By Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist.
Winston S. Churchill, Lake of the Snows, Canada, August 27, 1943 – Our reprieve from the clatter of war began three days ago with the end of my conference with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that great and magnanimous human being who guides the mighty United States of America through this most perilous history. I was delighted with my American counterpart’s choice of Quebec as the location of our war-planning conference. I had seized the opportunity in the evenings of our four-day sail at the opening of the month from Scotland to Canada on the Queen Mary, now the Grey Ghost, to give forth
to my wife and
daughter on what I consider the copious charms and hallowed history of the
ancient citadel of Quebec, at the gateway of Canada, overlooking the mighty St.
Lawrence River. My wife and daughter indulged me, as they do always, and listened
with great attention while I regaled them with the exploits of British Major
General James Wolfe and his seize of Quebec from the French in 1759. Both Montcalm,
the French commander, and Wolfe were mortally wounded in the battle. The
outcome was France’s ceding most of its territory in eastern North America at
the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It paved the way for Great Britain to emerge as
the world’s leading colonial power and for Wolfe to be forever remembered by
the British as the ‘Hero of Quebec.’ His immortal declaration reads: ‘Who at
the Expence of his Life, purchas’d immortal Honour for his Country, and planted
with his own Hand, the British Laurel, in the inhospitable Wilds of North
America, By the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th, 1759.’ The time is
nigh to plant the British Laurel once more, this time in Germany, at Hitler’s
front door.
Britain’s defeat of France at Quebec in 1759
established the Anglophile as the ruling class, however, there is no denying
that Quebec’s soul remains that of the Francophile. It is difficult to find any
faction of life in Quebec in which the Catholic Church is not dominant. The
French culture and language are similarly central. Quebec’s French spirit suffused our fortnight
there and stood starkly as a metaphor of the cross the Allies bear toward the
good people of France to free them of the Nazi specter that holds them in its
yoke of terror. It is an obligation both heavy and inescapable. While the
centuries have seen at times a trying relationship between France and Great
Britain, we emerged as allies against Germany in the Great War and at the outset of the Second World War.
My thoughts are never far from the ‘Free French Air Forces’ or ‘Forces
Aériennes Françaises Libres (FAFL)’, comprised initially
of a few, brave, French airmen who undertook the dangerous flight from Bordeaux-Mérignac
to England just five days before the signing of the terrible Franco-German Armistice. Some of them joined the Royal Air Force (RAF). During
the following seventeen months, others escaped France as well as French North
Africa and joined General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces. South
Americans volunteered additionally, swelling its ranks from 500 in July, 1940
to 900 in 1941. Under the Allied umbrella, it continues to grow and fight
alongside us, to date in the Anglo-American campaign of North Africa and in Sicily.
The
French tricolor with The Cross of Lorraine at its center is ever before my
eyes, and never more so than during the hours of my conference in Quebec with
President Roosevelt. Our agenda’s primary feature was the cross-channel
invasion of Nazi-held France in the coming spring. The collateral damage the
French people are sustaining from our air raids over their cities and
countryside for the reason of reducing the Nazi defenses among them before our
invasion robs me of my sleep. God help them as they will be caught in the
crossfire whence we storm their shores.
At the bidding of my Canadian
friend, Colonel Clarke, whom had been attached to me by the Dominion Government
during the conference, Clemmie and I are ensconced seventy-five miles outside of Quebec amid
mountains and pine forests at the lovely ‘Lake of the Snows.’ We are assured
that the largest trout are abundant, and here we will remain for a well-earned
week of rest and relaxation and fishing. I have been invited by Canada’s great
Prime Minister, W.L. Mackenzie King, to speak by radio broadcast to my Canadian
brothers and sisters, and to all of the Allied world. It will be an opportunity
to acknowledge their enormous sacrifices and involvement in the war effort.
Upon our departure from
this wondrous ‘Lake of the Snows’ and its generous trout, we will sally forth to
the president’s family home at ‘Hyde Park’ in Upstate New York for a few days,
and then to the White House in Washington D.C. There we will surrender
ourselves further to the welcome smiles and open arms of our grand friend,
Franklin. I dispatched to him my largest catch of yesterday. He sent word that
he relished it. We will be glad to take up residence at the White House and
submerge ourselves in the posh, air-conditioned suite in which Franklin will
install us. It will be propitious for both me and my brother-in-arms to share
the good reports we receive from our commanders on the progress of the
Mediterranean Theater of the war.©
Note: The above is a work of historical fiction based on true events.
Images: Canada Prime Minister, W.L. Mackenzie King; US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and Great Britain Prime Minister, Winston Spencer Churchill, and the flag of Free France, 1940–1944, made up of the tricolor with a Cross of Lorraine at center field.
Recommended reading: Memoirs of the Second World War by Winston S. Churchill.
CLEMENTINE CHURCHILL, the Biography of a Marriage by Mary [Churchill] Soames.
Books by Linda Lee Greene are available for purchase in eBook and soft cover at Amazon.com and other booksellers.
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