"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." - Sir Winston Churchill
History was kind to Churchill, but I don't believe it was so much because he wrote it as much as that he deserved it.
Last Saturday, Aaron and I explored the Churchill War Rooms, a museum in London. Before going, I knew that the CWR were the underground cabinet war rooms that the British government used during WWII. What I didn't know was that they actually began construction on them in 1938 knowing that the possibility of war was on the horizon. In August 1939 they began using them and remained in operation until 1945.
I also didn't know what they would look like or what would be inside. The rooms itself looked just as you'd imagine they did when they were sitting around planning the war strategy 76 years ago. This is mainly to the fact that after the war, the rooms were locked up and very few people were able to visit them. They were preserved until the CWR opened as a museum in 1984.
Some significant rooms that we saw:
- The Cabinet Room where war meetings were held. During the blitz (London bombing campaign), Britain tried to increase the protection and security of the rooms so a massive slab of concrete up to 5 feet thick was added above the rooms. It is still not known to this day if the concrete would successfully prevent the rooms from being destroyed during a bombing, but luckily during the war, they never had to find this out.
- The Map Room which was manned around the clock and tracks all the war activity on maps.
- The Transatlantic Telephone Room where Churchill would secretly phone Roosevelt to discuss the war.
- Churchill's Office / Bedroom which also housed BBC broadcasting equipment. Churchill gave four wartime broadcasts from his bedroom in the CWR.
Along with these rooms, there were also dormitories for the staff and private bedrooms for other key members of the cabinet.
My favorite part of the CWR was the museum that is dedicated to the life of Churchill. He was such an incredible person with many hats ...both bowler hats and hypothetically : )
Churchill grew up always wanting to be in politics and also having a love for writing. He made a name for himself by reporting on war stories while enlisted in the army. In South Africa he was captured and imprisoned in a POW camp before escaping and traveling 300 miles to safety, which gained him national recognition.
I never knew about Churchill's resilience and tenacity. Multiple times he made mistakes in his career that left him almost completely exiled from parliament. But he knew he wanted to be in politics so he kept pursuing it. When Hitler was gaining more and more support, Britain's prime minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, wanted to appease and work with him. Churchill was very vocal against this, foreshadowing the events that would eventually occur. Thus, when it did, Chamberlain stepped down and there was no better person than Churchill to step up to the challenge.
He had a way with words, which I think came from his passion for writing. This translated into his speeches which were motivating, inspiring and realistic. He was well-spoken and defiant in his messages. But he also seemed like a very fun guy. He told dirty jokes and said things like "I always believed in staying in the pub until closing time." : )
Churchill and Roosevelt became great friends exchanging an estimated 1,700 letters and telegrams and meeting 11 times in their friendship. They both admired and respected each other. Churchill even was awarded with honorary US citizenship at the end of the war. One story that stood out to me was that immediately after Pearl Harbor, Churchill felt like they had won the war because America was now on their side. He left England for America in an unmarked ship and was at the White House within a few weeks. While there, Churchill had what his doctor classified as a mini heart attack but he was unaware.
Churchill died at age 90 in 1965 and was given the largest state funeral in world history at that time. What I really took away from the CWR was that Churchill was a fascinating man who really did change the course of history.
The museum also has the original 10 Downing Street door that Churchill used during his time as Prime Minister. Next to it, reads a Churchill quote:
"I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.... I was sure I should not fail."
And fail he did not.
We wandered around the winding stone streets and perused the local shops. After stopping for a bottle of wine at a restaurant overlooking the view, we met up with our other friends and their family. We ended up playing pétanque for a few hours with everyone which is basically French bocce ball. All the little towns have pétanque terrains that are free to use.
