In fact, he is hoping to go even further. At his request, Admiral Ramsay has drawn up plans for him to board HMS Belfast on D minus 1, before transferring to a destroyer for a short tour of the beaches on D-Day itself. This is not a popular plan.
The Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, and the other military leaders do not want the added burden of Churchill anywhere near the action. The King has already written him a letter, dated 31 May, urging him to reconsider. Now George VI follows up with a second appeal “not to go to sea on D-Day”. He points out that his Prime Minister will “see very little … run a considerable risk”. He will also “be a very heavy additional responsibility to the Admiral and Captain”
So nervous is the King that he asks his Private Secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, to follow up his appeals with a late-night telephone call to Churchill’s train carriage. Winston finally and grudgingly defers to the Sovereign’s wishes. He admits to Lascelles that “if that poor ship should go to the bottom, you will all say, ‘I told you so’”.
His written reply, dictated in the early hours of that Saturday morning is more revealing of his mental state. He reluctantly deferred to “Your Majesty’s wishes and indeed commands”. But, he made it clear that “as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, I ought to be allowed to go where I consider it necessary to the discharge of my duty…”.
Trick-Reveal-463 on
Well, they did let him watch Dragoon. So, he got to see one, at least.
RegalArt1 on
To be fair to Churchill, monitoring the situation during D-Day from miles away must’ve been an agonizing experience what with his history with Gallipoli
Cerparis on
Now this is just a theory but Churchill’s eagerness to be present at the operation might have be due to his part in the failed Gallipoli landings in WW1.
While Churchill was not the mastermind behind those landings he was an involved in the planning states at least on the naval side.
He once wrote that he was regarded the failures of the Dardanelles as his worst experience saying that it ‘ruined him’
His wife is also quoted as once claiming that Churchill brought up Gallipoli multiple times a day in the weeks leading up to the D-Day landings. But since this was very written down by herself this is unconfirmed.
Either way it’s just a theory but personally I wouldn’t blame Churchill for losing sleep over the D-Day landings considering his small but significant part in Gallipoli campaign.
4 Comments
In fact, he is hoping to go even further. At his request, Admiral Ramsay has drawn up plans for him to board HMS Belfast on D minus 1, before transferring to a destroyer for a short tour of the beaches on D-Day itself. This is not a popular plan.
The Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, and the other military leaders do not want the added burden of Churchill anywhere near the action. The King has already written him a letter, dated 31 May, urging him to reconsider. Now George VI follows up with a second appeal “not to go to sea on D-Day”. He points out that his Prime Minister will “see very little … run a considerable risk”. He will also “be a very heavy additional responsibility to the Admiral and Captain”
So nervous is the King that he asks his Private Secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, to follow up his appeals with a late-night telephone call to Churchill’s train carriage. Winston finally and grudgingly defers to the Sovereign’s wishes. He admits to Lascelles that “if that poor ship should go to the bottom, you will all say, ‘I told you so’”.
His written reply, dictated in the early hours of that Saturday morning is more revealing of his mental state. He reluctantly deferred to “Your Majesty’s wishes and indeed commands”. But, he made it clear that “as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, I ought to be allowed to go where I consider it necessary to the discharge of my duty…”.
Well, they did let him watch Dragoon. So, he got to see one, at least.
To be fair to Churchill, monitoring the situation during D-Day from miles away must’ve been an agonizing experience what with his history with Gallipoli
Now this is just a theory but Churchill’s eagerness to be present at the operation might have be due to his part in the failed Gallipoli landings in WW1.
While Churchill was not the mastermind behind those landings he was an involved in the planning states at least on the naval side.
He once wrote that he was regarded the failures of the Dardanelles as his worst experience saying that it ‘ruined him’
His wife is also quoted as once claiming that Churchill brought up Gallipoli multiple times a day in the weeks leading up to the D-Day landings. But since this was very written down by herself this is unconfirmed.
Either way it’s just a theory but personally I wouldn’t blame Churchill for losing sleep over the D-Day landings considering his small but significant part in Gallipoli campaign.