Saturday was the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill. who was called by the author of this piece, "The Man Who Saved the World." Inflated description? There have been others who changed the course of history at other points, but history really did turn around his choices and his personal character in the early 1940's.
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photo: theguardian.com
In his photo above he doesn't look like a fighter, a warrior. But he saw plenty of action as a young army officer, going into "no man's land" during World War I thirty-six times. And his courage saved Britain from German conquest, Europe from who-knows-how-many years of Nazi tyranny.
Hitler had already overcome Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg when Churchill became Prime Minister in May of 1940. Britain was seriously considering giving up the fight. "Britain was alone, and the pressure to do a deal was overwhelming. The City wanted it; much of the media wanted it; Halifax wanted it; Chamberlain wanted it; Labour would have gone along."
But Churchill somehow turned them around. His "finest hour" speech tomorrow.
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