Churchill, Roosevelt and Barbara Frietchie!

A/N: The occasion of the meeting between the two free world leaders in this story actually took place at Frederick Md, in May 1943.

The news of the crushing defeat inflicted by the American, British and Free French forces on Rommel's Afrika Korps and its Italian kindred armies in North Africa in April 1943 brought joy to the war weary soul of Winston Churchill.  The immediate threat to Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean was removed as the last of the Axis forces were herded into Prisoner of War compounds in Tunisia. 

Churchill said of this magnificent victory,  'the hinge of fate is now turning in our favour.'  There was at last a glow of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel that would lead eventually to the vanquishing of Hitler and his opportunist followers. The Russians were pushing back the German armies in the Caucasus and the threat to the Balkans might be contained if Turkey could be persuaded to come into the war on the side of the allies. The tide of war was indeed turning in favour of the Allies. But with the military triumph in North Africa came an awesome responsibility and a tricky question for the western leaders– what to do next?

This question, and others related to the management of the western powers alliance, could only be answered effectively by its two 'managing directors' at a face to face meeting.

Therefore, in a dark, lowering sky delivering near freezing rain on May 4th 1943, the long, camouflage painted shape of the RMS Queen Mary  slipped quietly from her moorings in the River Clyde in Scotland and steamed for the USA. She conveyed Prime Minister Churchill and a large staff to a series of momentous meetings with President Roosevelt and his war cabinet.  The meetings were scheduled to last for two weeks. These crucial and exhausting sessions would decide the Allied powers priorities in the prosecution of the war to its ultimate and successful conclusion. 

A visiting British Premier to the USA would ordinarily be accommodated in the British Embassy in Washington for the duration of the visit.  President Roosevelt was, however, having none of that. Such were the bonds of friendship, forged in mutual respect between these two exceptional men, that the President insisted Churchill stay with him and Mrs. Roosevelt as their guest in the White House. 

The President suffered failing health at this time and the stresses of the meetings, in addition to his responsibilities for running a great nation at war, imposed an additional strain on his well-being. Unlike the frosty, wet weather in Glasgow when Churchill and his party left the Clyde: Washington, in  May 1943, was enduring something of a heat wave. The Roosevelts liked to escape the heat and buzz of the capital whenever possible and get away to relax in their country home at Hyde Park on Long Island.   They had entertained Churchill at Hyde Park on a previous visit, where he had enjoyed the family atmosphere and its lack of formality.

Churchill was due to address Congress at the conclusion of this current visit. The address was scheduled for the Monday before his departure from the US on the battleship HMS Duke of York. The President planned to get away from the discomforts of Washington for the weekend beforehand and invited Churchill to spend it with his wife and himself at their other retreat in the Caloctin hills of Maryland; nestled in the cool foothills of the Alleghennies.

Roosevelt called this retreat his Shangri-La.  In his memoirs, Churchill described it as nothing more than a large log-cabin with all modern facilities, hidden away in the woods and hills at a height of 2000 feet above sea level.  It was close to the seat of power, yet so far from its distractions and discomforts it may as well have been on another planet.  It has since become a favoured retreat for subsequent Presidents who have developed FDR's Shangri-la into the modern Camp David complex.

A problem arose, however, before they ever got away from the White House. FDR sat in the rear of the limousine and Mrs Roosevelt insisted Churchill sit on the rear seat next to the President.  She opted to take one of the smaller 'dickey' seats that tipped forwards to face the rear seat. This suggestion dismayed Churchill. He enjoyed a healthy appetite and, in consequence, gained the rotundity in frame of a plentifully supplied, pork and beef fed Englishman. Churchill did not wish to crowd the President with his excessive girth: Mr. Roosevelt being in a delicate state of health. Furthermore, and notwithstanding the dignity of status, he insisted a wife's place was beside her husband.  There followed a stand–off between them for approximately 3 minutes of polite argument after which Churchill recorded in his journal. 'I had to muster and employ the full might and authority of the British Empire to have done what was right and proper.'