Hitler and his God

Postscript: Churchill’s Mission

It does not happen often that events in the occult history are confirmed by an impartial, objective source. This makes it worthwhile to report the following testimony, published after the first edition of the present book and directly related to a crucially important phase in the history of the 20th century and of humanity.

In chapter 17 I had written: “Hitler did not invade England [after the surrender of France] and neither did Great Britain collapse, as was generally expected. The reason was one man: Winston Churchill … ‘In Churchill Hitler found something more than an antagonist. To a panic-stricken Europe the German dictator had appeared almost like invincible Fate. Churchill reduced him to a conquerable power.’ (Joachim Fest)

“Before the invasion of France Sri Aurobindo had already said in passing: ‘England is quite unreliable under her present leadership,’ and that he and the Mother were looking for a suitable person. If the Asura had his instrument in one camp [Adolf Hitler], the White Forces needed theirs in the opposite camp once their decision had been made to engage actively in the battle. It is now mostly forgotten what a chancy affair the coming to power of Winston Churchill actually was …” (p. )

Several passages from Churchill’s speeches indicate his awareness of the spiritual support provided to him; for instance: “… Without victory there is no survival … no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forwards to its goal.” Or: “If we stand up to Hitler, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.” And also: “I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below, of which we have the honour to be the faithful servants.”¹ Such were unusual words for a man in Churchill’s position and under the given circumstances; they expressed a vision going far beyond the cant of nationalistic or jingoistic exhortations, and carried overtones echoing Sri Aurobindo’s forceful statements about the fundamental values at stake in the Second World War.

It should be remembered that those words were spoken at a time that, according to Sri Aurobindo, Hitler had “a fifty per cent chance” of winning the war. France had collapsed, and Great Britain stood alone to confront an apparently invincible enemy, practically without defence after Dunkerque, except for its naval fleet. Moreover, Great Britain suffered defeat after depressing defeat, and was bombed relentlessly by the Luftwaffe, London on seventy-five consecutive nights in which forty-thousand people died. No wonder that Churchill felt an immense relief when, because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the United States of America was finally forced to enter the war on its side. Fully realizing the power of its new ally, he considered the war won from that very day. “Our history would not come to an end … ” he wrote.

An even stronger formulation of Churchill’s awareness of a spiritual support is this passage from a speech in the House of Commons on 13 October 1942: “I sometimes have a feeling, in fact I have it very strongly, a feeling of interference. I want to stress that I have a feeling sometimes that some guiding hand has interfered. I have the feeling that we have a guardian because we serve a great cause, and that we shall have that guardian so long as we serve that great cause faithfully. And what a cause it is!”² Many political leaders have invoked God Almighty in times of crisis or catastrophe. This is something quite different: a spiritual presence and force concretely interfering in the most drastic historical events to save a great cause. And that cause, also according to Churchill (and to Sri Aurobindo, of course), was no other than keeping the future open for the evolution of humankind.

But the strongest confirmation comes from a man who was not a politician and still less spiritual-minded. He was a down-to-earth, athletic detective of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, “physically tough and unafraid of almost anything,” whose name was Walter Thompson. His years with Churchill are recorded in Churchill’s Bodyguard – The Authorised Biography of Walter H. Thompson, written by Tom Hickman (Headline Book Publishing Ltd, 2006).

Thompson was appointed Churchill’s bodyguard in 1921 and would remain so, with one interval, till 1944. At the time of his appointment Churchill was Minister of Air and Secretary of State for the Colonies. The young policeman accepted his task with little enthusiasm, for he knew from colleagues that “the impossible Mr Churchill” was a fickle and egotistical man, a headache for anybody who had to look after him or work for him.

What made Churchill still more difficult to protect was his love of danger. “He longed to confront danger,” and “appeared to have no permanent sense of personal safety.” After all, he had been fighting in five campaigns, one of them during the First World War, when he had been a battalion commander in the muddy trenches in Flanders’ Fields.

Churchill required Thompson’s constant attention, and thus the policeman from “the Yard” became the person closest to him during the critical years. The Prime Minister’s life was in permanent danger wherever he went for conferences, meetings or inspections – Cairo, Algiers, Casablanca, Washington for he was the prime target for assassination by the secret agencies of the Axis countries. (He was reported dead on several occasions.) Besides, at the time of the bombardments, in the summer of 1940, he wanted to show the population that their bald-headed, round-bellied Prime Minister with the big cigar stood by them, and he went out in the streets even during bombardments. “I have asked the people of this country to carry on in their homes, in the streets, in the factories, everywhere,” he said to Thompson. “If you think I am going to hide in an air raid shelter, not for you or anyone else will I do it.”

One day he sent his car away and went on foot “around St. James’s Park by way of the Mall, where many incendiary bombs had been dropped. My plea to him not to do so fell on deaf ears,” remembers Thompson. Suddenly there was a tremendous explosion. Churchill went back to see what had happened: where he had been walking a few seconds earlier was now a huge crater made by a thousand-pound bomb.

That night Churchill took hold of his bodyguard’s arm. He said: “Thompson, when you came to me in 1939 [after an interval during which the policeman had been replaced by another bodyguard] I told you something unusual. Do you remember?” Thompson said he did and repeated his words: “You said: I have something to do.” – “Those are the words I wanted, Thompson,” Churchill said. “Because we have come to the second phase. There is somebody looking after me besides you, Thompson.” – “Do you mean Sergeant Davies?” asked Thompson. Davies was a colleague of his who at times had to assist him. But “Churchill’s finger went heavenwards in a characteristic gesture. ‘No, Thompson, I have a mission to perform and That Person will see that it is performed.’”³

The bodyguard and his protégé had developed a sort of routine for getting in and out of the car. Thompson would hold the left door open for the Prime Minister, who would step in and sit behind him. On an inspection tour “something curious” happened. When getting into the car, Churchill “looked at me, then opened the door [on the right side] himself, got in and shut it,” something he had never done before. And the car took off “as usual, travelling fast.” Suddenly a bomb exploded close by. “It lifted all four wheels from the road surface and we ran on two wheels for many yards before rocking back. Our speed probably prevented the car from turning over. Winston was not disturbed in the slightest.”

Afterwards, Churchill and Thompson talked about the incident. “Walter asked him why he’d got into the car on the side he never did. Churchill told him: ‘I saw you with the door open, but when I reached the other side something seemed to say “stop”, and it appeared to me that I was to get in on the other side, which I did.’ Again Churchill’s finger went heavenwards: ‘That mission has to be carried out, Thompson.’”⁴

On 30 June 1944, detective Walter Thompson’s time as bodyguard of Winston Churchill came to an end. Scotland Yard had decided to replace him. “Walter had lived in Churchill’s home almost as a member of the family. On occasion he’d run Churchill’s baths, picked up his clothes, sat beside him when he couldn’t sleep, carried him when he was ill … [Churchill had had at least two heart attacks during the war.] There was unquestionably a friendship between the pair – never on an equal footing, of course, but a friendship nevertheless.”

After all they had gone through, the adieu was “an emotionally charged scene,” in which both men tried to master their feelings. Walter, puzzled that Churchill had not once looked into his face, went to the door, saying “Goodbye.” – “Suddenly Churchill looked up, his head and a finger raised in a gesture Walter knew well: ‘When you came to me in August 1939,’ he said, ‘I told you I had something to do. Subsequently I said that I had a mission to perform. Now, Thompson, before you go … that mission has been accomplished.’” And the sturdy policeman concludes: “No words of mine could express adequately my pride at having worked at his side, and there was a huge lump in my throat as we parted.”⁵

Winston Churchill has been buried by a mourning nation with full honours, and is generally recognized as one of the great figures of modern history – rightly so. Few know about “That Person”, of whose presence and support he was so vividly aware, and about the real import of his “mission.”