"CHURCH MILITANT" WINSTON CHURCHILL TITANICED
OVER 400 BRITISH ITALIANS!!

Incredibly, Winston Churchill was reappointed First Lord of the Admiral in September 1939. That was the same position he held when he planned the sinking of the Olympic, aka Titanic.

The people on that imprisoned island were about to repeat the same mistake, but on a far more titanic scale....It is beyond belief that a country that hates foreigners would want an empire!

King George V (1865–1936). Misruled from 1910 to 1936.

After successfully engineering the Russian Revolution, Churchill ordered his brother, "Defender of the Faith" King George V, to reassign George Buchanan to Roma. Buchanan arrived in Roma in October 1919, and he worked closely with Italian foreign minister Count Carlo Sforza. Unfortunately for Churchill, Buchanan's wife had a fatal illness and he had to return to Gog and Magog in November 1921.

Sir George Buchanan (1854–1924).

Had he stayed, Mussolini's March on Roma would have occurred sooner. Unlike Russia, Buchanan did not want a Communist regime but an ultramontane state with the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX rigidly enforced!

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945). Fascist dictator from 1922 to 1945.

"Church Militant" Churchill had a secret agent in Italy named Benito Mussolini and he played the same role that his spy Vladimir Lenin played in Russia. The "Sawdust Caesar" seized power when he marched on Roma in October 1922. Economic condition improved immediately as Mussolini bought the people with his 20th century version of "bread and circuses."

Mussolini marching on Roma, flanked by 4 generals, October 28, 1922.

In 1933, Churchill ordered his brother George to appoint James Eric Drummond as ambassador to Italy.

James Eric Drummond (1876–1951). British amb. to Italy from 1933 to 1939.

James Eric Drummond consolidated the Fascist regime begun by George Buchanan. In February 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Accords on behalf of the king. The Accords gave the Pope 110 acres (0.44 square km) which became known as Vatican City State. Roma now had 3 rulers: Pope Pius XI, Victor Emmanuel III, and Mussolini.

Mussolini signing the Lateran Accords on behalf of the king.

The tiny Vatican City State was considered temporary until Churchill's cousin Adolf Hitler marched into Moscow!

Pope Pius XI (1857–1939). Pope from 1922 to 1939.

During WWI, Italy was an ally of France against the Kaiser. "Good Popes" don't last very long in the "Chair of St. Peter." Pope Pius XI was just about to make a speech condemning Nazism when he was given the poisoned chalice! Pope Pius XI was succeeded by "Churchill and Hitler's Pope."

Pope Pius XII (1876–1958). Pope from 1939 to 1958.

King George VI was a cousin of Winston Churchill and he placed him in power in 1936. That king was absolutely no match for the cunning of "Holy Fox" Halifax, and Winston Churchill.

On June 10, 1940, Mussolini declared war on France and Britain!!

Up to 1940, everything was working splendidly for Churchill. He cousin Adolf Hitler was dictator of Germany, and his secret agent Benito Mussolini was dictator of Italy.

The "Sawdust Caesar" declared war on France and Britain.

On June 10, 1940, the "Sawdust Caesar" declared war on France and Britain. On the same date, Churchill ordered King George VI to appoint him prime minister. The bait for Italy joining the Axis was the promise of the restoration of the Papal States once Russia was defeated!

The dictator leaving 10 Downing St., June 10, 1940.

After Churchill seized power he ordered that all "enemy aliens" were to be rounded up and interned. Many of them were refugees from Nazi Germany.

Churchill made no exception for females. However, unlike South Africa, children were excluded. Churchill was fearful that rounding up children as "enemy aliens" would be used as anti-British propaganda by the the "Mothers Against Intervention" in the United States!

Men and women were required to resister as potential "enemy aliens."

Female "enemy aliens" were treated more leniently than males because they were not transported to Canada or Australia. Instead, females were interned on the Isle of Man. Churchill excluded children because he feared that mothers in the U.S. would compare him unfavorably to fellow dictators Hitler and Mussolini.

Women began their journey to the Isle of Man camps by bus.

Most British Italians were astonished when Italy joined the Axis. None of them had any connection with Fascism in Britain, and none of them had any interest in the restoration of the Papal States. Obviously, those were the very people that Churchill was anxious to titanic.

When asked which Italians should be rounded up, Churchill's net was spread over the entire imprisoned island:

In London, Churchill responded immediately. Displaying no regard for the elaborate arrangements the Cabinet had agonised over, he issued the terse instruction: 'Collar the Lot' (Gillman, Collar the Lot, p. 153).

Churchill had absolutely no regard for the fact that most of the Italians were fellow Roman Catholics:

Upon hearing the Italian declaration of war on Britain, Churchill ordered the immediate bombing of munitions factories in Milan. On the home front, he issued the instruction for the security service and the police to carry out a general internment of Italian men in Britain. Displaying no regard for the arrangements made prior to 10 June, every Italian male in Britain was to be arrested and interned regardless of whether or not they were members of the fascio. (Paolini, Missing Presumed Drowned, p. 56).

The Italians were interned in an abandoned factory called Warth Mills, near Liverpool. It was a veritable hell hole, with abominable living conditions!

Warth Mills was used as a detention camp for British Italians.

In early June, over 1,000 Italians were arrested and interned in Warth Mills in Bury, near Liverpool. On June 30, the Arandora Star was loaded at Liverpool docks with over 800 Germans and Austrians, plus 734 Italian detainees. Their destination was a prison camp in Canada, but over 800 never reached their destination.

Prien sunk the Arandora Star with a total loss of over 800 souls.

World War II was a repeat of World War I with Leviathan and Thor combining against France and Russia. Had they achieved victory, the red cross and the iron cross would have ruthlessly trodden down the entire world!

Günther Prien (1809–1941).

Günther Prien was Churchill and Hitler's most ruthless and efficient U-boat commander. On July 2. Prien torpedoed the Arandora Star, with a loss of life of over 800 souls. 446 of the casualties were British Italians. Over 500 were Germans and Austrians!

Günther Prien returned in triumph to Nazi Germany after sinking the Arandora Star!

The decorated U-boat commander also titaniced many of his own countrymen:

As a luxury liner, the Arandora Star had carried 354 first-class passengers and a crew of around 200. Twelve lifeboats were available for use in case of emergency for the total of 554 people. However, as a transport ship she carried around 734 Italian internees (fascio Italians), 479 German and Austrian internees, 86 German prisoners of war, 174 officers and crew and from the War Office, 9 officers and 245 military guards, totaling 1,729 – three times her normal capacity, but with the same number of lifeboats. Additional life rafts were loaded to make up the difference in case of an emergency. (Paolini, Missing Presumed Drowned, p. 97).

A Canadian ship, the St. Laurent, finally arrived on the scene and rescued the survivors. The ship took them to the safety of Greenock, on the River Clyde, in Scotland:

The scale of the rescue carried out by the St Laurent was one of the largest for allied shipping during the war. The St Laurent rescued 119 crew members, 163 military guards, 243 Italians, and 343 Germans and Austrians. Unfortunately, the loss of life was also one of the highest of the entire war for allied shipping. (Paolini, Missing Presumed Drowned, p. 122).

After almost drowning, the surviving British Italians were not released and sent home. In reality, they were placed on another ship and eventually ended up in Canada or Australia!

Churchill did not want Mussolini to survive and tell-all at his trial!

Fascist Italy was really the exemplar or precursor to Nazi Germany, so it is amazing that Mussolini and his mistress were not "suicided" and then bundled off into retirement in Argentina.

When Italy started to lose to the Allies in North Africa, Mussolini was nicknamed the "Sawdust Caesar." The only thing that he had in common with Julius was the fact that he always wrote everything down.

Iconic photo of Mussolini and his mistress hanging upside down.

Before he seized power, Mussolini was a reporter, which is a pseudonym for a spy. On April 29, 1945, Benito Mussolini, his mistress Claretta Petacci, and 15 other Fascists were displayed hanging upside down on meat hooks in Milan's Piazzale Loretto. That was just 8 days before the war ended with the official surrender of Nazi Germany to Russia on May 9, 1945.

Photo of the Fascists hanging upside down in Milan's Piazzale Loretto.

"Communist partisans" were blamed for the murder of Mussolini and his mistress. Mussolini had so many chances to escape to Switzerland, but he knew that surrender to U.S. General Mark Clark, with his top secret Churchill correspondence, could possibly save his neck from the hangman's noose . . . or a firing squad!

British spy Peter Tompkins (1919–2007).

Peter Tompkins worked for the U.S. OSS (Office of Strategic Services). Up to 1945, Tompkins worked in the North of Italy for the parent British organization known as SOE (Special Operations Executive). SS General Karl Wolff was Hitler's spymaster and together with Tompkins he coordinated the assassination of Mussolini.

SS general Karl Wolff (1900–1984).

In August 1946, Churchill arrived in the British Crown Colony of Switzerland for a 3-week "vacation." In reality, he was there to retrieve any copies of Mussolini's diaries and their top secret correspondence.

Churchill arriving in Zurich Station, August 29, 1946.

Churchill's party lost the 1945 general election so he had to resign as prime minister. In August 1946, freed from the glare of publicity, he decided to take a "vacation" in Switzerland. Incredibly, in 1868, Winston's grandma Queen Victoria visited Lucerne, Switzerland, incognito, to "lose weight" and do some "painting."

One of Churchill's 1946 Lake Como paintings.

The real reason for the visit was to collect and destroy all the incriminating correspondence with Mussolini. Churchill was still hounded by photographers who used ingenious methods to get close to his boat on Lake Como:

These multiple copies (photocopies and typed copies) of the papers prompted Churchill, after the war, to spend time first at Lake Como, staying at the Villa Apraxin at Moltrasio (the location of British army headquarters); and later on Lake Garda, where he spent longer periods on the lakefront at Villa Gemma (the same villa where Biggini had left copies of the documents the Duce had entrusted him with); and finally on Lake Lugano, at Osteno, on the Italian side, which could easily be reached from the Swiss side across the way. No one believed the "official" reason given for the strange vacations of the victor of the Second World War–to pass the time painting landscapes. The independent press (the Swiss newspapers, for example) was the first to turn it into a joke in cartoons where Churchill was shown throwing papers into a fireplace. (Garibaldi, Mussolini: The Secrets of His Death, p. 64).

His "vacation" must have been a success because all copies of the damning Mussolini-Churchill correspondence have disappeared.

Vital links

References

Buchanan, Sir George. My Mission to Russia and other Diplomatic Memories. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1923.

Cornwell, John. Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pope Pius XII. Penguin Press, New York, 1999.

Fattorini, Emma. Hitler, Mussolini and the Vatican: Pope Pius XI and the Speech That was Never Made. Cambridge Polity, U.K., 2011.

Garibaldi, Luciano. Mussolini: The Secrets of His Death. Enigma Books, New York, 2004.

Gillman, Peter and Leni. 'Collar the Lot!' How Britain Interned and Expelled its Wartime Refugees. Quartet Books, London, 1980.

Hibbert, Christopher. Il Duce: The Life of Benito Mussolini. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1962.

Paolini, Stefano. Missing Presumed Drowned: A True Story of the Internment of Italians Resident in Britain during the Second World War. Amazon Edition, 2015.

Stafford, David. Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943–45. The Bodley Head, London, 2011.

Stafford, David. Churchill and Secret Service. John Murray Publishers, London, U.K., 1997.

Tompkins, Peter. A Spy in Rome. Avon Books. New York, 1962.

Von Lang, Jochen. Top Nazi: SS General Karl Wolff. Enigma Books, New York, 2005.

Wylie, Neville. Britain, Switzerland, and the Second World War. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.

Copyright © 2021 by Patrick Scrivener

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