The Churchill Series - Nov. 17, 2008

Readers Note: With the exceptions of Churchill's birth and death, I rarely post in recognition of anniversaries of events in Churchill's life. And I've never posted in recognition of any Series anniversary. But today I'll make an exception to that, albeit I'm late acknowledging the anniversary.

This November 1st was the Series third anniversary. It began as a daily posting. I later cut back to just weekdays to "lighten my load."

I thought you might be interested to view that first post, so I'm reposting it exactly as it appeared on Nov. 1, 2005.

I thank all of you who follow the Series and appreciate the generous comments and the correcting comments (often both in one) many of you've made these past three years.

John
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(One of a series of daily posts about Winston S. Churchill.)

In late December, 1941 Churchill arrived in Washington to meet with Roosevelt and begin joint Anglo-American war planning.

With the exception of a brief trip to Canada, Churchill remained in America for almost four weeks. While in Washington, he stayed at the White House.

The British government and people were understandably very interested to know what was transpiring with the Americans.

When Churchill flew back to England, landing at Plymouth on Jan. 17, 1942, a train was waiting to take him to London where at 10 PM that evening, the War Cabinet assembled to hear his report.

The minutes of that meeting include this:

The Prime Minister thought that (the Americans) were not above learning from us provided we did not set out to teach them.

Cited in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory, 1941-1945, (p. 43).