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Sir Winston Churchill Winner Essay Research Paper (стр. 1 из 4)

Sir Winston Churchill, Winner Essay, Research Paper

Sir Winston Churchill the Winner or the Loser?

Indrek Zolk, Tallinn English College, Form 12A

Tallinn 2000

PREFACE

The reason why I chose this topic for my research paper is that I have always been interested in history. Sir Winston Churchill was one of the most remarkable Englishmen of the 20th century. His politics and speeches have influenced the world a lot. Greatly thanks to him Britain did not surrender to the German forces in World War II. Is it that anybody could have led the UK during World War II, or was Churchill “the right man in the right place”, without whom the UK could have been defeated? Can the second period of Churchill’s premiership be compared with the first? These are the questions that I wanted to find answers to. Hence the title “…the Winner or the Loser?”

I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Vello Kuldna for his advice and guidance. I would also like to thank my father for helping me to translate from Finnish some chapters of an interesting book about Churchill. I would like to thank Mrs. Reet Juttus and Mrs. Tanja Josua for their advice. I am very grateful to all the library workers who helped me to find the necessary books and internet pages. And last but not least I would also like to thank my mother, who provided magnificent scanning, printing and binding facilities at her office.

INTRODUCTION

This research paper gives an overview of the two most important periods of Sir Winston Churchill’s life: his first premiership in 1940-1945 and the second one in 1951-1955. The questions arising are: could anybody have been as successful as he? Could he accomplish the tasks that the society expected him to? In short, was he a winner or a loser?

In the chapter “Brief overview of Churchill’s biography” the reader is introduced to the topic by learning the basic facts about Churchill’s life.

In the chapter “Churchill during WW II” the reader learns about his activities in 1940-45. One can read about how he became Prime Minister, about the Battle of Britain, about Churchill’s efforts to form an alliance with the USA and the Soviet Union. His everlasting optimism and belief in the ultimate victory is vividly depicted. He encouraged the soldiers, and by his speeches he made the Commons as well as the whole nation believe in eventual victory. In 1945, after the war he lost his post as Prime Minister. He went to the opposition.

In 1951, the Conservatives managed to win in general elections, and Sir Winston Churchill became Prime Minister again. In the chapter “Prime Minister 1951-1955″ the reader learns about his activities during the second premiership: about the building-up of British nuclear potential, relationships with the USA, the Soviet Union, his attitude towards the European unity, about Churchill’s health, and the honours he received.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CHURCHILL’S BIOGRAPHY

Winston Churchill was born on Nov. 30, 1874, in Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. He was the elder of the two sons of Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895) and Lady Churchill (1854-1921), an American girl whose maiden name was Jennie Jerome.

Winston stood in fear and wonder of his father. Lord Randolph, a leader in the Conservative party, showed little affection for Winston. Winston’s mother charmed everyone with her beauty and wit. As Lord Randolph’s wife, she had many duties. Little time was left for Winston.

At the age of 12, Winston entered Harrow School, a leading English secondary school. There his love of the English language began to grow.

In 1893, at the age of 18, Winston entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In 1895, Churchill was appointed a second lieutenant in the 4th Hussars, a proud cavalry regiment.

During the next five years he was a soldier and war correspondent in several places around the world: Cuba, India, southern Africa. In 1900, Churchill returned to England. He was elected to Parliament.

With enormous energy, Churchill moved through three government positions during the next few years. His appointment to the board of trade was his first cabinet position.

In the spring of 1908, Churchill met Clementine Hozier (1885-1977), the daughter of a retired army officer. Clementine and Churchill were married on September 12, 1908. Years later, Churchill wrote that he “lived happily ever afterwards”. He became a devoted parent to his four children: Diana (1909-1963), Randolph (1911-1968), Sarah (1914-1982), and Mary (1922). Another daughter, Marigold, died in 1921 at the age of 3.

In 1911, Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith appointed Churchill first lord of the admiralty. Churchill was one of the few people in England who realised that war with Germany would probably come. He reorganised the navy, developed antisubmarine tactics, and modernised the fleet. He also created the navy’s first air service. When Britain entered World War I, on August 4, 1914, the fleet was ready.

In 1915, Churchill urged an attack on the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula, both controlled by Turkey. If successful, the attack would have opened a route to the Black Sea. Aid could then have been sent to Russia, Britain’s ally. But the campaign failed disastrously, and Churchill was blamed. He resigned from the admiralty, although he kept his seat in Parliament.

David Lloyd George became Prime Minister in December 1916. He appointed Churchill minister of munitions in July 1917. While in the admiralty, Churchill had promoted the development of the tank. Now he began large-scale tank production.

World War I ended in November 1918. The next January, Churchill became secretary of state for war and for air. As war secretary, he supervised the demobilisation of the British army.

Three days before the 1922 election campaign began, Churchill had to have his appendix removed. He was able to campaign only briefly, and lost the election. In 1924 Churchill returned to Parliament from Epping after he rejoined the Conservative Party. He was later named chancellor of the exchequer under Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. The Conservatives lost the 1929 election, and Churchill left office. He did not hold a Cabinet position again until 1939. He kept his seat in Parliament throughout this period.

During the years between World Wars I and II, Churchill spent much of his spare time painting and writing. He did not begin painting until in his 40’s, and surprised critics with his talent. He liked to use bold, brilliant colors. Many of Churchill’s paintings have hung in the Royal Academy of Arts.

Painting provided relaxation and pleasure, but Churchill considered writing his chief occupation after politics. In his four-volume World Crisis (1923-1929), he brilliantly recorded the history of World War I. In Marlborough, His Life and Times (1933-1938), he wrote a monumental six-volume study of his ancestor.

In speaking and in writing after 1932, Churchill tried to rouse his nation and the world to the danger of Nazi Germany. The build-up of the German armed forces alarmed him, and he pleaded for a powerful British air force. But he was called a warmonger.

German troops marched into Poland on September 1, 1939. The war that Churchill had so clearly foreseen had begun. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at once named Churchill first lord of the admiralty, the same post he had held in World War I.

In April 1940, Germany attacked Denmark and Norway. Britain quickly sent troops to Norway, but they had to retreat because they lacked air support. In the parliamentary debate that followed, Chamberlain’s government fell. On May 10, King George VI asked Churchill to form a new government.

At the age of 66, Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain. He wrote later: “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”

The Battle of Britain ensued, and the bombings of British towns started. Still, German invasion could be prevented, mostly thanks to Churchill’s determination and courage of the Royal Air Force airmen.

Churchill realised that the victory could only be achieved in alliance with the USA. In August 1941, Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt drew up the Atlantic Charter, which set forth the common postwar aims of the United States and Britain. Churchill and Roosevelt exchanged more than 1,700 messages and met nine times before Roosevelt’s death in 1945.

The first meeting of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt took place in Teheran, Iran, in November 1943. In February 1945, the Big Three met in Yalta in the Soviet Union. The end of the war in Europe was in sight. The three leaders agreed on plans to occupy defeated Germany.

Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, almost five years to the day after Churchill became Prime Minister. In July, Churchill met with the US President Truman and Stalin in Potsdam, Germany. But Churchill’s presence at the meeting was cut short. He had lost his post as Prime Minister.

An election had been held in Britain. The Conservatives suffered an overwhelming defeat by the Labour party. The Labour party’s promise of sweeping socialistic reforms appealed to the voters. Clement R. Attlee succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister.

Churchill took his place as leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. He urged Parliament to plan for national defense, and warned the western world against the dangers of communism.

Politics, lecturing, painting, and writing kept Churchill busy. But these activities did not completely satisfy his great energy. He found much to do around Chartwell Manor, his country estate in Kent. He took pride in his cattle and his race horses. In 1946, the first volume of Churchill’s Second World War was published. The sixth and last volume of these memoirs appeared in 1953.

The Conservatives returned to power in 1951. Churchill, now almost 77 years old, again became Prime Minister. As usual, he concentrated most of his energy on foreign affairs. He worked especially hard to encourage British-American unity. He visited Washington in 1952, 1953, and 1954.

In April 1953, Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. The queen made him a knight of the Order of the Garter, Britain’s highest order of knighthood. Later in 1953, Sir Winston won the Nobel Prize for literature.

In April 1955, Churchill resigned. He went back to his painting and writing. He worked on his four-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956-1958). He still took his seat in Commons.

In 1963, Congress made Churchill an honorary U.S. citizen. The action reflected the American people’s affection for the man who had done so much for the cause of freedom. Churchill’s remarkable career ended in 1964. He did not run in the general election that year.

Churchill suffered a stroke on January 15, 1965. He died nine days later, at the age of 90. He was buried in St. Martin’s Churchyard in Oxfordshire, near his birthplace, Blenheim Palace.[1]

CHURCHILL DURING WW II

Churchill Becomes Prime Minister

German troops marched into Poland on September 1, 1939. The Second World War had begun. On September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at once named Churchill First Lord of the Admiralty, the same post he had held in World War I. The British fleet was notified with a simple message: “Winston is back.”

Consistent with his previous behaviour, Churchill was a very active leader. He wrote voluminous memos to everyone, giving, instructions and opinions, or asking for their comments. He often ended with “pray inform me” or “pray send me.” These minutes quickly became known throughout the Admiralty as the “First Lord’s Prayers.”

He involved himself in almost every issue production of dummy ships for naval harbours, the neutrality of Eire, the return of the Duke of Windsor. His colleagues were often overwhelmed by his energies. Although some saw him as too impulsive or too much a flagwaver, the public saw him as the only person who could rouse the nation to fight. He was clearly the backbone of the government.[5]

In early April the Allied Supreme War Council was agreeing to mine the harbours of Norway while Hitler was issuing order for the Germany invasion of the Scandanavian country. Everyone was aware of the importance of Swedish ore to the German war effort and the Norweigan port of Narvik was the port through which most of it was shipped.

Churchill wanted to attack German supply lines by floating mines on the Rhine but the French feared German retaliation. Churchill went to Paris to convince his reluctant allies but was unsuccessful. Unfortunately his trip to Paris also delayed action in Norway and despite Chamberlain’s quip that Hitler had “missed the bus” German paratroopers were dropped on major centres in Denmark and Norway.

Ever optimistic, Churchill felt that Hitler had committed a “grave strategic error” because his forces could now be isolated by British naval forces. His colleagues supported action in Norway if only to keep Italy neutral but there was a sharp division as to what ports should be the targets. There was considerable pressure to target Trondheim, much to the south of Narvik. There was also some hope that the Germans could be caught in a pincer movement from landings at several other ports. All of this planning was to no avail because heavy snow and bitter cold weather impeded all British efforts.

On 7 May a Parliamentary debate on the war effort began. Speaker after speaker, on both sides of the House, castigated the Government for its failures and its lack of will. Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, bedecked in full uniform including all medals, entered the House to a resounding applause. But the most devastating blow came when Leo Amery quoted Oliver Cromwell’s words to the Long Parliament: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

His supporters did everything they could to protect Churchill from the attacks and when he accepted responsibility for Norway, Lloyd George said that Churchill “must not allow himself to be converted into an air-raid shelter to keep the splinters from hitting his colleagues.”

Despite a three-line Whip the Government received a majority of only 81 out of a possible 213. As his opponents sang “Rule Britannia” or shouted “Go! Go!” a downtrodden Neville Chamberlain left the House. When Labour refused to serve in a National Coalition headed by Chamberlain the fate of the Government was sealed.

General Ironside recorded Chamberlain’s views in his diary. “Neville Chamberlain is not a war Prime Minister. He is a pacifist at heart. He has a firm belief that God has chosen him as an instrument to prevent this threatened war. He can never get this out of his mind. He is not against Winston, but he believes that chances may still arrive for averting war, and he thinks that Winston might be so strong in a Cabinet that he would be prevented from acting.”

On 10 May, as the German Blitzkrieg was being unleashed against Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, King George VI summoned Churchill to Buckingham Palace to ask him to form a government. To many it was inevitable given the circumstances.

Churchill did not go to bed until 3:00 a.m. and as he later wrote: “…although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had not need for cheering dream. Facts are better than dreams.” The facts as he saw them would lead to ultimate victory and, as he was to tell the British people, his policy would be “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.” had “nothing to offer but blood, toil, and sweat.”

His greatest burden was supervising the withdrawal of Allied forces from the beaches of Dunkirk, but when General Alexander finally left on June 2 more than 335,000 men had been carried “out of the jaws of death and shame, to their native land and to the tasks which lie immediately ahead.”

On June 4, Churchill told Commons that even though all of Europe might fall, “…we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end… we shall fight in the seas and oceans… 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…”.

On 14 June Paris fell and as Hitler prepared to go to Compiegne to accept the French surrender Churchill sent out his most famous call to arms: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour’.”

On June 22, France surrendered to Germany.

The British had considerable concerns about the relationship of France to its German conquerors, most particularly the role of the French fleet. The French were presented with several alternatives, all of which denied their ships to Germany’s service. Some forces came over willingly to Britain and others were demilitarized, but at Oran, the Royal Navy was required to put the French fleet out of action by force. The attack on Britain’s erstwhile ally brought Churchill much personal sadness and anguish but he later learned that the action had convinced President Roosevelt that Britain and the Commonwealth could and would fight on.[6]