The Road to Dunkirk Begins

 THE ROAD TO DUNKIRK BEGINS

April 30

Waking up in our Mother Country on our first full day -- only full day actually -- in London, we had a veritable "all we can eat" buffet of opportunities to learn about WWII and what led to Operation Dynamo awaiting us. We had tickets for the Churchill War Rooms and lots of other options.

England/Great Britain is a fascinating country. We in The Colonies tend to think of ourselves as a kennel full of mongrels, settled when a collection of misfit religious nuts and paupers left England and piled in on top of a collection of bewildered North American Indian tribes. England, we believed, was the land of pasty, wealthy, aristocratic kings & queens, dukes & duchesses, viscounts, earls, etc. who sipped tea, ate crumpets, and looked down their noses at the rest of the world. They sporadically sent their powerful navy and their red-coated armies out to conquer and "colonize" people whose resources and/or location seemed appealing to them. They were the British Empire, and we were one part of it -- the semi-civilized, rebellious country stepchildren. And as with most parents and children, our Mother has at times been bitterly disappointed in us prodigals and at others bursting with pride.

While some of those overgeneralizations are quite true, the Brits weren't all ladies and gentlemen of class and wealth. Mick Jagger's "Street Fighting Man" is a fitting anthem throughout its history. And they have often been obliged, for they have lived in a contentious neighborhood. Rodney King's plaintive plea of "Can we all get along?" would've historically fallen on deaf ears in England and indeed in all of Europe. England in fact was "born" through warring with -- and occasionally having been conquered at least in part by -- invaders including the Romans, Vikings, Normans, Gauls, Saxons, etc. Inevitably some of those various peoples who attacked and occupied what became England stuck around, and others planted seeds that were left. So the apple (the Colonies) didn't far too far from the tree (the Mother Country) in terms of descending and evolving from mongrelization of breeds from all over. There are few AKC-registered purebreds in either country.

A hallmark of England has been war, and their chief sparring partner throughout history has been France. It has been estimated that the Brits and their next door neighbors have squared off in wars 20 - 30 times, including a 7 Years War, a 9 Years War, and a couple of 100 Years Wars. Of course, they dragged us Colonists into one of these, the French & Indian War (a subsidiary of the 7 Years War), and we have fought them twice. Fortunately for the UK, the U.S., and the Western world, we and the French fought on their side in WWI and WWII. Perhaps our British forefathers learned the Near Eastern axiom from India that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?

The main points of this brief foray into British military history are that a) they have been experienced and skilled in fighting, and b) they live in a rough neighborhood. Add to that the facts that they are our Mother Country with whom we share a (mostly) common language, representative governance, and way of life. But back to the military, they are an island nation, so have a permanent moat around their castle. They've historically maintained their security with one of (and for centuries the) most powerful navy in the world. "Britannia rules the waves" hasn't just been an expression or line in a song. Since William the Conqueror back in 1066 that naval power has kept invaders at bay. Added to that has been an educated group of scientists and technicians who helped them develop effective weaponry, including a world class air force to complement their navy. A defensive style has suited them and preserved their sovereignty for most of their existence. Let's sum it up by saying their military history is long and storied (often told in a language we understand, even if some words are pronounced and spelled funny). Clearly if we were looking for military history, we had found a (if not the) motherlode.

Our first full day of the trip began with a tour of the Winston Churchill War Rooms, for which we had advance tickets. (I encourage those interested in this period and these quarters to watch the 2017 Academy Award-winning movie Darkest Hour and to read Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile.) For protection against the Luftwaffe's bombs Churchill, his family, and his staff lived and worked underground in London in a network of tunnels about a block from the Prime Minister's quarters at 10 Downing Street and other governmental buildings. Seeing the bedrooms, offices, kitchens, map and work rooms, which have been preserved and/or restored is fascinating. Thinking of the grandeur and opulence of the residences and offices of major world leaders today makes the contrast jarring. The War Rooms were occupied throughout WWII, especially during the Blitz (fall 1940 - spring 1941) and the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks (late 1944 - spring 1945). Here's where you can learn more https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms . A few photos:

Entrance to Churchill War Rooms

   

War Room tunnels

War Cabinet room

Kitchen

       

Bedroom/office 

Traveling from the War Rooms to the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and beginning to feel a bit peckish, we spotted The Three Stags pub and identified it as a good place for a traditional English pub lunch. 

Enjoying lunch at The 3 Stags Pub

We were not disappointed! Nice lukecool beer, steak & ale pie, bangers & mash, etc. Thus fortified we proceeded down the block to the Imperial War Museum https://www.iwm.org.uk/  ... think a Smithsonian museum dedicated to military history or the WWII Museum in New Orleans. And as we saw above, the military history of England is long and ... well ... active. The museum is free, and their staff are very helpful. The crowd of visitors was steady but not overwhelming, and there were several student groups touring that afternoon. We concentrated primarily on WWII (there is much we didn't have time to see, although we did a brief walk-through of some WWI exhibits, including a replica of one of the legendary trenches of that era) and were, of course, keenly interested in their exhibit on Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo as a prelude to our visits to Dover and Dunkirk. Here are a few photos ...

Jerry at entrance of IWM w/its 102 ton WWII naval guns

WWII Spitfire

    

Dunkirk display

Tamzine, the smallest Little Ship in Op. Dynamo

   

Legacy of the Tamzine

Not knowing exactly how our time or energy would be holding up, we kept some options open for the late afternoon. One was a tour of the HMS Belfast https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast, a light cruiser built in 1939 which served throughout WWII and is now docked on the Thames near the Tower Bridge and is operated by the IWM. The Belfast has 9 decks, had a crew of almost 1,000, and was a veritable floating city, complete with medical and dental facilities, a convenience store, and a clothes shop. Those who have toured old American battleships and aircraft carriers would find the tour pretty familiar, but it was most interesting. (I must add that like the Churchill War Rooms, it is a bit pricey compared to most WWII sites that we visted in England and France. However, I'm sure that the overhead for both of those sites are, as the Brits say, quite dear.) Pictures of and from the ship ...

HMS Belfast on the Thames

    

Stowaways on the stern of the Belfast

6" 50 cal. Mk XXIII guns on Belfast

   

112 lb. shells 

[Do the 2 photos immediately above remind those of you of a certain age of the lyrics of Johnny Horton's Sink the Bismarck about "guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees"?? Apparently not a gross exaggeration for WWII battleships.]

Having made a fairly demanding running start to our WWII tour we sought the solace of the hotel pub, then Ubered to Konjiki, a Japanese restaurant in our S. Kensington neighborhood. It was different and quite good. (The UK, particularly London, have a remarkable variety and quantity of ethnic restaurants.) We had had a full day in London and had made a decent dent in seeing WWII sites there. I regret that we didn't have time to do a London Blitz walking tour with London Walks. Next time perhaps? Tomorrow it's the 9:05 AM train from Victoria Station to Portsmouth Harbour.