Really? France was one of the couple I missed out on. Beaches was the first one that sprung to mind but that might be because of its use in media more commonly.
Legend in his own lunchtime. A total f**k up until WWII fell into his lap and gave him a chance to redeem himself. He wrote an open letter to the London Times in 1938 stating that if England was to find itself in great difficulty, only a man like Adolf Hitler could save the day. Check it out. A self-serving opportunist if ever there was one. He believed that when the war was over it would be 'business as usual' with England once more in control of a vast colonial empire. Luckily Roosevelt realised this and without telling the British Bulldog "No wucking fay" he had no intention of allowing the sun never to set on the British Empire again. And that evil, vodka-swilling Georgian could read them both.
My family lived in London during the war. I once asked my mother "Weren't you terrified when the Nazis reached the beaches at Dunkirk - just a few miles across the Channel?"
"No", she said "Churchill told us it would be all right and we knew it would be."
It's a matter of perspective, I suppose. Churchill was a monstrous man, which was what was needed during WW2. If you could ask the ANZACs he landed at Gallipoli in WW1, I don't reckon there'd be too many who thought he was a hero, but it was partly his ability to send men into fights they had little chance of winning, knowing thousands would be slaughtered, that won WW2. He also wasn't as popular with the public as people seem to think. He was voted out at the first election after WW2, and even when he was re-elected in 1950, it was with fewer votes than the Labour party. We humans have a need for heroes, and we have a tendency to whitewash our heroes' flaws in order to 'purify' them. There's a statue to Bomber Harris, for example, a man indisputably guilty of terrible war crimes, under Churchill's direction. Is it not more mature to recognise the importance of these figures, while also acknowledging their faults?
He was voted out because the people supported Attlee, a visionary who was almost as integral to the war effort as Churchill and one who likely cease further hostilities. Britain was graced by 2 of our greatest leaders when we needed them most.
"No", she said "Churchill told us it would be all right and we knew it would be."