Anyone know if there actually was a plot to kill Churchill during WWII?
shareI believe there were several. Leslie Howard was on an aircraft which was shot down because another passenger was one of the Churchill "lookalikes" employed by HM Government.
shareJack Higgins, the author of the book The Eagles Has Landed found the church in England that was shot to hell and the grave where I think it was 13 German paratroopers were killed. After some research, the book, and then the movie are supposed to be 50/50 fact and fiction
shareThat was part of the fiction of the book, there is no truth in that.
shareI just finished reading the book. Did you read it? After finishing the story, the author adds an appendix where he describes meetings with surviving characters of the story in 70s who helped him put the book together.
If that's all part of the book's fiction, then I must say it's pretty convincing.
Most Recent film I've seen:
Les Grandes vacances (1967)
by Jean Girault
4/10
Interesting - I had no idea that the film was even partly based on fact. Do you know where this happened, and do you know of any sources?
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Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better. - George W. Bush
My advice is to read the book, author describes there how he collected material for it. However, as it seems, it's up to you to decide what is fact and what is fiction. The author claims that 'at least 50% is based on documented facts'.
Most Recent film I've seen:
Dolls (2002)
by Takeshi Kitano
5/10
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I agree, the book didn't persuade me at all that the story is truth. The fact that author doesn't specify what is and what is not truth only adds to one's suspicions.
Ymdb
http://www.ymdb.com/kotas-frantisek/l32468_ukuk.html?movieUp=0087803
Watching Churchills bodyguard on uktv history, there were German plans to kill the 'big three' leaders when the met in Casablanca, and again somewhere else i cant remember where, but by the time they got a fix on where they were it was too late. Also before the war started Curchill got news that a German attack would try to kill him when he went to see the duke of windsor and ms. simpson at there house in southern France becouse Hitler knew that Churchill was a threat to him.
shareI think there were more attempts(albeit,unfortunately,unsuccessful)on Adolf Hitler.
shareLogicaly there may have been but there's no record of any. Except for one or two near misses on the part of the German airforce.
The one thing that Jack higgins ether by accident or good research got right was that Sir Winston Churchhill made several visits To Norfolk to keep the King informed as to the state of the War.
The meetings took place in secret under ground bunker in the west of the county, Some where near Sandringham House.
Here is what Jack Higgens himself says in response to an interviewer:
>>>WJ: There had always been an undercurrent of controversy about the story line. Can you tell our readers now, was it partially based on fact or was the entire Churchill kidnap plot a total work of fiction?
JH: It goes like this: I had heard a story that an attempt to capture Churchill had taken place in the vicinity of Norfolk, England. Years later, I went there on a holiday and was fascinated by the strange, foreboding atmosphere, marshes, mist and that sort of thing. I remembered the old Churchill tale and when later that evening I was in one of the pubs talking with the locals. To my astonishment, they started talking about Churchill's secret visit to the area in the Fall in 1943, and a supposes German plot to capture him! Later when I did some checking, I found out that Churchill was on his way to a conference with Stalin and Roosevelt at the time. But how could he be in both places at once? Then the whole thing began to assume real story possibilities for me.
I did a lot of digging, and a lot of fictionalizing as well, but that is how Eagle come to be. I should sat that the story has gone far beyond discussing whether it is true or not, because it appears that over the years the myth has become reality. I mean, tourists still go to Norfolk and stop at petrol stations and ask directions to uot;Studley Constable!uot; (uot;Studley Constableuot; does not exist, except as the fictional village depicted in The Eagle Has Landed) <<<<
Full interview here:
http://www.scintilla.utwente.nl/users/gert/higgins/html/interview8.html
I realize now, I should also have added that just to make things more confusing, their is a character in the novel called 'Jack Higgins" who is a historian. It is in his character's first person narrative that the claim is made that the graves of the soldiers have been found and survivors interviewed. That is a fictional device used by the novelist Higgins. I believe that it is the use of that device that has obsured the issue of fact versus fiction here.
shareNo confusion what so ever. It was just the first book by Jack Higgins in a long line of very profitable books or pot- boilers depending on your point of veiw.
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ThreeFingerMary - you might want to watch the History Channel show HIGH HITLER next time it is on since it debunks a great deal of what you assert. Hitler's doctor documented giving him multi-vitamin shots and tablets that were later an analyzed and found to contain large quanties of methamphetamine which would certainly account for many of his increasing mental health issues. In addition, he is believed to have had either Parkinson's or a an Amphetamine induced muscle disorder very similar to parkinsons. The dosgaes his physician documents showed that Hitler needed more and more of the "Vitamultin" as the years went by.
I don't doubt that Hitler had an array of colorful personailty disorders but recent scholarship seems to argue in favor of it eing drugs administered to him that made him so much worse rather than the possibility that drugs might have kept him from becoming the man he eventually was. And then there's the argument that he was suffering from advanced syphilis at the end of his life....
Obviously, plots by the German High Command, Hitler, or other German Officers to kidnap or kill Winston Churchhill, would best be found in records from WWII, in either German or Allied archives. It is logical to assume that Churchill would have been easier to capture or kill, since both President Roosevelt or Stalin were too well guarded and less accessable. Most of which we have learned about German Intelligence, espionage, counterespionage, secret programs, atomic research, etc. has been learned from speaking with persons who knew of these programs, or worked in such areas where knowledge could be gained. Even today, we continue to learn of German and other Axis powers secret programs in aviation, weapons, intelligence gathering, etc. Nothing is beyond the realm of possiblities.
shareI know there was a plot to steal Nelson's Column. I imagine for propaganda purposes.
share