Posted on 07/08/2012 6:16:40 PM PDT by Dysart
Flight Officer Ron Buck kept back his own pictures from the trip that was later described as the 'Most Daring Flight of the Whole War.'
Churchill had crossed the Atlantic by ship in order to lobby President Roosevelt, but rashly decided to fly home from Bermuda.
With some of his most senior colleagues, the Prime Minister embarked on what was to become a perilous 18 hours flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Great photos, but the modern British penchant for focusing upon tangential, prissy descriptions of attire is more jarring than usual. I’m surprised they didn’t nitpick the cut of his blazer or something.
In his “History of World War II” Churchill mentions several times flying in his B-24 which was an American plane with an American pilot whom Churchill liked.
He also said he often took the co-pilot’s seat and talked with the pilot on trips.
Not sure if that was the same plane on this trip or not.
Churchill is my favorite historical figure of all time. Thanks for this.
The clown in the White House has dreams all the time about Churchill torturing either his father, his grandfather or his uncle. It was one of them. Or it may have been someone that one of them knew. Barry’s dreams aren’t very clear.
Barry’s dreams aren’t very clear.
Well what do you want from a composite?
Just went back and read the whole story. It was a flying boat he was on that trip.
Thank you for posting-fascinating.
SC—just a general interest ping to you for the history.
Churchill was himself a pilot.
"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."-- Winston Churchill
Very modern flight deck. Notice the finishing of the overhead.
An 18 hour flight? Must have spent a lot of time partying in Bermuda.
5.56mm
Beats the plastic and too small piece of fiberglass mat for insulation these days.
BFL
Churchill had calmly faced death so many times in the Royal Hussars in India and the Sudan, as a war correspondent in Cuba and S. Africa, and in the trenches of WWI after retiring from the Admiralty following the Gallipoli disaster that for him this must have been just another excursion to the edge. A risk taker and a real man.
My dad told me a story when Winston Churchill was almost
shot down in his flying boat by US Anti-aircraft Artillery
near Long Island Sound early in the war.
From the article, it was the Boeing Clipper flying boat RAM ‘Berwick’.
Well the still full water glass is the one next to the sugar bowl at the right. Notice well the two empty glasses at the left with a small amount of darker liquid at the bottoms. Note also the ripple in the table covering like an outgoing tide as the empties were pushed to the side. Odd thing that the glasses are progressively less wide, with the narrowest in his hand. Teacup dismissed to stand against the wall.
IIRC Sir Winston retired each night of the war with a bottle of brandy and a cigar.
BTW as I understand it colonial officers never mixed spirits with unreliable local water.
I can tell by the control wheel that it is indeed a B-24 or the transport version called a c-87.
I can tell by the control wheel that it is indeed a B-24 or the transport version called a c-87.I stand corrected.The control wheel looks similar to the B-24 but I am wrong it is a Boeing flying boat.
Yes indeed, a risk taker and a real man. He drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, ate what he wanted when he wanted, was in all manner of death defying situations, and lived to be 91. Well done Mr. Churchill!
I’m getting pretty old and have read every book written by or about Churchill that I can find, including the superb Last Lion books by Wm. Manchester. I wish he, Churchill, had written more. He is one of my heros. The other is Ronald Reagan (renewed my Navy after the disaster that was Carter).
Everyone should read Churchill’s History of WWII. He said that history would treat him well, because he was going to write it. We will never again see his equal.
Churchill was certainly a character.
Don’t forget he was 1/2 American and his Mother was 1/8 American Indian making him far more native American than Ward Churchill.
Some more info here, including the fact Churchill learned to fly in 1913 -
A man with definite class and b@!!$ compared to that pansy in the W.H.
Yours the same aircraft as in the Mail article pictures - registration G-AGCA
That's why Ought-Bama had to return the bust of Churchill to the Brits. He couldn't stand being glared at by his superior.
Thanks,
Sir Winston is one of my heroes & now that I’m retired I will find time to read his histories of Western Civilization. Admire his personal style too, he ignored his doctors’ scoldings & lived to a ripe old age (if I live another 28 years I’ll equal his record).
Didn’t know `Winnie’ was an aficionado of the Boeing 314 Clipper; read all about that model as a kid & not one has survived. One magnificent aircraft & one magnificent man, both belong to another time when giants still walked the Earth.
Indeed, well said! The decline is steepening, but one has to believe there is yet hope.
Why hasn't he fired the White House janitor.
In the second photo, he looks like Arnold Palmer!
IIRC Sir Winston retired each night of the war with a bottle of brandy and a cigar.
I must assure you that neither brandy nor whiskey (Scotch) were in those glasses. A man such as Churchill would never drink good whiskey nor Brandy from a water glass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If it were in the evening I would be most surprised if it were not good brandy or whiskey. However it would be in a brandy glass or a whiskey glass. Never would it be a glass for water!!!
If you haven’t seen it already, The Gathering Storm, with Albert Finney as Churchill is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the past few years.
Interesting story. Thanks for posting.
http://taylorempireairways.com/2010/03/pm-churchill-flying-boac-b314/
What? A six volume history of the Second World War, four volumes of his biography of Marlborough, four volumes of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, the great "While England Slept", "The River War", over 30 other books, dozens of newspaper and magazine articles and hundreds of speeches, a Nobel Prize in literature, and you dare demand more of the poor man? You're mad, fellow. Not since Julius Caesar has a world leader been such a prolific and accomplished writer, and I doubt we will ever see his like again.
Churchill's personal plane was an LB-30 (export version) of the B-24 and was called Liberator II by the British. Eventually 87 LB-30s served in the RAF. Churchill's personal LB-30 was named “Commando”.
The Liberator II was the first version of the B-24 to feature the lengthened nose that would become standard on all later aircraft. This extension, which increased the length of the aircraft from 63ft 9in to 66ft 4in, was originally made for purely aesthetic reasons, but as the war developed, and the amount of equipment carried on aircraft increased, the extra space proved to be very valuable.
The Liberator II was powered by commercial Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4-G engines. These engines lacked the turbosuperchargers used on USAAF B-24 aircraft. The P&W engines turned Curtiss Electric propellers (longer propeller hubs) than the more common, shorter hubs, of the Hamilton-Standard propellers found on the B-24.
In RAF service, the LB-30 carried 14 .303-inch machine guns: one in the nose, one in a tunnel hatch, two in each waist position, and four each in Boulton-Paul power operated tail and dorsal turrets.
I remember seeing that in all those books. I never could figure out which one was “Former naval person” as it could easily have been either one.
IIRC, the B-24 and the China Clipper shared the same wing design (and its high placement, which, of course, was ideal for a flying boat)...
Otherwise, as you say, "apples to oranges"...
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Thanks exit82. Pretty neat. |
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They watched their fuel like a hawk, knowing there was no room for error. By the time they'd get to their hardstand the engines would be fuel starved.
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