This story reminds me of the one a few years ago about Churchill’s “secret peace offers” to Mussolini, which alas are in letters at the bottom of Lake Como, where nobody can read them. But, always avid for new legends, theories and things that go bump in the night, I cautiously asked the opinion of two oracles...
Martin Gilbert: “Sounds absurd to me. Churchill's main man in Spain was Hillgarth. I will look into it on my return to the UK at the end of October.” (I will pass on any further observations.) David Stafford, the leading scholar of Churchill and secret intelligence: “I myself would never trust an ageing 'luvvie,' however glamorous and seductive a past he/she enjoyed, as an independent historical source. Besides, by 1943 Franco needed NO persuading not to join Hitler; the Allies had landed in North Africa in November 1942 and the wily Franco could see the way the pendulum was swinging. I think this is complete fantasy.” Professor Stafford’s view of Franco’s motivations in 1943 is backed up by John Grigg in his book “1943," pages 42-43; Richard Lamb’s “Churchill as War Leader,” page 208; and Churchill himself (in a characteristic generous reference to his sometime enemy Sir Samuel Hoare, British Ambassador to Franco, and to a Mr. Yencken), in his retrospective speech of 24 May 1944 (“Complete Speeches” VII: 6035). I can email these passages to anyone who contacts me offline. The theory doesn’t even pass the logic test. If Churchill wanted someone to pry Franco loose from an unexpected lurch to the Axis, why would he send a film actor? The tale may have something to do with the old canard (FINEST HOUR 131:6) that Leslie Howard’s plane was shot down because the Germans mistook his bodyguard for Churchill (who was returning from North Africa along a similar route, but not, of course, in a commercial airliner). In the letters column of FINEST HOUR 133, Professor M.R.D. Foot, the Oxford scholar who wrote ”SOE: An Outline History,” offered “a more banal but more plausible" reason for the attack on the aircraft: “Another of the passengers in Howard's plane, also killed, was Wilfred Israel, the Jewish owner of a large department store in prewar Berlin, who happened to have a British as well as a German passport, and had so escaped from Germany. He had been in Lisbon, pursuing work to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis' clutches. He had long been on the Gestapo's black list. German secret service officers watched all departures from Lisbon airport from the airport cafe, which overlooked the boarding point. It is not hard to assume that one of them recognised Israel and rang up a friend in the Luftwaffe.” --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ChurchillChat?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
