If I could have dinner with only one person from history I'd probably choose Sir Winston. Below are a few tidbits many people do not know:
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Churchill was half American His mother, Jeanette "Jennie" Jerome, married Lord Randolph Churchill and eight months later Winston was born. With such a direct connection to the United States, Winston understood the American way of life as well as the "mentality" of its citizens. This inherent understanding would play a crucial role during the run up to WWII and guided many of Winston's political calculations.
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War Experience During Churchill's lifetime, he personally experienced the last battle fought on horseback with spears all the way through to the birth of the atomic age.
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Prime Minister At the 11th hour Great Britain elected Churchill as Prime Minister as Hitler was already rumbling his way across Europe. Most world leaders considered Britain already lost to the Nazis, it was just a matter of time. Churchill therefore had great difficulty gathering support of any kind from anyone but Roosevelt as most other leaders considered Britain a lost cause. After defeating the Nazi's in Europe but before the Pacific War was won, the citizens of Great Britain promptly dumped Churchill back on the streets by voting him out of office.
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Manifest Destiny Even at a young age Churchill felt he was destined for greatness. That feeling drove Winston to crave action in numerous wars as a young man. When not allowed to participate as a soldier, Churchill capitalized on his gifts as a writer and became a paid war correspondent. He famously was captured during the Boer war and was refused release despite presenting his war correspondent documents. The Boers had witnessed his heroic acts during the capture of a military train. Churchill's escape from a Boer prison is magnificently recounted in a new book,
Hero Of The Empire.
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Secret War Though holding no office of any political significance, Churchill secretly began piecing together a network of spies during the 1930's to combat the rising tide of Fascism. This rag tag assembly began to intercept German radio transmissions at Bletchly Park to anticipate Hitler's next moves. In Yugoslavia, France, Denmark and Sweden an underground resistance network was assembled. South America was rife with pro-Nazi forces and an intricate network of spies plied their trade in these countries.
Canadian William Stephenson was the glue that held the network together. As the primary go-between for Churchill and Roosevelt, Stephenson utilized his considerable resources to pull all the right levers and push the right buttons. Rockefeller Center in New York was the key gathering point for all incoming information. Critical stations were setup in Bermuda and Canada for the movement of spies across the globe.
Churchill feared there simply wasn't enough time to stop the Nazi juggernaut. Roosevelt feared impeachment for operating in secret.
