Flashback Friday: Winston Churchill visits Fort Jackson in 1942

With “Darkest Hour” — a movie focusing on Winston Churchill during the early days of World War II — set to open on Friday, The State takes a look back at the British Prime Minister’s visit to Fort Jackson in June 1942.

Nearly seven months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into the war, Churchill secretly traveled by train from Washington, D.C. — where he had been planning war strategy with President Franklin Roosevelt — to the Columbia Army fort. The visit lasted 5.5 hours.

The State’s city editor at the time — Murray deQ. Bonnoitt — began his story about Churchill’s visit by noting the challenges Allied troops faced early in the war.

“In a week that brought England the darkest news since Singapore it was for soldiers at Fort Jackson to provide the war-weary British Empire with assurances of a powerful source of reserve strength until now scarcely tapped.

“It was Fort Jackson’s show and young Americans were the star performers. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who is accustomed to holding the spotlight, stood on the sidelines and liked it.”

Churchill visited on Wednesday, June 24, 1942. But because of security reasons, The State did not report on the trip until Sunday, June 28, when Churchill was back in England.

“Winston Churchill saw a spectacular display of America’s expanding might Wednesday at the army’s largest infantry training post, where crack paratroops plummeted from the sky by the hundreds and live ammunition from big field guns whistled directly over his head and burst near enough for him to feel the jar and concussion,” The State reported.

“Chomping on his fat, black cigars, Britain’s prime minister inspected Fort Jackson’s activities minutely, even prying into soldiers’ packs, working the breech block of a 75-millimeter gun, and getting covered with choking, yellow dust kicked up by thousands of feet and hundreds of armed vehicles.

“He saw some of the plain, essential drudgery of life in an army camp. And, complimenting a company of sweating, serious-faced infantrymen on a mass calisthenics exercise, he said:

“‘I know you are all waiting and longing for the day, which is coming, when all this work and preparation will be turned into a mighty effort of war to make sure that right and justice will prevail in the world.’”

Fort Jackson, which celebrated its Centennial earlier this year, trained more than 270,000 soldiers between May 1939 and March 1944. Among the trainees was Desmond Doss, who become the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. The movie “Hacksaw Ridge,” which was released on 2016, was based on Doss’ service.

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Flashback Friday: Winston Churchill visits Fort Jackson in 1942."