Churchill's biography would be impressive even without his service during World War II. He achieved fame as a journalist during the Boer War, was a military commander during World War I. His literary career, for which he eventually received the Nobel Prize, began in the 1920's and continued until his opus History of the English-Speaking People. He is frequently quoted (the term ``Iron Curtain'' was his invention).
In the aftermath of the Great World War of 1914-1918, Churchill advocated mammoth donations to relieve starving Germans. Had this intelligent suggestion been adopted World War II might well have been averted.
But his destiny and greatest accomplishment was to lead his nation during World War II. He had held almost literally every high Cabinet post before being drafted as Prime Minister in Britain's darkest hour. Of this he later wrote:
``In my long political experience I had held most of the great offices of State, but I readily admit that the post which had now fallen to me was the one I liked the best.''
Churchill became Prime Minister (and First Lord of the Treasury, etc.) just as Hitler's offensive against Western Europe got under way. On May 13, 1940 he summoned the House of Commons for a vote of confidence. Although he had the support of all political parties, it was appropriate that he state what he had to offer, and announce the policy and aim of His Majesty's new Government:
``I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat....Just a few days later Germany's Panzer Army broke through the weak spot left in the Maginot Line near the Ardennes forest. French defenses crumpled quickly and the frontline British troops became trapped against the Sea in an ever-tightening pocket near the Channel ferry port of Duncquerque.``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: 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. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire ... [nor for what the Empire has stood for, nor] for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward toward its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men.... let us go forward with our united strength.''
``In the midst of our defeat glory came to the island people, united and unconquerable; and the tale of the Dunkirk beaches will shine in whatever records are preserved of our affairs.''Over 330,000 soldiers were evacuated successfully from Dunkirk Harbour and the nearby beaches, with Hitler's armies and air force attacking. At least 1000 ships participated, over a quarter of which were sunk. Even before this evacuation, Britain was the major customer of American arms manufacturers and now also needed to replace some 120,000 vehicles and as many guns that had been abandoned at the beaches. The United States Army had, in grease, some 500,000 30-gauge rifles manufactured 22 years before in the Great World War, along with over 100 million bullets for them. The U.S. began packing these and numerous other munitions into boxcars even while that splendid armada was rescuing the soldiers at Dunkirk. There was much naysaying that Britain was already intending to sue for peace (as France did in a few weeks), and that if the arms crossed the Atlantic they would soon fall into the hands of the Nazis.
On June 4, 1940, the last day of the evacuation, H.M. Prime Minister and Minister of Defence made a speech in Parliament. The Luftwaffe had inflicted frightening losses at the beaches, and the British public could have become demoralized, so special tribute was given to the British airmen:
``We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance ... It was gained by the Air Force....Churchill then unveiled his plan to reconstitute the Expeditionary Force and to ``realize the largest possible potential of offensive effort.'' He closed the speech with a passage which is still recited sixty-five years later:``This was a great trial of strength between the British and German Air Forces. Can you conceive a greater objective for Germans in the air than to make evacuation from these beaches impossible, and to sink all these ships which were displayed, almost to the extent of thousands? Could there have been an objective of greater military importance and significance for the whole purpose of the war than this? They tried hard, and they were beaten back; they were frustrated in their task. We got the Army away; and they have paid fourfold for any losses which they have inflicted....
``When we consider how much greater would be our advantage in defending the air above this island against an overseas attack, I must say that I find in these facts a sure basis upon which practical and reassuring thoughts may rest.
``... [but] we shall not be content with a defensive war. We have our duty to our Ally....''
``Even though large 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 in 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,''This famous quotation is often truncated here, but the continuation clarifies Churchill's unswerving faith:
``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.''It has recently come to light that many even in Churchill's own War Cabinet favored further appeasement of Hitler and wanted to negotiate a treaty of neutrality. But the Government wasn't run by committee and this was before the days that polls dictated policies. The Prime Minister's speech was heard around the world, and within a week America's supply of surplus munitions began loading onto British ships.
Churchill presented an indomitable face in discussion with his Allies. Shortly after Dunkirk, the P.M. flew to France to meet with his opposite number, who had already fled Paris. In his memoirs, Lord Ismay recalls Churchill's response to Reynaud and his Commander-in-Chief Weygand (my italics):
``If it is thought best for France in her agony that her Army should capitulate, let there be no hesitation on our account, because whatever you may do we shall fight on forever and ever and ever.''A few days after meeting with the French, Churchill sent a coded telegram to the American President:
Former Naval Person to President Roosevelt. 14-15 VI.40.Six months later despite furious exports (from South Africa's mines, Scotland's distilleries, New Zealand's pastures), the last of the great Brittanic Empire's gold and dollars had been payed out, as it contested the seas and skies with the Hitler Empire single-handedly. Negotiating with the bankers to buy more ships and planes would have been embarrassing: sterling instruments might become worthless if the island people ``flagged or failed.'' Now the American President demonstrated his own particular eloquence:I am grateful to you for your telegram and have reported its operative passages to Reynaud, to whom I had imparted a rather more sanguine view.... I understand all your difficulties with American public opinion and Congress, but events are moving downward at a pace where they will pass beyond the control of American public opinion, when it is at last ripened. Have you considered what offers Hitler may choose to make to France? He may say ... ``If you do not give me your ships I will destroy your towns.'' I am personally convinced that in the end America will go to all lengths, but the moment is supremely critical for France....
Although the present government and I personally would never fail to send the Fleet across the Atlantic if resistance were beaten down here, a point may be reached in the struggle where the present Ministers no longer have control of affairs and when very easy terms could be obtained for the British island by their becoming a vassal state of the Hitler Empire. A pro-German Government would certainly be called into being to make peace, and might present to a shattered or a starving nation an almost irresistable case for entire submission to the Nazi will.... [The Axis would control the Oceans in such an event.]
I know well, Mr. President, that your eye will already have searched these depths, but I feel I have the right to place on record the vital manner in which American interests are at stake in our battle and that of France.
I am sending you through Ambassador Kennedy a paper on destroyer strength.... The sending of the thirty-five destroyers ... is a definite practical and possibly decisive step which can be taken at once, and I urge most earnestly that you will weigh my words.
``Suppose my neighbor's house catches fire and I have a length of garden hose (worth fifteen dollars) ... I may help him to put out the fire. Now what do I do? ... I don't want fifteen dollars -- I want my garden hose back after the fire is over.''
Special legislation was introduced ``eliminating any dollar mark'' in future deliveries of naval vessels and munitions. (Churchill called this ``the most unsordid act in the history of any nation.'')
The courage of Londoners during the years of the Blitz was remarkable. Churchill led by example, holding cabinet meetings at 10 Downing Street though other government business was conducted in underground bunkers. These cabinet meetings often lasted into the dangerous nighttime. Leaving one late meeting, his companion pushed him to the ground and covered him with his body as a large bomb exploded nearby. Churchill chastised the man for showing fear of the enemy, relenting only when the man pointed out ``We can't replace you, Mr. Prime Minister.'' (Churchill saw the logic of this: ``Oh sorry, Thomasson.'')
The bombing Blitz against Britain was relentless; at its peak Hitler's Luftwaffe was delivering over 6000 bomber sorties per month just against the great city. This raised various indirect dangers; e.g. when the drains were destroyed and raw sewage flooded the Thames River. Churchill was concerned that the crowded bomb shelters would breed viral epidemics.
``... But it appeared that Nature had already provided against this danger. Man is a gregarious animal, and apparently the mischievous microbes he exhales fight and neutralise each other. They go out and devour each other, and Man walks off unharmed. If this is not scientifically correct, it ought to be. The fact remains that during this rough winter the health of the Londoners was actually above the average. Moreover, the power of enduring suffering in the ordinary people of every country, when their spirit is roused, seems to have no bounds.''
Churchill visited bomb craters and was reduced to tears when poor Londoners who had just had their houses destroyed cheered and cried ``Give it `em back!'' The first raids against Axis cities (Berlin in 1940, Tokyo in 1942) were just symbolic gestures, but with North America converted to a giant munitions factory, the United Nations eventually did ``give it `em back.'' (For example, deaths in Tokyo just on March 10, 1945 exceeded all the civilian casualties endured by Britain and America throughout the War. A few weeks earlier the conflagration of Dresden had killed in one day more people than all of the bombs dropped on London.)
Churchill saw the War as a test of whether Democracy could prevail against the ruthlessness of Tyranny. He had no doubt about the outcome. Although the Parliament building was a primary target of the thousands of bombing sorties being flown against London, Members refused Churchill's request that they consider their own safety. He wrote this about their refusal:
``... After all, a free sovereign Parliament, fairly chosen by universal suffrage, able to turn out the Government any day, but proud to uphold it in the darkest days, was one of the points which were in dispute with the enemy. Parliament won.``I doubt whether any of the dictators had as much effective power throughout his whole nation as the British War Cabinet. When we expressed our desires we were sustained by the people's representatives, and cheerfully obeyed by all. Yet at no time was the right of criticism impaired.... Even the threat of annihilation did not daunt our Members, but this fortunately did not come to pass.''
Although the Labor Party claimed power and removed Churchill from office in 1945, he was called again to serve as Prime Minster from 1951 to 1955.
On the occasion of his 80'th birthday, the great man had this to say:
``I have never accepted what many people have kindly said -- namely, that I inspired the nation.... It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.''
Recently, the almost mythic heroic status of Churchill has been diminished by books spouting half-truths: Churchill's ministers regarded him as pompous, incompetent, and drunkenly. Before the war he was a pro-Fascist and also had sympathies for the Communists. His strategic military skill was exaggerated, his few victories due to luck, and he sometimes issued bizarre orders that needed to be countermanded by his generals, e.g. his refusal to allow Singapore to surrender, hoping for a great human sacrifice to impress Americans. (``There must ... be no thought of saving the troops or sparing the population.... Commanders ... should die with their troops.'')
His speeches were read by a professional actor. His shows of bravado against enemy bombers were made when he had secret intelligence that London was being bypassed. Despite his rhetoric about the British Empire surviving for a thousand years, he was busy giving it away, first to appease Hitler, then to buy munitions. That Britain saved the world in 1940 was a self-made myth, King George's Army being a bit player compared with the Armies of Roosevelt and Stalin. (This last bizarre charge is the easiest to dismiss: If the Axis had controlled Britain and North Africa, America would have been able neither to invade Western Europe nor to supply Soviet forces in Eastern Europe.)
But the foibles of Churchill only increase his greatness in a way. It is easy for a fictional character like Superman or Indiana Jones to save the world, but Churchill was not fictional. He was just a mortal man, with vices and weaknesses like all of us, ... and he saved Western civilization from a hideous tyranny.
Churchill seems to have had a better long-term grasp of world affairs than, say Roosevelt and Eisenhower. For example, in early 1945 the Anglo-American allies could easily have taken Berlin before the Soviets, and most would agree in hindsight that this would have been wise. Churchill pleaded for this, but was overruled by his American cousins.
See if you agree that Churchill's steadfast stewardship during the War almost recalls the words of Captain Ahab in his pursuit of Moby Dick:
``Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush!''
On Churchill's pedigree you will note that his male line comes from SPENCER (he is an agnatic cousin of Lady Di). The surname Churchill arose from a special 18th-century royal decree, commemorating the illustrious John Churchill Duke of Marlborough who had left no male heir.