January 17, 2009

BY  DAL NEWFIELD
Finest Hour 23, JANUARY-MARCH 1972

In July, 1941, Dunkirk was history, the Battle of Britain had been won, the night blitz of Britain had slackened and Hitler had invaded Russia. Lend-Lease bombers were crossing the Atlantic In Increasing numbers, but the Battle for the Atlantic was far from won, with sinkings by bombing and by submarine far outstripping the ability of the Empire to replace losses. The USA had occupied Iceland on the 7th, enabling the U.S.Navy to guard convoys that far but the effect had not yet been felt. In June Harry Hopkins had told WSC of the advantages of meeting with FDR and the idea had caught the PM’s fancy.

It was typical of Churchill that he disdained the relative safety of flying and chose, instead, to entrust himself to the Royal Navy. He sailed from Scapa Flow on the Prince of Wales with an escort of three destroyers, but soon a tremendous storm hit and the decision to either cut speed or leave the destroyers behind had to be made. Churchill made the decision and the POW sailed on without any protection. Meanwhile FDR had sailed on his yacht Potomac on a “fishing trip”. Soon it was noted in the press that all of his top aides were with him and the resultant conjectures included a meeting with WSC. It can be imagined that the lights burned late In Berlin while brains were racked for a means of destroying the man who had kept England in the war. (Recently it has been revealed that the ‘scrambler’ system had been unscrambled. Hitler knew all about the meeting!)

Radio silence was preserved, of course, and while there was much to do to prepare for the meeting, for Churchill It must have been, relatively, a pleasure cruise. It was announced that he had enjoyed his longest night’s rest since the war began. He attended nightly cinema shows with his famous undiscriminating enjoyment. To fill the intervals while reels were changed, he asked if Noel Coward’s “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” was aboard, and when the record was produced, proved he knew the words even if the tune, like most, was beyond him.

Off Iceland, at top speed and traveling in a dense fog, they were joined by three Canadian destroyers. WSC spent a good deal of time in the map room where he could see the location of every ship, friend or foe, every convoy and every submarine. Convoys were to be avoided as they were not only magnets for the submarine wolf packs, but the small flotilla could easily be mistaken for a German raider squadron an fired upon.

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The story of the meeting in Placentia Bay has been well told. The FDR stamp is after a picture taken of the president at this meeting. The meeting over, WSC sailed east again, to Iceland. There he was met In Reykjavik by the Regent, Sveinn Bjornsson, and made a speech from the balcony of the Parliament Building (both can be seen on the stamp). But his escapade was not over. He ordered POW to sail right through a great convoy while he waved his cigar and gave the “V”. Fearing that some of the convoy had not seen him, he ordered a 180 degree turn and did it again!