It was only after reading Diana Preston’s ‘Eight Days at Yalta’ that I fully grasped the perils of flying in February 1945. Though the writing was on the wall for Nazi Germany, the war was far from over—Japan was still fiercely defending its Pacific island outposts, and the full horrors of the Holocaust were just beginning to emerge. Against this grim backdrop, a frail and dying Franklin D. Roosevelt chose to fly to Yalta, in Crimea, to meet with Churchill and Stalin and decide the fate of post-war Europe.
A 10-day trans-Atlantic voyage aboard the USS Quincy brought the President to Malta. For most of the journey, Roosevelt relaxed, doing little to prepare for the Conference. (The next time you travel with a workaholic-boss on a flight or a train, remember this and try telling the story.) Roosevelt ended up shaping the post-war world and laid the groundwork for the United Nations, all with minimal prep.
Churchill received him in Malta. From there, the President flew to the Saki airfield in the Crimea:
Every possible precaution was taken. Edward Stettinius recalled, ‘the planes were to fly without lights and their radios were to be silent. In case any plane was attacked there was an agreed-upon radio frequency to be used to warn the other planes. If an attack did occur all the planes had directions to fly to bases in Africa.’ Relays of American Lockheed P-38 fighters – German troops nicknamed them ‘fork-tailed devils’ because of their twin tails – would escort the President’s and the Prime Minister’s planes. Since the Nazis still occupied Crete, the Allied pilots would sheer away north-west as they approached the island. After passing over Athens around dawn, they would turn again for the Dardanelles and head onwards, like Jason and the Argonauts of mythical times, over the empty expanse of the Black Sea. Allied air-sea rescue ships were stationed along the route in case of incident. To avoid any risk of being mistaken for the enemy, as they approached the Soviet radio transmitter near Saki aerodrome, the planes would, in agreement with the Russians, make a right-angled turn. As another precaution against trigger-happy anti-aircraft batteries – so recently engaged in desperate fighting against German forces – mistakenly firing on incoming Allied aircraft, Mike Reilly had told Artikov, his NKVD counterpart, that unless a non-commissioned US air force officer was permitted to be stationed with each battery, the President would not come. A startled Artikov had consulted Stalin, who had instantly agreed.
Roosevelt had been the first president to fly in office – his cousin Teddy had been the first to fly. Now Roosevelt’s doctors insisted that the ‘Sacred Cow’, flying at its cruising speed of 200 miles per hour and unpressurized like all the planes, keep low throughout the flight – no more than 6,000 feet – because of the President’s breathing problems and high blood pressure.
Stalin, due to his fear of flying, covered the 1000 mile journey from Moscow by train. On reaching Yalta:
They drove through flat, featureless terrain strewn with ruined buildings, burned-out tanks and gutted German freight trains destroyed during the Nazis’ recent retreat. Hitler had boasted of making the Crimea ‘our Riviera’ and Nazi troops had occupied it for two and a half years. Roosevelt told Anna the devastation made him even more determined ‘to get even with the Germans’.
Within eight weeks of the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt was dead!
The other significant event from Roosevelt’s trip to Yalta was his meeting with Ibn Saud aboard the USS Quincy. The meeting was arguably the first high-level diplomatic exchange between the two countries and marked America’s foray into the Middle East. Oil and the Jewish question were discussed. The President gifted the King a wheelchair and a relatively novel medication – penicillin.
William Rigdon, one of Roosevelt’s naval aides, wrote that the President tactfully refused another request from the King, who said that ‘the meal was the first he had eaten in a long time that was not followed by digestive disturbance and he would like, if the President would be so generous, to have the cook as a gift’
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