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Overview
In Their Finest Hour, Winston Churchill describes the invasion of France and a growing sense of dismay in Britain. Should Britain meet France’s desperate pleas for reinforcements or conserve their resources in preparation for the inevitable German assault? In the book’s second half, entitled simply “Alone,” Churchill discusses Great Britain’s position as the last stronghold against German conquest: the battle for control of the skies over Britain, diplomatic efforts to draw the United States into the war, and the spreading global conflict.
Their Finest Hour is part of the epic six-volume account of World War II told from the viewpoint of a man who led in the fight against tyranny, and enriched with extensive primary sources including memos, letters, orders, speeches, and telegrams, day-by-day accounts of reactions as the drama intensifies. Throughout these volumes, we listen as strategies and counterstrategies unfold in response to Hitler’s conquest of Europe, planned invasion of England, and assault on Russia, in a mesmerizing account of the crucial decisions made as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780795311468 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | RosettaBooks |
| Publication date: | 09/05/2019 |
| Series: | Winston S. Churchill The Second World Wa , #2 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 720 |
| Sales rank: | 201,568 |
| File size: | 19 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Sir Winston S. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.
During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions--including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler--and played an important part in the Allies' eventual triumph.
One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.
Sir Winston S. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”
Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.
During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions—including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler—and played an important part in the Allies’ eventual triumph.
One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
THE NATIONAL COALITION
The Beginning and the End — The Magnitude of Britain's Work for the Common Cause — Divisions in Contact with the Enemy throughout the War — The Roll 0f Honour — The Share of the Royal Navy — British and American Discharge of Air-bombs — American Aid in Munitions Magnifies Our War Effort — Formation of the New Cabinet — Conservative Loyalty to Mr. Chamberlain — The Leadership of the House of Commons — Heresy-hunting Quelled in Due Course — My Letter to Mr. Chamberlain of May 11 — A Peculiar Experience — Forming a Government in the Heat of Battle — New Colleagues: Clement Attlee, Arthur Greenwood, Archibald Sinclair, Ernest Bevin, Max Beaverbrook — A Small War Cabinet — Stages in the Formation of the Government, May 11–15 — A Digression on Power — Realities and Appearances in the New War Direction — Alterations in the Responsibilities of the Service Ministers — War Direction Concentrated in Very Few Hands — My Personal Methods — The Written Word — General Ismay — My Relations with the Chiefs of Staff Committee — Sir Edward Bridges — Kindness and Confidence Shown by the War Cabinet — The Office of Minister of Defence — Its Staff: Ismay, Hollis, Jacob — No Change for Five Years — Stability of Chiefs of Staff Committee — No Changes from 1941 till 1945 Except One by Death — Intimate Personal Association of Politicians and Soldiers at the Summit — The Personal Correspondence — My Relations with President Roosevelt — My Message to the President of May 15 — "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat."
Now at last the slowly-gathered, long-pent-up fury of the storm broke upon us. Four or five millions of men met each other in the first shock of the most merciless of all the wars of which record has been kept. Within a week the front in France, behind which we had been accustomed to dwell through the hard years of the former war and the opening phase of this, was to be irretrievably broken. Within three weeks the long-famed French Army was to collapse in rout and ruin, and our only British Army to be hurled into the sea with all its equipment lost. Within six weeks we were to find ourselves alone, almost disarmed, with triumphant Germany and Italy at our throats, with the whole of Europe open to Hitler's power, and Japan glowering on the other side of the globe. It was amid these facts and looming prospects that I entered upon my duties as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and addressed myself to the first task of forming a Government of all parties to conduct His Majesty's business at home and abroad by whatever means might be deemed best suited to the national interest.
Five years later almost to a day it was possible to take a more favourable view of our circumstances. Italy was conquered and Mussolini slain. The mighty German Army had surrendered unconditionally. Hitler had committed suicide. In addition to the immense captures by General Eisenhower, nearly three million German soldiers were taken prisoners in twenty-four hours by Field-Marshal Alexander in Italy and Field-Marshal Montgomery in Germany. France was liberated, rallied, and revived. Hand in hand with our Allies, the two mightiest empires in the world, we advanced to the swift annihilation of Japanese resistance. The contrast was certainly remarkable. The road across these five years was long, hard, and perilous. Those who perished upon it did not give their lives in vain. Those who marched forward to the end will always be proud to have trodden it with honour.
* * *
In giving an account of my stewardship and in telling the tale of the famous National Coalition Government it is my first duty to make plain the scale and force of the contribution which Great Britain and her Empire, whom danger only united more tensely, made to what eventually became the Common Cause of so many States and nations. I do this with no desire to make invidious comparisons or rouse purposeless rivalries with our greatest Ally, the United States, to whom we owe immeasurable and enduring gratitude. But it is to the combined interest of the English-speaking world that the magnitude of the British war-making effort should be known and realised. I have therefore had a table made which I print on the following page, which covers the whole period of the war. This shows that until July 1944 Britain and her Empire had a substantially larger number of divisions in contact with the enemy than the United States. This general figure includes not only the European and African spheres, but also all the war in Asia against Japan. Till the arrival in Normandy in the autumn of 1944 of the great mass of the American Army, we had always the right to speak at least as an equal and usually as the predominant partner in every theatre of war except the Pacific and the Australasian; and this remains also true, up to the time mentioned, of the aggregation of all divisions in all theatres for any given month. From July 1944 the fighting front of the United States, as represented by divisions in contact with the enemy, became increasingly predominant, and so continued, mounting and triumphant, till the final victory ten months later.
Another comparison which I have made shows that the British and Empire sacrifice in loss of life was even greater than that of our valiant Ally. The British total dead, and missing, presumed dead, of the armed forces amounted to 303,240, to which should be added over 109,000 from the Dominions, India, and the Colonies, a total of over 412,240. This figure does not include 60,500 civilians killed in the air raids on the United Kingdom, nor the losses of our Merchant Navy and fishermen, which amounted to about 30,000. Against this figure the United States mourn the deaths in the Army and Air Force, the Navy, Marines, and Coastguard, of 322,188. I cite these sombre Rolls of Honour in the confident faith that the equal comradeship sanctified by so much precious blood will continue to command the reverence and inspire the conduct of the English-speaking world.
On the seas the United States naturally bore almost the entire weight of the war in the Pacific, and the decisive battles which they fought near Midway Island, at Guadalcanal, and in the Coral Sea in 1942 gained for them the whole initiative in that vast ocean domain, and opened to them the assault of all the Japanese conquests, and eventually of Japan herself. The American Navy could not at the same time carry the main burden in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Here again it is a duty to set down the facts. Out of 781 German and 85 Italian U-boats destroyed in the European theatre, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, 594 were accounted for by British sea and air forces, who also disposed of all the German battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, besides destroying or capturing the whole Italian Fleet.
In the air superb efforts were made by the United States to come into action, especially with their daylight Fortress bombers, on the greatest scale from the earliest moment after Pearl Harbour, and their power was used both against Japan and from the British Isles against Germany. However, when we reached Casablanca in January 1943 it is a fact that no single American bomber plane had cast a daylight bomb on Germany. Very soon the fruition of the great exertions they were making was to come, but up till the end of 1943 the British discharge of bombs upon Germany had in the aggregate exceeded by eight tons to one those cast from American machines by day or night, and it was only in the spring of 1944 that the preponderance of discharge was achieved by the United States. Here, as in the armies and on the sea, we ran the full course from the beginning, and it was not until 1944 that we were overtaken and surpassed by the tremendous war effort of the United States.
It must be remembered that our munitions effort from the beginning of Lend-Lease in January 1941 was increased by over one-fifth through the generosity of the United States. With the materials and weapons which they gave us we were actually able to wage war as if we were a nation of fifty-eight millions instead of forty-eight. In shipping also the marvellous production of Liberty Ships enabled the flow of supplies to be maintained across the Atlantic. On the other hand, the analysis of shipping losses by enemy action suffered by all nations throughout the war should be borne in mind. Here are the figures:
Nationality Losses in Gross Tons Percentage
British 11,357,000 54
United States 3,334,000 16
All other nations (outside enemy 6,503,000 30
control)
21,194,000 100
Of these losses 80 per cent. were suffered in the Atlantic Ocean, including British coastal waters and the North Sea. Only 5 per cent. were lost in the Pacific.
This is all set down, not to claim undue credit, but to establish on a footing capable of commanding fair-minded respect the intense output in every form of war activity of the people of this small Island, upon whom in the crisis of the world's history the brunt fell.
* * *
It is probably easier to form a Cabinet, especially a Coalition Cabinet, in the heat of battle than in quiet times. The sense of duty dominates all else, and personal claims recede. Once the main arrangements had been settled with the leaders of the other parties, with the formal authority of their organisations, the attitude of all those I sent for was like that of soldiers in action, who go to the places assigned to them at once without question. The Party basis being officially established, it seemed to me that no sense of Self entered into the minds of any of the very large number of gentlemen I had to see. If some few hesitated it was only because of public considerations. Even more did this high standard of behaviour apply to the large number of Conservative and National Liberal Ministers who had to leave their offices and break their careers, and at this moment of surpassing interest and excitement to step out of official life, in many cases for ever.
The Conservatives had a majority of more than one hundred and twenty over all other parties in the House combined. Mr. Chamberlain was their chosen leader. I could not but realise that his supersession by me must be very unpleasant to many of them, after all my long years of criticism and often fierce reproach. Besides this, it must be evident to the majority of them how my life had been passed in friction or actual strife with the Conservative Party, that I had left them on Free Trade and had later returned to them as Chancellor of the Exchequer. After that I had been for many years their leading opponent on India, on foreign policy, and on the lack of preparations for war. To accept me as Prime Minister was to them very difficult. It caused pain to many honourable men. Moreover, loyalty to the chosen leader of the party is a prime characteristic of the Conservatives. If they had on some questions fallen short of their duty to the nation in the years before the war, it was because of this sense of loyalty to their appointed chief. None of these considerations caused me the slightest anxiety. I knew they were all drowned by the cannonade.
In the first instance I had offered to Mr. Chamberlain, and he had accepted, the Leadership of the House of Commons, as well as the Lord Presidency. Nothing had been published. Mr. Attlee informed me that the Labour Party would not work easily under this arrangement. In a Coalition the Leadership of the House must be generally acceptable. I put this point to Mr. Chamberlain, and, with his ready agreement, I took the Leadership myself, and held it till February 1942. During this time Mr. Attlee acted as my deputy and did the daily work. His long experience in Opposition was of great value. I came down only on the most serious occasions. These were, however, recurrent. Many Conservatives felt that their party leader had been slighted. Everyone admired his personal conduct. On his first entry into the House in his new capacity (May 13) the whole of his party — the large majority of the House — rose and received him in a vehement demonstration of sympathy and regard. In the early weeks it was from the Labour benches that I was mainly greeted. But Mr. Chamberlain's loyalty and support was steadfast, and I was sure of myself.
There was considerable pressure by elements of the Labour Party, and by some of those many able and ardent figures who had not been included in the new Government, for a purge of the "guilty men" and of Ministers who had been responsible for Munich or could be criticised for the many shortcomings in our war preparation. Among these Lord Halifax, Lord Simon, and Sir Samuel Hoare were the principal targets. But this was no time for proscriptions of able, patriotic men of long experience in high office. If the censorious people could have had their way at least a third of the Conservative Ministers would have been forced to resign. Considering that Mr. Chamberlain was the Leader of the Conservative Party, it was plain that this movement would be destructive of the national unity. Moreover, I had no need to ask myself whether all the blame lay on one side. Official responsibility rested upon the Government of the time. But moral responsibilities were more widely spread. A long, formidable list of quotations from speeches and votes recorded by Labour, and not less by Liberal, Ministers, all of which had been stultified by events, was in my mind and available in detail. No one had more right than I to pass a sponge across the past. I therefore resisted these disruptive tendencies. "If the present," I said a few weeks later, "tries to sit in judgment on the past it will lose the future." This argument and the awful weight of the hour quelled the would-be heresy-hunters.
* * *
Early on the morning of May 11 I sent a message to Mr. Chamberlain: "No one changes houses for a month." This avoided petty inconveniences during the crisis of the battle. I continued to live at Admiralty House, and made its Map Room and the fine rooms downstairs my temporary headquarters. I reported to Mr. Chamberlain my talk with Mr. Attlee and the progress made in forming the new Administration. "I hope to have the War Cabinet and the Fighting Services complete to-night for the King. The haste is necessitated by the battle. ... As we [two] must work so closely together, I hope you will not find it inconvenient to occupy once again your old quarters which we both know so well in No. 11." I added:
I do not think there is any necessity for a Cabinet to-day, as the Armies and other Services are fighting in accordance with prearranged plans. I should be very glad however if you and Edward [Halifax] would come to the Admiralty War Room at 12.30 p.m., so that we could look at the maps and talk things over.
British and French advanced forces are already on the Antwerp-Namur line, and there seem to be very good hopes that this line will be strongly occupied by the Allied armies before it can be assailed. This should be achieved in about forty-eight hours, and might be thought to be very important. Meanwhile the Germans have not yet forced the Albert Canal, and the Belgians are reported to be fighting well. The Dutch also are making a stubborn resistance.
* * *
My experiences in those first days were peculiar. One lived with the battle, upon which all thoughts were centred, and about which nothing could be done. All the time there was the Government to form and the gentlemen to see and the party balances to be adjusted. I cannot remember, nor do my records show, how all the hours were spent. A British Ministry at that time contained between sixty and seventy Ministers of the Crown, and all these had to be fitted in like a jig-saw puzzle, in this case having regard to the claims of three parties. It was necessary for me to see not only all the principal figures, but, for a few minutes at least, the crowd of able men who were to be chosen for important tasks. In forming a Coalition Government the Prime Minister has to attach due weight to the wishes of the party leaders as to who among their followers shall have the offices allotted to the party. By this principle I was mainly governed. If any who deserved better were left out on the advice of their party authorities, or even in spite of that advice, I can only express regret. On the whole however the difficulties were few.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
| Book I | The Fall of France | |
| Chapter I | The National Coalition | 3 |
| Chapter II | The Battle of France: The First Week. Gamelin | 25 |
| Chapter III | The Battle of France: The Second Week. Weygand | 47 |
| Chapter IV | The March to the Sea | 66 |
| Chapter V | The Deliverance of Dunkirk | 87 |
| Chapter VI | The Rush for the Spoils | 105 |
| Chapter VII | Back to France | 122 |
| Chapter VIII | Home Defence. June | 143 |
| Chapter IX | The French Agony | 157 |
| Chapter X | The Bordeaux Armistice | 175 |
| Chapter XI | Admiral Darlan and the French Fleet. Oran | 197 |
| Chapter XII | The Apparatus of Counter-attack. 1940 | 213 |
| Chapter XIII | At Bay | 225 |
| Chapter XIV | The Invasion Problem | 247 |
| Chapter XV | Operation "Sea Lion" | 266 |
| Book II | Alone | |
| Chapter XVI | The Battle of Britain | 281 |
| Chapter XVII | The Blitz | 301 |
| Chapter XVIII | "London Can Take It" | 316 |
| Chapter XIX | The Wizard War | 337 |
| Chapter XX | United States Destroyers and West Indian Bases | 353 |
| Chapter XXI | Egypt and the Middle East | 369 |
| Chapter XXII | The Mediterranean Passage | 388 |
| Chapter XXIII | September Tensions | 403 |
| Chapter XXIV | Dakar | 419 |
| Chapter XXV | Mr. Eden's Mission | 438 |
| Chapter XXVI | Relations with Vichy and Spain | 449 |
| Chapter XXVII | Mussolini Attacks Greece | 470 |
| Chapter XXVIII | Lend-Lease | 488 |
| Chapter XXIX | Germany and Russia | 509 |
| Chapter XXX | Ocean Peril | 525 |
| Chapter XXXI | Desert Victory | 538 |
| Appendices | ||
| A. | Minutes and Telegrams, May-December 1940 | 559 |
| B. | Loss by Encmy Action of British, Allied, and Neutral Merchant Tonnage | 637 |
| C. | Aircraft Strength--Battle of Britain, 1940 | 640 |
| D. | Correspondence relating to Dakar between Mr. Churchill and Mr. Menzies | 645 |
| E. | List of Operational Code Names | 650 |
| F. | List of Abbreviations | 651 |
| Index | 653 | |
| Maps and Diagrams | ||
| The Forward Movements, starting May 10 | 29 | |
| The Opposing Forces, May 13 | 37 | |
| German Advances on Successive Days, May 13-17, 1940 | 41 | |
| Situation, Evening May 18 | 50 | |
| Situation, Evening May 22 | 59 | |
| Battle of Arras, May 21-22 | 63 | |
| Situation at Nightfall, May 25 | 75 | |
| Area of Operations, May 1940 | 78 | |
| Situation, May 28 | 85 | |
| Diagrams of Dunkirk Perimeter, May 29-June I | 93 | |
| The Opposing Forces on the Western Flank, June 5, 1940 | 132 | |
| The German Advance, June 5-9 | 133 | |
| The Last Stand of the French Army, June 1940 | 170 | |
| General Map of Western France | 174 | |
| State of Readiness of Infantry Divisions | 239 | |
| Sketch Map of German Invasion Plan | 273 | |
| Graph of Battle of Britain | 298 | |
| Disposition of Main Fleets in Mediterranean, June 14, 1940 | 389 | |
| General Map of N.W. France and Belgium | 462 | |
| Desert Victory, December 1940-January 1941 | 545 |
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