The film Churchill and his men and wife watch is "That Hamilton Woman", a 1941 movie narrating the affair between admiral Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton. In real life, Churchill was a great admirer of Nelson and, reportedly, he actually ghost penned the script (meaning that he wrote the script without accepting any credit for it). He also claimed several times that this was his favorite movie of all times.
The character who was awarded the Victoria Cross was based on Flight Lieutenant Eric James Brindley Nicolson of fighter squadron 249. The citation reads:
"During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson's aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs. Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life."
The above-mentioned action was the first time that Nicolson had ever engaged the enemy.
In 1942 he was posted to India and promoted to Wing Commander and Squadron Commander of a group of twin-engine Bristol Beaufighters (a robust multiple-mission attack aircraft), where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In May of 1945, at the age of 28, while flying as an observer in a B-24 Liberator, the plane caught fire and the crew was lost in the Bay of Bengal.
"During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson's aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs. Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life."
The above-mentioned action was the first time that Nicolson had ever engaged the enemy.
In 1942 he was posted to India and promoted to Wing Commander and Squadron Commander of a group of twin-engine Bristol Beaufighters (a robust multiple-mission attack aircraft), where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In May of 1945, at the age of 28, while flying as an observer in a B-24 Liberator, the plane caught fire and the crew was lost in the Bay of Bengal.
US President Roosevelt's middle initial was D for Delano. The cast list has it as a J.
Churchill discusses the bombardment of the French navy in Oran. This is located in Algeria. Film buffs will note that Oran figured into the backstory of Casablanca (1942). Most of the refugees in the film escaped from occupied Europe by crossing the Mediterranean to the port of Oran and then took the train across the Sahara to Casablanca, Morocco.
The subject of India is not mentioned in this film, other than being included in Churchill's determination to hang onto the British Empire. At one point in the film he expresses to Roosevelt his confidence in the ability of Singapore to endure, which history would prove to be inaccurate. A key element in the battle of Singapore was the massive number of Indians who lived in Singapore, Malaya, and the surrounding region. Roused by a number of freedom fighters, hundreds of them, including rebelling Indians in the British army, formed the Free Indian Army, which was an ally of Japan. Not only were these forces key in the fall of Singapore but they freed hundreds of Japanese soldiers to carry out a genocide campaign against the ethnic Chinese in the region. Ironically, once Singapore had fallen and the FIA troops witnessed the horrific treatment of the vanquished at the hands of the Japanese, many of them wondered if Japan might be a worse colonial power than the British. In any case, Japans "Asia for Asians" campaign was very successful and welcomed throughout southeast Asia.