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Does Churchill deserve his reputation as wartime prime minister? (No (Not…
Does Churchill deserve his reputation as wartime prime minister?
Churchill PM from 1940-45
Yes
Won the war
Churchill's ability to keep morale high
e.g. the 'Fight them on the beaches' speech in 1940 following the evacuation at Dunkirk of 300,000 men
understood the power of the press - controlled the press well
took credit when it went well and blamed others when went wrong
and his ‘Never in the history of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’ speech after Battle of Britain
Made clear to cabinet not to negotiate peace terms
Leadership
Could take advice from those he thought exceptional and talented eg. from Lord Beaverbrook and other military leaders
allan brooke his aide de camp (general)
Ruthless: he undermined and dismissed military leaders he’d lost confidence in.
Also supported some extreme measures in the war, like the destruction of the French fleet at Oran in 1940 and the civilian bombing of Dresden in Germany
Brave: wanting to go over to France with the invasion force in 1944 and having little care for his personal safety during bombing raids on London
No
Not entirely true that Churchill wasn't willing to negotiate
The cabinet did consider various concessions which they could make (like giving up Gibraltar) but it was clear that they would probably get reasonably good terms even if they did keep on fighting
Therefore, Churchill’s image may not have reflected his true thoughts
Sir Hugh Dowding should probably be better remembered for this victory than Churchill
He was head of Fighter Command
Battle of Britain
He even opposed Churchill’s decisions in two crucial areas
He made sure that Churchill did not commit all of his planes to France when it was clear that the French would be beaten - Churchill had earlier made this promise to the French.
He resisted Churchill’s ideas of an all-out attack on the Luftwaffe
It’s also important that the structure of the RAF including the development of the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and the installation of radar was created under MacDonald and Baldwin
Without this effective technology Churchill would probably have lost the Battle of Britain
He let Chamberlain take blame for the Norway campaign
Aloud Harris to take responsibility for Dresden bombing