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ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE. Major-General Sir Edward Spears.
Churchill's envoy to the French Cabinet at the time of the German invasion of France up to the Capitulation of France.
He tells of what went on in both the British & French cabinet & other meetings. It is an incredible insight into the chaos on one side & the steady nerve & determination on the other.
Spears was ordered back by Churchill for a meeting. Spears records how he went into No 10 gardens, very traditionally English where he was greeted by Churchill & others. He describes the absolute tranquility & determination compared to the chaos in France.
At a meeting in Villacoubly just below Paris he records this scene as Churchill arrived at the airport to come home to London. I wish I had been there. My gained info gives me to think they were Hurricanes.
On the aerodrome I saw a picture and received an impression of beauty unequalled in my life. The nine fighter planes were drawn up in a wide semicircle round the Prime Minister's Flamingo.
Very slight they seemed on their undercarriages, high and slender as mosquitoes. Churchill walked towards the machines, grinning, waving his stick, saying a word or two to each pilot as he went from one to the other, and,
as I watched their faces light up and smile in answer to his, I thought they looked like angels of my childhood.
A great book which I have read 4 times. Spears was a scholar & wrote superbly. I have one of the originals with paper which is as thin & smooth as silk ( you can get them fro about £6 ).
Laurie
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