Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill

Author:Winston S. Churchill [Churchill, Winston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141441771
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 2011-02-08T02:16:50.986000+00:00

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scene, accompanied by the Chiefs of Staff and the Russian admiral commanding the Black Sea Fleet, who had had orders from Moscow to be in attendance on me whenever I came ashore. We were a little shy and very tactful with our host. But we need not have worried. As Peake pointed to the line on which the Light Brigade had been drawn up the Russian admiral pointed in almost the same direction and exclaimed. “The German tanks came at us from over there.” A little later Peake explained the Russian dispositions, and pointed to the hills where their infantry had stood, whereupon the Russian admiral intervened with obvious pride: “That is where a Russian battery fought and died to the last man.” I thought it right at this juncture to explain that we were studying a different war, “a war of dynasties, not of peoples.” Our host gave no sign of comprehension, but seemed perfectly satisfied. So all passed off very pleasantly.

Before us lay the valley down which the Light Brigade had charged, and we could see the ridge which had been so gallantly defended by the Highlanders. As the scene lay before us one could grasp the situation which Lord Raglan had faced some ninety years earlier. We had visited his tomb in the morning, and were greatly struck by the care and respect with which it had been treated by the Russians.

I had much looked forward to the sea voyage through the Dardanelles to Malta, but I felt it my duty to make a lightning trip to Athens and survey the Greek scene after the recent troubles. Early on February 14 we accordingly set off by car for Saki, where our aeroplane awaited us. Eden had already left in advance. As we drove over the winding mountain road we passed a chasm into which the Germans Triumph and Tragedy

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had pitched scores of locomotives. At the airfield a splendid guard of honour of N.K.V.D. troops was drawn up. I inspected them in my usual manner, looking each man straight in the eye. This took some time, as there were at least two hundred of them, but it was commented on in a favourable way by the Soviet Press. I made a farewell speech before entering the plane.

We flew without incident to Athens, making a loop over the island of Skyros to pass over the tomb of Rupert Brooke, and were received at the airfield by the British Ambassador, Mr. Leeper, and General Scobie. Only seven weeks before I had left the Greek capital rent by street fighting. We now drove into it in an open car, where only a thin line of kilted Greek soldiers held back a vast mob, screaming with enthusiasm, in the very streets where hundreds of men had died in the Christmas days when I had last seen the city.

That evening a huge crowd of about fifty thousand people gathered in Constitution Square. The evening light was wonderful as it fell on these classic scenes.

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