July 9, 2013

FINEST HOUR 128, AUTUMN 2005

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When Churchill was about to leave the USA in May 1943 he prevailed upon General Marshall to accompany his entourage on a visit to Algiers that would enable the P.M. to confer with Eisenhower. Out of that meeting came the unforgettable “gathering-of-eagles” photograph at the Villa dar el Ouard, showing WSC in a white linen suit surrounded by the chief Anglo-American military leaders. The Prime Minister is smiling impishly as he prepares to open a policy paper of some sort, holding the stage as the great captains await his remarks.

Several other photos were taken at this occasion. In one, Tedder, Cunningham and Alexander have broken into laughter and Montgomery has given way to a smile. Eisenhower, Marshall, Brooke and Eden maintain their serious demeanor, but Churchill appears to be cajoling Ike and Marshall into joining the fun. A third photo taken just before or just after the meeting shows WSC standing with Marshall and Montgomery engaged in serious conversation.

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I have looked far and wide for the name of the photographer, not least of all because he must have taken many other pictures on that occasion. The closest I’ve come is an (uncertain) attribution of the famous first photo to the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Can anyone provide the photographer’s name and the location of all the shots that never made it into the history books?
—ROBERT H. PILPEL

PARIS ARMISTICE DAY 1944

Readers may recall the photo of WSC and de Gaulle (FH 119:51). The tall man in a homburg on the extreme left, whom we couldn’t identify, is Harry Battley, Scotland Yard bodyguard attached to Eden, who, according to Churchill’s 1946 bodyguard Ronald Golding (FH 55:15), “was killed in a plane crash returning from Moscow after Eden.” Eden’s memoirs correct Golding in that Battley was killed en route to Yalta: “The day [2nd Feb ’45] had been a sad one for me, for I learned of the death of three able young members of the Foreign Service and of my personal detective, Inspector Battley. Flying out from London to join us [at Yalta], their pilot had failed to find Malta in the mist, the aircraft came down in the sea off Lampedusa and they, with eleven others, had drowned.” —PHC