Can anyone provide a date for this comment and a first-hand reference? Who is supposed to have heard Churchill say this, a reporter? Is there an contemporaneous news account?
Kent Lyon is quite correct. My grandfather’s log shows that this was just a routine voyage and, as far as I can see, there was no period of refit which, in any case, would not have been undertaken in Liverpool and which would have taken weeks, if not months!. If, and it’s a very BIG ‘IF’, Churchill did say what Simpson claims Peskett reported, the more obvious answer is that Churchill was concerned about the safety of the ship in a war zone!
Simpson made a number of unsubstantiated claims in his book almost all of which were aimed at discrediting Winston Churchill. It is difficult not to believe that his motive in writing the book was, therefore, more of a personal vendetta against Churchill rather than an investigation of the sinking. His main allegations were that:
1. The ship was armed with a number of 6” guns;
2. She was carrying contraband HE; and
3. Churchill, with the connivance of the Admiralty, deliberately allowed the ship to sail into the path of waiting U-Boats.
Simpson was unable to provide any reliable historical evidence in support of his claims. It seems that much of his so called evidence appears to come from somewhat dubious sources that cannot be independently checked or which has mysteriously disappeared! If, indeed, any such evidence does materialise then I shall be the first to acknowledge that I was wrong in which case my grandfather, father and other members of the family must have also been complicit in the conspiracy! I, and a number of other authors, have tried in vain to engage with Simpson on various matters and he has refused to discuss them or even contact us. If there had been anything like a whiff of suspicion on any of the above claims it would have come to light long before anyone started writing books about it!
Both my grandfather’s brothers attended the Lord Mersey Enquiry and found nothing sinister or questionable at that time. It was wartime and, to those of us who are now accustomed to negligence claims in the law courts, would not seem unusual. Yet there are those who still believe there was a government led cover-up when there was really nothing to cover up.
A lot of Churchill haters in Britain as well!