(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
In the last days of April and the very first days of May, 1940 it became apparent to British and French intelligence that the German army facing their forces on the Frence border was beginning to stir after months of relative inactivity during what had become known as "the phony war."
Most Allied leaders were very confident then that they could repel a German attack and in the process inflict heavy losses on the Germans. France was believed to have the world's greatest army. The Allies had been preparing and reinforcing their defensive positions since September, 1939.
In that atmosphere of confidence, French and British leaders met in Paris.
Churchill's principal bodyguard during WW II, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Walter Thompson tells us:
A meeting took place of the Supreme War Council.____________________________________________________
[Prime Minister] Chamberlain was present with Daladier, the French Prime Minister, who said it was the finest war council he had ever attended.
I stood at the side of the group and watched the statesmen and the officials having their photographs taken.
Back at the British Embassy, Mr. Churchill suddenly asked me, “Did you have your picture taken with the group, Thompson?”
“No, sir.”
“Pity. I am certain that the people in that group will never meet again in similar circumstances.”
Within a few weeks Daladier was a prisoner of the Germans and Chamberlain had been replaced as Prime Minister by Churchill himself.
Walter Thompson, Beside the Bulldog: The Intimate Memoirs of Churchill’s Bodyguard. (pg. 89)
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