Churchill

I have not, in the past, found Churchill a very sympathetic figure, although that did not stop me once owning the monster biography by Churchill & Gilbert.

But over the past few days I have been returning the pages of the more manageable biography by Woy Jenkins and I have been very struck by how close a thing it was in 1940, from a political point of view that is, not from a military point of view. He earned his place in the history books for those few days alone.

At the time he became Prime Minister shortly after the start of the second war, he was not a favourite, having a reputation of being an adventurer and having a mixed record on lefty matters. Halifax, who might well have settled for a peace of sorts with Hitler after the fall of France, might well have got the job instead. Luckily for us he declined, making way for Churchill.

Even then, Churchill did not start that firm on the saddle and at the time of Dunkirk might well have been pushed into the peace of sorts. But he played his hand well, we stayed in the war, and as it turned out, Dunkirk came off, leaving us with an army of sorts to fight off the invasion which seemed all too likely at the time.

I associate to Hitler, another one who did not start that firm on his saddle, having got there by a rather grubby (rather than violent) intrigue, but who went on to consolidate his position in no time at all.

I notice also that, despite Churchill making a few wrong military calls in the course of the war, he made the right one about fighter support for the French during their fall at the beginning of the war. He declined to spend our fighters on them, choosing to keep them for us, for the Battle of Britain to come. Helping the French might have made a fatal difference to us without making much difference to them - but it was not such an easy decision at the time.