A Simon Wiesenthal Center Production: Walking With Destiny

Rare Colour Footage of Blitz Unearthed
THE TELEGRAPH: Rare colour footage of London during the Blitz has been unearthed after lying undiscovered in an attic for almost 70 years.



The amateur cine film, shot by an air raid warden, includes striking images of bombed-out landmarks such as the John Lewis department store on Oxford Street.

Sir Winston Churchill also makes a brief appearance in the footage as he reviews a parade of civil defence workers in Hyde Park.

The 20 minutes of film, covering the period of Sep 7, 1940 to May 10, 1941, was shot by the wartime mayor of Marylebone in west London, Alfred Coucher, who was also the area’s chief air raid warden.

After the war he stored the films in his attic where they were recently discovered by his family and passed on to the St Marylebone Society, an architectural preservation group of which he was founder.

The films have now been digitised with the help of Westminster Council, which is making them available to view on a dedicated website to mark the 70th anniversary of the Blitz. >>> Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter | Monday, September 06, 2010

West End at War >>>

TELEGRAPH VIDEO: Winston Churchill and King in rare colour footage of London during Blitz >>> | Monday, September 06, 2010

Obituary: Winston Churchill
THE TELEGRAPH: Winston Churchill, who died today aged 69, never quite managed in 27 years as a Conservative MP to shrug off the burdens of having had the wartime leader as his grandfather and the ebullient, self-destructive Randolph Churchill for a father.

Winston Churchill in front of a portrait of his grandfather. Photograph: The Telegraph
Faced with the choice of emulating Sir Winston or pursuing a career outside politics, he opted for the former, proved competent if mercurial, but lacked the exceptional flair to establish himself in his own right.

Churchill was at a disadvantage not only through his legacy but because his preoccupation with it led some to consider him bumptious; alone of more than 650 MPs, he insisted on signing Commons motions without using his Christian name.

He caused a furore in 1995 when he negotiated the payment to the Churchill family of £12.5 million in National Lottery funds for his grandfather’s personal papers to remain at Churchill College, Cambridge, rather than be sold abroad, himself retaining the copyright for 20 years. It had not been widely appreciated, even among historians, that the papers were eligible for sale as the family had already received £393,000 for them in 1946.

There were suggestions that Churchill needed the cash to offset his losses as a “name” at Lloyds, to finance his divorce from his first wife or even to bail out his mother, Pamela Harriman, who had almost exhausted the £100 million railroad fortune of her final husband. The Churchill trustees insisted first that he would only receive some of the investment income, then said they would consider a request to fund the divorce.

Randolph Churchill had observed of his son: “His name is such a disadvantage”, but young Winston saw both sides: “A famous name can be terrible if you are lousy, but if you are any good, it helps.” It may have seen him bullied at school, but later it did secure him the best tables at restaurants. It did not always carry weight, however; when after the Gulf War he introduced himself to a squaddie in the desert, he received the reply: “Yes, and I’m Rommel.” >>> | Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Afghanistan, and a Lesson from History that Goes Unheeded
THE TELEGRAPH: Great leaders can see the bigger picture in times of conflict, says Irwin Stelzer

Reading Andrew Roberts's Masters and Commanders is a depressing experience. Not because of any flaws in this beautifully researched and wonderfully told tale of the Masters (Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill) and Commanders (General George Marshall and Field Marshall Sir Alan Brooke, both chiefs of staff) who forged the strategy that won the Second World War. You leave this book unread this summer at peril to your understanding not only of the war, but of the relevance of that history to the policy decisions confronting whatever government British voters decide to trust with their fate at the next general election.

The baseball player Yogi Berra once famously said: "I came to a fork in the road and I took it." Britain's policymakers do not have the luxury of such choice-avoidance: nuclear-armed Pakistan is threatened by Afghanistan-based Taliban jihadists, Russia is on a roll, Islamic fanatics are threatening to continue terror attacks on our countries, British and American citizens are being trained in Afghanistan for suicide missions, Iran's mullahs are close to acquiring nuclear weapons, and North Korea is becoming the nuclear-arms supplier of choice for groups that wish to do us harm. In short, the threats Britain and America face might not be as visible as those presented by Hitler, but are in the long-run as dangerous to the survival of the West, especially because many are posed by non-state actors who do not have a "return address" should we seek to respond to any attack.

President Obama is sufficiently impressed with the danger posed by the Taliban to face down many in his own party and order a troop surge – though that Bushite word never passes the Obama lips – in Afghanistan. If this anti-Iraq war disciple of "soft power" feels the need to put 20,000 more American troops in harm's way, there surely must be good reason for concern. >>> Irwin Stelzer | Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Winston Churchill Had Whisky and a Cigar with Breakfast
THE TELEGRAPH: Winston Churchill wrote his own breakfast menu which included whisky and a cigar while on his last flight to the USA as Prime Minister.

Photo of Winston Churchill being Winston courtesy of The Telegraph
While on the BOAC flight in June 1954 the plane's menu was not good enough for the Prime Minister so he wrote one out himself.

He requested his meal be brought on two trays.

He lists in his own hand: "1st Tray. Poached egg, Toast, Jam, Butter, Coffee and milk, Jug of cold milk, Cold Chicken or Meat.

"2nd Tray. Grapefruit, Sugar Bowl, Glass orange squash (ice), Whisky soda." He then adds: "Wash hands, cigar."

At first he had tried to amend the printed menu, but in the end wrote out his own on the other side.

With his Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden at his side, the visit to the US was made at the height of the Cold War and his last to the US as Prime Minister.

The menu was kept by the air steward and the item is being sold along with press cuttings from the trip.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, who is selling it, said: "This is one of the most remarkable pieces of Churchill memorabilia we have seen.

"It shows what a hearty breakfast he ate and it was all washed down with a whisky, after which he smoked a cigar. >>> | Monday, March 30, 2009

World War Two: The Lost Archives in Colour
Part 1:


Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

1945: Rejoicing at End of War in Europe
Photo courtesy of the BBC
Audio: War Ends in Europe (1945)
BBC: On This Day - The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, has officially announced the end of the war with Germany.

In a message broadcast to the nation from the Cabinet room at Number 10, he said the ceasefire had been signed at 0241 yesterday at the American advance headquarters in Rheims.

Huge crowds, many dressed in red, white and blue, gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London and were cheered as the King, Queen and two Princesses came out onto the balcony.

Earlier tens of thousands of people had listened intently as the King's speech was relayed by loudspeaker to those who had gathered in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square. 1945: Rejoicing at End of War in Europe >>>

BBC:
Germany Says Hitler Is Dead >>>

BBC:
Audio: Adolf Hitler Is Dead

THE TELEGRAPH:
Winston Churchill and Walter Thompson: a Bullet-Proof Team: From IRA gunmen to Nazi assassins, one man kept Churchill alive. Dominic Sandbrook tells his story >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Churchill’s Great-Grandson Brings Shame on Family Name
THE GUARDIAN: A great-grandson of the former British prime minister Winston Churchill pleaded guilty today to taking part in a multimillion-dollar ecstasy racket.

Australian police arrested Nicholas Jake Barton at his home in Sydney in June last year during a series of raids in which officers seized 250,000 ecstasy tablets worth around A$15m (£6.5m).

The 33-year-old, who is the son of James Barton and Arabella Spencer Churchill, pleaded guilty before a Sydney court to knowingly taking part in the supply of a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. Churchill great-grandson admits drugs charge (more)

THE TELEGRAPH:
Churchill's relative facing jail on drug charge By Nick Squires

Mark Alexander

Sir Winston Churchill: “We Shall Outlive the Menace of Tyranny”


Mark Alexander

Caution! An Intellectual Heavyweight: Bush on Islam


THE WHITE HOUSE:
Bush's Quotes on Islam

COMPARE THIS WITH A TRUE INTELLECTUAL HEAVYWEIGHT'S VIEWPOINT: CHURCHILL ON ISLAM

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.…A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities ... but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome. [The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pp. 248-50.] [Source]

You decide who has got it right!

Mark Alexander

From a Great Man!
Sugar Candy

"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy." — Churchill Speech, Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941

Never Give In

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.'' — Churchill Speech, 29 October 1941, Harrow

We shall fight on the beaches

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!" — Churchill Speech, about Dunkirk, House of Commons, 4 June 1940

Mark Alexander