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Surely Churchhill was a good guy?We were, surprisingly, allowed to criticise Churchhill at home in my teens. This is because of one of Dad 's pet subjects was the betrayal of Catholic Poland by the Protestant Churchhill. This confused me, as I had even heard of Churchhill 's heroic exploits as a kid in Canada, mainly him hiding from the Boers up a ladder.
What I later realised, was that hating the beloved war leader was very popular. He was reviled by a series of different groups, starting with the Liberals for being a Conservative before WW1.
This was swiftly followed by the Conservatives who were aghast at his switch to the Liberals. He was already slightly detested in South Africa by those who remembered the concentration camps, but then added the Turks when he later tried to storm the Dardanelles in WW1.
Moving on, he was loathed by the Australians and New Zealanders in quick succession, when they realised the Turks held the high ground. I 've been there ...it 's straight up. Mehmet Turk was well armed and it was racist arrogance to think we could win, against this determined, populous country.
There is a break until he rejoins the Conservatives after WW1, when the Liberals take up the baton again. We then had the miners, during the General Strike and the new Labour politicians.He clearly wanted some fresh talent to despise him for a change.
WW2 reignited the German loathing, but he also gained the Italians and Japanese. The Russians, who should have been an ally, remembered him from the White Army period in 1919.
So we come to the Poles and my Dad. Dad thought that Stalin with 3 million Russian troops, fresh from an astonishing victory should have been challenged and added his name to a long list.
If you were to say "OK, so who won the European war? ", the answer is multi-faceted. Firstly militarily, of course, the Soviets, as they faced two thirds of the total strength of Nazi Germany. Financially, the Americans won, as they came out unscathed and able to buy up the rest of the world. Britain, the unconquered "Aircraft Carrier ", lost its empire, but kept its dignity. Despite all these claimants, try asking the people of Malta who won the war.
I had not realised, until I visited, just what they achieved. I knew the history, or so I thought, but the Maltese are quite up front, yet blasé about it. "We won the war! Isn 't it obvious? " I had known about the George Cross, but school books conveyed nothing of the drama.
I had seen the film with Alec Guinness, so cool. As he faced 3 enemy fighters, he said, "Now here comes the tricky bit " and was gloriously lost, having saved the day. Well, yes, the Brit pilots were brave, but the tricky bit was suffering bombing every day for years.
It is a tiny island but with a harbour that has been famous for a thousand years. The Axis tried everything to destroy it. The film 'The Malta Story ' was not very good and could have better emphasised the struggle.
As the war in Africa climaxed, a convoy was sent to Malta, with an oil tanker, which could have supplied some newly-arrived, but out-of-fuel Spitfires and balanced the fight a little. This was after years of the lumbering Swordfishes being shot out of the sky, by modern Axis planes.
The people of Malta had not previously been protected by the fabled Spitfires, because of red tape, (the red tape part is probably not totally true but, in MY film, some haughty, racially abusive Air Commodore would deny them these beautiful machines.)
The tanker was bombed and set on fire. It crawled along attracting a hornet's nest of Axis trouble. The fire was put out. The fire reignited. More attacks. The tanker limped home. The cheering Maltese people met it at Valletta Harbour.
The Spitfires were fuelled up and a half-Maltese-half-Scottish pilot shot the monocle from the sneering Aryan face of the Luftwaffe pilot, (this is MY film, don 't forget). "Gott in Himmel! ....Shpitfieur! " he screamed, as his 109 plummeted ...etc ...
The raids on the German supply ships continued, using Fortress Malta as a base. The Afrika Korps had no fuel and no ammunition, the Desert Fox no teeth or claws. Rommel was easy meat for a resupplied Montgomery. The Maltese people say it was because of their sacrifice and only a braver man than me would question this.
The defeat in Africa led to Sicily and gave the Russians in Stalingrad reason to believe.
OK, I ACCEPT THIS BUT YOU CALLED IT THE "BEAUTIFUL" SPITFIRE. IT WAS A KILLING MACHINE. Well my aunt was Mitchell 's secretary and had a silver model of it on her fireplace. It was beautiful. ...Mitchell ...the designer?
OH!.. AND WILL SHE BE IN YOUR FILM? Not only her, but she will be accompanied by her nephew who will have joined Mitchell as a young assistant.
"Mr Mitchell, while you and the team were at the party, I managed to build one craft out of the two crashed ones. " said the shy young man.
"Well done lad. ", Said Mitchell. "I see your cockpit 's on the top... It could work. ...but we have no pilots left to test it " ...
"Oh yes we have! " the young man says in a ruggedly modest voice ... ...etc.
Part 3 Hamish's dad attacks the Chinese with a clarinet.
