Winston Churchill

War Leader

Bill Price

• Publisher: Pocket Essentials
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781842433225
• eBook ISBN: 9781843444428
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Winston Churchill was a soldier, writer, and politician and, after World War II, he became one of the world's greatest statesmen. But his reputation rests on his role as a war leader and, in particular, on the period between May 1940 and July 1941, when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. Since his death in 1965, a few dissenting voices have cast him as, among other things, an opportunist and war-monger. But, as flawed as he undoubtedly was, most modern historians and politicians still hold him in the highest regard. In order to gain a better understanding of this remarkable man, this book looks at some of the key moments in Churchill's life, including his role in the British Army's last cavalry charge in the Battle of Omdurman and his escape from a prisoner of war camp during the Boer War. It then focuses on those momentous times when Churchill's courage and force of character almost single-handedly dragged Britain back from the brink of defeat in World War II and onwards towards an eventual Allied victory.

War Leader

Winston is Back

Churchill's isolation from the Conservative leadership, and the fact that he had been excluded from the National Government for almost ten years by the time war was declared in September 1939, worked in his favour in the spring and summer of that year. He was one of the few prominent British politicians whose reputation was not tarnished by association with either disarmament or appeasement. Sections of the press had been campaigning for his inclusion in the Cabinet for some months and, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, Chamberlain had finally offered him a position in the forthcoming War Cabinet, although he did not specify what it would be. Churchill reacted with impatience and was described as pacing around his flat in Morpeth Mansions like a caged lion as he waited to hear what post he would be given.

On the afternoon of 3 September, Churchill finally met Chamberlain who had decided to offer him the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, the same job he had held at the beginning of the First World War and had been forced to leave in the aftermath of the Dardanelles campaign. He immediately sent a telegram to the Admiralty to tell them he would be starting work later that day, prompting a signal to be sent out to the fleet which simply said, 'Winston is back'.

The initial stages of the war are now often known as the Phoney War because there was little armed contact between the opponents on land. What fighting there was occurred almost exclusively at sea, which served to keep Churchill's name in the forefront of the minds of MPs and the British public. Chamberlain's reserved and urbane manner, which had been one of the reasons he had been so successful as a politician, hardly appeared suitable for the conduct of a war. The energy and conviction which Churchill put into his speeches in the House of Commons and in radio broadcasts began to eclipse the Prime Minister, and soon many people expected him to become leader of the war effort in the near future.

In the meantime, Churchill set about his work in the Admiralty with his usual vigour, converting most of those there who had been sceptical about his appointment, including Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord, into ardent admirers. Many of the practices which would later become such a feature of his war leadership were initiated at this time, building on his vast experience of ministerial Government in the past. He could be idiosyncratic and, at times, impatient, demanding immediate responses to the huge number of instructions and inquires he made every day in the form of written minutes, particularly those he had labelled in red with the words 'Action this Day' to indicate their urgency.

Churchill structured his day so that he could fit in as much work as possible. He often began in bed at about 8 o'clock in the morning, working through his private boxes which contained the information that had come in overnight, already arranged in order of importance by the team of private secretaries he gathered around him. One of his three typists, using a specially designed silent typewriter, or his short-hand writer, would take down the various minutes and notes he dictated before he actually got out of bed. After finally getting up, he would attend to whatever business was required, attending committee meetings and the like, but making sure to have a break for lunch, often accompanied by champagne and followed by brandy.

A map room was set up in the Admiralty so that he could keep track of the fleet, and he would spend hours studying it, often until the early hours of the morning. His old friend Brendan Bracken was appointed his Parliamentary Private Secretary, and Professor Frederick Lindemann, another old friend, became his chief scientific advisor and the head of his newly created statistical office, which collated the enormous amount of information obtained by Churchill into short and succinct reports so that he had easily at hand all the relevant information on whichever subject he required.

In the first few months of the war the threat from U-boats in the Western Approaches of the North Atlantic resulted in the sinking of a number of naval and merchant ships. Churchill initiated plans for all merchant ships to travel in escorted convoys and for all naval ships to be fitted with ASDIC equipment, as the British submarine detecting sonar system was known. The most serious loss was the Royal Oak, a battleship which was attacked and sunk while at anchor in Scapa Flow on 14 October by a U-boat which had penetrated the submarine defences. More than 800 of the 1,200 crew were lost. In December, the first naval engagement of the war, the Battle of the River Plate, was fought off the coast of Argentina and Uruguay. Although the Royal Navy suffered more losses in the battle, it was considered a British victory because the German pocket battleship Graf Spee was damaged and had to be scuttled a few days later.

One of Churchill's main concerns while he was at the Admiralty was to develop plans for offensive action, both to take the war to the Germans and to raise morale at home. As ever, he did not confine his thinking to naval operations alone and, since he was now a member of the War Cabinet, he had more scope to plan for other fields of operation than during the previous war. Not all of his plans were well thought out, particularly the idea of sending a naval squadron into the Baltic where it would have been highly vulnerable to attack from German aircraft if the plan had gone ahead. But he was keen to develop other ideas for operations in Scandinavia, principally in an effort to stop the transport of iron ore from mines in Sweden to Germany through the northern Norwegian port of Narvik. The ore was an essential resource for German industry so, if a way could be found to prevent it from getting to Germany, the whole of the German war effort could be brought to a halt. The tactics can be seen as part of the overall British strategy of playing for time, avoiding direct confrontations on the Western Front while the military capability of the country was built up over a period of several years.

From November onwards, Churchill devised a number of different plans to stop the ore reaching Germany. These included laying mines along the Norwegian coast to force transport ships out into international waters, where they could legitimately be attacked, and landing troops at Narvik which could then advance on the mines in Sweden. But, with both Norway and Sweden maintaining neutrality, the War Cabinet failed to make a decision on what to do and the Allied forces assembled to mount an operation remained in Britain. Towards the end of March 1940, a plan was finally agreed but, on 9 April, before it could be put into effect, Germany invaded both Norway and Denmark.

The Allied operation went ahead, with troops landing near the now-occupied Narvik and at Trondheim in central Norway, but the initiative which might have been gained by launching the operation earlier, as Churchill had wanted, had been lost. By the end of April the Allied forces were withdrawn from Trondheim and, even though they remained in position around Narvik until June, it was apparent that the Norway Campaign was heading for failure. This prompted a debate in the House of Commons, the result of which would have far-reaching implications for the British Government and its conduct of the rest of the war.

The Finest Hours

The Norway Debate began on 7 May with Chamberlain explaining why the withdrawal from Trondheim had been necessary. It quickly expanded from its original scope, as MPs from all sides of the House began to criticise the Government for its handling of the war. The speeches made from the Conservative benches were particularly damaging to Chamberlain. Sir Roger Keyes, an Admiral of the Fleet as well as an MP, was scathing about the conduct of the war, and his argument was given extra force because he was assumed to have inside knowledge as a consequence of the position he held. The prominent Conservative backbench MP Leo Amery, speaking to Chamberlain directly, quoted the words Oliver Cromwell had said in 1653 when he forcibly evicted the Long Parliament, 'You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go'.

On the second day of the debate, Churchill robustly defended the conduct of the Government during the campaign, even though, in private, he had been extremely critical of the numerous delays. At the end of the debate a vote was held on a Motion of Censure of the Government's conduct, which, although not a Vote of No Confidence, effectively amounted to the same thing. Many Conservative MPs voted against the Government which won the motion but with a much reduced majority.

It was a devastating blow for Chamberlain and a direct challenge to his leadership. With his position apparently untenable, he decided that the only way forward was to form a coalition National Government by inviting the opposition Labour Party to join with the Conservatives and Liberals. Clement Atlee, the Leader of the Opposition, refused the offer, saying that Labour would not serve in a Government with Chamberlain as Prime Minister. On 9 May, Chamberlain asked Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, and Churchill, together with the Conservative Chief Whip David Margesson, to a meeting to discuss the situation and to decide on a successor if he was to resign. Prior to the meeting, Churchill had been advised that, when the question of leadership was raised, he should keep quiet and allow Halifax, Chamberlain's preferred choice, to speak first. When the moment came Churchill followed the advice and waited for what, he would later write, felt like several minutes. Halifax finally spoke, saying that his position in the House of Lords would make it difficult for him to be an effective leader and that he thought that Churchill would be a better choice.

The following morning brought the news that German forces had begun to invade Belgium, Holland and France, bringing the Phoney War to an abrupt and shattering end. Hitler had unleashed the blitzkrieg, sending heavily-armoured and mobile units of his army, supported by overwhelming air power, to smash through the relatively lightly-defended region of the Ardennes and into central Belgium. It was a critical moment in the war and, at first, Chamberlain thought of staying on as Prime Minister while the crisis lasted. But, during the day, he was persuaded to step down, going to Buckingham Palace that evening to tender his resignation to the King. Going against protocol, he recommended that the King send for Churchill to form the next administration.

Later that evening, Churchill was summoned to the palace and invited to form a Government. He accepted, fulfilling an ambition he had held for forty years. At the age of sixty-five, at a time when he had been written off as a politician on numerous occasions, he had finally become Prime Minister at one of the most momentous times in the entire history of Britain. He immediately invited Atlee to join a coalition and began to put together his Government, working well into the night. After the war he wrote in his memoirs:

As I went to bed that night at about 3am, I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I was walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.

The following morning he began the task of reorganising the Government to address the problems he had earlier perceived in its inability to reach decisions and take affirmative action quickly. This process would continue for several months against the backdrop of the worsening situation of the war but it would also be essential for Britain's future that the resulting structure was efficient and fit for the purpose.

The War Cabinet was reconstituted with five members, and Atlee and Arthur Greenwood from the Labour Party joined Churchill, Chamberlain and Halifax. The personnel changed a number of times thereafter, with Chamberlain retiring through ill health in September and Halifax being given the job of British Ambassador to America in January 1941, but the basic structure remained the same.

Churchill also created a new position of Minister of Defence, which he took himself. This allowed him to remain in close contact with the Chiefs of Staff of the three services, with General Hastings Ismay acting as a liaison between the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the War Cabinet, and Churchill meeting almost daily with both. As with the War Cabinet, the personnel changed during the war but, once it became apparent that the new structure worked, it remained in place. It solved the problem that had arisen in the First World War of a split between the politicians and the military and, as the war went on, major decisions were still taken by the War Cabinet but Churchill and the Chiefs of Staff were increasingly allowed to get on with the conduct of the war without undue interference.

One of the strengths of Churchill's Government was that it was not dictatorial. This was in great contrast to the German administration, in which Hitler was not challenged by his subordinates for fear of the repercussions. Churchill encouraged people to speak their minds and would often refine plans through a process of debate which could, on occasion, dissolve into blazing rows. But, whether he agreed with it or not, Churchill respected the final decision, reached by majority vote even when, as regularly happened, it went against him.

Three days after Churchill became Prime Minister, German panzers broke through the French defences at a weak point in the line near the town of Sedan and advanced rapidly into France, threatening to split the Allied forces. On the same day, 13 May, Churchill made his first speech as Prime Minister, saying, 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat'. He then spelt out what his war objectives were:

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

Given the circumstances, it was a brave statement and it was the first of a series of speeches he made to the House over the next few months, some of which were later broadcast on the radio, aimed at fortifying the British people against the hardships that were to come. The boost to morale these speeches provided would prove to be one of Churchill's greatest contributions towards winning the war, and some of the resonant phrases he used are now amongst the most recognisable words in the English language.

The dire consequences of a loss of morale were made plain to Churchill over the next few weeks during the trips he made to France to discuss the worsening situation and to attempt to instil some fighting spirit in those French leaders and generals who were wavering in their enthusiasm to continue the war. On one occasion General Gamelin, the commander of the French Army until he was replaced by General Weygand, gave details of the rapid German advance. Churchill asked him where the French reserves were located, to which the general replied with a single word, 'Aucune', meaning, 'There are none'. Churchill would later say that this was the biggest shock he had received throughout the entire war as it meant that there was no means of stopping the German advance.

The French made repeated requests for more help from Britain, asking particularly that more squadrons of fighter planes should be sent over. But, with the situation becoming increasingly hopeless, Churchill, with the agreement of the Chiefs of Staff and War Cabinet, decided that such a move would weaken Britain's own defences too much. This would become a source of bitterness between Britain and France, as would the decision to withdraw the British Expeditionary Force from France through Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo, as it was called, began on 26 May, with 333,000 troops being brought back to Britain by 3 June, more than 100,000 of whom were French. None the less a vast amount of equipment, including tanks and artillery that Britain could hardly afford to lose, had to be left behind.

While this operation was being carried out, the War Cabinet began to debate whether it was possible to continue the war at all in the light of the imminent fall of France. Mussolini had offered to mediate in negotiations between Britain and Germany to bring about a peaceful settlement and Halifax, with some support from Chamberlain, argued in favour of taking up the offer. Churchill was vehemently opposed to any sort of negotiations with 'that man', as he referred to Hitler, and was supported by Atlee and Greenwood. At a meeting of the full Cabinet, he forcefully expressed his view that any deal reached with Germany would lead to Britain becoming a Nazi puppet state. He went on to say, 'If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us is choking in his own blood upon the ground'. His words were greeted by cheers from all, including Chamberlain, meaning that Churchill had persuaded everybody in Government to fight on to the end no matter what. A few weeks later he issued a general instruction to all Government ministers that they should not make any defeatist comments in public at any time, no matter what they thought in private.

Even at this dark time, there were a few rays of light, including the success of British code-breakers based at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire in deciphering intercepted German radio communications sent by their Enigma encryption machines. It had come too late to warn of the invasion of France, which had caught the Allies completely by surprise, but had been extremely useful during the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk. Ultra, as the intelligence information from this source was known, would prove vital to the Allies throughout the course of the war and Churchill, who was well aware of the importance of intelligence, made strenuous efforts to ensure that it remained secret. Less than thirty people outside Bletchley were aware of the source of the intelligence.10

In a speech to the House of Commons, later broadcast, Churchill pulled no punches, saying:

Even though large parts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, 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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.

The reference to the New World was, of course, aimed at America. Churchill had been in regular contact by telegram with President Franklin D. Roosevelt since October 1939 and, although he was aware that the political situation in America would prevent Roosevelt from joining the Allies in the immediate future, he was confident that America would come in after the Presidential elections in November. In the meantime, Roosevelt offered as much support as he could, supplying Britain with vast amounts of food and military equipment despite America's declared position as a non-belligerent. This was initially paid for in cash, with Britain shipping gold to America, but when the gold reserves began to run low in early 1941, a system...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Blurb
• About the Author
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• His Early Life
• A Young Man in a Hurry
• Rise and Fall
• Between the Wars
• War Leader
• The Later Years
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Copyright