The Orlin Russell Corey Lecture featuring Craig L. Symonds
In partnership with the Churchill Society of New Orleans

“Churchill and D-Day”

5:00 p.m. Reception | 6:00 p.m. Presentation | 7:00 p.m. Book Signing

Join us to hear how Winston Churchill, crowned “the Greatest Briton” per a British television poll conducted in 2002, contributed to the greatest invasion from one of the country’s leading authors and historians, Craig L. Symonds. For a perilous year and a half, while Britain stood alone against Hitler’s Germany, Winston Churchill presided almost single-handedly over both strategy and policy. As Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, with a disproportionate influence on the Admiralty as well, he dominated the decision-making process. After 1941, however, he was but one of three decision makers and heavily dependent on material support from American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Those new circumstances tested his skills not only as a manager of war, but also as a manipulator of personalities. This talk will explore his efforts in both capacities.

Symonds is the Ernest J. King Distinguished Visiting Professor of Maritime History for the academic years 2017-2019 at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He has taught history at the US Naval Academy for 30 years. He is the author of 10 books on naval and Civil War subjects, including Operation Neptune: The D-Day Landings and the Allied Invasion of Europe, which received the 2015 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. His latest book, World War II at Sea: A Global History, was released in May 2018.

This program is named in honor of Orlin Russell Corey, a WWII Navy veteran, Cabinet member of the Churchill Society of New Orleans almost from its inception, thespian, wonderful speaker and performer, and frequent presenter at The National WWII Museum.

The reception and presentation are free and open to the public.

For more information or to register, call 504-528-1944 x 412.