January 1, 1970

Introduced by Richard M. Langworth

Louis Mountbatten joined the Royal Navy in 1913 and was forever associated with the Senior Service. In the Second World War, before becoming Supreme Commander South East Asia (1943–46), his destroyer ‘HMS Kelly’ was torpedoed out from under him. In late 1941 he was in Hawaii (‘telling the Americans what the war was like’) when Churchill appointed him Chief of Combined Operations. Mountbatten expressed a preference to go back to sea. Churchill snorted: ‘Have you no sense of glory? What could you hope to achieve except to be sunk in a bigger and more expensive ship?’

In this intensely personal memoir from the First World War to Churchill’s death, Mountbatten recalls the great man’s remarkable drive and prescience, his humour and pathos, his eloquence and wit, his war leadership and his sad decline. To many who have read it, this is one of the most revealing first-hand portraits of Winston Churchill. It may very well be the best of them all.

Read the full article by Lord Mountbatten of Burma here: ‘Churchill the Warrior’, Finest Hour 21–24, 1971–72.