Re: [ChurchillChat] RE: USS Randolph

['David Freeman' via ChurchillChat]

This is a photograph of Churchill's reception on the USS Randolph
On Tuesday, September 18, 2018, 6:46:08 AM PDT, Director, Churchill 
Archives Centre  wrote:  
 
  Dear Mr 
Mendel and Mr Santos, My excellent colleague Heidi Egginton has found the 
following in the papers here at the Churchill Archives Centre. Do contact her 
if you wish to purchase a copy:Dear Allen,  Yes! There is a great typescript 
(dictated but signed) letter from WSC to CSC from La Pausa dated 22 October 
1958 (CSCT 2/46/9-11), in which he mentions the ‘possibility of going to lunch 
next Sunday’ on the USS Randolph. It does appear to have beenthe first time 
Churchill travelled in a helicopter.  “We are examining the possibility of 
going to lunch next Sunday upon the Randolph, an American aircraft carrier. 
They have the idea that they can pick us up in one of their special helicopters 
and drop us on the ship itself. We have invitedthe Captain and his wife to 
lunch on Friday to look into the possibilities. I have never been in a 
helicopter, and would like to make a voyage which would certainly save a great 
deal of toil.” I also checked the Emery Reves book, but unfortunately there is 
a gap in their correspondence between August and 20 November 1958. I also had a 
very quick look through the France Visits correspondence files in CHUR 1, but 
couldn’t see anything immediatelyobvious relating to the aircraft carrier lunch 
plans. Presumably there will also be correspondence in those files generally 
about Churchill’s October 1958 trip to Nice and La Pausa.  Best wishes,Heidi 
Heidi EggintonArchives AssistantChurchill Archives CentreChurchill 
CollegeCambridge CB3 0DS01223 336087archi...@chu.cam.ac.uk   Director
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Registered Charity: 1137476
(0)1223 336175 
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[ChurchillChat] Re: Sir Winston Churchill on USS Randolph

[Richard Langworth]

Some further notes on helicopters and USS *Randolph.*

“I have never been in a helicopter” is in *Winston S. Churchill,* vol. 8, 
*Never 
Despair 1945-1965* 
 (Hillsdale 
College Press, 2013), 


Wendy Reves, “The Man Who was Here,” *Finest Hour 63, 2nd Quarter 1989:*

I remember . . . our helicopter ride together. It was his 
first, and mine also. He was to be the honored guest aboard the *Randolph*, 
an aircraft carrier. He loved unusual happenings, and this was certainly 
one. My husband Emery, Sir Winston, his bodyguard Detective Sergeant Murray 
and I drove to the Nice airport, where we found two Navy helicopters 
awaiting us. The plan was that Sgt. Murray would go with Sir Winston in one 
machine, and Emery and I in the other. Then, without warning, Sir Winston 
said, “No! Wendy comes with me.” And so it was. The helicopter was a rough 
and raw model, sternly navy with no comforts. The pilot, feeling I think 
his moment of greatness, lofted us up so quickly and so roughly that we 
were both startled. I looked across at Sir Winston, and there before me was 
the young, valiant Churchill, courageous, with his chin jutting forward. It 
was as though he had suddenly shed 50 years, and was once again squarely 
facing a challenge: a split second only ... a memory.

 

Martin Gilbert, *Churchill: A Life,* 954:

The helicopter ride was “an exhilarating incident,’ he told 
Wendy Reves, who accompanied him.

 

Edmund Murray, *I Was Churchill’s Bodyguard, *160:

On trips abroad, especially to the French Riviera, we 
invariably had trouble with too many enthusiastic photographers and 
reporters. On the 1952 trip, one of the newer weapons of the fourth estate, 
the helicopter, was employed to spy on Churchill while he painted in the 
seclusion of the Caponcina grounds. But he was quite unperturbed for, as he 
heard the chattering of the machine overhead, he commented, “I may fly home 
in a helicopter too.”

“Would you wish to land in the Festival Grounds, Sir?”

“No,” said he, “on the Horse Guards Parade. Why not?” Chuckle, 
chuckle. He did not do so, however, and in fact, his first ride in a 
helicopter did not take place until some four or five years later when the 
American Navy picked us up at Nice Airport to carry us to the United States 
carrier Randolph, part of the Mediterranean Fleet, for dinner. It was a 
superb evening and I was told that permission had been obtained from the 
White House or the Pentagon, for champagne, whisky and cocktails to be 
served, probably for the very first time since the American Navy went dry.

 

*Second Helo Ride, May 1959*

Pilpel, *Churchill in America, *268:

On Wednesday, the sixth, Eisenhower took Churchill to have a 
look at his Gettysburg farm. They traveled by helicopter from Washington, 
which gave Winston a chance to inspect the Civil War battlefield from the 
air en route.

 

Anthony Montague Browne, *Long Sunset,* 261:

We had flown with the President by helicopter to his Gettysburg 
farm, and after the visit had hovered over the battlefield with the curator 
of the museum. All had been astounded that WSC could pick out with the 
utmost accuracy the main features of that terrible engagement: Round Top 
Hill, Pickett’s charge, with their distances and significance, were 
fluently and dramatically described. WSC had walked many of the Civil War 
battlefields and his descriptions are very close to the greatest of his 
prose. It was a triumph for a very old man.

 

Mary Soames, *Speaking for Themselves, *CSC to WSC, 7 May 1959:

“Not one word from you & Anthony after the short message 
announcing your safe arrival - However I follow your doings in the Press - 
I am so very glad you went to see Mr Dulles & General Marshall, & what fun 
the helicopter must have been!”

 

*Churchill on Helicopters (seems there was nothing he didn't 
contemplate)*

15 July 1953. From Moran, *Struggle for Survival*

“He was troubled often with fluids going down the wrong way. 
Turning to Clemmie after one of these bouts of coughing, he said: ‘You see, 
dear, we have a turnstile in our throat, and it is so arranged that traffic 
is bound to go the right way, until things go wrong.’ He showed me a 
memorandum that he had written on helicopters. When they were 300 feet from 
the ground or less, if the engine cut out or the propeller came off there 
was a nasty crash. His memorandum contained suggestions to meet that 
contingency; the propeller was to be hollow, and in the hollow there was a 
parachute. He had sent his paper to the Prof. for his comments.”


   Gilbert, *Never Despair,* 772: “He also wanted to know, on 
another occasion, why a parachute could not be deployed by a helicopter, 
should the engine fail, and thus float down in safety!” [The paper, 

[ChurchillChat] RE: USS Randolph

[Director, Churchill Archives Centre]

Dear Mr Mendel and Mr Santos,

My excellent colleague Heidi Egginton has found the following in the papers 
here at the Churchill Archives Centre. Do contact her if you wish to purchase a 
copy:
Dear Allen,

Yes! There is a great typescript (dictated but signed) letter from WSC to CSC 
from La Pausa dated 22 October 1958 (CSCT 2/46/9-11), in which he mentions the 
'possibility of going to lunch next Sunday' on the USS Randolph. It does appear 
to have been the first time Churchill travelled in a helicopter.

"We are examining the possibility of going to lunch next Sunday upon the 
Randolph, an American aircraft carrier. They have the idea that they can pick 
us up in one of their special helicopters and drop us on the ship itself. We 
have invited the Captain and his wife to lunch on Friday to look into the 
possibilities. I have never been in a helicopter, and would like to make a 
voyage which would certainly save a great deal of toil."

I also checked the Emery Reves book, but unfortunately there is a gap in their 
correspondence between August and 20 November 1958. I also had a very quick 
look through the France Visits correspondence files in CHUR 1, but couldn't see 
anything immediately obvious relating to the aircraft carrier lunch plans. 
Presumably there will also be correspondence in those files generally about 
Churchill's October 1958 trip to Nice and La Pausa.

Best wishes,
Heidi

Heidi Egginton
Archives Assistant
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge CB3 0DS
01223 336087
archi...@chu.cam.ac.uk




Director
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Registered Charity: 1137476
(0)1223 336175

Churchill College takes its responsibilities to protect your data seriously. 
The College's data protection privacy statements are available online at 
https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/about/official-documents/data-protection-statements/
This email (together with any files transmitted with it) is intended only for 
the use of the individual(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain 
information which is confidential and/or legally privileged. If you have 
received this email in error, please notify the sender by return email (or 
telephone) and delete the original message.





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