Anthony Tucker-Jones: Winston Churchill and Victory in North Africa (1943)

Travels Through Time

In this episode the military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones shares his latest research on one of the great figures in British history: Winston Churchill. To get a close look at Churchill’s personality and his modus operandi, he takes us back to the year 1943 – a pivotal year at the heart of the Second World War.

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The fall of Tunis in May 1943 marked the first liberation of an occupied city by the Allies. It was a significant moment, the military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones argues, as important at the time as the victory at Stalingrad.

Winston Churchill was one who relished the news when it arrived in London. Always keen to be in the thick of the action, Churchill was soon climbing aboard a plane bound for Tunisia where he would address the victorious troops in person in the ancient surrounds of Carthage.

Churchill’s idiosyncratic manner is something that has long interested Tucker-Jones. In this episode he describes Churchill’s personality, his faults and his peculiar strengths through the prism of events in 1943. This was a time when his wartime popularity was at its height and a time when the fate of the Second World War swung firmly in the Allies’ favour.

As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.

Scene One: 7 May 1943. The Allied liberation of the Tunisian capital Tunis.

Scene Two: 1 June 1943. Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s visit to the Roman amphitheatre at Carthage, to congratulate 3,000 men of the British 1st Army on their victory.

Scene Three: 17 August 1943. The Liberation of Messina.

Memento: Churchill’s sun helmet from his trip to Carthage

People/Social

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Anthony Tucker-Jones

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Unseen Histories

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