January 1, 1970

Here Churchill inspects a ‘Tommy gun’ during his visit to Hartlepool on 31 July 1940 to inspect costal defence positions (you can see from his engagement card for July, opposite, that he left Kings Cross by train at 11.30 pm the night before and returned to London 8.30 pm after he’d completed his inspection). This image was used for propaganda for both sides in the war; ‘Goebbels immediately reprinted Churchill and the tommy gun in leaflets that accused him of being a war criminal and gangster’ (Johnson, The Churchill Factor), but for the British it came to symbolize Churchill’s determination and fighting spirit – and embodied the British resistance to German power.