Posted on 07/08/2012 6:16:40 PM PDT by Dysart
Flight Officer Ron Buck kept back his own pictures from the trip that was later described as the 'Most Daring Flight of the Whole War.'
Churchill had crossed the Atlantic by ship in order to lobby President Roosevelt, but rashly decided to fly home from Bermuda.
With some of his most senior colleagues, the Prime Minister embarked on what was to become a perilous 18 hours flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Great photos, but the modern British penchant for focusing upon tangential, prissy descriptions of attire is more jarring than usual. I’m surprised they didn’t nitpick the cut of his blazer or something.
In his “History of World War II” Churchill mentions several times flying in his B-24 which was an American plane with an American pilot whom Churchill liked.
He also said he often took the co-pilot’s seat and talked with the pilot on trips.
Not sure if that was the same plane on this trip or not.
Churchill is my favorite historical figure of all time. Thanks for this.
The clown in the White House has dreams all the time about Churchill torturing either his father, his grandfather or his uncle. It was one of them. Or it may have been someone that one of them knew. Barry’s dreams aren’t very clear.
Barry’s dreams aren’t very clear.
Well what do you want from a composite?
Just went back and read the whole story. It was a flying boat he was on that trip.
Thank you for posting-fascinating.
SC—just a general interest ping to you for the history.
Churchill was himself a pilot.
"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."-- Winston Churchill
Very modern flight deck. Notice the finishing of the overhead.
An 18 hour flight? Must have spent a lot of time partying in Bermuda.
5.56mm
Beats the plastic and too small piece of fiberglass mat for insulation these days.
BFL
Churchill had calmly faced death so many times in the Royal Hussars in India and the Sudan, as a war correspondent in Cuba and S. Africa, and in the trenches of WWI after retiring from the Admiralty following the Gallipoli disaster that for him this must have been just another excursion to the edge. A risk taker and a real man.
My dad told me a story when Winston Churchill was almost
shot down in his flying boat by US Anti-aircraft Artillery
near Long Island Sound early in the war.
From the article, it was the Boeing Clipper flying boat RAM ‘Berwick’.
Well the still full water glass is the one next to the sugar bowl at the right. Notice well the two empty glasses at the left with a small amount of darker liquid at the bottoms. Note also the ripple in the table covering like an outgoing tide as the empties were pushed to the side. Odd thing that the glasses are progressively less wide, with the narrowest in his hand. Teacup dismissed to stand against the wall.
IIRC Sir Winston retired each night of the war with a bottle of brandy and a cigar.
BTW as I understand it colonial officers never mixed spirits with unreliable local water.
I can tell by the control wheel that it is indeed a B-24 or the transport version called a c-87.
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