The man who saved Christmas

The man who saved Christmas for America’s children did not arrive on a sled filled with presents pulled by reindeer. He came aboard a British battleship hunted by Nazi submarines that prowled the North Atlantic.

The small launch carrying Winston Churchill’s party pulled alongside HMS Duke of York, anchored off Greenock Scotland at 1100 am on December 13, 1941.

Flanked by the destroyers HMS Faulknor, Foresight and Matabele, the Duke of York left the river Clyde, and headed across the stormy Irish Sea towards the Azores, en route to the United States of America.

HMS Harvester, Lightning and Highlander took up the escort duties off of Ponta Delgado in the Azores, and guided her to a prearranged spot in the North Atlantic at 1830 on 17 December in approximate position 38-30N, 23W.

The British ships picked up the signal lights flashing through the gale force winds, high seas and brutal weather of the three ships sent to meet them by the president of the United States.

The USS Bristol, Trippe and Warrington, each flying the American flag, would flank the British prime minister aboard the Duke of York to his destination in the Chesapeake Bay. There, he would disembark at Norfolk, Virginia, and head immediately to Washington, DC, and the White House to meet with President Franklin Roosevelt 15 days after Pearl Harbor and three days before Christmas.

The United States was at war, and gravely wounded. The Pacific fleet had been largely destroyed, Hitler controlled all of Europe, and the Japanese Empire was attacking on all fronts everywhere across Asia. The situation was dire, and there was a panic in the air.

America’s cities were suddenly blacked out, fearing imminent invasion. The fear became so great that the appropriateness of lighting the White House Christmas tree became hotly debated. It was decided that there would be no lighting at all — until FDR intervened.

Traditionally, the Christmas tree, lit by the president, had been placed outside the White House gates on the Ellipse. When FDR found out about the cancellation, he changed the venue of the lighting.

He moved the lighting inside the White House gates, inviting the American people to come close at Christmas during the early days of a long war.

The American people did not know that FDR had arranged a surprise for them. His special guest would soon speak. The Nazi propagandists under the command of Dr. Goebbels were speculating that their most intractable enemy was in the Middle East. They had no idea that Winston Churchill had slipped the U boat noose, and was safely in Washington, DC.

FDR took the podium first. Here is what the man who saved free market capitalism, American democracy and the freedom of the world said 83 years ago on December 24, 1941. There are no other leaders in our history who stand as Abraham Lincoln’s peer. It is right that our greatest leaders represent each party. FDR did not speak to his fellow Democrats on Christmas Eve.

Fellow workers for freedom:

There are many men and women in America — sincere and faithful men and women— who are asking themselves this Christmas:

How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts?

How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death?

How can we pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day, in our urgent labor of arming a decent humanity against the enemies which beset it?

How can we put the world aside, as men and women put the world aside in peaceful years, to rejoice in the birth of Christ?

These are natural — inevitable — questions in every part of the world which is resisting the evil thing.

And even as we ask these questions, we know the answer. There is another preparation demanded of this nation beyond and beside the preparation of weapons and materials of war. There is demanded also of us the preparation of our hearts; the arming of our hearts. And when we make ready our hearts for the labor and the suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead, then we observe Christmas Day — with all of its memories and all of its meanings — as we should.

Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, and in that Proclamation I have said:

"The year 1941 has brought upon our nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the earth the hard-won liberties gained over many centuries.

"The new year of 1942 calls for the courage and the resolution of old and young to help to win a world struggle in order that we may preserve all we hold dear.

"We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

"Therefore, I... do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God's help in days to come.

"We need His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and peace."

Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies — more than any other day or any other symbol.

Against enemies who preach the principles of hate and practice them, we set our faith in human love and in God's care for us and all men everywhere.

It is in that spirit, and with particular thoughtfulness of those, our sons and brothers, who serve in our armed forces on land and sea, near and far — those who serve for us and endure for us that we light our Christmas candles now across the continent from one coast to the other on this Christmas Eve.

We have joined with many other nations and peoples in a very great cause. Millions of them have been engaged in the task of defending good with their life-blood for months and for years.

One of their great leaders stands beside me. He and his people in many parts of the world are having their Christmas trees with their little children around them, just as we do here. He and his people have pointed the way in courage and in sacrifice for the sake of little children everywhere.

And so I am asking my associate, my old and good friend, to say a word to the people of America, old and young, tonight Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Churchill took the microphone.

I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.

Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States.

I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.

This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other.

Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart.

Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play.

Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

And so in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.

For those who celebrate, a happy Christmas to you all from my family to yours. Tonight, our family will be celebrating Chrismukkah. Hanukkah begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

And, a heartfelt thanks to each of you who has contributed your comments, observations, insights, questions and feedback in this incredible growing community. It is all of you who fuel my passion to provide you with fearless, independent commentary 365 days per year. Thank you.

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