September 15, 2008

{tab=1942}
{slide=Winter: First Quarter 1942 (Age 67)}
On New Year’s Day Churchill returned from Ottawa to Washington where he and Roosevelt signed the United Nations Charter. A few days later he flew to Pompano Beach, Florida, for a short vacation.

While in Pompano, FL, Churchill visited the home of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., on Hillsboro Beach for five days in January. Churchill had come to the United States on December 22, 1941, to confer with Roosevelt on the grant strategy of the war. This meeting was known as the Arcadia Conference.

On January 5, 1942, Churchill flew to Florida from Washington for a brief rest.

January 5 – Washington and Pompano Beach, FL
WSC flew to Florida in an airplane provided by General Marshall, accompanied by Sir Charles Wilson, John Martin and Tommy Thompson. They stayed in a bungalow provided by US Secretary of State Stettinius. They landed at West Palm Beach airport and drove to Pompano. Word was put out that a Mr. Lobb, an invalid requesting quiet, was staying at the house. They were closely guarded by the Secret Service. The press guessed they were there but left them alone.

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January 6 – Pompano, FL
WSC relaxed by bathing in the ocean. Two couriers a day flew down to Pompano from Washington.

Churchill to Roosevelt, Jan. 6, 1942

Dear Mr. President,

We have been greeted on arrival by this cutting from the local paper. This shows that all the trouble you took about secrecy has been in vain. Tommy [Detective Thompson] is plainly identifiable.

Yours sincerely,
[signed] Winston S. Churchill

[The “cutting” was a cartoon from the Miami Daily News, Jan 5, 1942 showing two overweight middle-aged men flopped on a beach. The clipping was captioned “Hard work is the thing that will win this war — we must keep at it night and day.”]

January 9 – Pompano, FL
WSC worked on rewriting his four mid-Atlantic surveys of the future of the world. Sir Charles Wilson recorded that WSC was in “a belligerent mood.” WSC lunched with Consuelo Balsan (Vanderbilt).

January 10 – Pompano and Fort Lauderdale, FL
WSC lunched with Consuelo Balsan in Fort Lauderdale before leaving by train for Washington.

Although Stettinius’ home was not then (nor would it be now) within the city limits of Pompano, most of the beach area that is now Hillsboro Beach was commonly referred to as Pompano.

On 14 January he left the United States for home. Over the Atlantic he took over the controls of a Boeing flying boat, even making a couple of banked turns.

At a meeting of the War Cabinet Churchill reported that Roosevelt had said to trust him to the bitter end. The next day he told the King that he was confident of ultimate victory.

Dramatic events were taking place on the Eastern Front as the Russians forced Germany to give up the seige of Sevastopol. Hitler attributed this German failure to the severe cold. As desperate as he was for Russian support, Churchill refused to acknowledge Soviet claims to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The horror which the Allies were fighting was graphically illustrated at a February meeting in Wannsee, near Berlin, where, in a ninety minute meeting, Heydrich outlined plans for exterminating all Jews in Europe. A month later the first deportees arrived at Auschwitz.

At the end of January the news seemed dark on all fronts. Rommel had become “a kind of magician or bogeyman” to troops in Africa; British forces were being pushed back at Singapore; Churchill faced a no-confidence vote in the Commons. He won the vote with only one dissenter in the Commons and Rommel’s advance was stopped at Libya, but Singapore fell in what Churchill called the greatest military defeat in the history of the British Empire. Nonetheless, Roosevelt, now also in his Sixties, responded to a Churchill birthday greeting: “It is fun to be in the same decade with you.”

Command appointments were being made which would eventually carry the Allies to victory. Stilwell was appointed C-in-C, US Forces in Chinese Theatre; Harris was appointed C-in-C, Bomber Command; Mountbatten was appointed C-in-C, Combined Operations; Slim was appointed C-in-C, Burma; and Blamey was appointed C-in-C, Australian forces. MacArthur left the Philippines with the vow, “I shall return.” Churchill’s dissatisfaction with Auchlinleck in Africa grew.

Concern for Churchill’s burdens and their affect on his health and demeanor grew among his family and associates. His doctor, Charles Wilson, e

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