Atlantic Meeting
160 pages
The book was republished in 2016 and is available online (£16.99, ISBN 9780413777911, 192 pages)
Christopher Samuel
Atlantic Meeting recounts the journey undertaken by Winston Churchill and his staff to meet President Roosevelt in August 1941 at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The resulting Atlantic Charter marked an historic moment that formed the foundation for post WW2 Western Values.
The journey across the Atlantic in the battleship HMS Prince of Wales recently battered by the engagement and sinking of the Bismark was so secret that few including H V Morton knew where they were going, why, how and for how long. Morton was told to bring a dinner jacket, temperate climate clothes for a voyage lasting three weeks and muster at Marylebone station on Sunday 3 August. The sleeper train journey to Scotland stopped to gather the Prime Minister, change locomotives at Leicester, take on grouse at Perth. At Thurso, a destroyer awaited to make the crossing of a lively Cromarty Firth before embarkation in the battleship.
Leaving Scapa Flow the weather was too rough for the destroyer escort to keep pace and a decision was made to press on at speed, with extra discomfort to our narrator who had a cabin just above the churning ship’s screws. Churchill had opted for the captains’ sea cabin near the bridge and had a map room set up to follow the war. Each evening, he had a film night at which he was seen and heard!
Arrival in Placentia Bay Newfoundland on 9th August bought strange calm to the British who had experienced war for two years. Blackouts, rationing and the daily chance of being injured. Here in a deserted bay reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands were USS Augusta, the President’s flagship, and escorting ships all gleaming, without camouflage or black outs quietly at anchor. Soon all ships boats were scurrying round and the conferences, meetings, calls, and ceremonial was in full swing. On Sunday, a church parade was held on HMS Prince of Wales’ quarterdeck to which Roosvelt and many boatloads USN sailors came and sang maritime hymns together. The Sun shone that day, the Americans bought 1,500 cardboard boxes each containing an orange, two apples two hundred cigarettes and half a pound of cheese with a card “The President of the United States of America sends his compliments and best wishes” for RN sailors. After church there was a lunch in the wardroom where turtle soup and grouse from the UK was on the menu. A brace of grouse was given to the President.
Morton and the Paymaster Commander were in a small group of people allowed to go ashore and explore this small settlement untouched by war. By Tuesday 12 August the Atlantic Charter was agreed with a ceremony at which each leader signed a copy of the Longfellow verse O Ship of State. En route to Iceland, Churchill demanded to see the life blood of Britain, a convoy. On Friday 15 August, a convoy of 72 ships travelling in long lines at 8 knots was seen ahead. “Tramps, tankers, liners and whalers, salty old tubs and cargo ships of every type, age, and size two hundred yards away as we raced past at 22 knots. Sirens sounded, people waved, flag V flew and everyone shouted.” On leaving, Churchill watched them drop astern and remarked “A delectable sight”, later saying that the experience had bought home the sacrifice that the Merchant Navy were making to keep the British Isles fed, fuelled, and manned to continue the fight. In Iceland Morton found shops full of silk stockings and books, butter in the cooking and British and American forces setting up a base.
The voyage home was subject to detours to avoid U boats and bombers. But on Monday morning August 18th, HMS Prince of Wales closed up at Action Stations for a gunnery shoot before entering Scapa Flow where Winston Churchill addressed the ship’s company about the historic occasion in which they had played a part. A destroyer transported the party to Thurso where the train awaited with the same genial staff. The following morning Winston stepped out at Kings Cross and kissed his wife.
The Atlantic Meeting was not published until 1943 two years after the events described. The reader gets the contrasts between war and peace, shortages and plenty, the bond that ‘men of the sea’ have for each other, the need and application of secrecy as well as the character of Winston Churchill. It also contains a graphic description of one of many convoys in the five-year Battle of the Atlantic without which the Allies would have lost the war with Germany.
