). The Churchills moved from Admiralty House to 10 Downing now that Chamberlain had finally moved. Odd coincidence - "Late on Saturday afternoon, June 15, Churchill dictated a telegram to President Roosevelt that contained his most ardent plea yet".
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Syllabus
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
A Note to Readers
Map
Week One - May 25th - May 31st
Bleak Expectations
Part One: The Rising Threat
Chapter 1: The Coroner Departs
Chapter 2: A Night at the Savoy
Week Two - June 1st - June 7th
Chapter 3: London and Washington
Chapter 4: Galvanized
Chapter 5: Moondread
Week Three - June 8th - June 14th
Chapter 6: Göring
Chapter 7: Sufficient Bliss
Chapter 8: The First Bombs
Week Four - June 15th - June 21st
Chapter 9: Mirror Image
Chapter 10: Apparition
Part Two: A Certain Eventuality
Chapter 11: The Mystery of Swan Castle
Week Five - June 22nd - June 28th
Chapter 12: The Ghosts of Dull People
Chapter 13: Scarification
Chapter 14: “This Queer and Deadly Game”
Week Six - June 29th - July 5th
Chapter 15: London and Berlin
Chapter 16: The Red Warning
Chapter 17: “Tofrek!”
Week Seven - July 6th - July 12th
Chapter 18: Resignation No. 1
Chapter 19: Force H
Chapter 20: Berlin
Week Eight - July 13th - July 19th
Chapter 21: Champagne and Garbo
Chapter 22: Have We Sunk So Low?
Chapter 23: What’s in a Name?
Week Nine - July 20th - July 26th
Chapter 24: The Tyrant’s Appeal
Chapter 25: The Prof’s Surprise
Chapter 26: White Gloves at Dawn
Week Ten - July 27th - August 2nd
Chapter 27: Directive No. 17
Chapter 28: “Oh, Moon, Lovely Moon” Part Three: Dread
Chapter 29: Eagle Day
Week Eleven - August 3rd - August 9th
Chapter 30: Perplexity
Chapter 31: Göring
Chapter 32: The Bomber in the Pasture
Week Twelve - August 10th -August 16th
Chapter 33: Berlin
Chapter 34: Ol’ Man River
Chapter 35: Berlin
Week Thirteen - August 17th - August 23rd
Chapter 36: Teatime
Chapter 37: The Lost Bombers
Chapter 38: Berlin
Week Fourteen - August 24th - August 30th
Chapter 39: Ah, Youth!
Chapter 40: Berlin and Washington
Chapter 41: He Is Coming
Week Fifteen- August 31st - September 6th
Chapter 42: Ominous Doings
Chapter 43: Cap Blanc-Nez
Part Four: Blood and Dust
Chapter 44: On a Quiet Blue Day
Week Sixteen - September 7th - September 13th
Chapter 45: Unpredictable Magic
Chapter 46: Sleep
Chapter 47: Terms of Imprisonment
Week Seventeen - September 14th - September 20th
Chapter 48: Berlin
Chapter 49: Fear
Chapter 50: Hess
Week Eighteen - September 21st - September 27th
Chapter 51: Sanctuary
Chapter 52: Berlin
Chapter 53: Target Churchill
Week Nineteen - September 28th - October 4th
Chapter 54: Spendthrift
Chapter 55: Washington and Berlin
Chapter 56: The Frog Speech
Week Twenty - October 5th - October 11th
Chapter 57: The Ovipositor
Chapter 58: Our Special Source
Chapter 59: A Coventry Farewell
Week Twenty-one - October 12th - October 18th
Chapter 60: Distraction
Chapter 61: Special Delivery
Chapter 62: Directive
Week Twenty-two - October 19th - October 25th
Chapter 63: That Silly Old Dollar Sign
Chapter 64: A Toad at the Gate
Chapter 44: On a Quiet Blue Day Chapter 45: Unpredictable Magic
Week Twenty-three - October 26th - November 1st
Chapter 46: Sleep
Chapter 47: Terms of Imprisonment
Chapter 48: Berlin
Week Twenty-four - November 2nd - November 8th
Chapter 49: Fear
Chapter 50: Hess
Chapter 51: Sanctuary
Week Twenty-five - November 9th - November 15th
Chapter 52: Berlin
Chapter 53: Target Churchill
Chapter 54: Spendthrift
Week Twenty-six - November 16th - November 22nd
Chapter 55: Washington and Berlin
Chapter 56: The Frog Speech
Chapter 57: The Ovipositor
Week Twenty-seven - November 23rd - November 29th
Chapter 58: Our Special Source
Chapter 59: A Coventry Farewell
Chapter 60: Distraction
Week Twenty-eight - November 30th - December 6th
Chapter 61: Special Delivery
Chapter 62: Directive
Chapter 63: That Silly Old Dollar Sign
Week Twenty-nine - December 7th - December 13th
Chapter 64: A Toad at the Gate
Chapter 65: Weihnachten
Chapter 66: Rumors
Week Thirty - December 14th - December 20th
Chapter 67: Christmas
Chapter 68: Egglayer
Chapter 69: Auld Lang Syne
Week Thirty-one - December 21st - December 27th
Part Five: The Americans
Chapter 70: Secrets
Chapter 71: The Eleven-thirty Special
Chapter 72: To Scapa Flow
Week Thirty-two - December 28th - January 3rd
Chapter 73: “Whither Thou Goest”
Chapter 74: Directive No. 23
Chapter 75: The Coming Violence
Week Thirty-three - January 4th - January 10th
Chapter 76: London, Washington, and Berlin
Chapter 77: Saturday Night
Chapter 78: The Tall Man with the Smile
Week Thirty-four - January 11th - January 17th
Chapter 79: Snakehips
Chapter 80: Bayonet Quadrille
Chapter 81: The Gambler
Week Thirty-five - January 18th - January 24th
Chapter 82: A Treat for Clementine
Chapter 83: Men
Part Six: Love amid the Flames
Chapter 84: Grave News
Week Thirty-six - January 25th - January 31st
Chapter 85: Scorn
Chapter 86: That Night at the Dorchester
Chapter 87: The White Cliffs
Week Thirty-seven - February 1st - February 7th
Chapter 88: Berlin
Chapter 89: This Scowling Valley
Chapter 90: Gloom
Week Thirty-eight - February 8th - February 14th
Chapter 91: Eric
Chapter 92: Le Coeur Dit
Chapter 93: Of Panzers and Pansies
Week Thirty-nine - February 15th - February 21st
Chapter 94: Le Coeur Encore
Chapter 95: Moonrise
Part Seven: One Year to the Day
Chapter 96: A Beam Named Anton
Week Forty - February 22nd - February 28th
Chapter 97: Interloper
Chapter 98: The Cruelest Raid
Chapter 99: A Surprise for Hitler
Week Forty-one - March 1st - March 7th
Chapter 100: Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Chapter 101: A Weekend at Chequers
Epilogue: As Time Went By
Dedication
Sources and Acknowledgments
Bibliography A Reader’s Guide
Also by Erik Larson
About the Author
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CHAPTER 9
Mirror Image
ONE THING CHURCHILL DID NOT address in his speech was an underappreciated element of the Dunkirk evacuation.
To those who cared to look, the fact that more than three hundred thousand men had managed to cross the channel in the face of concerted aerial and ground attack carried a darker lesson.
It suggested that deterring a massive German invasion force might be more difficult than British commanders had assumed, especially if that force, like the evacuation fleet at Dunkirk, was composed of many hundreds of small ships, barges, and speedboats.
Wrote General Edmund Ironside, commander of Britain’s Home Forces, “It brings me to the fact that the Bosches may equally well be able to land men in England despite [RAF] bombing.” He feared, in effect, a reverse Dunkirk.
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. This was by far one of the shortest chapters I have ever read (smile). What was the one under appreciated element of the rescue at Dunkirk? If with a formidable aerial attack going on by the Luftwaffe and yet the English were still able to rescue more than 300,000 men; what would stop the Nazis from coming to the shores of England and not being stopped by a RAF formidable attack? Why was it then called the "reverse" Dunkirk?
2. Did General Edmund Ironside have a point? Could it have been a "mirror image" or a "reverse Dunkirk"?
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 60). Crown. Kindle Edition.
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Jock Colville’s September 1941 farewell to Downing Street gathering, on the steps to the garden. Front row, left to right: Colville, Churchill, John Martin, Tony Bevir; (back row, left to right) Leslie Rowan, “Master” John Peck, Miss Watson, Commander “Tommy” Thompson, Charles Barker
CHAPTER 10
Apparition
"MONDAY, JUNE 10, FOUND CHURCHILL in a foul mood, one of those rare times when the war eroded his outward buoyancy. Italy had declared war on Britain and France, drawing from him a minatory quip: “People who go to Italy to look at ruins won’t have to go as far as Naples and Pompeii in future.”
This and the situation in France combined to make No. 10 Downing Street a stormy locale. “He was in a very bad temper,” wrote Jock Colville, “snapped almost everybody’s head off, wrote angry minutes to the First Sea Lord, and refused to pay any attention to messages given him orally.”
When Churchill was in such a mood, it was usually the person nearest at hand who caught the brunt of it, and that person was often his loyal and long-suffering detective, Inspector Thompson. “He would turn on any handy person and let off steam,” Thompson recalled. “Because I was always handy, I got a good many of these scaldings. Nothing I seemed to do appeared correct in his eyes. I bored him. The necessity of my job bored him. My everlasting ubiquity must have bored him to death. It even bored me.”
Churchill’s sniping at times disheartened Thompson, and made him feel a failure. “I kept wishing somebody would attack him so I could shoot the attacker,” he wrote."
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 61). Crown. Kindle Edition.
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. Churchill was described as a complex man - (tender hearted but gruff and sharp tongued). How did these characteristics make the character of Churchill so unforgettable? How difficult would it have been to work for and/or to be one of his subordinates?
2. What were your thoughts about Churchill's decision not to send and RAF fighters to help France because Churchill felt that France was going to give up and surrender? Do you agree with his decision?
3. Ambassador Kennedy really took a dim view of Britain and its capabilities - calling both "Pitiful". Do you agree with Kennedy's viewpoint - why or why not? And why was Kennedy so down on Britain?
4. Dr. Reginald Jones has a discussion with scientific advisor Frederick Lindemann about a technological breakthrough by the Germans. How could this German breakthrough (if not discovered by Jones) created havoc for Britain?
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Field Marshal Lord Ironside
Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside (right) with Lord Gort (left) at the War Office in 1940
Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside GCB, CMG, DSO, (6 May 1880 - 22 September 1959) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War.
Ironside joined the Royal Artillery in 1899, and served throughout the Boer War, followed by a brief period spying on the German colonial forces in South-West Africa. Returning to regular duty, he served on the staff of a Regular Army division during the first two years of the First World War, before being appointed as the chief of staff to the newly raised 4th Canadian Division in 1916. In 1918 he was given command of a brigade on the Western Front, but was quickly promoted to command the Allied intervention force in northern Russia in 1919, then an Allied force occupying Turkey, and finally a British force in Persia in 1921. He was offered the post of the commander of British forces in Iraq, but was unable to take up the role due to injuries in a flying accident.
He returned to the Army as commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, where he became an advocate for the ideas of J. F. C. Fuller, a proponent of mechanisation. He later commanded a division, and military districts in both Britain and India, but his youth and his blunt approach limited his career prospects, and after being passed over for the role of Chief of the Imperial General Staff ('CIGS') in 1937 he became Governor of Gibraltar, a traditional staging post to retirement. He was recalled from "exile" in mid-1939, and appointed as Inspector-General of Overseas Forces, a role which led most observers to expect he would be given the command of the British Expeditionary Force on the outbreak of war.
However, after some political manoeuvering, Lord Gort was given this command, and Ironside appointed as the new CIGS. He himself believed that he was temperamentally unsuited to the job, but felt obliged to accept it. In early 1940 he argued heavily for Allied intervention in Scandinavia, but this plan was shelved at the last minute when the Finnish-Soviet Winter War ended. During the invasion of Norway and the Battle of France he played little part; his involvement in the latter was limited by a breakdown in relations between him and Gort. He was replaced as CIGS at the end of May, and given a role to which he was more suited; Commander-in-Chief Home Forces, responsible for anti-invasion defences and for commanding the Army in the event of German landings. However, he served less than two months in this role before being replaced. After this, Ironside was promoted to field-marshal and given a peerage, as Baron Ironside; he retired to Norfolk to write, and never again saw active service or held an official position.
Remainder of article:
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Edmun...
More:
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_...
https://www.unithistories.com/officer...
http://www.generals.dk/general/Ironsi...
General Ironside - Political storm about official secrets about Sandy
Link to historic video: https://youtu.be/MftKNwp9lz0
by
John Keegan
by T.A. Heathcote (no photo) Sources: Wikia.org, Wikimedia, WarHistoryOnline
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Walter Thompson - Churchill's Bodyguard
Detective Inspector Walter Henry Thompson was the bodyguard of Winston Churchill for 18 years between 1921 and 1945, being recalled from semi-retirement running a grocer's shop with his wife by a telegram from Churchill on 22 August 1939 reading "Meet me Croydon Aerodrome 4.30pm Wednesday Churchill."
Although at that time Churchill had no official position in government, as the leading anti-appeaser he was aware of the prevailing risk to his life from assassins (particularly the Nazis) and he personally engaged Thompson to protect him at a rate of £5 per week with Scotland Yard continuing to pay his salary. Thompson resumed his official duties with Scotland Yard, being assigned to protect Churchill, when Churchill rejoined the Cabinet on the outbreak of war.
During his time with Churchill, Thompson travelled over 200,000 miles and is reported to have saved Churchill's life on some 20 occasions, including times when Churchill's own foolhardiness exposed him to danger from shrapnel during the Blitz, plots by the IRA, Indian nationalists, Arab nationalists, Nazi agents, Greek Communists and the deranged.
The stress of his duties during his time with Churchill caused Thompson to suffer a breakdown, which took him away from Churchill, but within weeks, Thompson had recuperated and returned to his duties. The stress of the job, compounded by long absences away from his family, led to the dissolution of Thompson's first marriage in 1929 and during the war he married Churchill's junior secretary, May Shearburn.
In June 1945, with Churchill out of office and Thompson about to retire for a second time from the Metropolitan Police, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and Downing Street decided that it would be improper for him to publish his memoirs for the foreseeable future and threatened Thompson with the loss of his police pension if it was published, even though he had nearly completed a 350,000 word manuscript. An expurgated version, 'I was Churchill's Shadow' was published in the 1950s, but the full manuscript was discovered only after Thompson's death, by his great-niece Linda Stoker.
For his service in protection of Churchill and to his country, Thompson was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1945.
He died of cancer on 18 January 1978, aged 87 years.
More:
https://winstonchurchill.org/publicat...
A Wonderful Account by Inspector Thompson at Winston Churchill's Funeral - Video
Link to Video: http://www.winstonchurchillcanada.ca/...
Part of Documentary - Churchill's Bodyguard - Episode 3 : Nearly Killed in New York
Link to Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR-VU...
Churchill's Bodyguard S01E01 Walter Meets Winston (Entertaining and informative - archival videos are the real Thompson - the narration's words are all Thompson's but there is an actor narrating - same for the full series)
Full Video: https://youtu.be/Q5F81iD_7lI
Churchill's Bodyguard S01E02 Lawrence and Walter Save the Day
Full Video:https://youtu.be/Rp6Jr7V6v_o
by
Walter Thompson(no image) Sixty minutes with Winston Churchillby W. H. Thomson (no photo)
Inspector Thompson
Police Inspector Walter H. Thompson of Special Branch, September 1942. Thompson was bodyguard to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from 1930-32 and throughout World War Two, accompanying Churchill on trips to Russia, the U.S. and the Middle East. (Photo by H. F. Davis/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Sources: Getty Images, Winston Churchill.org, International Churchill Society - Canada, Youtube
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Churchill quote: “Max is a good friend in foul weather [commonly misquoted as ‘foul-weather friend’]. Then, when things are going well, he will have a bloody row with you over nothing.”
“Some people take drugs,” Churchill quipped: “I take Max.”
Beaverbrook quote: Late in life he reflected, rather revealingly: “Churchill was always a better friend to his friends than they were to him.” He applied this observation, according to A.J.P. Taylor, even to himself.
Business/Political Personalities, pic: 1940's, Lord Beaverbrook, portrait, UPH, Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964) was a newspaper magnate and politician, founder of the Sunday Express and in politics Lord Privy Seal and Minister of Supply. (Photo by Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Lord Beaverbrook -Library of Congress
William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, financier, politician, author, publisher (b at Maple, Ont 25 May 1879; d at Cherkley, Mickleham, Eng 9 June 1964). The son of a Presbyterian minister, Beaverbrook later claimed that his religion lay at the root of his worldly success. In 1880 his family moved to Newcastle, NB. A clever if mischievous boy, "Max" displayed a passion for money-making. He dabbled in journalism and sold insurance before becoming a clerk in a Chatham, NB, law office. There he began his lifelong friendships with R.B. Bennet and James Dunn. In 1897 he abandoned law school to follow them to Calgary, where he operated a bowling alley and then moved to Edmonton before returning to the Maritimes.
In 1900 he began selling bonds, particularly those of expanding industries and Canadian-based utilities. He joined the Royal Securities Corp as manager in 1903 and within 5 years was a millionaire. He moved to Montréal and concentrated on promoting new companies and merging old ones, his most notable creations being Stelco and Canada Cement.
In 1910 he moved to London, Eng, where he pursued his business interests and entered politics. Guided by Andrew Bonar Law, Aitken won a seat for the Conservatives in the second general election of 1910. He championed tariffs and imperial unity and was knighted in 1911. During WWI he represented the Canadian government at the front and wrote Canada in Flanders. His aptitude for political tactics was revealed by his part in Lloyd George's accession as PM. In 1917 he was made a peer, taking the title Beaverbrook after a stream near his Canadian home. He became minister of information in 1918.
After the war, Beaverbrook left politics and established a chain of British newspapers. He bought the Daily Express and the Evening Standard and created the Sunday Express. He also wrote books on his wartime experiences. In 1929 he spearheaded the Empire Free Trade movement, though the idea found little support in the protectionist climate of the 1930s.
As minister of aircraft production in Churchill's wartime government, Beaverbrook galvanized the aircraft industry. Other wartime appointments followed, but despite his bullish determination Beaverbrook lacked the temperament for lasting political success and left politics in 1945. After the war, he supervised his newspapers and wrote memoirs and biographies of his influential friends.
More:
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.ed...
https://mailchi.mp/winstonchurchill/c...
Lord Beaverbrook speaks on the need for more tanks and the important role they play in modern warfare - "We want Tanks!"
Link to historic video: https://youtu.be/e56NVGe8rF4
David Dickson - Remembering Lord Beaverbrook
Link to video: https://youtu.be/rpNaP0n8JRc
Business Tycoon, Politician, Media Mogul, Writer, Financier: Lord Beaverbrook Biography (1993)
Link to interview: https://youtu.be/oRKqjM2Qyws
Lord Beaverbrook Honoured (1964)
Link to archival video: https://youtu.be/MujgJ9Q7C_o
Lord Beaverbrook by David Adams Richards
Link to video: https://youtu.be/EWCEl0UfxZU
Althea Macauley - Remembering Lord Beaverbrook
Link to interview/video: https://youtu.be/pEOSjGLI7TM
Lord Beaverbrook (1920-1929)
Link to video: https://youtu.be/emsylbRoDJs
Lord Beaverbrook Interview - Talks to Press in America
Link to historic video: https://youtu.be/GJAv-DTc2aE
Press barons Part 3 Lord Beaverbrook
Link to documentary: https://youtu.be/wBD2kbuy_n0
Lord Beaverbrook On Clydeside - In his talks with engineers of Clydeside makes a demand for greater production.
Link to historic video: https://youtu.be/oarbKElYRgU
Beaverbrook and Churchill aboard HMS Prince of Wales during the Atlantic Charter meeting with Roosevelt, Argentia Bay, August 1941.
The Hillsdale article stated - "On 14 May 1940, four days after he had become prime minister and the Germans had launched their invasion of western Europe, Winston Churchill announced his cabinet appointments. One of the most important was his selection of Lord Beaverbrook to head the Ministry of Aircraft Production. The appointment was made despite the hostility, if not outright hatred, that Beaverbrook provoked in many quarters, not least from Churchill’s wife Clementine.
But Churchill had known Beaverbrook for three decades. He recognized that this newly created, all-vital ministry required a chief of Beaverbrook’s qualities. With Britain’s survival in the balance, Beaverbrook would have the energy, determination, and “dynamism” to break all the rules as he sought rapidly to increase fighter and bomber manufacture. The appointment was the culmination of a long, turbulent relationship between the two, which, over the past three decades, had seen ups and downs, disagreements and arguments, and even “social coolness.”
by Max Aitken Beaverbrook (no photo)
by Kenneth Young (no photo)
by Richard M. Langworth (no photo)
by Bradley P. Tolppanen (no photo)
by Anne Chisholm (no photo)
by
A.J.P. Taylor
by
David Adams Richards
by
Winston S. ChurchillSources: Library of Congress, History Today. Time Magazine, Wikipedia, Getty Images, Hillsdale, Winston Churchill Blog, Youtube
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Sir Alexander Cadogan, Permanent Under Secretary of the British Foreign Office leave Gatow Airport in Berlin, Germany for the Potsdam Conference area. From Potsdam album, 1945. Date: July 15, 1945 Institutional Creator: United States Army Signal Corps
Sir Alexander Montagu George Cadogan OM GCMG KCB (25 November 1884 – 9 July 1968) was a British diplomat and civil servant. He was Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1938 to 1946.
His long tenure of the Permanent Secretary's office makes him one of the central figures of British policy before and during the Second World War. His diaries are a source of great value and give a sharp sense of the man and his life.
Like most senior officials at the Foreign Office, he was bitterly critical of the appeasement policies of the 1930s but admitted that until British rearmament was better advanced, there were few other options.
In particular, he stressed that without an American commitment to joint defense against Japan, Britain would be torn between the eastern and western spheres. Conflict with Germany would automatically expose Britain's Asian Empire to Japanese aggression.
Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand...
More:
https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/2016/f...
Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh and Sir Alexander Cadogan enter BBC Broadcasting House and meet Vice Chairman Lord Tedder, Director General Sir Iain Jacob and Sir Basil Nicholls. 1953. (Core Number: ANB0727Y)
Link to historic video: https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/vid...
Allies Dumbarton Oaks Conference - Russian Ambassador Arrives
Soviet plane arrives in America / Ambassador Andrei Gromyko steps out and is greeted by Allied political figures and solders / exterior of Dumbarton Oaks is shown as a car pulls up / the Allied representatives arrive at Dumbarton Oaks / a large group of cameramen film the conference / Russian, British, and American delegates pose outside, sit at a table to discuss international peace and postwar relations. (August 21, 1944)
Link to historic video: https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/vid...
by Alexander Cadogan (no photo)Sources: Wikipedia, Churchill College - Cambridge, Getty Images, Youtube
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Link to article and video: https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.o...
The video shows the London Blitz and how they were under siege with the relentless bombing by Luftwaffe.
Source: National Churchill Museum
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Telegram to Churchill - Collision equivalent falling thirty feet onto pavement, equal six thousand foot pounds of energy. Equivalent stopping ten pound brick dropped six hundred feet, or two charges buckshot pointblank range. Shock probably proportional rate energy transferred. Rate inversely proportional thickness cushion surrounding skeleton and give of frame. If assume average one inch, your body transferred during impact at rate eight thousand horsepower. Congratulations on preparing suitable cushion, and skill in taking bump. (Professor Lindemann to Winston S. Churchill, telegram, 30 December 1931 when Churchill was struck by car in NYC)
Image: (Left to right) Professor Lindemann, Winston Churchill and Dr .D.A Crow (Chief Superintendent, Projectile Development, Ministry of Supply), with Vice Admiral Tom Phillips in the background, watching a demonstration of a secret anti-aircraft device at an experimental establishment at Holt, Norfolk, 1940. (Imperial War Museum)
Remainder of article:
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.ed...
More:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
by Adrian Fort (no photo)Sources: Imperial War Museum, Hillsdale College - The Churchill Project, Scientific American
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Week Four - June 15th - June 21st (pages 60 - 80)
✓Chapter 9: Mirror Image - 60 - Completed moderator entries, discussion topics and questions, ancillary info, videos, articles, books, images and moderator posts
✓Chapter 10: Apparition - 61 - Completed moderator entries, discussion topics and questions, ancillary info, videos, articles, books, images and moderator posts
✓Part Two: A Certain Eventuality - 65 - Completed page 65
Chapter 11: The Mystery of Swan Castle - 67 - To begin later this week
Please post about the book up through the end of chapter 11 without spoilers.
Good night!
Bentley
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CHAPTER 11
The Mystery of Swan Castle
'THE PROF—LINDEMANN—LISTENED WITH growing skepticism. What Dr. Jones, the young air force intelligence man, was now proposing went against all that physicists understood about the propagation of radio waves over long distances.
The bits of intelligence Jones presented were compelling, but they surely meant something other than what Jones imagined. It was the Prof’s job to assess the world with scientific objectivity.
Fifty-four years old, an Oxford physicist, he was one of the first men Churchill had brought into his ministry, in accord with the prime minister’s belief that in this new war, advances in technology would play an important role. This had already proved the case with radar, a happy by-product of far less successful research into the feasibility of creating a “death ray” capable of destroying aircraft outright.
Likewise, the British were becoming adept at intercepting and decrypting Luftwaffe communications, these processed at Bletchley Park, the ultrasecret home of the Government Code and Cypher School, where codebreakers had cracked the secrets of the German “Enigma” encryption machine.
Lindemann had previously run an Admiralty office established to provide Churchill, as first lord, with as rich a grasp as possible of the day-to-day readiness of the Royal Navy. Immediately after becoming prime minister, Churchill put Lindemann in charge of a successor bureau with a much broader purview, the Prime Minister’s Statistical Department, and made him his special scientific adviser, with the formal title of personal assistant to the prime minister.
Together the two roles gave Lindemann license to explore any scientific, technical, or economic matter that might influence the progress of the war, a compelling mandate but one certain to ignite jealousy within the ministerial fiefdoms of Whitehall.
What further complicated things was Lindemann himself, whose main achievement, according to foreign-affairs undersecretary Cadogan, “was to unite against him any body of men with whom he came in contact.”
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (pp. 67-68). Crown. Kindle Edition, The National Review
More:
How the Duke of Marlborough Inspired Winston Churchill to Greatness - by Moshe WanderLink to article: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/0...
by
Winston S. ChurchillDiscussion Topics and Questions:
1. What was Doctor Lindemann like? Why would Churchill choose him to lead such an important role as scientific advisor and be a personal assistant to the Prime Minister? What characteristics do you think Winston Churchill saw in him?
2 Were you worried that Lindemann was going to squelch Jones because of his "superiority" complex regarding his background and expertise? How did Lindemann surprise you and what did Churchill do when he got the information? How critical was Jones' discovery to the outcome of World War II?
3. Did it surprise you that Lindemann got away with such "racist tendencies"? And worse still nobody admonished him for it?
4. It has been written in some articles that Winston Churchill was inspired by the actions of his 6th great grandfather - the first Duke of Marlborough and that reading Churchill's account of his 6th great grandfather - provides "insight into Churchill’s courageous stand against Nazi Germany in the years before the Second World War". Do you agree?
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His Obituary: - The Washington Post
Reginald V. Jones, 86, a British physicist and expert in electronic espionage who during World War II developed methods for jamming Nazi radio-beam targeting of bomb sites in Britain, died of cardiac arrest Dec. 17 at a hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Mr. Jones was also the inventor of the radar-thwarting device known as "chaff," in which millions of strips of tinfoil are dropped from aircraft, effectively blinding enemy radar systems. He was described by former CIA director R. James Woolsey yesterday as "the father of modern scientific and technical intelligence."
Mr. Jones, a professor emeritus at the University of Aberdeen, was the assistant director of Royal Air Force intelligence during the war and scientific adviser to the chief of British intelligence. He analyzed data, supervised spies on the European continent and directed bombing raids on critical German war production facilities.
He became a close friend of Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston S. Churchill, and he returned to government service as an intelligence aide to the prime minister when Churchill regained leadership of the British government in the 1950s.
In a formal statement yesterday, CIA Director George J. Tenet called Mr. Jones "an extraordinarily gifted scientist whose ingenuity and resourcefulness contributed greatly to the Allied victory in World War II." In 1993, the CIA established a perpetual intelligence medal in Mr. Jones's name for "scientific acumen, applied with art in the name of freedom."
As one of the first young scientists to serve in the secret technology war with Nazi Germany, Mr. Jones postulated early on that the Germans were developing radar beams to guide aircraft on their nighttime raids against British cities, and he delivered this warning to Churchill.
Later, with Churchill's support and urging, Mr. Jones figured out how the Nazis were intersecting those radio beams to guide Luftwaffe pilots to important targets, and he devised a way to jam and slightly misdirect the beams. This led many German pilots to drop their bombs into woods or empty fields. These measures and countermeasures came to be known as "the battle of the beams."
In his discovery of the radar-thwarting chaff, Mr. Jones determined in an operation code-named "Window," that strips of tinfoil trimmed to radio frequency lengths would the blind radar defense systems of enemy forces on the ground. But the British did not immediately use the technique, fearing the Germans would copy it and employ similar measures on raids against England.
But on the night of July 24, 1943, Allied bombers dumped 92 million tinfoil strips over Germany during an air raid by 743 aircraft. The tactic turned German radar screens into a miasma of puzzling images, making it appear that as many as 11,000 planes were attacking Nazi positions.
Born in a tough section of London, Mr. Jones won a scholarship to Oxford in 1929, and by age 23, he already had received a doctorate in physics.
He initially had planned to be an astronomer, but he was lured into intelligence work by an academic colleague and was assigned in 1938 to a group of scientists trying to figure out whether the Germans had radar. Mr. Jones concluded they did.
A creative practical joker in his personal life, Mr. Jones loved elaborate hoaxes, and he saw no reason why they could not be used against Germany. He once delivered a paper to the Royal Society on "practical jokes, hoaxes and warfare."
To keep the Germans from finding out the British had broken their submarine code, Mr. Jones devised an elaborate ruse to make the Nazis think that British forces were using a new and highly secret infrared sensor to track Nazi submarines in the Atlantic.
From 1946 until he retired in 1981, Mr. Jones was on the faculty of the University of Aberdeen, but he continued doing intelligence work. This included the development of a variety of electronic eavesdropping devices, including one that he called a "harmonica bug."
In that operation, a tiny listening device is inserted into a telephone and is then activated by the eavesdropper who dials the telephone number and blows a predetermined note on a harmonica. The harmonica note stops the phone from ringing and activates the listening device, enabling it to pick up any conversation in the room.
That Mr. Jones would choose to activate the listening device with a harmonica was not surprising. He was an accomplished harmonica player. Former CIA chief Woolsey recalled dining with him once at a Capitol Hill restaurant when, at the end of dinner, Mr. Jones pulled a harmonica from his pocket and played a medley of Scottish airs for the other diners. "He was a delightful, whimsical man," Woolsey said.
Mr. Jones's wife, Vera, and a daughter died in 1992.
He is survived by two other children.
More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ob...
by R.V. Jones (no photo)Sources: The Washington Post, The Independent
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World War II: Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park, a country house in Buckinghamshire, was bought by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1938 as a site to which the Government Code & Cypher School and MI6 could be evacuated when war came. It was widely expected that London would be the target of a massive aerial assault at the very start of any war
Link to site: https://www.gchq.gov.uk/information/w...
More:
The British people rose to the challenge': Queen salutes heroes of Bletchley Park 70 years after they cracked code that helped win World War Two
Link to article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
Fascinated: Watched by veteren Ruth Bourne, the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip examine a World War Two German Enigma encoding machine
Getting the message: One of Bletchley Park's computing machines in action during World War Two
Sources: GCHQ, The Daily Mail
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WWII photo German operators with Enigma encryption machine 655
The Enigma machine was created for Germany by Arthur Scherbius in World War I. It is a cypher machine: a way of changing the letters of a message so that it appears to be scrambled letters (or, random letters).
Each time a letter is typed, it appears as another letter in the alphabet. The choices are not random. They are decided by a series of rotors which are set each day to a different starting set-up. Every press of a key turns the rotors to a new position.
German military messages done on the Enigma machine were first broken by the Polish Cipher Bureau, beginning in December 1932. Later, they designed mechanical devices for breaking Enigma cyphers. From 1938 more complexity was added to the Enigma machines, making decryption more difficult.
On 25 July 1939, in Warsaw, the Poles showed French and British intelligence agents their cryptanalysis of the Enigma, and promised each delegation a Polish-built Enigma. The demonstration was a vital start for the later British work at Bletchley Park.
"Hut 6 Ultra would never have got off the ground if we had not learned from the Poles, in the nick of time, the details both of the German military version of the commercial Enigma machine, and of the operating procedures that were in use". Gordon Welchman, The Hut Six Story, 1982, p. 289.
During the invasion of Poland (1939) the Polish codebreakers were sent to France for safety. Later, they fled to Britain. Making technical improvements, British codebreakers solved a vast number of messages from Enigma, and gave the plaintext to military staff. The information got from this, called "Ultra" by the British, was a great help to the Allied war effort. Ultra also included decrypts of other German, Italian and Japanese cyphers and codes, including the cypher of the German High Command.
Mistakes by German operators helped the cryptanalysis of Luftwaffe Enigmas, and the British capture of key tables and a machine from a German submarine helped in cracking Navy ones.[1][2]
On 15th July 2011, Queen Elizabeth II visited Bletchley Park, where the machine is kept in the Museum, to pay tribute to those who worked there, since they cut short the war by breaking the cyphers of Nazi Germany.
More:
by Gordon Welchman (no photo)
by David Kahn (no photo)
Honoured: The Queen speaks with senior codebreaker Captain Jerry Roberts as he explains how one of the code-breaking machines worked
Source: Wikipedia
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Week Four - June 15th - June 21st (pages 60 - 80)
✓Chapter 9: Mirror Image - 60 - Completed moderator entries, discussion topics and questions, ancillary info, videos, articles, books, images and moderator posts
✓Chapter 10: Apparition - 61 - Completed moderator entries, discussion topics and questions, ancillary info, videos, articles, books, images and moderator posts
✓Part Two: A Certain Eventuality - 65 - Completed page 65
✓Chapter 11: The Mystery of Swan Castle - 67 - Completed moderator entries, discussion topics and questions, ancillary info, videos, articles, books, images and moderator posts
Please post about the book up through the end of chapter 11 without spoilers.
Good night!
Bentley
Mod
Week Five - June 22nd - June 28th
Chapter 12: The Ghosts of Dull People
Chapter 13: Scarification
Chapter 14: “This Queer and Deadly Game”
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Chapter 12: The Ghosts of Dull People
Sir Arthur Lee had left Chequers for the relaxation of future prime ministers. And Prime Minister Churchill enjoyed his time there - but as soon as he was awake - the house and its occupants had jobs to follow. France was about to capitulate. Churchill worried about the French Navy. Lloyd George attributed Chong's growling at Chequers to "the ghosts of dull people".
Chapter 13: Scarification
Churchill contemplated that if the French Navy was left to fall into the hands of the Germans; that this would result in the scarification of the French for a thousand years! France surrenders, Churchill is in a bad mood. The Lancastria was bombed by the Germans. Beaverbrook was moving production along (aircraft).
Chapter 14: "This Queer and Deadly Game"
Churchill wanted his staff to take seriously - "this queer and deadly game" being played by the Germans regarding the German beams. This edict caused great unrest and some resignations. Jones proves his theory correct and finally can celebrate the proven hypothesis.
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Lee's Chequers estate 1909-1921
CHAPTER 12
The Ghosts of Dull People
THE THREE BLACK DAIMLERS SPED through the countryside, in fading light. Churchill liked to go fast. With luck and daring, his driver could cover the distance from Downing Street to Chequers in an hour; if he did it in fifty minutes, a feat that required running traffic lights and ignoring rights-of-way, he won Churchill’s generous praise.
On one return trip he was said to have hit seventy miles per hour—this in an age when cars had no seatbelts. Churchill was invariably accompanied in the back seat by a typist, whom the ride could be hair-raising.
Wrote secretary Elizabeth Layton, of a later experience: “One would sit with book balanced on one knee, scribbling hard, one’s left hand holding spare pencils, his glasses’ case or an extra cigar, sometimes with one’s foot keeping open his precious Box, which otherwise would have slammed shut as we swung around a corner.”
Shorthand was allowed only in cars; the rest of the time, Churchill’s dictation had to be typed. Inspector Thompson came along as well, his anxiety rising as he approached the house, which he deemed an ideal setting for an assassination.
Owing to the thoughtful gift of its prior owner, Sir Arthur Lee, the house, a large Tudor mansion of turmeric-hued brick, had been the official country home of British prime ministers since 1917, when Lee gave it to the government. “A police officer, even with his health and a revolver, could feel very alone there,” Thompson wrote. “And very unsafe.”
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. Did you think that Churchill took enormous chances with his life by trying to have his chauffeur drive fast and then going to Chequers where his life could be in danger?
Also, how sound was the decision to take all of his important staff and heads of various war efforts on a trip to France when the night before the same air field had been bombed by the Germans?
At the time, I guess they did not have the equivalent of the Secret Service who would have advised against such reckless actions? What were your thoughts about the French airmen acting as if there was no war going on and that their country was not in grave danger when Churchill arrived to announce that he was the Prime Minister. Didn't you think that these were odd times when there was nobody to greet the British entourage?
And at these perilous times, there were only two French dignitaries to greet the Brits after making such a dangerous trip especially since they seemed to still be asking for RAF cover? I thought the situation most strange and wondered if any of the other group readers thought similarly?
Also the poor and ever suffering Inspector Thompson who had to put up with Churchill's antics. How hair raising must have been his daily experiences trying to keep Churchill safe? In what ways could Churchill have been a better charge? And Clementine must have been worried constantly about what Churchill was up to and the chances he was taking. Your thoughts?
2. After Clementine once criticized his drinking, he told her, “Always remember, Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” What were your thoughts about Churchill's drinking?
3. Regarding this quote when Colville found Churchill in the Rose Garden and told him that France's surrender was imminent: Churchill said, “Tell them…that if they let us have their fleet we shall never forget, but that if they surrender without consulting us we shall never forgive. We shall blacken their name for a thousand years!” He paused, then added, “Don’t, of course, do that just yet.” Why did Churchill pause and take note and then said not to do it just yet? What was Churchill waiting for and why the check or pause on his own directive?
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 80 - 84). Crown. Kindle Edition.
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Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham, GCB, GCSI, GBE, PC (8 November 1868 – 21 July 1947), was an English soldier, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. After military postings and an assignment to the British Embassy in Washington, he retired from the military in 1900.
He entered politics, was first elected in 1900, and later served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and First Lord of the Admiralty following the First World War.
He donated his country house, Chequers, to the nation as a retreat for the Prime Minister, and co-founded the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_...
More:
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abb...
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/se...
Inside Chequers: The prime minister's country retreat at the heart of British government for a century - Rather like the office of the prime minister itself, as one former premier, Herbert Asquith, put it, the country residence ‘is what the holder chooses and is able to make of it’
Link to article: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...
(no image) A Good Innings: The Private Papers Of Viscount Lee Of Fareham by Arthur Hamilton Lee (no photo)
Chequers in 2006
Sources: Wikipedia, Westminster Abbey, National Portrait Gallery, The Independent
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Photo credit: The Chequers Trust
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Prime Minister David Loyd George with his chow Chong
"The house, he said, was “full of the ghosts of dull people,” and this, he mused, might explain why his dog, Chong, tended to growl in the Long Gallery."
Source of quote: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 82). Crown. Kindle Edition.
The Primeminister was keen on the Chow Chow breed of dog and had a particular favourite known as ‘Y Chow Du’ [The Black Chow]. He owned 3 Chows that I have discovered so far. Bandy, Beauty, and Chong. This photo above came from a 1927 German bookplate which is also below.
David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was a liberal British statesman who became prime minister during World War I.
After earning election to the House of Commons in 1890, he was named chancellor of the exchequer in 1908, and introduced health and unemployment benefits with the National Insurance Act of 1911. Lloyd George became minister of munitions early in World War I, eventually taking over as war minister before becoming prime minister in December 1916.
After retiring from the post in 1922, he served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1926 to 1931. Shortly before his death, he was elevated to the peerage as Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor.
More:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe...
David Lloyd George: the Welshman who won World War
Link: https://theconversation.com/david-llo...
Lloyd George quits as PM
Link to Video: https://youtu.be/p6k8-GV69no
David Lloyd George and the People's Budget of 1909
Link to Video: https://youtu.be/ZHNrKVTyY6U
Dan Snow on Lloyd George Full BBC Documentary 2016
Link to Documentary: https://youtu.be/0d8lQGquWfs
David Lloyd George at White House, Washington, D.C. 1923. Courtesy: Library of Congress
Sources: Sandra Miller at ChowTales.com, Hutchinson's Dog Encycopedia, Youtube
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Flanagan and Allen
"The song would become immeasurably more popular later in the war when Flanagan and Allen substituted “Adolf” for “rabbit.”
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 84). Crown. Kindle Edition.
Link to song: https://youtu.be/SXmk8dbFv_o
On the farm, every Friday
On the farm, it's rabbit pie day.
So, every Friday that ever comes along,
I get up early and sing this little song
Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Goes the farmer's gun.
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run.
Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
Don't give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun!
He'll get by
Without his rabbit pie
So run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
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CHAPTER 13
Scarification
"AT SEVEN-THIRTY ON SUNDAY MORNING, upon learning that Churchill was awake, Colville brought him the latest report on the French situation, which had arrived earlier both over the telephone and in the form of a document delivered by courier. Colville brought the messages to Churchill’s room. Churchill was in bed, “looking just like a rather nice pig, clad in a silk vest.” Churchill decided to convene a special cabinet meeting at ten-fifteen that morning, in London. As Churchill breakfasted in bed, his valet, Sawyers, ran his bath, and the house roused to action. Mrs. Hill readied her portable typewriter. Inspector Thompson checked for assassins. Churchill’s driver prepared the car. Colville raced to dress and pack, and rushed through his breakfast.
They sped back to London through heavy rain, splashing through stoplights and hurtling along the Mall at high speed, with Churchill all the while dictating minutes to Mrs. Hill and generating a morning’s worth of work for Colville and his fellow private secretaries.
Churchill arrived at 10 Downing Street just as his cabinet ministers were gathering. The meeting resulted in a telegram to the French, sent at twelve thirty-five P.M., authorizing France to inquire about the terms of an armistice on its own behalf, “provided, but only provided, that the French Fleet is sailed forthwith for British harbors pending negotiations.” The telegram made clear that Britain planned to fight on, and would not participate in any deliberations that France pursued with Germany.
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 86). Crown. Kindle Edition.
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. At 7:30 AM - everyone shot into action when Churchill was awake, Colville brought the French situation, his valet ran his bath, the house was readied to action, the driver prepared the car, Colville dressed and packed and Inspector Thompson checked for assassins (not a laughing matter but I laughed at the commotion). What effect did Churchill have upon those around him?
2. What do you think was Churchill's plan in having the French pretend to inquire about the terms of an armistice on its own behalf provided that the French fleet sail forthwith for British harbors pending negotiations because the telegraph made clear that Britain planned to fight on, and would not participate in any deliberations that France pursued with Germany. How could Churchill be so sure that the French would not tell the Germans of the ruse?
3. Why were there doubts about Jones's theory that the Germans had a new beam navigation system?
4. Why the change in command of France? And why was Air Marshal Dowding relieved that France was out of the picture? And if the day could not get any bleaker - the Lancastria with more than 6700 British soldiers was attacked and bombed - with at least 4000 lives lost. Why did Churchill have the news withheld - what was the reason do you think?
5. What I found interesting was Lord Beaverbrook's bevy of unsent mail? Why do you think that Beaverbrook kept the drafts but never sent them?
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Nurse Doris Miles
Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
More:
by
Winston S. Churchill
by Jill Rose (no photo)Source: The Daily Mail
Just got my hands on the book. Will start reading it tomorrow.
Mod
I think you will enjoy it.
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CHAPTER 14
“This Queer and Deadly Game”
THAT AFTERNOON, TUESDAY, JUNE 18, at 3:49 P.M., Churchill stood before the House of Commons to address the French debacle, delivering a speech he would repeat that evening in a radio broadcast to the public. This speech, too, would go down as one of the great moments in oratory, at least as he delivered it in the House of Commons.
Churchill spoke of parachute troops and airborne airborne landings and of bombing attacks “which will certainly be made very soon upon us.” While Germany had more bombers, he said, Britain had bombers too, and would deploy them “without intermission” to attack military targets in Germany. He reminded his audience that Britain had a navy. “Some people seem to forget that,” he said. He made no attempt, however, to skirt the true meaning of the French collapse. The “Battle of France” was over, he said, adding, “I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” At stake was not only the British Empire but all of Christian civilization. “The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.”
He marched toward his climax: “If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science.”
He issued an appeal to the greater spirit of Britons everywhere. “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ ”
Arguably, this was Churchill’s finest as well, and so it would have remained had he taken the recommendation of his minister of information to broadcast the speech live from the House chamber. As Home Intelligence had found, the public needed to hear from Churchill himself about the French fiasco and what it meant for Britain’s prospects in the war. But the process of arranging a broadcast from the House, including a necessary vote of approval by members, proved too daunting.
Churchill agreed, with reluctance, to do a separate broadcast that night. The ministry expected him to write something new, but, with a child’s contrariness, he decided simply to reread the speech he had delivered in the Commons. Although public reaction as measured through Mass-Observation and Home Intelligence reports varied, one consistent theme was criticism of Churchill’s delivery.
“Some suggested he was drunk,” Mass-Observation reported on Wednesday, June 19, “others that he did not himself feel the confidence he was proclaiming. A few thought he was tired. It would seem that the delivery to some extent counteracted the contents of the speech.” Cecil King, editorial director of the Daily Mirror, wrote in his diary, “Whether he was drunk or all-in from sheer fatigue, I don’t know, but it was the poorest possible effort on an occasion when he should have produced the finest speech of his life.”
One listener went so far as to send a telegram to 10 Downing Street warning that Churchill sounded as though he had a heart condition, and recommended he work lying down.
As it happened, the problem was largely mechanical. Churchill had insisted on reading the speech with a cigar clenched in his mouth.
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 92, 93, 93). Crown. Kindle Edition.
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. Why did Churchill not have the "Finest Hour" speech broadcast live from the House chamber? That would have been so much more powerful. Why would a vote have been daunting? And why did Churchill read this very same speech to the public? Also, didn't you think that the Germans might have had the capability to listen to the speech that Churchill was giving and then understood then his strategy? Don't you think that Churchill sounds tired - he is clearing his throat - then he pauses and then clears his throat again and he sounds like he is swallowing again - supposedly he gave the speech with a cigar clenched his mouth (smile)? What are your thoughts about this speech being given to the public? Does it reveal too much?
2. Let us turn our attention to the very powerful last paragraph of the speech:
'What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
a) What segment of this paragraph did you find the most powerful and why and how did Churchill build his speech to end up with the last line: "This was their finest hour". How did Churchill lay out his arguments, tell his people the bad news; yet give them hope and still end with "lofty inspiration"?
3. Loyalty to friends was important to Churchill - Beaverbrook even had admitted near the end of his life that Churchill had been a far better friend to his friends than some of them had been to him and when Churchill blew his top and said the following you could understand that: - In an aside to his own parliamentary secretary, Churchill said, “Love me, love my dog, and if you don’t love my dog you damn well can’t love me.” What scene prompted this outburst?
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 96). Crown. Kindle Edition.
4. Jones was late to the meeting - he thought the invitation was a joke. But then he arrived to find the prime minister and the heads of all of the various divisions in the war room and he was the main guest. How did Jones carry himself? Why was the story that Jones told the darkest and one of the blackest moments of the war for Churchill? Churchill knew that at night - the RAF was powerless to intercept the German aircraft. Churchill asked Jones - "What should now be done"? Did you find admiring Churchill for the way that he engaged everyone and asked them for their ideas versus trying to impart his own dictates?
5. What was the "queer and deadly game" And why did Churchill demand that the existence of the beams be treated as established fact? And how did Jones question himself and why? How did Jones discover that he was right and what was the Germans' next target?
6. How was Lindemann the right man in his role at least for Churchill?
7. How close to financial ruin was Churchill and how was he bailed out?
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Link: https://www.sam-network.org/video/the...
More:
Finest Hour - The dramatic background to Winston Churchill’s wartime speeches is explored by Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre. He describes Churchill’s writing process and takes a closer look at the original manuscript of one of his most famous speeches. (very interesting video)
Link to Video: https://youtu.be/CIta83VV4J8
Their Finest Hour
Link: https://winstonchurchill.org/resource...
Sources : The Imaginative Conservative, Churchill Archives Institute. SAM, International Churchill Society
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✓Week Five - June 22nd - June 28th - completed
✓Chapter 12: The Ghosts of Dull People - completed
✓Chapter 13: Scarification - completed
✓Chapter 14: “This Queer and Deadly Game” - completed
The moderator has completed set up, discussion topics and questions, as well as all ancillary material, books, speeches, images, articles and videos/audio.
Please feel free to discuss any and all of these chapters without spoiler html up through the end of Chapter Fourteen and page 101.
Discussion Topics and Questions for this week's reading assignment are found in posts 133, 138 and 142.
Good night!
Bentley
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Week Six - June 29th - July 5th - (pages 102 - 115)
Chapter 15: London and Berlin
Chapter 16: The Red Warning
Chapter 17: “Tofrek!”
Discussion for the Week Six chapters begins on June 29th!
Please feel free to discuss anything up through the end of Chapter 14 and page 101 before then without any spoiler html.
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Chapter Overviews and Summaries
Chapter 15: London and Berlin
France signed the agreement with Germany. The Battle for France was over; but Churchill wanted to know what was going to happen to the French fleet of ships. Goebbels made another wrong prediction that Britain could not hold on.
Chapter 16: The Red Warning
Churchill's War Cabinet met three times a day and the main topic of conversation after France surrendered was their worry over the French fleet of ships. Sirens issued the "first red warning" since September. Jones reported to Churchill that the Germans were ordering 1100 maps of England delivered to their headquarters in Germany. Threat of an invasion were imminent and Churchill also ordered the digging of trenches as a precautionary measure in order to be prepared. Clementine wrote Churchill a letter. Churchill particularly liked his cat Nelson.
Chapter 17 - Tofrek!
Chequers proved a godsend to Churchill; and the staff who were invited to visit on the weekends (mainly to work on the War effort). Churchill was a night owl and was very relaxed while he was there puttering around with his roses, etc. Colville found Churchill's son Randolph to not be particularly pleasant to be around; and that "on occasion" he embarrassed his father; and was always expecting to be bailed out financially by his family. The Germans seized and occupied Guernsey, a British dependency in the Channel Islands off the coast of Normandy, less than two hundred air miles from Chequers which caused some concern.
Just reached Chap. 6 Seems pretty good so far.
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Glad to have you posting. We are going through this at a leisurely pace - sometimes the three chapters have a lot of pages and others not so much. Checking out next week's assignment we don't have as many pages as normal. So you should be able to get caught up I imagine by then at the rate you are going. The reading is easy - not as dense as the Atkinson book I am moderating - similar to the Albright style.
Rick Atkinson
Madeleine K. Albright
Thanks for all the hard work you are putting in, Bentley. Since the copy I have is due July 13, and I won't be allowed to renew it as it is popular, so I am going to get though it and comment either later, or as I go.
Mod
And thank you for your kind words. We do our best. This week I am going to have to catch up since my charger frayed and I had to wait for the new one to be delivered. We are back in business now. Fortunately for this read I had gotten ahead at the end of the week.
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom (other topics)The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (other topics)
The Kennedys Amidst the Gathering Storm: A Thousand Days in London, 1938-1940 (other topics)
Dunkirk Lib/E: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture (other topics)
America's Global Role: Essays and Reviews on National Security, Geopolitics, and War (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Conrad Black (other topics)David Nasaw (other topics)
Will Swift (other topics)
Joshua Levine (other topics)
Francis Sempa (other topics)
More...
CHAPTER 7
Sufficient Bliss
Colville did finally get married to Lady Margaret Egerton (not who he was smitten with in chapter 7) - Lady Egerton was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth. Mr. Colville was known as 'Jock' to the Royal family when he was Princess Elizabeth's first private secretary. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)
A married Lady Egerton (now Mrs. Colville) holding Harriet Jane with Princess Elizabeth on one side of her and Winston Churchill on the other
"AS FRANCE TOTTERED, AND GERMAN planes battered British and French forces massing at Dunkirk, private secretary John Colville struggled with a long-standing and, for him, wrenching quandary. He was in love.
The object of his adoration was Gay Margesson, a student at Oxford and the daughter of David Margesson, the former appeaser whom Clementine Churchill had savaged over lunch.
Two years earlier, Colville had asked Gay to marry him, but she had declined, and ever since he had felt both drawn to her and repelled by her unwillingness to return his affections.
His disappointment made him look for, and find, faults in her personality and behavior. This did not stop him, however, from trying to see her as often as he could.
Gay Marchesson
More:
Who did Gay marry"
Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...
Saying What Everyone Thinks – Lord Charteris
https://noreentaylorjournalist.com/po...
The real Lord Charteris on the left
Source: Larson, Erik. The Splendid and the Vile (p. 53, 54 + 55 (below)). Crown. Kindle Edition.
Discussion Topics and Questions:
1. Why did Colville not get the message that Gay was just not that into him? She had already turned him down.
"Gay reiterated her decision that she and Colville would never marry. He promised to wait, in case she changed her mind. “She urged me not to be in love with her,” he wrote, “but I told her that to have her as my wife was the greatest ambition I had, and that I could not give up crying for the moon, when the moon meant everything in life to me.”
2. Wasn't this an odd tiny chapter?? - a lovelorn Colville in the first part and at the end the start of Operation Dynamo?
3. Goring had a distorted view of what the Tommies as he called them were capable of? How did Goring's misunderstanding of the capabilities of the British lead to a huge miscalculation on his part?
But Göring harbored a distorted perception of what by now was unfolding off the coast of Dunkirk, as British soldiers—nicknamed Tommies—prepared to evacuate.
“Only a few fishing boats are coming across,” he said on Monday, May 27. “One hopes that the Tommies know how to swim.”