Harry Hopkins meets Joseph Stalin. Chapter Two: The Sendoff: Winston, Pamela, and Kathleen.

He made a speech on the BBC just before he left. Winston sent him off with a tear in his eye and then Harriman and his girls hauled him to the train station where chaos ensued over his missing visa.

This Episode: Stalin was losing ground steadily as he was under siege from Hitler’s superior Nazi army. Roosevelt and Churchill were looking for some way to stem the tide and open a partnership of some kind with Stalin if he could hold out until “Mother Nature came to the defense of Mother Russia.” Harry Hopkins was in England to settle final details on the secret and soon-scheduled meeting between his boss and Winston when the Russian Ambassador to the Court of St. James asked Harry if he was strong enough to travel to Moscow to discuss Lend Lease support with Stalin. The suggestion advanced to a dangerous plan that would require Harry’s getting there, meeting with Stalin, and getting back in time to travel with Winston to the mid-ocean meeting with Roosevelt. If he could pull it off and return with an informal agreement, the balance of power could shift to the advantage of the Allies.

This Chapter: There was danger that could be foreseen in the trip Harry would take. Beyond that, he had a speech to deliver on the BBC and that, and the other time constraints, overrode the danger. Roosevelt’s approval arrived on the day when he would have to depart. Harriman drove Harry to the train station with Pamela, who had become his lover, and his daughter Kathleen, who pretended to be Harry’s date. At the last minute Ivan Maisky, Stalin’s ambassador who had the letters of transit, couldn’t be found. The women became comical coquettes as frenzy erupted.

Contents of “Harry Hopkins meets Joseph Stalin”:

1. Requesting Approval

2. The Sendoff: Winston, Pamela, and Kathleen

3. The Flight: Lost, Found. Safe, a Pilot Shot

4. Famous People: In the Little Corner. An Air Raid

5. Historic Photo Confirms Historic Meeting

Chapter Two: The Sendoff: Winston, Pamela, and Kathleen.

Reading time: Fourteen minutes

At 6:00 a.m., Harry was awakened by Mulvihill, the Duty Officer, with the president’s response. It was time stamped “11:00 p.m., Washington,” so, allowing for five time zones, Harry figured it took two hours to get from the White House to Chequers. It read:

“I highly approve Moscow trip and assume you would go in a few days. Get this message to Winant for delivery to Stalin through diplomatic processes as sent by me.

“ ‘Mr. Harry Hopkins is in Moscow at my request for discussions with you personally on the vitally important question of how we can most expeditiously and effectively render assistance to your country in your magnificent resistance to the aggression of Hitlerite Germany.

“ ‘Mr. Hopkins will communicate to me directly the views which you express to him and the particular problems involving assistance from the United States which seem to you most pressing. I ask you to treat Mr. Hopkins with the identical confidence you would feel if you were talking directly to me.’ ”

Harry asked Mulvihill to let him know as soon as the Prime Minister was awakened and he went to work on the Reynolds draft, and began a checklist of items for the trip.

He walked into Winston’s room an hour later and found the Prime Minister in bed and working, as always. He was propped up on his pillows with two red Dispatch boxes, lidded and lockable, that Harry thought might be “in” and “out.” Colville was there on one side of the bed and an amanuensis was on the other. He was drinking wine.

Harry said, “Wine? Not whiskey?”

“Yes, and not milk. Our dairy products are lately deplorable. May I ask Harriman to add those products to our Lend Lease requirements?”

“You haven’t had a glass of milk since you were a child. The president approves.”

“Excellent. So does the Prime Minister. Do you prefer to make your BBC address before you go?”

“Yes.”

Winston said to Colville, “Get Portal on the phone.”

While the Prime Minister spoke with the head of the RAF, Harry said to Colville, “Silly Americans?”

Colville rolled his eyes. Harry said, “It’s impossible to keep two women happy, you know. Hard enough with one.”

Colville rolled his eyes again and whispered, “Mr. Hopkins, I will be in your lifelong debt if you don’t go down that road. Especially just now. The Prime Minister is having a trying morning.”

Harry said, “Lifelong? Your life or mine?”

“Your choice. If I go first, I’ll have my descendants take up the duty.”

“I don’t doubt that you’ll have a few.”

Winston hung up and said, “You will depart from Invergordon tomorrow morning in a PBY Catalina. One from America, flown by us. A special train will carry you from Euston Station at 11:00 tonight to Invergordon.”

Harry went to Winant. Harriman walked up just as they sat down to coffee. Harry thought Ave had a sixth sense genius for always being in the right place at the right time. He told them, “The boss approves. I leave tonight after my BBC remarks. Take a train from London to Invergordon, and one of our Catalinas from there along the Arctic route to Archangel. I’ll need to be met by a Russian plane from there to Moscow.”

Ave said, “Excellent. Two of the boss’s best men are standing by. What do you need?”

Harry passed the cable to Winant and said, “Here’s the president’s message for Stalin. He asks that you handle it. I’ll need a visa, I suppose, and someone, Maisky probably, to handle the Russian pickup and delivery.”

Winant said, “Yes. Maisky. I’ll handle that.”

“My plan is to return here and travel with the prime minister on the Prince of Wales. The boss asks that you, Ave, return to Washington to brief him on all we’ve done these last days. I’ll need to have my luggage cleared out of Claridge’s with just enough to carry me to Russia and back, and the balance put on the ship at Scapa Flow.”

Winant said, “I’ll take care of the luggage.”

Harriman said, “And I’ll drive you to London after your speech.”

“I think I might need a topcoat of some kind. Maybe a pair of gloves.”

Harriman said, “You’ll have mine. We’re the same size. It will go nicely with your new Homburg. Gloves and boots too.” Harry’s ancient fedora had disappeared. He was certain it had been stolen, but there were so many suspects he chose not to investigate. Winston had provided the replacement.

Mulvihill arrived with a cable for Harriman. He read it and said, “You’ll have company. George Marshall has assigned General Joseph McNarney as your aide, and says Flight Lieutenant John Alison will go along also. The young officer is to remain there to provide operational instructions on two hundred Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks that are on the dock at Archangel still in crates. I’ll see that they get information on the travel schedule from London. Gil, if that cable should have come to you and not me, blame George.”

Winant shrugged. He didn’t care.

Harry argued, though not unpleasantly, with Reynolds that day over the speech. Reynolds wanted, Harry said, “A declaration of war on Germany, for Christ’s sake.” He relaxed as much as he could as the interruptions flowed from a hyperactive household. He felt calm, though no one else seemed to. He wondered if he should bring his own interpreter to the meeting with Stalin. Winston said, “We have plenty of them over there in my embassy, as well as in your own. But if the roles were reversed, I would be mildly annoyed if you wouldn’t trust mine.” He napped at Clementine’s insistence and despite Quentin’s vigorous abuse of the typewriter in his room. It bothered him a little that Winant couldn’t find Maisky. It would be embarrassing if his arrival were unexpected, worse if he got arrested at the border.

“You’re not going to get arrested at the border,” Gil said.

“I know. I’m just having a slow day and I thought I’d annoy you.”

*

On the lovely southern shore of Scotland’s Loch Lomond, near the village of Balloch, the crew of the PBY-5 Catalina, serial number W8416, was enjoying a little holiday that summer Sunday. The previous day they had flown their plane to the largest lake in the island after the non-stop trip from Invergordon to Murmansk, where they slept for one night in an assigned houseboat, and then flew back. They had undergone debriefing, caught up on their sleep, and were then charged with the pleasant duty of flying W8416 to fresh water for a good bath from its incrustation with the effects of a low-level flight over thousands of miles of stormy salt water.

From previous lavabos at Loch Lomond some of the crew had Balloch girlfriends, if inconstant ones, who scrambled to the shores to laugh and dawdle with the glamorous flyboys. Flight Lieutenant David McKinley, DFC, “Mac” to the crew, was the Captain. He was 27 and recently married, and as the captain and the only crewman thoroughly betrothed he was responsible for maintaining a degree of decorum and attention to duty among the exuberant others. McKinley had 3,500 hours at the controls of a PBY in his time with Coastal Command, though only the one recent flight with W8416, herself recently arrived from America. The Murmansk round-trip earned them the right to nickname W8416, and after a little good-natured disagreement they settled on the foregone choice they had painted on her forward fuselage that Sunday morning. She was “Clementine.”

Another plane from their squadron flew low over Clementine that day, signaling with an Aldis lamp that the holiday was over. They were to report to Invergordon for duty. Instructions would follow on arrival. A Balloch maiden, whose flyboy was yanked from her embrace, called out to him, “You better come back if you know what’s good for you!” He said, “Don’t you worry, darlin’ girl. I know what’s good for me.”

*

Harry thought the speech was adequate, if not especially brilliant, which he ascribed to his lapses of concentration and to excessive caution. But it was to the point.

He was comfortable with the part where he said, “I arrived here from America one week ago on business. My business is the same as every other American from the President of the United States to the man who drives a rivet or runs a lathe in an airplane factory in Los Angeles or Buffalo. That business is the safeguarding of our heritage of freedom of thought and action. Right now, Hitler is seriously threatening this heritage of ours, a heritage which is also yours.

“I did not come from America alone. I came in a bomber plane, and with me were twenty other bombers made in America. These airplanes tonight may be dropping bombs on Brest, on Hamburg, on Berlin, helping to safeguard our common heritage.

“I have been with the president when messages came to him telling him of the bombing of workers’ flats in the East End of London. I was with him when the news first came of the tragic bombing of Coventry and later of Plymouth. I heard the words which came not only from his lips but from his heart. I watched the stern development of his determination to defeat Hitler. The president is one with your prime minister in his determination to break the ruthless power of that sinful psychopath of Berlin.”

If he had any idea that his words would be translated into seven languages and broadcast all over the world, followed by printing in leaflets dropped in France, Belgium, and Germany, he might have sweated it a trifle more. On the other hand, if Quentin had known that the speech was about to make Harry world famous, he may have argued for a credit, which Harry would have found unthinkable, and unnecessary since Quentin Reynolds was already world famous.

After the speech, Winston spent a few minutes with Harry in the garden. He told Harry in great detail of the materiéls that were in the pipeline from Britain to Russia, and of what was coming next. He handed him a copy of a letter that he was forwarding to Stalin.

It read: “Mr. Harry Hopkins has been with me these last days. Last week he asked the President to let him go to Moscow. I must tell you that there is a flame in this man for democracy and to beat Hitler. He is the nearest personal representative of the President. A little while ago when I asked him for a quarter million rifles they came at once. The President has now sent him full instructions and he leaves my house tonight to go to you. You can trust him absolutely. He is your friend and our friend. He will help you plan for the future victory and for the long term supply of Russia.”

“Thank you, Prime Minister. Is there anything else?”

“Yes. Tell him that Britain has but one ambition today, but one desire. It is to crush Hitler. Tell him that he can depend on us. Goodbye, Harry. And God bless you.” He shook his hand, held his shoulders in both his hands, looked him in the eyes, and walked off.

Ave had a fast and fabulous car, no surprise, that he drove from Chequers to Euston Station. Pamela rode up front with Ave, and Kathleen was in the back with Harry, an arrangement that screamed of Ave’s disinterest in anyone’s opinion of his opinion of Randolph.

Kathleen said, “Mr. Hopkins …”

He cut her off. “Harry. You’re my date.”

She giggled. “My father says you’re afraid of flying. Says you’re so afraid of it that you can’t sleep on a plane.”

“There goes the romantic potential of our date. It’s true. My brother Lewis says it’s because I’m basically chickenshit. I don’t agree. I think I’m bold and fearless. My view is that if I slept, I might die in my sleep and miss the final adventure of the crash. Who wants that?”

Ave butted in on the girls’ laughter by looking over his shoulder to say, “Harry, has Gil made contact with Maisky yet?”

“Ave, I’m also afraid of fast driving, and it’s way worse when the driver takes his eyes off the road to talk with me. No, not yet.”

Pamela said, “But it’s a twenty-four hour flight. Nobody can stay awake for twenty-four hours.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.”

Kathleen batted her eyes at him and said, “Harry, is it true that you’re running around on me with Tallulah Bankhead?”

“Not so often that you should worry.”

*

Maisky couldn’t be easily found because of where he was. He turned up late Sunday at the fortified Bovington estate in southern England of the Spanish exile Juan Negrin. The exile was an assassination target for both the Republicans and the Nationalists for having paid Stalin $500 million in Spain’s gold reserves for Civil War weapons that weren’t worth half that. In all the world, only Joseph Stalin loved Juan Negrin.

Maisky finally met Winant at the Russian embassy not long before the train was to depart. He was willing to provide Hopkins with a visa, but the visas themselves were locked in a safe he couldn’t open. He took Harry’s passport from Winant and wrote on it, “Harry Hopkins is to be permitted to cross any frontier station of the USSR without examination of luggage, as a diplomatic person. Ivan Maisky, Ambassador of the USSR in Great Britain.” He told Winant he would cable the Kremlin in the morning to clarify what he had done and ask that preparations for Hopkins, including air transportation from Archangel, would be made. He said, seizing the day, “After all, I am responsible for this historic intervention.”

*

Averell, Kathleen, and Pamela arrived at Euston Station that night with Harry. The train — three cars for comfort, plus locomotive and coal car — was his alone. General McNarney and Lieutenant Alison were on board. Three embassy friends from Harry’s January visit — charge d’affaires Herschel Johnson, his “number two” Harvard, and their driver Wisham Herbert — were there to say his luggage had been gathered from Claridge’s and properly distributed between the train and another routing of the balance to Scapa Flow and the Prince of Wales, and to wish him Godspeed. Harry asked for his passport and his visa.

Johnson said, “Don’t you have it?”

“Would you like to withdraw that question?”

“Where is the ambassador?”

“That’s another good one, Herschel.”

“You may miss your train.”

“It’s right here. I can’t miss it.”

Pamela and Kathleen, standing right there and enjoying the moment, dove deep into their inner coquettes.

Pamela said, “If it leaves without you, could we could all go to a club for a dance?”

Kathleen said, “Yes! A real date!”

Harry said, unperturbed, “If my train left without me would that mean it was never actually my train?”

Kathleen said, “And the plane too! That would be simply unforgettable. A great mystery.”

Pamela said, “ ‘Where is Harry Hopkins? What fate has befallen him?’ ”

Wisham Herbert said, “Look! Here comes the ambassador now.”

Winant came running up in a full sprint, skidding to a stop and waving Harry’s passport. He said, “There’s no visa. They’re all locked up.”

Kathleen said, affecting a kind of regal authority, “As you say, Mr. Ambassador, yet we have neither need nor interest in all of them. Only Harry’s.”

Winant, earnest, and not in on the joke, said, “Harry’s is locked up with them.”

Pamela said, “But why? He’s done nothing wrong. Or have you, Harry? Tell the truth.”

Winant said, “Maisky wrote an excuse on your passport.”

Kathleen said, “Like when you don’t want to go to school? That always worked for me when mother did it for me.”

Winant said, “I think it will be all right. Tomorrow we can straighten all this out.”

Harry said, “I’m going to be arrested at the border.”

Pamela said, “Would that mean Hitler would win? Like in one of those board games?”

Harry said, “Ave, can you come? To bail me out.”

Kathleen said, “All the money in the world can’t get you out of a Soviet prison.”

Pamela said, “Yes. That’s one of the rules.”

The train conductor had made his way to the conversation. He asked, “Is there a problem I can help with?”

Pamela said, “Do you have one of those ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ cards?”

Harry said, “All right. I’ll go. If I’m never heard from again, will one of you tell my children I always tried to do my best?”

Kathleen said, “I’m going to tell Tallulah I stole you from her and gave you six months of unbearable joy before you died in my arms with a smile on your face.”