Winston Churchill, Part 2 | Fulfilling his Destiny

“You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be. For without victory, there can be no survival.”

-          Winston Churchill, in his first speech to the House of Commons, May 1940 

Rocks and Shoals

Having been named Prime Minister of Great Britain in May 1940, one of Churchill’s first actions was to create the five-man War Cabinet, with an additional office of Minister of Defence which he took for himself. He redecorated several rooms in 10 Downing Street with maps, charts and strategic communiques. New processes for prioritization were created, and as Winston reorganized the government, he brought closer to himself the trusted alliances he had built over the years, some to his aid, and others to his detriment. In short, he approached the role of PM with a gusto that would overshadow even the previous vigor he applied to elected or appointed office.

With the creation of the War Cabinet, Churchill’s attention turned back to France. At this time, Germany was pushing deep into France and the Low Countries and approaching the port of Dunkirk. Nazi airpower – the Luftwaffe – was hitting targets across the country while ground forces invoked the dreaded blitzkrieg tactic in every advance. Even Churchill when reading communications from the front was taken aback by the lighting war of the Germans, but even more so was his shock at the inability of the massive French Army to push back. Churchill made five flights between May 16 and June 13, each with the intention to strengthen morale, arrange for the delivery of needed support and supplies, and work with the government in Paris to create a strategy by which France could hold out. The optimism with which Winston usually carried himself was dashed even in the first meeting with the French when it was reported that German armor had broken through French lines 110 miles from Paris. A worried Churchill asked immediately after the news was delivered, “Where are your reserves?” to which the French premier simply shrugged, and responded “None." “Churchill’s mind simply could not grasp it at first, it sounded so incredible, but, when it did penetrate, was like a cold hand placed on his heart,” said his liaison officer, Louis Spears, who witnessed the exchange. The support brought by Churchill even in the rapidly deteriorating French theater was as much for the English people as it was for the French. British Expeditionary Force (BEF) divisions sent to support French interests were being pushed back vigorously with towns and territories falling like dominos until they found themselves with their backs to the sea at Dunkirk, requiring immediate evacuation. This was accomplished with the help of the English people, and the last BEF solider left the beaches of Dunkirk on June 3rd.

In Great Britain calls for negotiations with Hitler were on the rise, with some leaders in the House of Commons outright promoting it. Churchill wouldn’t hear of it. “I have thought carefully in these last days whether it was part of my duty to consider entering into negotiations with That Man,” he said in an informal meeting with his Cabinet. “I am convinced that every man of you would rise up and tear me down from my place if I were for one moment to contemplate parley or surrender. If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.” Churchill would reiterate such sentiments in one of the most famous speeches in his career, given to the House of Commons after the evacuation of Dunkirk on June 6th. “Even though huge tracts 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 never surrender.” The House of Commons rose to their feet at the conclusion, as did anyone who heard the powerful words to the point where one of those closest to Churchill said after, “We wanted the German’s to come.” The remains of the French government entered into an armistice with Nazi Germany on June 21, 1940. With the fall of France, the Battle of Britain began.

Unclear Skies

Churchill received a report on July 1st that a day-bombing had occurred by the Luftwaffe on some munitions and airplane factories. Throughout the month, the cadence of bombings increased, eventually spreading to cities and towns. In response Churchill ordered the Royal Air Force (RAF) to engage the enemy as the single barrier to invasion. As the bombing turned to civilian targets, so did Churchill’s attention stay with the people he was to protect. With rousing speeches not unlike the one he gave to the House of Commons, he broadcasted over the BBC, rallying and rousing the national populace out of the pits of despair even as their homes and neighborhoods burned around them. As the bombing intensified, so did Winston’s oratory skill and determination to remind the British people of the reality of their position and stress that there was only one path forward. This intensity was only outmatched by RAF victories in the skies over Great Britain and Europe, where fighters shot down one German bomber after another.

“Nothing surpasses 1940,” Churchill later said in his memoir, Their Finest Hour. “This was a time when it was equally good to live or die.” The Blitz begin in September of that year and London became the primary target for the Luftwaffe with over two hundred bombers dropping ordinance on the city in the first night. London became an inferno and an unflinching Churchill made rounds to air raid shelters and badly damaged neighborhoods to assess the destruction. As the bombing continued, the prime minister knew the German strategy was to destroy the morale of the English people to the point they would lose the will to fight when the invasion had commenced. Speaking to this in one of his radio addresses, he said, “He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children, that he will terrorize and cow the people of this mighty imperial city, and make them a burden and an anxiety to the Government and thus distract our attention unduly from the ferocious onslaught that he is preparing. Little does he know the spirit of the British nation…he has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of the Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe.” During many nights of the bombing of London, Churchill's staff would have to physically remove him from the roof to the bomb shelter for his own safety. He would stand in the open with a pair of binoculars, a peacoat, a helmet, and a lit cigar watching the skies overhead for a sign of a German plane. The bombing intensified through October and November, and though more ordinance was dropped during this time, British war production actually increased and the populace held fast. As November turned to December and the threat of invasion faltered, the already steady morale of the populace and upbeat nature of Churchill increased. He became confident that not only would there be no invasion, but that as war production continued to increase the chance for ultimate victory was possible even without American help.

Turning the Tide

Even as the nation's spirits began to rise at the end of 1940, the challenges of the war continued to increase. Churchill was constantly monitoring the different fronts across Europe and now in North Africa. Army divisions were being pushed back and while RAF bombers were inflicting damage, it was not comparable to what the English had to endure. During this time Churchill met with President Roosevelt and stayed in constant communication with him regarding additional munitions, armor, and warships. A low point came when a Nazi naval group did a “channel run” through the English Channel in sight of shore and naval defenses. Despite the Royal Navy engaging in a pursuit and attempted shots at the group, no Nazi vessel sustained damaged. Upon hearing this via a phone call from the admiral in charge, an angry Churchill simply asked “Why”, before hanging up on the man.

Hitler began his invasion of the USSR in June 1941, encountering an unprepared Soviet army despite constant warnings from Churchill to Stalin that attack was imminent. In December, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States officially entered the war, sending troops to North Africa to join British divisions in November 1942. During this time, convoys of ships came under constant assault from German U-boats, threatening to cut supply lines both with mainland Britain and forces in North Africa. In the midst of all this, Churchill knew a win was required. This came at the end of 1942 with a British victory in Egypt at El Alamein and a Soviet triumph at Stalingrad in early 1943. Upon hearing the news of El Alamein and the subsequent drive across North Africa Churchill, during his lunch with the King the following day, said, “I bring you victory.” The Queen later remarked, “We thought we had gone mad. We had not heard the word (victory) since the war began.” For the first time, Churchill ordered the nation’s church bells to be rung. “We are not celebrating final victory,” he said. “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

As the North African campaign came to a close, the invasion of Italy was next. Churchill pushed back against American apprehension for the initial invasion, and provided strategies by which it could be accomplished. As the Italian invasion commenced he received news that the tyrant Benito Mussolini had been deposed by Italy's king. Despite this, German and Italian forces carried on and the Italian campaign caused devastating losses to both American and British forces. In November 1943, Churchill flew to Cairo for a meeting with Roosevelt and the Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. Fondness for Roosevelt came through during these meetings, with a teary-eyed Churchill stating “I love that man” after witnessing the President try to rise from his chair only to fall back into his seat.

The losses in Italy caused Churchill to have misgivings about the upcoming D-Day operation. Called Operation Overlord, it was contingent on the gathering of masses of American troops, ships, and supplies launching across the channel to France via an amphibious landing. The night before the invasion Winston visited his map room at least four times, commenting to his wife, “Do you realize that by the time you wake up in the morning twenty thousand men may have been killed.” Despite his momentary anxiety, he was full of optimism for the success of the invasion because, as Andrew Roberts put it, “it was the outcome of preparation, judgement, determination, and pure leadership.” The D-Day invasion occurred and a resolute Churchill announced to the House of Commons that the first of many battles on the European continent had commenced.

As Allied forces marched and achieved victories across Europe, Churchill started to encounter new challenges both in Great Britain and aboard. On New Year’s Day in 1945, The Times published a scathing article on Churchill's handling of the communist uprising in Greece the previous year. Churchill wrote an equally scathing note to the editor of The Times, but decided not to send it. It wasn't until an address to the House of Commons did he reply with, “There is no case in my experience, certainly no case in my wartime experience, when the British Government has been so maligned and its motives so tranced in our own country by important organs of the press.”

The final advance of the German forces ended at the end of January with their defeat during the Battle of the Bulge. The "Big Three" conference between President Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Churchill was held in Yalta and was easily the largest of the war. Unsurprisingly, Churchill aligned with Roosevelt to work with Stalin, who had a six-million-man army, to flush out the details of how Europe would be divided after the collapse of Germany. It became a common belief that Stalin simply ran roughshod over Roosevelt and Churchill, and while it was true that the Soviets had operatives in the State Department and elsewhere, Stalin held no advantage and anything saying otherwise is a revisionist myth. Among the different issues decided during the eight days of reshaping Europe, Churchill argued in favor of a Security Council of which Russia would take part, had Stalin sign a Declaration on Liberated Europe which ensured “the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live”, and agreed to continue saturation bombing of German cities as long as V-2 rockets were still being fired at England. This time was especially taxing on Churchill, made evident by strained relations with the USSR. Churchill admitted in his war memoirs a decade later, “But it may really be that we are beginning to get on better terms with the Russians. Our hopeful assumptions were soon to be falsified. Still, they were the only ones possible at the time.” The conference proved the rising threat of Soviet Russia and as the justification for the Anglo-Soviet alliance began to wane, the weight of the Soviet threat became evermore evident. The eight-day meeting concluded and Churchill immediately left, almost a day early.

Franklin Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, GA, in April 1945. It was yet another blow to Churchill although he was aware of his friends failing health. The war continued for a few remaining weeks and on May 8th, Winston was told of Germany’s formal surrender. Standing on the balcony with the King and Queen he waved at the masses who cheered and celebrated the impossible end to the war. Later that night he delivered a second speed to a crowd in Parliament Street and Whitehall saying, “There we stood, alone. Did anyone want to given in? The crowd roared back, NO! “Were we downhearted?” NO, they responded. “Now we have emerged from the deadly struggle – a terrible foe has been cast on the ground and awaits our judgement and our mercy.” As stated by Roberts, “His thoughts at that moment of triumphal apogee, the greatest day of his long life, were of the Empire to which he had dedicated himself, the most powerful and constant love of his political career.”

Sunset

With the war ending in Europe, Churchill was exhausted. Still dealing with the outcome of the war and the now-rising "Iron Curtain" of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, he also faced the prospect of being voted out by the newly empowered Labour Party. The British people saw their costs of living rise and hoped that a system of Labour welfare reforms would help in the reconstruction. In a stunning defeat, Churchill was voted out of office in July of 1945. Though he would say it was a “blessing in disguise”, the King and those around him would reiterate the unfortunate ungratefulness of the British people, which Winston continuously denied. “They have suffered and been through much. They have had a very hard time.”

Winston Churchill would continue as he had during his wilderness years to make speeches and taking the leading role in the opposition party and speaking to issues such as the rising Soviet Union and the beginning of the Cold War. In October 1951, the Conservative Party once again took power in the government and Winston was made PM once again. John Colville said of this second premiership, “He still dominated the Cabinet, now more Buddha than Achilles.” He would serve in this role until 1955 when due to health issues, tendered his resignation and retired from public office entirely. He spent his retirement traveling and staying at his home at Chartwell until his death from a stroke in 1965.

Learning from History

As Jon said so well during his presentation of the Civil War, if this podcast were called ten-thousand-minute history, I would be in a better position to speak with you about Winston Churchill, but even at ten thousand minutes, we’d only be scratching the surface. He is one of the most quoted people in history. In his lifetime he wrote more than twenty million words through books, speeches, articles, and internal communiques. He accomplished more before the age of 25 than most do in their lifetime. He was a self-recognized flawed man, whose jovial humor, impeccable memory, and drive to excellence made him different from those around him. The way he applied what he learned, the style he worked to create for himself, the drive he went into everything made him a man unique to the tasks given to him. As a key made specifically for a lock, so was Winston Churchill made for his time, that at his turning there was a future opened against the darkness of fascism and death.

With the plethora of words spoken and written by such a man, I dare not close with a summary of who he was and what he did. This episode falls short in so many ways to do him justice, and I shall not make it worse. Instead, I'll let Churchill himself do it and succeed in speaking to his own philosophy of life in a way that I would surely fail.

“History with its flickering lamp, stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scene, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked the failure of our hope and the upsetting of our calculations: but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.”