Winston Churchill - This Magnificent Lawn

Here is a Winston Churchill story that you might not have heard.
 
The Hotel de Charost on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris had served as the British Embassy and the official residence of Britain’s ambassadors to France ever since the Duke of Wellington purchased this majestic property from Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister in 1814.
 
Winston Churchill awoke in the embassy on the morning of Friday May 17, 1940 after flying to Paris on an urgent mission the previous afternoon. As he took his bath and dressed for the day, Churchill could not have missed the faint smell of smoke in the Parisian air. The Prime Minister looked out from his room, scanned the lush surroundings of the embassy grounds, and summoned an aide. The charred patches that scarred the broad lawn, and the fresh bonfires that further defiled this once majestic expanse of green cried out for an explanation.

As Henry Mack, First Secretary of the Embassy, entered his room, Churchill gestured out the window and asked: “What is going on here?” 
 
May 17 would be Churchill’s seventh full day as Britain’s prime minister. It was also the seventh day since Germany's army and air force attacked Western Europe with vengeance and imagination.  

Paul Reynaud, France's Premier, was already consumed by panic and dread. Churchill had awoken to a call from Reynaud two days earlier. Before he could say a word, his French counterpart cried in English: "We have been defeated ... we are beaten; we have lost the battle!"

The battle had barely begun. Churchill knew that France was far from defeated, but Reynaud was dangerously unnerved. Britain's Admiral Sir William James later observed that Churchill had a knack for making him and his crewmen feel "a little braver and a little more sure of final victory." Churchill flew across the Channel on May 16. His visit helped douse his ally's panic, and temporarily buttressed his fading spirt.

Although the city of Paris was not yet under direct siege, anxiety and a sense of inevitable vanquishment were widespread. In an abundance of caution, the British Embassy’s staff had begun to burn their most confidential archives. The ambassador’s residence was built in 1720, and its ancient furnace was inadequate for the burning of a century’s worth of accumulated secrets. Bonfires had been lit on the embassy’s once carefully tended lawn. They burned night and day, steadily fueled by the plans and hopes and histories of British diplomats and statesmen. Wide swaths of the once lush lawn were now scarred by the fires.
 
When Mack informed the Prime Minister that confidential documents were being burned to ensure they would not fall into German hands, Churchill fumed: “Was it necessary to mutilate this magnificent lawn?”
 
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