Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

Chronology
(Journey numbers are in parentheses)
1940
16 May-14 June: Flies five round-trips from London to
France. Three flights to Paris, 16-17 May, 21 May, 31 May.
(1-3) Two flights farther south, to Briare (on the Loire, 80
miles south of Paris), 11-12 June; to Tours, 13-14 June. (4-5)
1941
4-18 August: Sails on HMS Prince of Wales from Scapa
Flow to and from Placentia Bay, Newfoundland for Atlantic
Conference with Roosevelt. (6)
13 December-17 January: Sails on HMS Duke of York
from Clyde to Hampton Roads (then flies by Navy Lockheed
transport, probably a Lodestar, to Washington DC) for meetings
with Roosevelt. Returns in Boeing flying boat Berwick
from Norfolk to Bermuda, then on to Britain. (7)
1942
7-27 June: Flies in flying boat Bristol from Stanraer,
Scotland to Washington for another meeting with Roosevelt;
returns from Baltimore by way of Botwood to Stanraer, his
first transatlantic round-trip by air. (8)
2-24 August: Flies in Commando from Lyneham to
Gibraltar, Cairo, El Alemein, Teheran, and Moscow, and back
largely same way. (9)
1943
12 January-7 February: Flies in Commando from
Lyneham to Casablanca, also Cairo, Adana, Nicosia, returning
via Cairo, Tripoli and Algiers. (10)
5 May-5 July: Sails on HMT Queen Mary from the
Clyde to New York. On to Washington by train, then with
FDR to “Shangri-la” (Camp David). Returns in flying boat
Bristol, flying to Botwood, then Gibraltar. In late May, flies
from Gibraltar to Algiers, Tunisia and home to Northolt on
Ascalon, the first of his two longest trips during the war. (11)
5-10 August: Sails as “Col. Warden” in HMT Queen
Mary from the Clyde to Halifax for first Quebec Conference;
returns on battlecruiser HMS Renown. (12)
12 November-17 January: Sails from Plymouth on
HMS Renown to Gibraltar, Algiers, Malta and Alexandria. Flies
in Ascalon to Cairo and Teheran, and back to Cairo and Tunis.
After two-week illness in North Africa, flies to Cairo in RAF
Lockheed Lodestar. In January, sails Gibraltar-Plymouth on
HMS George V, the second of his two longest trips. (13)
1944
12 June: Sails Portsmouth-Normandy and back on
HMS Kelvin to visit Normandy beachheads. (14)
12-23 June: Flies in U.S. Army C-47 Dakota from Heston to
Cherbourg; stays on HMS Enterprise off Arromanches 20-23
June. Returns to Northolt by RAF Dakota. (15)
10-29 August: Flies Northolt-Algiers and Naples in
Ascalon; several further short legs in RAF Dakotas. Sails on
Maps in Hunt and Pawle (below) are too huge to reproduce,
but the chicken scratches convey the extent of WSC’s travel.
HMS Kimberley along southern French invasion coast. Several
other trip segments before return to Northolt. (16)
5-29 September: Sails on HMT Queen Mary to Halifax
for Second Quebec Conference, returns from New York. (17)
8-22 October: Flies in Ascalon from Northolt to
Moscow via Naples and Cairo, returning to Northolt. (18)
10-14 November: Flies in RAF Skymaster from Rheims
to Paris and back. (19)
24-29 December: Flies Athens and back in Skymaster. (20)
1945
3-5 January: Flies in RAF Dakotas to Paris, returning
from Brussels. (21)
29 January-19 February: Flies in Skymaster to Malta
where accommodated on HMS Orion; flies on to Saki Airport,
then motors to Yalta. Stays on HMT Franconia after the conference.
Returns to Lyneham in Skymaster via Athens (where
he stays on HMS Aurora) and Cairo. (22)
2-6 March: Flies in Skymaster from Northolt to Brussels
and back from Rheims. (23)
23-26 March: Flies in RAF Dakota from Northolt to
the Rhine and back. (24)
7-25 July: Flies Northolt-Bordeaux/Potsdam for Berlin
Conference and for election returns, in Skymaster. (25). ,
Sources
Douglas Austin, Churchill and Malta: A Special Relationship
(Stroud, UK: Spellmount, 2006).
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill VI: Finest Hour, 1939-1941
(Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1983).
_____, Winston S. Churchill VII: Road to Victory, 1941-1945
(Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1986).
Frank A. De Vine Hunt, Dunkirk to Berlin, June 1940-July 1945:
A Map of the Historic Wartime Journeys.... (London: Reprint Society,
1956). A simplified one-color version is reprinted as a fold-out in Pawle.
Brian Lavery, Churchill Goes to War: Winston’s Wartime Journeys
(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2007).
Lord Moran, Churchill: The Struggle for Survival (Boston:
Houghton-Mifflin, 1966).
Gerald Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden (London: Harrap,
1963).
Celia Sandys, Chasing Churchill (London: HarperCollins; New
York: Carroll & Graf, 2003).
Jerrard Tickell, Ascalon: The Story of Winston Churchill’s War-time
Flights 1943 to 1945 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964).
FINEST HOUR 148 / 16