Winston Churchill, undated. Copyprint. W. Averell Harriman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (105) Churchill's warnings about the danger of the new Nazi regime in Germany initially fell on deaf ears. In 1938 Britain and Germany almost went to war over Hitler's desire to annex part of Czechoslovakia. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to secure a guarantee that there would be no further German aggression. Churchill was critical of the policy of appeasement and broadcast directly to the United States, appealing for greater American involvement in Europe. When Hitler occupied Prague and the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, Churchill's predictions were seen to be coming true. In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. The attack touched off the world struggle that Churchill would later call “The Unnecessary War” because he felt a firm policy toward aggressor nations after World War I would have prevented the conflict. Chamberlain brought Churchill into government again as First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940, the day Hitler launched his invasion of France, Belgium, and Holland. During the tense months that followed, Britain stood alone with her Empire and Commonwealth, surviving the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Churchill's speeches and broadcasts carried a message of determination and defiance around the globe.
Churchill spent much of the 1930s warning about the dangers of Nazi Germany and working on a biography of his illustrious ancestor, the first Duke of Marlborough. The Duke had led a coalition against a dominant and aggressive European superpower (Louis XIV's France). This cartoon shows that others saw a parallel in Churchill's similar approach toward Germany's Adolf Hitler. Churchill also was concerned about Hitler's anti-Semitic actions and rhetoric. This letter to Churchill from a fellow Conservative member of Parliament, Robert Boothby, describes Boothby's meeting with Hitler and asks about “the Jewish question.” It reveals concern about the Nazis, and perhaps something about latent anti-Semitism in the British establishment—a view not shared by Churchill. Churchill later arranged for a similar meeting with Hitler in Germany in 1932, but the Nazi leader failed to appear.
Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#92
In the 1930s, while out of power and with the international scene becoming ever more threatening, Churchill began his multi-volume study of the English-speaking peoples as a way to trace the emergence of concepts of freedom and law. This passage from the fourth volume of The Great Democracies reflects Churchill's lifelong interest in the American Civil War. Early in 1937, Churchill wrote to his friend, Bernard Baruch, giving his views on the Abdication Crisis. When Edward VIII was pressured to resign the throne over his determination to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, Churchill was one of the few who defended the King. Churchill's support of the King was damaging to him—he was shouted down in Parliament and appeared out of touch with mainstream politics.
Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#93
Phony War
Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. On the same day, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain brought Churchill back into government as First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill threw himself tirelessly into all aspects of war policy and direction. This letter, written to his chief during a prolonged lull in the ground action known as the “Phony War,” shows his aggressive approach. In a November 12 broadcast speech, he taunted the “boastful and bullying” Nazis, led by “that evil man,” Hitler. The editorial cartoon, shown here, depicts Churchill and a German official goading each other over the German border defense system called the West Wall. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#98
After the fall of France to Germany in June 1940, Britain faced the possibility of invasion. Germany, however, was unable to achieve the necessary air superiority, and the planned invasion, code-named sealion, was postponed. By October Churchill quipped, “We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.” This photograph shows the new Prime Minister inspecting his coastal defenses during the summer of 1940, when landings seemed imminent. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#101
Prime Minister
On May 10, 1940, as the Germans were beginning to attack the British and French ground forces arrayed against them, Churchill became Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. He later wrote, “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.” This cartoon shows the British national symbol John Bull handing him “complete control,” at least temporarily. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#104
This is Churchill's draft for one of his most famous pieces of oratory. His speech of June 18, 1940, delivered first in the House of Commons and then broadcast to the Nation, occurred against the backdrop of the fall of France, one of the darkest moments in British history. Churchill did not flinch from admitting the severity of the situation, but he turned it into a roar of determination and defiance.
Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#104_2
Churchill's inspirational wartime speeches rank among the greatest delivered by any leader in history. He carefully crafted the rhetorical flourishes in addresses that he broadcast to the nation over the radio, to members of Parliament, and to a wide variety of groups. Ten years after World War II ended, Churchill said of his wartime role that it was Britain that “had the lion's heart,” he merely “had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.” Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#105
September 1940 was a key month for Churchill as this schedule shows. The Royal Air Force had managed to hold its own against the powerful German Luftwaffe, winning the Battle of Britain. But Hitler now changed tactics and began the wholesale bombing of London and other civilian centers. Churchill's engagements included, numerous cabinet meetings, speeches before the House of Commons, a radio broadcast, and more.
Engagements card, September 1940. Churchill Papers, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, U.K. (105.2) © Crown copyright 1940, Archival Reference # CHAR 20/19/3 Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#105_2
In this caricature, Churchill, with cigar, is shown as a puffin, “Perpetually carrying a stump in its mouth.” A reference to recent defeats by British forces in Greece implies that it was drawn in 1941, when Churchill's attempt to stop the Nazis from overrunning that nation met with disaster. Other references are to Churchill's beloved British Empire—“Range: The sun never sets,—as we all jolly well know.”—and to the recently passed Lend-Lease Act, which provided American assistance to the United Kingdom. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#111
The German raid on the English city of Coventry (November 14-15, 1940) left 380 people dead, 865 were inured, and the center of the city was devastated. The attack shocked the American public. In later years Churchill would be accused—falsely, according to many scholars—of deliberately failing to protect Coventry in order to protect secret intelligence sources that had provided advance knowledge of the attack. This photograph shows Churchill walking through the ruins of Coventry's fourteenth-century cathedral. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#106
Attempting to bomb Britain into submission, the German Luftwaffe attacked the city of Ramsgate while Churchill was visiting in August 1940. Taking cover in an underground shelter, he exchanged his trademark civilian hat for a steel helmet. The city's mayor forced him to discard his cigar, eliciting the rueful response, “There goes another good one.” Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#107
Cartoonist Herbert Block (“Herblock”) summed up the year 1940 optimistically with implied hopes for victory under the leadership of Churchill and Roosevelt. Shown in this sketch are British successes in the Mediterranean at Oran (against the Vichy French fleet), at Taranto (against the Italian fleet), in the skies by the Royal Air Force, and in North Africa. Also depicted are Italy's failed attempted invade of Greece, the peacetime military conscription act passed by the U.S. Congress, and the supplies shipped to Britain from America. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#109 Back to Top An American Connection
The fall of France, in June 1940, left Britain in a desperate situation. Threatened with a Nazi invasion and with his country under savage attack, Churchill was determined to obtain assistance and eventually a declaration of war against Germany and its allies from the United States. Churchill intensified his contacts with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had started corresponding with him even before Churchill became Prime Minister. Churchill also welcomed the American supplies, both military and civilian, that Roosevelt had provided through such measures as the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941. Many Americans, however, were reluctant to enter the conflict, and Roosevelt felt compelled to adopt a gradual approach toward full belligerency. In June 1941 the immediate pressure on the British eased somewhat after Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Two months later Churchill and Roosevelt met in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to formulate a joint military strategy and a statement of war aims,—the Atlantic Charter. With less success, they tried to work out a plan to prevent Germany's ally, Japan, from entering the war.
President Roosevelt wrote this letter to Churchill in January 1941, quoting from the Longfellow poem “The Building of the Ship.” It was then hand-delivered to the British Prime Minister by Wendell Wilkie, Roosevelt's Republican opponent in the 1940 Presidential election. Churchill, desperate for U.S. support, found the letter “an inspiration” and told Roosevelt that he would have it framed. The letter hung for a long time at Chartwell, Churchill's home, hence it has faded from the original green of White House stationery to brown.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Winston Churchill, January 20, 1941. Facsimile. Churchill Additional Papers, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, U.K. (112) Read the transcript Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#112
In 1941 President Roosevelt faced a dilemma: should the United States short change its own armed forces in order to help a nation that might capitulate to the Nazis? To answer that question, and to facilitate the flow of aid if (as it turned out) surrender seemed unlikely, he sent two personal representatives to Churchill—Harry Hopkins and W. Averell Harriman. In this letter, which shows the closeness of their relationship, Harriman argues that Britain is not adequately molding American public opinion. Churchill's handwritten reply invites him to draft a solution. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#115
Moved by the suffering, endurance, and courage displayed by the residents of Bristol during an air raid that took place while Churchill and Harriman were visiting there, Harriman made an anonymous donation to a relief fund. In this thank you note Clementine Churchill wrote of her hope that “all this pain and grief” might “bring our two countries permanently together.” “Anyhow,” she concluded, “whatever happens we do not feel alone any more.” Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#116
In May 1941, during what turned out to be the last major attack of the Blitz, German bombs destroyed the debating chamber of the House of Commons. A member of Parliament told Churchill not to be distressed by the results stating, “Such ruins are good assets: all round the globe, and especially in America.” This photograph was republished shortly before Churchill's death. Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#118
The German U-boat campaign and uncertain weather in the North Atlantic posed difficulties for sending American aircraft to the British forces fighting in the eastern Mediterranean. This letter concerns the routes available for shipment through neutral airspace to the jumping-off point for the South Atlantic route. Presidential advisor Averell Harriman solved the problem by arranging to have American pilots fly the planes to Natal, on the Brazilian coast, and from there to Bathurst, in Gambia, Africa—the shortest route across the ocean.
Winston Churchill to W. Averell Harriman, May 20, 1941. Page 2. Typed letter. W. Averell Harriman Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (119). © Crown copyright 1941 Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#119
The two photographs taken in the summer of 1941, displayed here, show Churchill's recognizable figure as he watches the arrival of the first B-17 “Flying Fortress” and as he inspects an American M-3 tank. Even though the U.S. was desperately trying to build up its military forces throughout 1941, Roosevelt decided to give the British models of the United States' most advanced weapons. Military aid to Britain was greatly facilitated by the Lend-Lease Act of March 11, 1941, in which Congress authorized the sale, lease, transfer, or exchange of arms and supplies to “any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.” Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#121
On August 9, 1941, Churchill met Roosevelt on board the U.S.S. Augusta, beginning the pattern of high-level personal collaboration that would prevail until the end of the war. The two had actually met once before in 1918, a meeting Churchill had since forgotten. In this photo Roosevelt stands unaided, relying on hidden leg braces. In later, more widely publicized photographs, he is seen supported by his son Elliott, an Air Force officer—a reminder that Roosevelt, like Churchill, had a personal, family stake in the conflict.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, August 9, 1941. Photograph. W. Averell Harriman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (128) Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#128
The most publicized result of the Newfoundland meeting, the Atlantic Charter, set forth the war aims of the two nations. In addition to committing the U.S. and Britain against territorial aggrandizement, it also pledged their adherence to principles of peace, national self-determination, and freedom of the seas. It further outlined their obligation to freedom from “fear and want,” open access (within limits) to trade and raw materials, improved labor standards, disarmament of aggressor nations, and “a wider and permanent system of general security.” Churchill gave this next-to-last draft version to Averell Harriman as a souvenir.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Proposed declaration, August 12, 1941. Mimeograph paper. W. Averell Harriman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (131) Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#131
Germany went to war with the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, easing the pressure on the British and giving them renewed hope. In October 1941, Averell Harriman noted Churchill's opinion that “Hitler's revised plan undoubtedly is now, Poland '39, France '40, Russia '41, England '42, '43 (?)—maybe America.” Late in November, Churchill acknowledged the heavy demands made by the Soviets for American supplies but also asked for Harriman's assistance in providing him with additional ammunition. Churchill's postscript reads, “The razor is a joy diurnal,” a reference to a gift received from Harriman.
Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-hour.html#139
Back to top |
(lc)which action did the government take to battle opponents of its efforts during world war i?
Postagens relacionadas
direito autoral © 2024 estudarpara Inc.
