Churchill's Hour (31 page)

Sawyers came in with a small portable wireless set that he placed on the table. The old man liked to listen when the news was read at nine o'clock. It was the most comprehensive news broadcast of the day and he rarely missed it, yet tonight he seemed to have lost all interest. He sat with his head in his hands, saying nothing. It was almost a belated half-thought when he reached out and flipped the lid of the wireless set to bring up the voice of Alvar Liddell, the newsreader. The headlines were already being read—reports about fighting on the Russian front and depressing news about a tank battle in Libya. The others picked up their conversation to avoid dwelling too long on gloom.

It was only at the end that a fragment about the Pacific was mentioned. Something about the Hawaiian Islands, but it was lost in the banter. Then it was more news about Tobruk.

And still he sat, head in hands.

‘Yer not listening tonight, then?' Sawyers enquired, gruffly, in a voice that seemed unnaturally tight.

Only slowly did the old man's head begin to rise.

‘Didn't it say something about Pearl Harbor?' Harriman murmured.

‘No, no, I thought it said Pearl River,' someone else chimed in.

Already Liddell was announcing that the weekly Brains Trust programme would begin immediately after the news.

Churchill suddenly sat bolt upright, alert, as though trying to catch an echo of the missed item that might still be lingering in the room.

‘Did he say something about an attack?'

Even as Churchill spoke, the newsreader began to read out a fuller report in clipped, unemotional tones.

‘The news has just been given that Japanese aircraft have raided Pearl Harbor, the American naval base in Hawaii…'

Churchill was snatching for the volume knob.

‘…The announcement of the attack was made in a brief statement by President Roosevelt. Naval and military targets on the principal Hawaiian island of Oahu have also been attacked. No further details are yet available.'

Churchill appeared bewildered. ‘Did we hear him right?'

‘That's what he said,' Sawyers replied, almost belligerently. ‘Those Jap monkeys have gone and bombed America.'

From the end of the table, Winant looked on, taking in a fragment of history that would live with him for the rest of his life. Armageddon. Yet for a
moment of such extraordinary drama there was something out of place. It seemed strange that a servant should be breaking so impetuously into their conversation, and still stranger that he was smiling.

‘But…Today? I thought…The timing…' Churchill mumbled in confusion, struggling to fix his mind upon what he had heard. Then the pieces seemed to fall into place. He thumped the dining table and sprang to his feet. ‘We shall fight! We shall declare war upon Japan!'

Winant's face was creased with concern. ‘Shouldn't we get confirmation or something? After all, it's only the BBC. We can't go to war on the word of the BBC.'

‘Then,' Churchill said, smiling even more broadly than the valet, ‘we shall telephone the President. He will know.'

Before dawn, the Japanese fleet had arrived at a point less than three hundred miles north of Pearl Harbor. The carriers swung into the wind; it was a heavy sea, unsettled, but it would have to do. The first wave of aircraft took off while it was still dark—torpedo planes, high-level bombers, dive bombers, fighters—accompanied by the roars and frantic waves of those left behind.

Once the flight decks had been cleared, a second wave of planes was ferried up from the hangar decks.
Dawn was breaking as they set off south towards Hawaii.

Just before eight in the morning, Hawaiian time, and almost unopposed, the Japanese planes hurled themselves upon Pearl Harbor. They found the ships waiting in line on what was called Battleship Row while, almost unbelievably, they discovered the Americans had huddled all their planes together in the middle of the airfields to guard against sabotage. At first there was some confusion amongst the Japanese as to whether the torpedo planes or bombers should attack first, but it made little difference. The devastation was immense.

The attack lasted for almost two hours. Within minutes of its start, the battleship
Arizona
, which eight days previously had so proudly adorned the programme for the Army-Navy football game, exploded in an earth-shaking ball of flame. More than a thousand of its crew were killed instantly. The battleship
Oklahoma
capsized soon after. Sixteen other ships were sunk or seriously damaged. The morning had started with nine American battleships in the Pacific; by its end only two remained operational.

Nearly two hundred American aircraft were destroyed.

The human toll could only be reckoned after the flames had died and the smoke had cleared. 2,403 Americans were dead.

Pearl Harbor would be officially declared the worst military and naval disaster in American history.

The President, of course, did not yet know all this. Confusion reigned, the details would come later, but for the moment it was enough that they had been attacked. ‘We're all in the same boat now,' he told Churchill, somewhat clumsily. ‘I'm going to ask Congress tomorrow for a declaration of war against Japan.'

Against Japan…

‘And we shall follow your declaration within the hour, as we promised,' Churchill replied, standing over a phone in the study.

‘Have they attacked British territory, too?'

‘I do not know. I expect they shall. But it doesn't matter. America is our dearest friend, your enemy is our enemy. That is enough.'

The fingers of war had reached across the widest oceans in the world.

‘We must meet again. I shall come to you,' Churchill said.

‘Of course. It'll be hell here in Washington for a while, and you'll be up to your eyes, too, but…' Roosevelt was about to suggest a date in the New Year. Churchill was having none of it.

‘Have no care for me. Nothing is more important
than that the world sees us together, united. I shall be there within the week.'

Roosevelt was about to object, it was too soon, he could do without Churchill trying to run his war for him, but there were so many other battles to fight that there seemed little point in opening yet another front.

‘Be seeing you, Winston.'

‘Indeed, my dear friend,' Churchill replied. He stared at the receiver, then replaced it on its cradle as gently as a priest putting aside the chalice after Communion.

The world had changed. All was bustle. The study filled with secretaries, Americans, guests. He embraced Winant, Harriman, welcomed them to the war. Another telephone was ringing. News that the Japanese were attacking Malaya, too. And a map, unrolled on the desk, of Pearl Harbor and Hawaii. Churchill bent low to examine it, then jerked in surprise. He swore. No one seemed surprised. ‘There will be work for many hands this night,' he announced. ‘No one shall rest.' Then he swept from the room.

Outside in the hall, he found his valet.

‘So they attacked the big bugger, then,' Sawyers said.

‘They did indeed.'

‘Wrong day, though. Said you'd get it wrong, didn't I?'

‘I am a fool, Sawyers, but a most fortunate fool. I had quite forgotten that the International Date Line slices through the Pacific between Pearl Harbor and Japan. It's so easy to miss—runs along the very edge of most European maps.'

‘So what?'

‘In Tokyo, it is already Monday. December the eighth. Twelve-oh-eight.'

‘All fingers and thumbs, you can be, at times, zur.'

Churchill smiled, took the other man's hand and grasped it as if he were thanking his oldest friend for a most profound tribute.

‘But our work is only half finished. We've dealt with those thugs who are clambering in the back window, but there are still those kicking down our front door. We may yet be left to fight the Nazis on our own.'

‘Can't persuade ‘em to drop a few bombs on New York, I don't suppose.'

‘Perhaps that won't be necessary, Sawyers. I want you to organize refreshment and sandwiches for everyone—it will be a long evening. I am to make another trip to America to see the President. I shall leave almost immediately. Make sure all the staff are informed.' His voice dropped; he drew closer. ‘And I shall need the girl. Send her up to my room with a tray of tea and sandwiches in…'—he examined his pocket watch—‘thirty minutes. Be precise about that. You will tell her that I am working on my plans
for the trip and she is to take care she makes no sound to disturb me. Is that clear?'

“Cept for one thing, zur.'

‘What is that?'

‘What do yer want in yer sandwiches?'

She knocked lightly upon the door, but there was no answer. From within came the sound of his deep, rasping voice. Very quietly, as she had been instructed, she entered the bedroom.

He was in the bathroom, dictating. The door was open, a tap was running, and in a fragment of mirror she saw a flash of nakedness. He often dictated while he was in the bath, to a male secretary who would perch on the lavatory in considerable steamy discomfort while the old man splashed around, composing his thoughts. She placed the tray on the table, checked it one last time, and was about to leave when the tap was turned off and she could hear his voice very clearly. What she heard made her freeze to the spot.

‘We must coordinate our timing—with great care, Mr President,' Churchill was saying in the stilted manner of a man impatient for a scribe to catch up with him, ‘but in my view it is essential—that you announce your declaration of war upon Germany—before Christmas. We do not wish—no, change that—we should not permit—the comforts of the festive
season—to dull wits that have been honed so sharp by the dastardly attack upon Pearl Harbor.'

The flow was interrupted by renewed splashing of water and what sounded like a muttered search for soap.

‘I will be there at your side—to display the united front that exists between our two nations—which will make its mark not only upon the enemy—but also upon any doubters that may remain within your own country. I intend also—as we discussed this evening on the telephone—to bring with me the message from Hess—wait! Make that
Herr
Hess. Bloody man deserves a little respect—in which he will call on his countrymen to accept the un-wisdom of continuing with a war—that sets Germany against four-fifths of all mankind. At the same time as we reveal his message I shall ensure that the Deputy Fuehrer—appears before the representatives of the media—at some suitable location in London—to affirm his message. New paragraph. My dear friend—the news will be certain to stun every soul in Germany—and may yet contrive to sweep Hitler from power—have you got all that?'

With that, Churchill hauled himself from the water. He was quite alone. There was no scribe. As he stood dripping beside the bath, he listened very carefully. He thought he heard the soft clicking of the latch at the bedroom door.

Harriman and Winant were standing bleary-eyed on the doorstep of Chequers, wrapped in overcoats, saying goodbye to Churchill in the light of a grey, misty dawn.

‘It feels good to be waging war together at last,' the ambassador said, gripping the other man's hand. ‘I'm a man who no longer has to keep saying no.'

‘I intend to be insatiable in my demands.'

‘You always are.'

Then Harriman was shaking Churchill's hand. ‘We're in it together now, Winston.'

‘I fear not, Averell. Not yet.'

‘Roosevelt has recalled Congress. There's no doubt left. They'll declare war.'

‘On Germany?'

‘Ah.'

‘And once you declare war in the Pacific, can you give me your word that your Lend-Lease supplies and military aid will continue to flow to Britain at their present strengths?'

‘No,' Harriman replied glumly. ‘I can't guarantee that.'

‘Then all that has happened, my friends, is that Britain is now condemned to fighting in Asia as well as upon all the other battlefronts, and with less to fight with. I do not wish to appear ungrateful, but I must be impatient. We may yet be ruined—unless America joins with us everywhere. That is why I must visit the President without delay.'

‘You know he thinks it's too soon,' Winant said.

‘While I fear it may already be too late.'

‘If there is anything we can do to help…'

‘My two musketeers, you have already done so much. But I promise to ask for more.'

Churchill opened the door of the car for the ambassador. Harriman lingered for a final shake of the hand.

‘I will do my best, Winston, with the supplies.'

‘You have already done so much, Averell. More than you could ever realize.'

He waved as the car swung down the long drive from Chequers. Just before it disappeared into the heavy mist, Churchill noticed it swerve slightly to avoid a bicycle that was being ridden, with great determination, by Héloise.

Roosevelt did as he had promised. He appeared in front of a joint session of Congress, declared the attack on Pearl Harbor to be ‘a date which will live in infamy', and asked for a declaration of war on Japan. It was voted in less than an hour.

It took only slightly longer than an hour for the Japanese to sink both the
Prince of Wales
and the
Repulse.
The ships had set to sea the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, expecting to meet and destroy a Japanese invasion force and hoping that air cover could be provided from land bases in northern
Malaya. But the airfields had already been overrun. In the vastness of the ocean it was entirely possible that the British fleet would escape detection, but on the tenth a flight of Japanese aircraft all but stumbled over the ships. After that, it was only a matter of time.

The Japanese attacked with bombs and torpedoes. The British ships manoeuvred desperately, but without air cover they soon sustained many terrible hits. The
Repulse
capsized and sank first, the
Prince of Wales
shortly thereafter. The deck upon which the President and Prime Minister had sat and prayed, and also many of the men who had prayed with them, were now at the bottom of the sea. Another thousand lives lost.