This statue of Winston Churchill by Jean Cardot was inaugurated in the grounds of the Petit Palais on the Avenue Winston Churchill in Paris France. The 10 foot high statue was funded by 3,000 donations totaling the equivalent of £250,000. It is based on a photograph of Churchill marching with De Gaulle down the Champs-Élysées on November 11, 1944. This one of the few statues of a foreigner in Paris.
Winston Churchill made several high-profile visits to the Western Front to witness the final Allied push into Germany. Key events included the Yalta Conference in February 1945, crossing the Rhine River with Montgomery on March 25, 1945, inspecting the Siegfried Line, and touring the ruined city of Berlin Germany in July 1945. He attended the start of the Potsdam Conference in July. He also toured the ruins of Berlin and Hitler’s bunker in July before losing the general election. These visits were designed to sculpt the post war world, boost morale, show defiance, and directly observe the collapse of the Nazi regime.
Churchill led Britain to victory in Europe in May 1945 but was stunningly removed from office months later. Despite high personal popularity, voters favored the Labour Party’s platform for social reform, resulting in his resignation on July 26, 1945, after a landslide election defeat. Churchill called the transition from war time leader to opposition leader an “anticlimax”. After Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party suffered a landslide defeat in the July 1945 general election, King George VI offered him the Order of the Garter, the highest honor of knighthood in the King’s honor’s system. Churchill declined the honor, famously remarking that he could not accept it because the British people had just given him “the order of the boot”.
Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin gathered in Potsdam, near the heavily bombed Berlin, to discuss the end of the war in the Pacific and the fate of the postwar world. After nine meetings over eight days, and with another week of the conference remaining, Churchill had to return to London for the results of the general election. Millions of British servicemen were casting their ballots from overseas. Churchill’s personal physician, left most of Churchill’s baggage behind in anticipation of a swift return. The opposing Labor party won the election in a sweeping victory. To add insult to injury, a large majority of the service vote went for Labour, deserting the man who had led them for five years and sung their praises in historic speeches. Churchill did not return to Potsdam. He had led Britain through its darkest hours and achieved final victory only to be booted from office.
By mid April, 1945, the Ruhr factories were silenced. Thousands of German prisoners filled the Allies’ compounds. Elements of the German army were retreating further east. Concentration camps were discovered and liberated. The indescribable conditions at these camps shocked the world.
Most cities seen by C-Company soldiers were completely demolished. The Allies encountered pockets of German resistance in the drive to the Ruhr industrial complex. Hundreds of German soldiers were captured daily. Many were teenagers. Others were much older—in their sixties or more. These young and old, made up the untrained German people’s army. Conscripted soldiers from occupied nations were glad to be captured. They were aware a prisoner of war of the Allies was assured of food and shelter—much better than being a weary and starving German soldier.