Posted on 01/30/2020 8:20:32 AM PST by Governor Dinwiddie
55 years ago today was Sir Winston's funeral. He was the greatest leader of the 20th Century. He stood alone against Hitlerism. He saved the free world alone, holding out for months until other allies joined the struggle.
Note the honor guard keeping watch over his casket, their chins tucked deep into their chests, their eyes sorrowful and downcast.
Sir Winston was a commoner. He was half American. Note the marching sailors escorting his casket from Westminster to Saint Paul's That was never allowed for the funeral of a commoner. This was the first state funeral for a commoner in over 100 years.
Exactly.
When you analyze Churchill's strategy to win the war, it consisted of essentially one goal: Bring America into the war!
Many of his actions were predicated on showing the Americans he and the Brits were serious about fighting, and convincing them they had to get into the war.
Wow! Thanks for posting.
I disagree.
You cannot get much more evil than Stalin.
The defeat of the NAZIs brought the Soviet Union into superpower status. The Soviets inflicted horrors all around the world. Were they better than a NAZI victory would have been? Impossible to say, but they were better for me, as I doubt I would be here if we had not fought WWII.
If Hitler had invaded Britain instead of the Soviet Union, Stalin would have supported Hitler.
Yes, that’s how he acted, I was talking about how he must have felt. Or, maybe he thought “Thank God! I need a rest”
Great man
Also “The Valiant Years” — a TV series from around 1960, narrated by Richard Burton.
I’m still amazed he made it to 90 years old. He had some great genes.
Of all the things about Churchill that impressed me, was the fact after he lost face after the Gallipoli fiasco, he headed to the front lines in France as an infantry officer with the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Cigars !!
ML/NJ
I think it was also those mid-afternoon naps.
Most people forget, or never knew, who was actually the reason for the success of the US military of WWII. It was General George C. Marshall. Marshall mobilized the army, organized its training, chose the weapons and put them into production. Then he organized the supply chain that delivered it all, both inside the US and to the theaters of war. After the war he designed and implemented the recovery process for both theaters.
You forgot to mention that it was Marshall who chose Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur for those positions.
Yes, but. The British protocol on such matters is more than a little tricky. Churchill was a direct descendent of the Duke of Marlborough. His family was one of the most aristocratic in England. The title did not descend to Sir Winston, but he was the kind of "commoner" who was born in Blenheim Palace and could look down his aristocratic nose at most of England's peers. He was eventually offered a peerage (I think more than once), but declined in order to remain in the House of Commons, which is where the power lies.
While he didn't enjoy seeing Atlee drag the kingdom leftward and watching the empire dissolve to a shadow of its former self, he did enjoy the time off to write, travel and rebuild Chartwell.
Not bad accomplishments for a boy from the backwater moonshining area of Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
Damn. I agree. I’ve been in the hospital 5 times in the last year. I don’t smoke or drink much, but JFC I could use a few of those Churchill genes!
Churchill gpt criticized for his “Soft Underbelly” approach, thinking that invading Italy was the key to defeating Germany instead of invading France.
But the fact is, the Normandy invasion would not have been possible unless we did invade Italy first and tie up the Germans there.
As Winnie undoubtedly knew: “Every political career ends in failure.”
Didn’t Stalin indeed support Hitler until he invaded the Soviet Union?
They signed a non agression pact 8 days before Hitler invaded Poland. Stalin invaded Poland and both Hitler and Stalin stopped advancing at a jointly agreed upon boundary.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov–Ribbentrop_Pact
They sure looked like they were allies on May Day of 1941 (7 weeks before Operation Barbarossa began)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfSrBMuXI8
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