Astronaut Scott Kelly forced to APOLOGISE for praising Winston Churchill by trolls who say Greatest Brit was a racist
The American astronaut was attacked online for tweeting a Winston Churchill quote and made a public apology
ASTRONAUT Scott Kelly was pressured into apologising for praising wartime leader Winston Churchill after being hounded by trolls who branded the ex-prime minister "racist".
But the NASA engineer then found himself engulfed in a Twitter storm over the apology, with hundreds pointing out that Churchill saved the world from being taken over by the Nazis.
The ex-fighter pilot's original tweet read: "One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, 'in victory, magnanimity.' I guess those days are over".
After becoming Prime Minister in 1940, Churchill led Britain during what he called its "darkest hour" after parts of continental Europe fell to the Nazis.
Britain stood alone against the tyranny of Hitler because the United States was bent on keeping out of the war.
And with invasion looking likely, he was under great political pressure to do a deal with Germany - something he resisted, vowing to the House of Commons "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat".
In his most famous wartime speech Churchill thundered: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
His will and determination inspired a nation and was crucial to the defeat of the Third Reich.
So it is no surprise that Kelly praised him as one of the "greatest leaders of modern times".
But when he did it was met with a barrage of abuse from followers who began sprouting examples of how the ex-Prime Minister was "responsible for the deaths of three million people in India".
This came despite Churchill being voted the "greatest Briton of all time" in a 2002 BBC poll and last year's biopic film Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman, which won an Oscar.
One wrote: "Ahh. Winston Churchill. A guy who participated in the actual genocide of the Boer/Dutch South Africans in 1902.
Another responded with: "He was a mass murderer.
"Check out the records of the Bengal famine of India where his policies and decisions lead to the death of millions due to starvation and disease.
They were referring to Churchill refusing to send food to those starving during the Bengal famine.
The food shortage claimed around three million lives in 1943-44 - although many historians claim he did the Prime Minister did as much as he could given the circumstances of World War Two.
But after being shamed by followers, Kelly quickly posted another tweet which read: "Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill.
"My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support.
"My point was we need to come together as one nation. We are all American.
"That should transcend partisan politics."
But this then spurred a reaction from Churchill supporters who were outraged by his decision to backtrack.
One Twitter user wrote to him: "It's disgusting that you felt the need to apologise. Don't ever bow down to a mob with pitchforks."
Another replied: "Delete this tweet. Please. You know better. Without Churchill, we very well would have lost WWII and you know it. He was not perfect but stop using 2018 wokeness that did not exist in the 1930s or 40s."
The man behind the legend
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born in November 30, 1874, into an aristocratic family in 1874.
As a youth Churchill served in the British Army and while in South Africa during the Second Boer War, he was captured and became a prisoner of war.
After managing a daring escape from prison - and having made a gruelling 300 miles journey to be rescued - he became something of a hero in Britain for a while.
He later worked as a journalist before becoming an MP in 1900.
During the 1930s, which he describes as his wilderness years, he warned of the growing Nazi menace.
But his pleas for action and claims - rightly as it turned out - that Hitler was secretly rearming and planning war, fell on deaf ears.
He was dismissed as a hasbeen and a relic of the past.
Yet efforts to appease Hitler failed and when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who behind many of the peace efforts, stepped down, Churchill turned out to be the right man for the job.
After becoming Prime Minister in 1940, he refused to do any deals with Hitler and stood steadfast against the dictator, even when the country stood alone after Nazi troops swamped Europe.
Later he helped lead a successful Allied strategy with the US and Soviet Union during World War Two.
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Scholar Christina Sommers replied to Kelly's post saying: "Please don’t apologize. Winston Churchill, like all of us, had serious human failings.
"But unlike most of us — he possessed genuine greatness."
In a recent BBC poll, Churchill was voted the greatest Briton ever.
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