Bidspirit auction | CHURCHILL WINSTON S.: (1874-1965) Churchill

CHURCHILL WINSTON S.: (1874-1965) Churchill objects to a cartoon depicting the Eighth Army as ´ a squirming little ferret´ - CHURCHILL WINSTON S.: (1874-1965) British Prime Minister 1940-45, 1951-55. Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1953. A remarkable World War II date T.L.S., Winston S. Churchill , with holograph salutation and subscription, one page, 4to, 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, 17th April 1943, to A. P. Herbert ( ´My dear A. P.´ ), on the printed stationery of the Prime Minister. Churchill writes in a forthright manner to defend General Montgomery, in full, ´I must say that I think ”Punch”, in the cartoon this week, pays the Eighth Army a very back-handed compliment by representing it as a squirming little ferret. Considering that the intention was to do them honour, the shot was a very poor one. Nor is the proportion of Montgomery and his Army that between a man and a ferret, and he would be the first to resent it. As a constant reader of ”Punch” over so many years, I think I must tell you that this is the biggest flop since the cartoon of John Bull waking from his wartime nightmare on the very day the Germans marched on Prague. I am sure your colleagues will welcome criticism from their readers´ . A letter of extraordinary content. Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG A. P. Herbert (1890-1971) English humorist, novelist, playwright and politician who was a regular contributor to Punch from 1910 and, from 1924, a member of the editorial staff. Punch magazine was well known for its satirical cartoons. The caricature Churchill refers to in the present letter was entitled The Desert Ferret and can be viewed on the British magazine´s website. Drawn by the English illustrator Bernard Partridge, the image shows British General Bernard Law Montgomery, Commander of the Eighth Army in the North Africa Campaign, placing a ferret labeled ”8th Army” over a hole he has just dug in the ground. One of the most decisive battles of World War II, the second battle at El Alamein, was fought between the British Eighth Army and the German Afrika Korps in the hot Egyptian desert from October to November of 1942. Though the casualties numbered in the tens of thousands, the battle served as a turning point of the war in North Africa. Montgomery was lauded for his leadership and, in 1950, Churchill wrote in his memoirs ´It may almost be said, before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat´ .