Winston Churchill Inspects Coastal Defenses, July 31, 1940

Winston Churchill inspected British coastal defenses several times during the summer of 1940.   France had capitulated on June 25, 1940, and many Britons expected a German invasion by autumn or before.  This visit took place 80 years ago, on July 31, 1940, just two weeks after Adolph Hitler issued Directive 16, ordering the German military to prepare an invasion of England.   Here Churchill examines a U.S.-made Thompson submachine gun, also known as a "Chicago Typewriter," because of the weapon's popularity with Chicago gangsters.  Nazi propagandists tried to exploit the image as evidence that Churchill was himself a gangster and reckless warmonger, dropping leaflets on England featuring the image. (See here)  The effort apparently failed, along with Hitler's attempt to convince the British People to pressure their government to make a separate peace.  

Winston Churchill: 1874-1965

The Last Lion

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill, at the age of 90.  (For video of his state funeral, go here.)  While others urged appeasement of rising Nazism, Churchill recognized the mortal danger that that evil ideology posed to democracy and liberty and steadfastly urged Britain and France to resist Nazi aggression.  Despite his best efforts, however, most in the West turned a blind eye to the threat until it was too late (wrongly) thinking, as did Neville Chamberlain and others, that war against Nazi German was futile and that negotiations with Hitler could bring "Peace for Our Time."  (See Chamberlain's announcement of this "peace" here.) When Britain finally closed ranks behind him, Churchill led his nation and, along with President Roosevelt, the Free World, on a great crusade to save the world from what Churchill rightly called the "Abyss of a New Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science." One can only guess how civilization would have fared against Hitler and his allies if history had not blessed us with a man that William Manchester called "The Last Lion." Fortunately, we did not have to find out.  

FDR's and Churchill's 1941 Christmas Eve Addresses to the American People

   

 

On Christmas Eve 1941, less than three weeks after the Nation entered World War II, the two leaders of the Free World, President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, delivered consecutive addresses to the American people from the White House.  President Roosevelt spoke first and ended his address with an introduction of the British Prime Minister.  Both addresses are reproduced below in full. 

 

"Fellow workers for freedom:  There are many men and women in America --- sincere and faithful men and women --- who are asking themselves this Christmas:  How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts?  How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death?  How can we pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day, in our urgent labor of arming a decent humanity against the enemies which beset it?  How can we put the world aside, as men and women put the world aside in peaceful years, to rejoice in the birth of Christ?  These are natural—inevitable—questions in every part of the world which is resisting the evil thing.  And even as we ask these questions, we know the answer. There is another preparation demanded of this Nation beyond and beside the preparation of weapons and materials of war. There is demanded also of us the preparation of our hearts; the arming of our hearts. And when we make ready our hearts for the labor and the suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead, then we observe Christmas Day—with all of its memories and all of its meanings—as we should.  Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, and in that Proclamation I have said:

'The year 1941 has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the earth the hard-won liberties gained over many centuries.  The new year of 1942 calls for the courage and the resolution of old and young to help to win a world struggle in order that we may preserve all we hold dear.  We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

 

Therefore, I... do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God's help in days to come. We need His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and peace.'

Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies-more than any other day or any other symbol. Against enemies who preach the principles of hate and practice them, we set our faith in human love and in God's care for us and all men everywhere.  It is in that spirit, and with particular thoughtfulness of those, our sons and brothers, who serve in our armed forces on land and sea, near and far- those who serve for us and endure for us that we light our Christmas candles now across the continent from one coast to the other on this Christmas Eve.  We have joined with many other Nations and peoples in a very great cause. Millions of them have been engaged in the task of defending good with their life-blood for months and for years.

 

One of their great leaders stands beside me. He and his people in many parts of the world are having their Christmas trees with their little children around them, just as we do here. He and his people have pointed the way in courage and in sacrifice for the sake of little children everywhere.  And so I am asking my associate, my old and good friend, to say a word to the people of America, old and young, tonight Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain."

 

Prime Minister Churchill then addressed the American people as follows:

 

"I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.  Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother's side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States.  I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome,  convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.

This is a strange Christmas Eve.  Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other.  Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field.  Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart.  Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm.  Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter.  Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play.  Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

And so, in God's mercy, a happy Christmas to you all."

FDR's 1942 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Fighting for Liberty

Including the Liberty to Give Thanks

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.  Across the uncertain ways of space and time our hearts echo those words, for  the days are with us again when, at the gathering of the harvest, we solemnly express our dependence upon Almighty God.

The final months of this year, now almost spent,   find our Republic and the Nations joined with it waging a battle on many fronts for the preservation of liberty.   In giving thanks for the greatest harvest in the history of our Nation, we who plant and reap can well resolve that in the year to come we will do all in our power to pass that milestone; for by labors in the fields we can share some part of the sacrifice with our brothers and sons who wear the uniform of the United States. 

It is fitting that we recall the reverent words of George Washington, "Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy Protection," and that every American in his own way lift his voice to heaven.

I recommend that all of us bear in mind this great Psalm:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.

"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: though anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Inspired with faith and courage by these words, let us turn again to the work that confronts us in this time of national emergency: in the armed services and the merchant marine; in factories and offices; on farms and in the mines; on highways, railways, and airways; in other places of public service to the Nation; and in our homes.

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby invite the attention of the people to the joint resolution of Congress approved December 26, 1941, which designates the fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day; and I request that both Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1942, and New Years Day, January 1, 1943, be observed in prayer, publicly and privately.

* * * * * 

Americans understandably take both Thanksgiving and the liberty to give thanks, in their own way, for granted.  But in November 1942, less than a year after the Axis Powers initiated war on the United States, liberty was in peril throughout the world.  Fortunately, America and her allies, including the United Kingdom, were fighting back.  Leaders like FDR and Winston Churchill, both pictured above on the HMS Prince of Wales concluding the Atlantic Charter, understood the threat and rallied their respective Nations to victory.  As we give thanks today, let us also remember leaders such as these and the innumerable sacrifices by those who followed them in a war that preserved both Democracy and Liberty.

In Praise of Conventional Wisdom on Munich

Right

 

 

Wrong

In an essay entitled: "Why Neville Chamberlain Was Right," one Nick Baumann bucks conventional wisdom and praises the so-called Munich agreement, signed September 30, 1938.  Under this agreement, Great Britain, led by then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and France, led by Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, acquiesced in Hitler's illegal demand that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany, thereby temporarily staving off a German invasion of the entire Czech nation.  In particular, Baumann contends that Chamberlain obtained the best deal he could, given that Britain was militarily weak and thus (according to a study by the British military) "could not possibly stop Germany from taking Czechoslovakia."  Baumman also contends that British public opinion would have opposed Britain's defense of Czechoslovakia and that other states within the British Empire, i.e., the Dominions, would have opposed such intervention as well.  Thus, Baumann concludes that: "Chamberlain's story is of a man who fought for peace as long as possible, and went to war only when it was the last possible option.  It's not such a bad epitaph."  (Chamberlain, of course, is pictured above, holding a copy of a September 30, 1938 joint declaration between the British Prime Minister and Hitler.  To hear Chamberlain's remarks upon returning from Germany after finalization of the Munich agreement, listen to this 1938 report from the BBC.  (Chamberlain's remarks begin at about 4:55.)).


This Blogger agrees that re-examination of conventional wisdom is always appropriate.  However, in my view, Baumann overlooks four considerations that weaken his case and support the conventional view that Chamberlain's policies, including those leading up to Munich, helped pave the way for a war that may well have been avoided.  In this case, conventional wisdom appears to be correct.

 

1. Baumann overlooks the origins of Britain's 1938 unpreparedness, namely, Chamberlain's own policies of appeasement and military weakness, policies also pursued by his predecessor, Stanley Baldwin.  From the early 1930s onward Winston Churchill (pictured above) and others consistently warned that Hitler was bent on aggressive expansion throughout Europe and urged Britain to rearm as quickly as possible to deter and, if necessary, oppose such conquest.     See William Manchester, Winston Spencer Churchill, The Last Lion: Alone 1932-1940 (1988).    Both Baldwin and Chamberlain (the latter of whom served as Baldwin's Chancellor of the Exchequer)  rejected these repeated calls, choosing instead more modest (but significant) increases in arms spending, increases that largely overlooked the need to modernize and expand Britain's army.  Both also assured the British public that appeasement, and not force, would contain Hitler.  Thus, both Chamberlain and Baldwin helped create the very weakness that Baumann invokes in support of the Munich accords.  Indeed, the supposed fact that Munich was the best deal Chamberlain could strike is itself a powerful indictment of the Baldwin-Chamberlain policy of rearmament in moderation.  Any epitaph that overlooks Chamberlain's role in creating the conditions that emboldened Hitler is woefully incomplete. 
 

2.    Baumann asks whether Britain herself could have prevented Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland.  His answer, that Britain could not have prevented such an annexation, is obviously correct.  But the question is meaningless.  It is equally true that Britain could not have unilaterally prevented Hitler's conquest of Poland in September, 1939, and yet Baumann endorses Chamberlain's decision to go to war at that time. 

Indeed, so far as this blogger is aware, no contemporary or modern opponent of the Munich agreement believed that Britain could or should defend Czechoslovakia unilaterally.  On the contrary, Churchill and others contended that Britain should embrace a policy of what Churchill repeatedly called "collective security," building an alliance between Britain, France, Czechoslovakia and perhaps Russia to thwart Hitler's planned conquests.  Indeed, the Covenant of the League of Nations, adopted in 1924, expressly contemplated that member states would respond collectively to aggression.  (See Article 16)    Thus, the relevant question for those examining Chamberlain's decision is whether such an alliance, perhaps led and orchestrated by Great Britain, could have thwarted Hitler's designs on Czechoslovakia and the rest of Eastern Europe, averting general war and saving millions of lives.

The answer to this question seems to be "obviously yes."  To be sure, Britain's army was quite small at the time.  However, Czechoslovakia's army, the second most potent in Eastern Europe (behind Russia), was not.  Instead, the Czechs could field 35 divisions, well-equipped by the nation's modern munitions industry.  See Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. I: The Gathering Storm,  301-302 (1948).   More importantly, France could field 100 divisions after full mobilization.  See Benjamin Martin, France in 1938, 164 (2005).  Moreover, the mountainous and heavily-wooded Sudetenland was far more defensible than Poland or, for that matter, France, and the Czechs had been fortifying this portion of their country with pillboxes and forts in anticipation of a German invasion since 1935.     

 

France had entered a mutual defense agreement with Czechoslovakia in the mid-1920s, and Prime Minister Daladier urged Britain to join France in resisting German aggression against Czechoslovakia.  See John Lukacs, The Last European War, 14 (1976).  Such aggression, of course, contravened Article 10 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.   Such an alliance between Britain, France and Czechoslovakia would have presented Hitler with an insurmountable strategic problem, even assuming that Russia would have remained neutral. (Russia, it should be noted, did not border on Czechoslovakia, with the result that the Russian Army would have to march through an unwilling Poland to defend the Czechs.  Though it should be noted that Article 16 of the Covenant of the League of Nations required member states to allow transit through their territories of troops co-operating with those of other countries to enforce the Covenant.)

Germany's generals were well aware of Czechoslovakia's ability to defend herself.   As a result, Hitler's invasion plan would have required Germany to deploy most of her then-untested army in the East, leaving only 13 divisions, 8 of them reserve units, to defend her western border with France. See Churchill, Gathering Storm, at 302 ("According to [German] Generals Halder and Jodl, there were but thirteen German divisions, of which only five were composed of front-line troops, left in the West at the time of the Munich arrangement."). 

Simply put, even in 1938, Britain and France had the military wherewithal to prevent Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia and thus vindicate International Law by presenting Germany with the prospect of a two-front war that Germany could not have won at that time.  See Churchill, Gathering Storm, at  302.  See also id. at 304 (explaining that Germany's production of tanks necessary for the 1940 invasion of France did not take place until after 1938).    Indeed, fearing such an all-out war, several German generals had conspired to overthrow Hitler if he ordered an invasion of Czechoslovakia, as he was planning to do.  See Richard Overy with Andrew Wheatcroft, The Road to War, 62 (Rev. ed. 1999); Churchill, Gathering Storm, at 280-81.  Instead, Chamberlain's intervention and the resulting extra-legal Munich accords stripped Czechoslovakia of its most defensible terrain and paved the way for Germany's occupation of most of Czechoslovakia  six months later.  See Overy and Wheatcroft, Road to War, at 57 ("Examination of the Czech frontier defenses a few weeks [after Munich] showed Hitler that war with the Czechs would not have been easy after all.  Without the defenses the rump Czech state was now powerless."); id. (noting Hitler's statement that Munich's elimination of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland defenses left Germany in a "marvelous position"). 

3.    Baumann ignores the economic and military value of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. The Skoda Works, in Pilsen, was at the time one of the largest munitions factories in the world.  Churchill reports that Czechoslovakia's annual output of arms nearly equaled that of Great Britain during this period.  See Churchill, Gathering Storm at 302.   After Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, these works would supply munitions that outfitted 19 German Divisions, 4 of them armored.  See Overy and Wheatcroft,  Road to War, at 63.  Czechoslovakia was also an important source of coal, iron, and machine tools.  Id.   Thus, by granting Hitler the Sudetenland and thereby paving the way for German conquest of the entire Czech nation, Chamberlain both deprived the anti-Hitler alliance of a powerful ally and strengthened Hitler's economic position at a time when German munitions output doubled that of Britain and France combined.   See Churchill, Gathering Storm at 301.

4.    Baumann ignores the large gap between Anglo-French and German munitions output in 1938 and 1939 as well as the gap between German and French manpower.  As just noted, Germany produced far more weapons in 1938 and 1939 than Britain and France combined.   Germany, with a population much greater than France, used much of this production to outfit its rapidly-expanding army, inexorably altering the balance of military power on its Western Front.  Thus, by delaying the start of the war, the Munich agreement allowed Germany to enhance its military might relative to that of England and France, thereby altering the balance of power in Germany's favor.   As Churchill would put it shortly after the war:

   "[T]he year's 'breathing space' said to be 'gained' by Munich left Britain and France in a much worse position compared with Hitler's Germany than they had been at the Munich Crisis."

 

 * * * * *

None of this is to say that resisting Hitler in 1938 would have been easy, at least as a political matter.  British public opinion  was slow to awake from its pacifist slumber, and France was was badly divided politically.    But effective democratic leadership require identification of the best course, not that which is most popular, as well as articulate advocacy that sways public opinion in the right direction.  Judged by this standard, Chamberlain did not measure up.