Churchill as wartime Prime Minister Flashcards
What happened
British troops were trapped in Dunkirk, 300,000 men needed evacuating, this looked unlikely as Germany had air support and the possibility of German assault.
Italy hadn’t joined the war yet but were beginning to threaten Egypt and the Suez Canal, this would cut off the quickest sea route to the far east and India which would hurt Britain’s ability to defend against Japan
Japan was a threat to Britain’s Southern Asian possessions
Gold reserves were running out and Britain’s fighting capacity was running out
Due to Germany’s bombing of Poland and the Benelux the heavy bombing of Britain was a genuine fear
Lord Halifax, who was an advocate of appeasement was still Foreign secretary and was making secret approaches to Germany to find out what Hitlers peace deal will be
Halifax made a proposal to approach Mussolini to attempt to find out what Hitlers peace deal; would be and proposed to appeal to the USA but both were rejected.
Evacuation of Dunkirk
On June 4th Britain had evacuated 224,318 British troops and 111,172 of their allies from Dunkirk, the cabinet had resisted the French call for more fighters and an aerial defence of Britain had become possible. An appeal was made to the USA after it had been declared that the empire would continue the fight and that the ‘new world would fight for the liberation of the old’.
Churchills Experience in warfare strategy
As a young man he had been to warzones in Sudan, India and Cuba as an observer and had been to South Africa as a war correspondent. He had little to no experience of commanding, planning or strategy. This didn’t stop him giving direct orders to the navy when he was Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War or giving opinionated views on strategy when the First World War broke out in 1914. In his attempt to break the large-scale war of attrition in France he had launched the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 to capture Constantinople from the Ottomans was a complete disaster and had led to the deaths of many ANZAC troops (Australian and New Zealand). The evacuation by the Navy was a huge success but Churchill was forced to step down and became a Colonel on the Western Front, his regiment saw little action and left to pursue Political intrigues in London and quickly went back to the government.
Churchills Experience in warfare strategy
His immediate view on generals was from his experiences of the first world war when generals like Haig were able to go about their costly plans without supervision due to the lack of supervision from politicians. He was also frustrated about the caution from generals during the time of appeasement in against advising against decisive action due to being under-prepared and having to deal with a possible war on three fronts – Germany, Italy and Japan. Generals saw Churchill as unpredictable and a lock of their realism against Churchills amateur strategy, they were very aware of Churchill previous blunders.
Churchills Experience in warfare strategy
When he became PM, he began criticizing his generals and issuing unrealistic orders form London. When the Germans broke the French lines and began pushing for the sea Lord Gort had to disobey Churchill to preserve the British Troops and this decision by Lord Gort was key in allowing Britain to continue the fighting. Churchill insistence that the port of Calais was to be defended to the last was pointless in military terms and cost valuable men, Churchill’s insistence to send another force even when the fall of France was imminent was only thwarted by the ongoing and tireless arguments from Sir John Dill (Chief of the Imperial Guard Staff). Churchill got rid of Dill as soon as possible for arguing against him.
