Any assessment of Churchill's wartime contribution must include words of homage to his wife. Clementine provided a service to the world by her manifold services to her husband, foremost among which was to tell him truths about himself. He was a domestic and parental failure, as most great men are. It would be disruptive to any family to accommodate a lion in the drawing room. Without ever taming Winston, Clementine managed and tempered him as far as any mortal could, while sustaining her
husband's love in a fashion which moves posterity. Whatever he might have been without his indomitable wife, it would surely have been something less than he was.
History must take Churchill as a whole, as his wartime countrymen were obliged to do, rather than employ a spokeshave to strip away the blemishes created by his lunges into excess and folly. If the governance of nations in peace is best conducted by reasonable men, in war there is a powerful argument for leadership by those sometimes willing to adopt courses beyond the boundaries of reason, as Churchill did in 1940-41. His foremost quality was strength of will. This was so fundamental to his triumph in the early war years that it seems absurd to suggest that he should have become more biddable, merely because in 1943-45 his stubbornness was sometimes deployed in support of misjudged purposes.
He was probably the greatest actor upon the stage of affairs whom the world has ever known. Familiarity with his speeches, conversation and the fabulous anecdotage about his wartime doings does nothing to diminish our capacity to be moved to awe, tears, laughter by the sustained magnificence of his performance. He was the largest human being ever to occupy his office. If his leadership through the Second World War was imperfect, it is certain that no other British ruler in history has matched his direction of the nation in peril, nor, please God, is ever likely to find himself in circumstances to surpass it.
*
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
| BNA | British National Archive |
| CAC | Churchill Archive Centre |
| IWM | Imperial War Museum |
| LHA | Liddell Hart Archive at King's College London |
| USNA | US National Archive |
After much vacillation, I have omitted references to some documents which have been for many years in the public domain, and which are clearly identified and dated in the text. All direct quotations from Churchill not otherwise sourced are to be found in Martin Gilbert's volumes.
xv â
He had once conceived
' James Boswell
The Life of Samuel Johnson
Everyman 2004 p.1100
xvi â
Andrew Roberts has painted
' Andrew Roberts
Masters and Commanders
Penguin 2008
xvi â
The most vivid wartime memory
' author interview 1992
xvi â
he told his staff
' John Colville
The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955
Hodder & Stoughton 1985 10.12.40
xviii â
Everything depended upon him
'
Action this Day
ed. Sir John Wheeler-Bennett Macmillan 1968 p.236
xviii â
He was not mad
' Nigel Knight
Churchill Unmasked
David & Charles 2008 p.366
xviii â
may overstate his indispensability
' Chris Wrigley
Churchill
Haus 2006 p.85
xx â
It would be easy by a cunning
' LHA MS diary of Maj. Gen. Sir John Kennedy 26.1.41
xxii â
Churchill so evidently
'
The Diaries of James Lees-Milne
John Murray 2007 p.69 19.8.72
xxiii â
I wish I were twenty
'
The Diaries of Harold Nicolson 1939-45
ed. Nigel Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1967 9.9.39
2 â
It was a marvel
' David Reynolds
In Command of History
Penguin 2004 p.126
3 â
If there is going to be a war
' SB to Lord DavidsonâKenneth Young
Stanley Baldwin
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1976 p.112
3 â
several fishing rods
' IWM Sir C. Nicholson Papers p.9
3 â
I don't think WSC will be
' quoted Roberts op. cit. p.199, undisclosed source 13.5.40
3 â
It's all a great pity
' Butler Papers G11 quoted Roberts op. cit. p.209
3 â
If I had to spend
'
Nella Last's War
ed. Richard Broad and Suzie Fleming Sphere 1983 p.51
4 â
Events are moving so fast
'
New Yorker
12.5.40
4 â
Elizabethan zest for life
' Harold Nicolson
Spectator
17.5.40
4 â
How Winston thinks
'
The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries 1929-1945
ed. John Barnes and David Nicholson Hutchinson 1988 p.615 11.5.40
4 â
conscious of a profound
' WSC
Second World War
vol. i Cassell 1948 p.526
5 â
David, sir, David!
' Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
Dunkirk
Penguin 2006 p.59
7 â
British troops have landed
' Sir Michael Howard personal recollection to the author 28.12.08
8 â
Perhaps the darkest day
'
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon
ed. Robert Rhodes-James Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1965 p.248
9 â
In May 1940, while few
' Robert Rhodes-James
Churchill: A Study in Failure 1900-39
London 1970
9 â
“Keep your eye on Churchill”
' A.G. Gardiner
The Pillars of Society
Dent popular edn 1916 p.77
9 â
additional complication
'
Collier's
January 1939
9 â
the poor tank
'
News of the World
14.4.38
9 â
the submarine will be mastered
' WSC to Neville Chamberlain 25.3.39
9 â
I feel we may compare
'
The Churchill War Papers
ed. Martin Gilbert Heinemann 1993 vol. i p.568
10 â
It may well be
' speech to the St George's Association 24.4.33
10 â
I am beginning to come round
' Amery op. cit. p.584 14.3.40
10 â
Winston has not been
' ibid. p.617 11.5.40
11 â
So at last that man
'
Parliament and Politics in the Age of Churchill and Attlee: The Headlam Diaries 1935-51
ed. Stuart Ball Cambridge 1999 p.197 10.5.40
11 â
The new War Cabinet
' Brian Bond
Liddell Hart: A Study of His Military Thought
Cassell 1977 p.131
11 â
perfectly futile for war
' Stephen Roskill
Hankey: Man of Secrets
Collins 1974 vol. iii p.464
11 â
May I wish you every possible
'
Action this Day
op. cit. p.219
12 â
seemed well satisfied
'
The Eden Memoirs: The Reckoning
Cassell 1965 p.98
12 â
In Winston's eyes
' Lord Moran
Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival 1940-1965
London 1966 p.275
13 â
He proved in this
'
Philadelphia Inquirer
14.5.40
13 â
That smart, tough, dumpy little man
'
Time
27.5.40
14 â
We have for twenty years
' Charles Richardson
From Churchill's Secret Circle to the BBC
Brassey's 1991 p.77
14 â
purely physical soldiers
' Raymond Lee
The London Observer
ed. James Leutze Hutchinson 1972 p.216 9.1.41
15 â
not too happy about
' Colville op. cit. p.131
15 â
I think myself that the battle
'
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence
ed. Warren Kimball Princeton 1984 vol. i p.37 15.5.40
15 â
The summer landscape
' quoted Alastair Horne
To Lose a Battle
Macmillan 1969 pp.286-7
16 â
Harold, I think it would be
' Harold Nicolson
Diaries and Letters 1939-45
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1967 p.86 17.5.40
17 â
superb confidence
'
Action this Day
op. cit. p.219
17 â
What a beautiful handwriting
' Colville op.cit. p.184 3.7.40
17 â
Embracing his staff as
'
Action this Day
op. cit. p.219
18 â
I went up to my father's bedroom
' quoted Martin Gilbert
Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill 1940-41
Heinemann 1983 p.358
18 â
News no worse
' Eden op. cit. p.106
18 â
It must be remembered
' BNA INF1/264 19.5.40
19 â
Militarily, I did not see
' Eden op. cit. p.107
19 â
About time number 17
' ibid.
21 â
sole remaining bargaining counter
' Kimball op. cit. vol. i p.40 20.5.40
22 â
the government should at once
'
New Statesman
25.5.40
22 â
Nobody minds going down
'
The Diaries of Sir Henry Pownall
ed. Brian Bond Leo Cooper 1972 vol. i. p.327
22 â
Can nobody prevent him
' ibid. p.333 23.5.40
24 â
Everything is complete
'
The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan
ed. David Dilks Cassell 1971 p.189 25.5.40
25 â
A Gallup poll showed
' Gallup 29.5.40
26 â
too rambling and romantic
' Cadogan op. cit. p.190 26.5.40
26 â
He is still thinking of his books
' Colville op. cit. p.132 16.5.40
27 â
he would be addressing
' ibid. p.118 7.5.40
27 â
so greatâ¦it is madness
' quoted Sheila Lawlor
Churchill and the Politics of War 1940-41
Cambridge 1994 p.96
27 â
It is not the descendants
' Harold Nicolson
Spectator
17.5.40
27 â
I think they're going to beat us
'
Wartime Women
ed. Dorothy Sheridan Heinemann 1990 p.91
28 â
We're finished
' David Howarth
Pursued by a Bear
Collins 1986 p.93
30 â
The decision affected us all
'
The Memoirs of Lord Ismay
Heinemann 1960 p.131
31 â
It is a drop in the bucket
' Morgenthau diary Morgenthau Papers Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Hyde Park
32 â
The least costly solution
'
New York Herald Tribune
24.5.40
33 â
I thought Winston talked
' Halifax diary 27.5.40 Borthwick Institute York
34 â
His world is built upon
' Isaiah Berlin
Personal Impressions
Hogarth Press 1980 p.6
35 â
Some of Mr Churchill's broadcasts
' Evelyn Waugh
Men at Arms
Chapman & Hall 1952 pp.222-3
36 â
And so here we are back
' Pownall op. cit. vol. i pp.351-2
37 â
on reasonable conditions
' Reynolds op. cit. p.170
37 â
Andrew Roberts
' Roberts op. cit. p.232
37 â
He was quite magnificent
'
The War Diaries of Hugh Dalton
ed. Ben Pimlott Cape 1986 28.5.40
38 â
I hope you realise
' John Horsfall
Say Not the Struggle
Roundwood 1977 p.142
38 â
There was a limit to what
' private information to the author 2001
39 â
We were told
' Antony Hichens
Gunboat Command
Pen & Sword 2007 p.81
39 â
No one in the room
' Jacob âHis Finest Hour'
The Atlantic
March 1965
40 â
The Luftwaffe, badly weakened
'
Germany and the Second World War
vol. ii Oxford 1991 p.291
41 â
A dejected-looking old man
' Ismay op. cit. p.133
43 â
he could count on no artillery
' Basil Karslake
The Last Act
Leo Cooper 1979 p.124
45 â
The political object
' C.P. Stacey
The Canadian Army 1939-45
Ottawa 1955 p.278
45 â
the Breton redoubt
' L.F. Ellis
The War in France and Flanders
HMSO 1953 p.298
45 â
People who go to Italy
' Colville op. cit. p.152 10.4.40
46 â
Reynaud was inscrutable
' Eden op. cit. p.116
46 â
Mr Churchill appeared imperturbable
' De Gaulle
L'Appel
p.54
47 â
That womanâ¦will undo
' Ismay reported conversation in Kennedy MS op. cit. 4.3.41
47 â
M. Reynaud felt that
' FRUS 1940-41 pp. 4-115
48 â
Normally I wake up
' Eden op. cit. p.182 19.12.40
48 â
All this on the assumption
' Amery op. cit. p.624 11.6.40
50 â
Churchill, who objected
' Colville op. cit. p.232
51 â
If the French will go on
' ibid. pp.155-6
51 â
it was impossible to make
' Lord Alanbrooke
War Diaries 1939-1945
ed. Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2001 p.81 14.6.40
52 â
It is a desperate job
' Brooke op. cit. p.83 15.6.40
53 â
Much equipment had been
' Stacey op. cit. p.284
53 â
The lack of previous training
' quoted Karslake op. cit. p.262
53 â
Their behaviour was terrible!
' ibid.
54 â
repeating poetry
' Colville op. cit. pp.157-8 15.6.40
54 â
told one or two dirty stories
' ibid.