In 1942, Winston Churchill went to meet with Roosevelt to determine policy and strategy for the coming partnership. While there he had a flight in a new long range sea plane - possibly the Boeing 314 . In conversations with the pilot, he ventured that he and some staff would benefit from flying home using this marvellous machine.
It was arranged and the party set off. The tail wind was strong and it looked like they would make good time. However when it came time to spot some islands off Great Britain, they were nowhere to be seen, the navigator had only managed to see one star through the clouds during the flight and it was clear that they were lost. A hasty conference was held amongst the crew and it was decided to turn north immediately. This they did and within minutes, spotted England and landed safely. The captain said to Churchill afterwards that he was never so happy to see land as then and proceeded to explain how close they all came to death in the last half hour of the flight.
The aircraft was considerably to the south of their intended track and if they had continued another six minutes on that course they would find themselves over the Port of Brest with its very large anti-aircraft batteries. This slow lumbering unarmed aircraft would be very easy to shoot down. A second problem arose when they turned north they appeared to be coming from enemy controlled Brest. British radar picked them up, classified them as a solo enemy bomber and scrambled six Hurricane fighters to shoot them down.
Fortunately for western civilization, the Hurricanes failed to intercept the Boeing and failed to kill Churchill.
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