where was winston churchill involved in a train crash?

Answer 1

Churchill was not involved in a train accident, the train was ambushed!

Churchill had got a commission in the 4th Hussars' in February 1895, Churchill saw his first shots fired in anger during a semi-official expedition to Cuba later that year. He enjoyed the experience which coincided with his 21st birthday.

In 1897 Churchill saw more action on the North West Frontier of India, fighting against the Pathans. He was a bit of an idiot by all accounts, a show off - He rode his grey pony along the skirmish lines in full view of the enemy. "Foolish perhaps," he told his mother, " but I play for high stakes and given an audience there is no act too daring and too noble."

He was not liked very much by his fellow officers, perhaps because Churchill spent much of his time writing about his experiences in his first book The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898). He soon became an accomplished war reporter, getting paid large sums for stories he sent to the press - something which also did not make him popular with his senior officers.

Using his mother's influence, Churchill got himself assigned to Kitchener's army in Egypt. While fighting against the Dervishes he took part in the last great cavalry charge in English history - at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.

Churchill however wore out his welcome in the army. So in 1899 he left the army to stand for parliament. He was defeated and almost immediately left for South Africa as war correspondent for the Morning Post. He would have rather been a soldier, but it was not allowed: In response to Churchill's own moonlighting as a reporter during his military service in India and the Sudan, the British authorities had enacted a regulation against such double-duty. Forced to choose, Churchill picked the more lucrative path of journalist. Nevertheless, he found it difficult to confine himself to the role of passive observer. "I was eager for trouble," he later wrote.

And trouble Churchill got. Shortly after his arrival on the Cape, he boarded an armored train setting out to reconnoiter the Boer troops that were besieging the British town of Ladysmith. On an isolated section of track in no-man's land (at Frere), the train was derailed and brought under heavy gunfire by a Boer ambush. For 70 minutes under intense gunfire, Churchill led the effort to free the locomotive and spirit away as many soldiers as could fit on board the engine.

As soon as these men were safely away, Churchill headed back to the battle, declaring (as the locomotive engineer recounted): "I cannot leave those poor beggars to their fate!" But he was too late. The remaining men had already surrendered. Caught by surprise and without his trusty Mauser, Churchill surrendered as well.

The Boers took Churchill to a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria. At first he appealed to the Boer authorities to release him on the grounds that he was a noncombatant. They refused, citing Churchill's active role in the ambush rescue. Soon after, Churchill, along with two British officers, Capt. Haldane and Sgt.-Major Brockie, resolved to escape. When the appointed time arrived, however, only Churchill was able to scamper over a temporarily unguarded portion of the fence surrounding the POW compound.

Within a few weeks he escaped and made his way back to Durban. Churchill was hailed as a hero and took advantage of his status: he always treated advancement as a springboard not a sofa. He obtained a military commission from the Commander-in-Chief but continued to act as a war correspondent, enjoying many further adventures.

Answer 2

south africa