The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965

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The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 Page 163

by William Manchester


  * Promulgated in 1917 by Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour, which called for HMG to support “the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine with the guarantee that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”

  * The operation almost unraveled when the fake Montgomery was seen “swaggering about half-drunk in Gibraltar, smoking mammoth cigars like a chimney.” The real Montgomery—a nonsmoker and teetotaler—took great umbrage with his portrayal. (Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower, pp. 549, 583)

  * The British government paid the final £100 million installment on the loan in December 2006.

  * Since 1921, both Arab and Jewish citizens of Palestine referred to themselves as Palestinian; the concept of an Arab Palestinian people evolved in the 1960s.

  * Later Lady Jane Williams, she was the niece of both R. A. (“Rab”) Butler and Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal, later Viscount Portal of Hungerford.

  Churchill inspects bomb damage during the Blitz. More than 800,000 Londoners lost their homes during the bombing raids. (Getty)

  Between May 26 and June 3, 1940, a flotilla of almost 1,000 British ships, large and small, evacuated more than 330,000 British and French troops from Dunkirk. (NARA)

  At the height of the Blitz in the autumn of 1940, more than 150,000 Londoners took shelter in the Underground nightly. By war’s end, 60,000 British civilians had been killed by German bombs and rockets. (Getty)

  London, during the Blitz, autumn 1940. St. Paul’s Cathedral is wrapped in a cowl of smoke as London burns. (Associated Newspapers/Rex USA)

  Churchill, Brendan Bracken (middle), and Harry Hopkins, 1941. Bracken had been Churchill’s “fixer” for two decades; Hopkins served Franklin Roosevelt in the same capacity. (Getty)

  A Vichy cartoon takes a jab at Churchill’s bombing policy. (Kenneth Rendell)

  Max Beaverbrook. As minister of aircraft production, he gave Churchill the fighter planes he needed in order to defend England, and the heavy bombers to take the fight to Germany. (Getty)

  John (“Jock”) Colville. But for a stint in the RAF, 1942–1943, Colville served as private secretary to Churchill throughout the war and again during Churchill’s premiership from 1951 to 1955. (Getty)

  Charles Wilson, Lord Moran. Moran served as Churchill’s personal physician from 1910 until Churchill’s death, in 1965. (Getty)

  Frederick A. Lindemann, Lord Cherwell (“Prof”). Called “Baron Berlin” by his enemies, Cherwell served as Churchill’s science adviser for more than three decades. (Getty)

  Churchill on board HMS Prince of Wales, Argentia, 1941. At his first conference with Roosevelt, Churchill arrived with a long list of needs, aircraft and tanks at the top. (Getty)

  Churchill with Franklin Roosevelt, escorted by his son Captain Elliott Roosevelt, aboard HMS Prince of Wales during the Argentia conference, 1941. (Imperial War Museum, London)

  “Chip off the Old Block” little Winston struts along a London street with his mother, Pamela Churchill, June 1942. (NARA)

  Clementine greets Winston on the tarmac at an RAF airfield outside London in August 1942 upon his return from Cairo and Moscow. The journey was the first of several he made aboard the B-24 Liberator Commando. (University of South Carolina)

  Churchill and daughter Mary, a sergeant in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, wait for a demonstration of artillery to begin. (AP)

  Bernard Montgomery, the hero of El Alamein. His victory there, in November 1942, after three years of British defeats and retreats, marked a turning point in the war. (George Rodger/Life)

  Churchill, Joseph Stalin (center), and Averell Harriman in Moscow, August 1942. (NARA)

  A 1942 poster greets arriving American troops deployed to Great Britain. By late 1943, more than 300,000 had arrived. (Kenneth Rendell)

  With victory in North Africa in hand, Churchill in Algiers plans his Mediterranean strategy, June 1943. Seated from left: Anthony Eden, Alan Brooke, Churchill, General Marshall, and General Eisenhower; standing (behind seated men) from left: Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, General Alexander, and General Montgomery. (NARA)

  Churchill and Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference, January 1943. It was here that Roosevelt announced the Allied terms of surrender to Germany, Italy, and Japan: “Unconditional Surrender.” (NARA)

  Churchill arrives at the first Quebec Conference, August 1943. Beside him is Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Riding shotgun is Churchill’s bodyguard, Scotland Yard’s Walter Thompson. (NARA)

  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (left) and Clementine Churchill prepare to make an address over the Canadian Broadcasting Company, September 13, 1943. (AP)

  Churchill addresses the U.S. Congress, 1943. (NARA)

  Churchill inspects British paratroopers before D-day, June 1944. (NARA)

  From left: Dwight Eisenhower, Churchill, and General Omar Bradley put new carbines through their paces before D-day, 1944. (NARA)

  Churchill in his siren suit with Eisenhower, May 1944. (NARA)

  Churchill and Brooke on their way to Normandy aboard a Royal Navy destroyer, June 12, 1944. (NARA)

  Churchill watches an artillery barrage, Italy, August 1944. (NARA)

  Churchill receives a bouquet of flowers from a little girl in Italy, August 1944. (NARA)

  Churchill and de Gaulle lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Paris, November 11, 1944. (NARA)

  Left to right: Brooke, Churchill, Montgomery, and General William Simpson crossing the Rhine, winter 1945. (NARA)

  Churchill scribbles a message to Hitler on a British artillery shell at the Rhine, winter 1945. (NARA)

  Churchill climbs the wreckage of a Rhine bridge, March 1945. He had fulfilled his longstanding promise to make Germany “burn and bleed.” (NARA)

  Churchill exits Hitler’s bunker, Berlin, July 1945. (NARA)

  Churchill prepares to give his radio address announcing the German surrender, May 8, 1945. (NARA)

  Churchill joins the royal family, from left, Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth, and King George VI, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE-day, May 8, 1945. (AP)

  Churchill, with Clementine, campaigns in the general election, June 1945. A victory would give him the electoral mandate he lacked when he formed his 1940 government. (NARA)

  Churchill, in his rompers, and Clementine, taking a few days’ rest before the Potsdam Conference, pose for a photographer on a French beach, July 1945. (NARA)

  Churchill, Truman, and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945. (AP)

  Churchill, with Harry Truman, arrives at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 1946, to deliver what became known as the Iron Curtain speech. (National Churchill Museum, Westminster College, Fulton, Mo.)

  Churchill sits for a portrait by Douglas Chandor, 1946. (NARA)

  Churchill lights a cigar as he paints a landscape on a hilltop outside Château de Lourmarin, near Aix-en-Provence, 1948. Wherever Churchill went in retirement, his brushes and paints went, too. (Getty)

  Out of office, Churchill with new friends, Miami, 1946. (History Miami)

  Churchill in his Order of the Garter regalia with his son, Randolph, and grandson, Winston S., 1953. (Library of Congress)

  Clementine (left) looks on as Churchill greets Queen Elizabeth II on his last night as prime minister, April 1955. (Getty)

  Diana and Randolph, holding his ever-present cigarette, on a London street, 1960. (Corbis)

  Sarah Churchill under arrest for public drunkenness, Southern California, 1958. (George Lack Estate)

  Sir Winston and daughter Sarah, nicknamed “the mule” in childhood. (Corbis)

  Sir Winston Churchill greets New York from his chair on the deck of the yacht Christina, as she arrives in the Hudson River, April 12, 1961. The owner of the yacht, Aristotle Onassis, stands behind Churchill, glass in hand. (Others unidentified.) (AP)

  Churchill’s casket, dra
ped by a Union Jack, is carried from St. Paul’s Cathedral by members of the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, January 30, 1965. (Getty)

  ARRAY

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  List of Maps

  Author’s Note

  Preamble: The Lion Hunted

  1: Cyclone—May–December 1940

  2: The Rapids—January–December 1941

  3: Vortex—December 1941–November 1942

  4: Crosscurrents—November 1942–December 1943

  5: Pilot—December 1943–June 1944

  6: Anchorage—June 1944–May 1945

  7: Ebb Tide—1945–1955

  8: Postscript—1945–1955

  Copyright Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by William Manchester

  Newsletters

  Source Notes

  Photos

  Copyright

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2012 by John Manchester, Julie Manchester, Laurie Manchester, and Paul Reid

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  ISBN 978-0-316-22214-3

 

 

 


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