-- Winston Churchill.-- ========================= by Simon Laub, simonl@daimi.aau.dk vers. 1.0 Aug 10th 1991 vers. 2.0 Sep 25th 1995 Lovely Campaigns. --------------------- The world of 1895 was a world of peace. Young Winston, just appointed officer at the 4th Husars, was a man who wanted excitement, adventure and danger. Desires not easily accommodated in a world of tranquility and peace. But luck had it, that some farmers on Cuba were mad enough to fire a few shoots. So young Winston was off to Cuba. One stray bullet came as close as 30 centimetres to his head - and he was happy. Now he had seen battle. An experience which would often be repeated in the coming years. Each time he would ask the good Lord for "special protection" - and be ecstatic, when still alive after the battle. After a joyful war in 1897 at the northern boarders of India he tricked himself into the 21st Lancers and was shipped out to Cairo. for the Omdurman expedition in Sudan. Another great chance of seeing action in this dull world. In the wonderful book "The River War" Churchill describes with great passion how the Dervish army were attacked by the Lancers. And somehow the reader can't help feeling, that it would be great to join the slaughter and kill some "mighty dervish warriors". And yet young Winston is a philosopher :"The Dervish army were scattered and destroyed. But its death were nothing but a for-runner of the victor - time will conquer both". Somehow he even ended up critisizing the British warlord and semi god Lord Kitchener - leader of the Sudan expedition - for unnecessary cruelty. So perhaps war wasn't lovely after all ? South Africa and that POW Stockade. -------------------------------------- After having lost his first election he was off to South Africa for another war. Before he left, he had a brief conversation with Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial secretary, - who gave him a totally wrong briefing on the situation in South Africa. But then again - getting it right was never a strong-point of the Chamberlain family. Churchill would soon realize what the situation was like in South Africa. As he was captured (by the Boers) and taken to a POW stockade. But no prisonwall could hold Churchill, so he climbed the wall to freedom. Jumped down and sneaked down to some railway tracks. Waited and jumped aboard a freight-train. Luck had it, that the train were going in the right direction. At dawn he found it safer to jump off. So there he was - a fugitive in enemy country far,far away from home. As darkness fell he hoped for another train. But none came. He was alone and began walking trough the wilderness. And so he began what he always did when in trouble - he began praying. Hungry, wet, exhausted and having no ideas of direction he kept on walking. Finally lights in the distance. A small Kaffer village. What should he do - what should he do ? Risk going to the enemy. Believing they would help ? Or should he go back to the railway tracks - hoping for safe trains ? He prayed again and was certain ! He had to move forward - to the Kaffer village. He walked on - and at 3 AM he finally reached the lights. It turned out, not to be a Kaffer village, but a mining industry ! What now ? He prayed some more and was convinced again, that he had no choice but to proceed. In the house he met an English man, who told him, that he had hit the only safe house in a 35 kilometres radius. All other houses (and directions) would have led him straight back to captivity. A miracle of sorts had happened. With the help of the inhabitants (of the house) he was helped out of the Boer region and out to freedom. The lesson being, that if nothing else works - try praying. Back home in Britain Winston Churchill won his first seat in parliament - beating Mr. Runciman by some 230 votes (some 30000 cast). He was 26 and at the top of the world. Some 40 years later he would finally become PM and lead Britain into the greatest battle she had ever seen. Destiny walked with this man. Heart above brain. ---------------------- Often he failed, often he was ridiculed - sometimes he lost, - or more correctly, often he lost. But never-mind he had a mission to accomplish. His great heart would show the way, and eventually people followed their hearts more than they would follow their brains. And as it turned out - that would be the finest hour. His time would come, when loyalty, honour, duty and heroic visions would be in demand. But first he should wait some forty years - a gruelling test by any standards. And he was only summoned, when everything seemed utterly hopeless to everybody else. The men (of Munich) Halifax, Wilson, Wood, Simon and (Neville) Chamberlain had given up - and were ready to surrender freedom in Europe to Hitler. - E.g. "a negotiated peace is Englands only alternative", according to Halifax. Churchill didn't agree : "Even though large parts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender." A general asked what he would do, if a 100 Nazi divisions landed at Dover. He answered, that "they would be hit on the head". "An awfully big adventure" was to start. Human Faults. ------------------ Almost all politicians harbour faults. Faults which make people like me write long essays, if not books, about what should be done to correct them. And to make a better world. Surely Winston Churchill had faults - also serious faults. And yet if all politicians were like him - there wouldn't really be anything to be angry about in the world. I'm not always sure, whether or not, I actually like him. Or would find him pleasing to spend an afternoon with. And where should such an afternoon be ? In the trenches of WW1 France or in a basement in London during the Blitz ? Did he ever have a day without sorrow or trouble - at times you wonder ? My imagination tells me how statesmen should look. Lean with sharp eyes and a "strong nose". Something like MacArthur or Caesar. Handsome. Winston Churchill was nothing like that. Red haired with blue eyes and a face of "clay" - not "stone, nor "iron". Yet I laugh with him - when he releases the poor Dartmoor shepard from prison (who had robbed a church), when he cares for inmates in prisons. I know that he was a man of loyalty and honesty - far removed from the lies of everyday mortal politicians. For that he towers far above most. Actually reading about him - should make many a successor blush with shame, when engaged in greed or flaws of character. Olympian god. ---------------- His contemporary David Lloyd George called education "another trick of the aristocracy". Winston Churchill was part of the aristocracy and yet he found schooling just as horrendous and insignificant. He was Winston Churchill, an Olympian god, what could school give him ? No doubt such views aren't fitting for everyday man - but perhaps it was true for him. Anyhow he never learned, that you can compromise on morale issues, that you can embrace evil (without getting hurt). As so many schooled people have learned - and perhaps that was for the best. His beliefs would remain simple : That good is better than evil and that good wins. Most schooled and educated people had it the other way around at the time. But then again - schools teach you skills - not what you really are. And small people can't teach anyone, what true greatness is. There our gray world must be left behind - and we must become one with legends. The domain where Churchill lived all his live. Far away from this world. Three years before WW1 Winston Churchill wrote a memorandum to a cabinet colleque, describing how the starting phases of a European World War would be. Needless to say, it was correct down to minute details - But what else would one expect of a man of destiny ? A man of true leadership ? Simon Laub