The Battle of Britain
Britain now stood alone. A German invasion seemed certain. The initial threat to Britain would come from the air. On 10 July the Luftwaffe made its first large-scale bombing raid. On 16 July Hitler issued an order for “a landing operation against England”, codenamed “Sea Lion.” Churchill was also in an aggressive, offensive mood and many who met with him were reinforced in their commitment to victory. Critical to that success was aid from the United States, and Churchill made it clear that Britain was prepared “to shoot the wad” in paying for this assistance.
On 14 August Churchill received a message from Roosevelt offering destroyers and aircraft in return for naval and air bases on British soil in North America, and a promise to send the British fleet to other parts of the Empire if the “waters around Britain became untenable.” Churchill readily accepted because no matter what his other problems were, he fervently believed that with the United States’ assistance he would ultimately win.
The Germans had to defeat the Royal Air Force (RAF) before they could invade across the English Channel. On 20 August Churchill recognized the contributions of the young men in the RAF who were daily challenging the German airforce with his comment, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Greater challenges were still to come. On 24 August Germany began daylight bombing of central London and on the night of 7 September over two hundred German bombers attacked London. The next day Churchill visited the damaged streets and, according to Ismay, received responses like, “it was good of you to come, Winnie. We thought you’d come. We can take it. Give it ‘em back.” He broadcast to the nation, speaking defiantly of “a people who will not flinch or weary of the struggle hard and protracted though it will be.”[6]
While the battle raged, Churchill turned up everywhere. He defied air-raid alarms and went into the streets as the bombs fell. He toured RAF headquarters, inspected coastal defenses, and visited victims of the air raids. Everywhere he went he held up two fingers in a “V for victory” salute. To the people of all the Allied nations, this simple gesture became an inspiring symbol of faith in eventual victory.[1]
Although Hitler cancelled Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain, and the Battle of Britain was all but won by mid-September, the threat to ultimate British victory in the war was made more ominous by the pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan on 27 September. This in no way diminished Churchill’s defiance. He reminded people, never maltreat the enemy by halves.
On 9 October Churchill accepted the leadership of the Conservative Party.
The bombing continued. Among the more notable events: on 10 October St. Paul’s Cathedral was hit; on 15 October the Germans gave priority to night bombing; on 14 November Coventry was heavily bombed. In reprisal the British conducted their own bombing raids on numerous targets, including Berlin.
Churchill gave much thought to Germany and Germans exclusive of Hitler and Nazism. He commented to friends that “a Hun alive is a war in prospect” but, looking ahead to the end of the war, he knew that the mistakes of the previous war must not be repeated and that “Germany must remain in the European family.” [6]
US-British Alliance
While confident of ultimate victory, Churchill believed it would come only with the United States as an ally. One impediment was the US Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, whose Irish-American biases left him with little sympathy for Britain and whose reports to Roosevelt showed no confidence in British victory. But the President had other eyes and ears: Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie and Kennedy’s replacement as Ambassador, John Winant were staunch supporters of the British cause.
The initial stages in the US-British alliance would involve the provision of essential supplies to Britain. Their importance was recognized by Churchill who declared that submarines were a greater menace to Britain’s survival than bombers. On 17 December 1940 Roosevelt announced the policy of Lend-Lease and on 29 December the President called on America to become the “arsenal of democracy.”
Churchill sent Roosevelt a telegram of thanks in response to the President’s “arsenal of victory” promise, but he also expressed Britain’s concern about her ability to pay for armaments.
In early January 1941, Harry Hopkins arrived in Britain. He was the first of several envoys who were making personal assessments of the situation on behalf of President Roosevelt. He would be followed shortly by Wendell Willkie and Averell Harriman. As Hopkins and Churchill talked of ways that America could help, the Lend-Lease Bill was making its way through the American Congress.
In early February, Churchill broadcast to the British people that support was being promised and told the American people: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”
Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies visited and noted that “Churchill’s course is set. There is not defeat, in his heart.” This course, which was “to extirpate Hitlerism from Europe,” had yet to face many perils: Rommel had brought new life to German forces in Africa; Turkey and Bulgaria sided with Germany; the Blitz continued; Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece; Operation “Barbarossa” began on the Eastern Front, there was growing evidence of Japanese aggression in the Far East; and shipping losses in the Battle of the Atlantic, “the blackest cloud which we had to face,” continued.
Churchill wrote Roosevelt that he had to be ready for a possible invasion in September. The President’s encouraging response promised increased production, particularly of tanks, and a widening commitment of the American navy in the North Atlantic.
On July 12 Britain and the Soviet Union agreed not to make a separate peace with Germany. Despite his earlier praise for the valiant Finns, Churchill now criticized them for attacking Britain’s new ally.
On July 18 Churchill received Stalin’s first request for a second front. He replied that Britain’s commitments in the Middle East and in the Battle of the Atlantic strained their resources. He also reminded the Soviet leader that Britain had been fighting alone for more than a year.
On August 4, 1941 Churchill boarded the battleship Prince of Wales to meet President Roosevelt in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. This conference had originated in Harry Hopkins’ trip to London in January. Roosevelt pretended to be on a fishing trip off the New England coast but he was actually steaming north aboard the cruiser Augusta.
It was important to both men that they take the measure of the other. It was also important that the world realize that an alliance of the two countries with a common culture was emerging. Churchill hoped that this realisation might forestall a German invasion.
The commitment Churchill received from Roosevelt was that “the United States will wage war but not declare it.” On August 14 the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom signed The Atlantic Charter. While committing themselves to “the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny” they also stated their belief that “all the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force.”[7]
Churchill wrote later of the Atlantic Charter that it was “astonishing” to see a neutral like the United States make such a common pledge with Britain, then fighting a total war.
He made many arguments to Americans. There were moral appeals, already mentioned. Doubtless he felt Roosevelt had answered him with the “Four Freedoms” speech in January, 1941. Churchill appealed to a mutual sense of danger, as when he argued with Americans that German hegemony could reach well beyond the European continent, whereas survival of the Royal Navy would mean continued safety for America’s Atlantic seaboard. He warned that without Britain and her navy, the Germans would begin to act aggressively against South American republics, which would undermine the Monroe Doctrine and threaten American interests to the South. He tugged upon the strings of sentiment, as when, in appeals to Americans, he would refer to the heritage of his mother, Jennie Jerome of New York.[13]
The United States entered the war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Later that month, Churchill and Roosevelt conferred in Washington, D.C. On December 26, Churchill addressed the United States Congress. He stirred all Americans with his faith “…that in the days to come the British and American Peoples will… walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.”[1]
There were two notable progenitors which would significantly contribute to eventual German defeat: on September 12 the first snow fell on the Eastern Front and on September 26 the Western Desert Force was renamed the British Eighth Army.
The war raged on the Eastern Front as the Germans began their offensive towards the Don River and the Red Army counterattacked in the Ukraine and at Leningrad. The German hold on France tightened as pre-war leaders Daladier, Reynaud and Blum were arrested by Petain. Although Churchill had regular meetings with King George VI, on 28 October His Majesty and the Queen bestowed a signal honour on the Prime Minister by coming to lunch with him at No. 10 Downing Street.
Events began to focus Churchill’s attention on the Far East. In October, Tojo became Premier of Japan. In early December, Canada was asked to send forces to Hong Kong and the battleships “Repulse” and “Prince of Wales” were sent to Singapore. On the evening of 7 December 1941 Churchill was at Chequers with Averell Harriman and American Ambassador Winant when the radio announced “something about the Japanese attacking the Americans.” According to Winant, Churchill jumped to his feet, announcing “we shall declare war on Japan.” Winant replied: “Good God, you can’t declare war on a radio announcement.” Churchill immediately telephoned Roosevelt and assured him that Britain’s declaration of war would follow close behind that of the United States.
That night, confident that with the United States now in the war victory was inevitable, Churchill enjoyed “the sleep of the saved and thankful.”
To Eden, who was in Moscow, encouraging Russia’s resistance to the Germans, he telegraphed: “We have never recognized the 1941 frontiers of Russia except de facto. They were acquired by acts of aggression in shameful collusion with Hitler. The transfer of the peoples of the Baltic states to Soviet Russia against their will would be contrary to all the principles for which we are fighting this war and would dishonour our cause.” Recognition of the subjugation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania would, in Churchill’s view, be a violation of the Atlantic Charter.
Roosevelt had suggested a meeting for mid-January but Churchill was anxious to meet quickly in order to establish at least two priorities: the importance of the naval situation and primacy of Europe in the American war effort. The meetings of the British and American military and political leaders established the defeat of Germany as the key to victory in the war.
On Christmas Eve, from the balcony of the White House, Churchill talked of feeling at home while so far from his native land:
“Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars, and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here…”
The day after Christmas he told a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives: “I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round, I might have got here on my own.” [7]
On New Year’s Day 1942 Churchill and Roosevelt signed the United Nations Charter.
At a meeting of the War Cabinet Churchill reported that Roosevelt had said to trust him to the bitter end. The next day he told the King that he was confident of ultimate victory.
Dramatic events were taking place on the Eastern Front as the Russians forced Germany to give up the siege of Sevastopol. Hitler attributed this German failure to the severe cold. As desperate as he was for Russian support, Churchill refused to acknowledge Soviet claims on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Relations between Churchill and Roosevelt always remained friendly even though differences arose between them. Churchill gloried in the British Empire, but Roosevelt was suspicious of British colonial policies. Churchill distrusted the Soviet Union, but Roosevelt did not.
At the end of January 1942 the news seemed dark on all fronts. Rommel had become “a kind of magician or bogeyman” to troops in Africa; British forces were being pushed back at Singapore; Churchill faced a no-confidence vote in the Commons. He won the vote with only one dissenter in the Commons and Rommel’s advance was stopped at Libya, but Singapore fell in what Churchill called the greatest military defeat in the history of the British Empire.
Losing patience with the pace of war in North Africa, Churchill ordered General Auchinleck to engage the enemy, but Rommel was the first to take the initiative with an attack on 26 May. Churchill pressed the importance of not losing Malta as a supply base, and sent the following message to Auchinleck: “Your decision to fight it out to the end is most cordially endorsed. We shall sustain you whatever the result. Retreat would be fatal. This is a business not only of armour but of willpower.”
While the battles raged in Africa there was also considerable action elsewhere. The Japanese Navy was stopped at the Battle of Midway. In Europe the Allies sent 1,000 bombers against Cologne. As the Germans waged campaigns against partisans throughout the Eastern Front, news reached Warsaw that gas was being used on Jews in Auschwitz.
Churchill decided that plans for operations had to be finalised so he set out to visit Roosevelt in America. Before leaving he advised the King to appoint Anthony Eden Prime Minister should anything happen on this trip. The British and American leaders met first at Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, New York. On returning to Washington, Churchill was informed that Tobruk had fallen. This was one of the heaviest blows he received during the war, comparable to the loss of Singapore.
The course of affairs at home, which Churchill called “a beautiful row,” involved a debate on a vote of censure in the House of Commons. Churchill later wrote that had he led a party government he might have suffered the fate of Chamberlain in May 1940, but the National Coalition Government was strong enough to survive “a long succession of misfortune and defeats in Malaya, Singapore and Burma; Auchinleck’s lost battle in the Desert, Tobruk, unexplained, and, it seemed, inexplicable; the rapid retreat of the Desert Army and the loss of all our conquests in Libya and Cyrenaica.”
In this case Churchill’s Government was supported by 475 votes to 25. Parallels were drawn between Churchill and Pitt who experienced similar dark days in 1799, but, sustained by the House of Commons, emerged victorious.[8]
In August 1942, Churchill journeyed to Moscow to meet with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Union had entered the war in June 1941, after being invaded by Germany. Almost immediately, Stalin had demanded that the British open a second figting front in western Europe to relieve the strain on the Soviet Union. Churchill explained to Stalin that it would be disastrous to open a second front in 1942 because the Allies were unprepared.[8]
As Churchill’s Government defeated a No Confidence motion in the House of Commons, the Eighth Army finally stopped Rommel’s advance in Egypt. Churchill’s fear that the fate of Singapore would befall Cairo was not to be realised.
On 19 July a high level American delegation including General Marshall, Admiral King and Harry Hopkins arrived at Chequers to discuss “Operation Sledgehammer”, the invasion of the Cherbourg Peninsula. Although Churchill also favoured “Operation Jupiter”, the invasion of Norway, the British proposed “Operation Gymnast”, the invasion of French North Africa.
The British view prevailed and the Americans agreed to an attack against North Africa, renamed “Operation Torch”. Roosevelt expressed the view that “the past week represented a turning point in the whole war and that now we are on our way shoulder to shoulder.”
They would also require the shoulder of the Russian bear and Churchill determined to visit Stalin in his own den to gain support for his invasion sequence of Africa, then Italy, then France. On the way to Moscow, he visited Egypt to investigate personally the need for a command change in the Middle East.
While it appeared that Stalingrad would be lost, convoys were getting through and Russia would survive. Berlin was being bombed and the Germans were having difficulty supplying Rommel. Churchill was meeting every Tuesday with Eisenhower to discuss “Torch.” By the end of September Churchill said: “The tide of destiny is moving steadily in our favour, though our voyage will be long and hard.”