Allied Wartime Summit Conferences

Down the ages heads of state or senior officials of different countries have sometimes come together to confer on some important matter, usually to form an alliance or to make a peace. Given the difficulties of communications and travel, these were quite rare, and so rather celebrated, such as “The Field of the Cloth of Gold” (June 7-24, 1520), when King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France met to promote friendly ties between their countries, or the “Congress of Vienna” (September 1814-June 1815), attended by a host of sovereigns, foreign ministers, field marshals, and such, to settle the affairs of Europe after the defeat of Napoleon. With the Twentieth Century, summits became more common, given the advent of rail roads and steamships, and still later airplanes. During the First World War, Allied leaders met several times, usually in Paris, but it was during the Second World War that summit meetings became almost commonplace, particularly among the Allied leaders, as they attempted to plan political and military strategy, and the post-war world.

The pivotal actor in the Allied summits was Winston Churchill, who, despite being the oldest of the “Big Three” (b. 1874) did more traveling during the war than both Roosevelt (b. 1882), hampered by his limited mobility and the vagaries of American law (remember, he has to sign or veto bills) and Stalin (b. 1878), who was afraid of flying and unwilling to go anyplace the Red Army didn’t control.

The top-level summits included meetings involving combinations of Churchill, FDR, and Stalin, plus occasional other actors: Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud of France, William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada, Chaing Kai-Shek of China, as well as Harry S Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt as President, and Clement Atlee, who succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister. In addition to the summits, there were frequent meetings in which one of the Big Three met with the foreign ministers or personal representatives of one or both of his colleagues or with other Allied leaders. For example, senior American and British officials met with Stalin in Moscow for a few days in September-October of 1941 to brief him on the Atlantic Charter, which concluded the summit at Argentia Bay, and again in October-November 1943, when they were joined by the Chinese foreign minister. There were also “regional” summits, such as the Rio Conference in January 1942 and a Commonwealth summit in London in May of 1944.

"Kit" Wykeham-Musgrave has a Lucky Day

On the morning of September 22, 1914, Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave (1899-1989) was a 15 year old midshipman serving aboard the 12,000 ton armored cruiser HMS Aboukir, which with several of her sister ships was on patrol in the Broad Fourteens, a part of the North Sea off the Dutch coast noted for its surprisingly even bottom at 14 fathoms.

The three ships were steaming in line ahead at 10 knots, with lookouts posted, but not zigzagging, as this tactics had not yet become routine.  At 6:00 am the cruisers were spotted by the German submarine U-9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen, which was riding on the surface at some distance.  Identifying the vessels as British warships, Weddigen submerged, and approached.

Having gotten to about 550 yards from the Aboukir, at about 6:20 Weddigen fired one torpedo at her, which broke her back, and she began sinking slowly.  Aboukir’s crew abandoned ship, and her sister ships, Hogue and Cressy, thinking she had struck a mine, approached to rescue survivors.  Among these was “Kit” Wykeham-Musgrave, who was uninjured and managed to swim to the Hogue as his own ship went down.

As Wykeham-Musgrave was clambering aboard the Hogue, at about 7:00, Weddigen had brought U-9 to the surface, in the midst of the British ships.  From about 300 yards he fired two torpedoes into the Hogue, which began to sink rather quickly.   Once again uninjured, Wykeham-Musgrave managed to swim to HMS Cressy. 

By this time, Cressy’s skipper, spotting U-9, opened fire on her and attempted to ram, while the U-boot fired several torpedoes back at her.  One of Weddigen’s torpedoes struck the cruiser at 7:15, and second at 7:30, causing her to capsize.  Shortly before 8:00 am all three British cruisers had gone under. 

Meanwhile, “Kit” Wykeham-Musgrave, again uninjured, once more took the water, and managed to find a piece of wood to cling to.  Some hours later he was picked up by a Dutch fishing vessel.  He was one of 837 survivors, 1,459 officers and men having perished with the three ships.

Weddigen and U-9 proceeded to Germany, where they would receive a hero’s welcome, with an Iron Cross First Class for the captain and Second Class for everyone else. 

After returning to duty, Wykeham-Musgrave was assigned to the battleship HMS Vanguard.  He served in Vanguard nearly three years, seeing action in the Battle of Jutland (May 31- June 1, 1916).  Early in July, 1917, Wykeham-Musgrave went on leave.   On July 9^th, Vanguard, then lying at Scapa Flow, experienced a magazine explosion, totally wrecking the ship and killing 804 of her crew.

Widely considered one of the luckiest man in the Royal Navy,  Wykeham-Musgrave then served in the battlecruiser Inflexible.  After the war, he served in submarines until he retired in 1929.

Recalled to duty as a commander for World War II, “Kit” Wykeham-Musgrave served through to the end of the war, certainly one of the luckiest men in the history of the Royal Navy.