Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker

Author:Nicholson Baker [Baker, Nicholson]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Military, 20th Century, Modern, World War II, History
ISBN: 9781416572466
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2009-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

THE EDITOR OF THE SUNDAY DISPATCH, Charles Eade, had lunch with Winston and Clementine Churchill in the basement of 10 Downing Street.

Mrs. Churchill was wearing a scarf with patriotic slogans on it: LEND TO DEFEND and GO TO IT. The guests had sherry, fish patties, white wine, tournedos with mushrooms, peaches, cheese, port, brandy, and cigars. Churchill lit his cigar ten times. James Conant, the president of Harvard, was there, as was Professor Lindemann. It was March 6, 1941.

“We talked about the huge bomb which was dropped about three weeks ago at Hendon,” Eade wrote afterward. “Mr Churchill said it weighed about 4,000 lbs and killed about 80 people.”

Somebody brought up the absurdity of Englishwomen who offered tea and cigarettes to downed German airmen. Clementine Churchill said that English people cannot hate their enemies. Churchill said: Before the war is over, we shall be hating our enemies all right.

There was, said Eade, a great desire that ordinary German citizens should suffer the effects of British bombing.

Churchill repeated his quip: “Duty must come before pleasure.”

Clementine Churchill laughed immoderately. “You are bloodthirsty,” she said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.