July 4, 1940 - Churchill's Finest Hour?

July 4, 1940 — Churchill’s finest hour? DANIEL F. HARRINGTON On July 4, 1940, Winston Churchill stood before Parliament and delivered stunning news about the horrible events that had occurred the night before; events he himself put in motion. The new prime minister received his first standing ovation since assuming Britain’s highest post just two months before. The recognition brought tears to his eyes, though the news itself was sufficiently tragic to produce tears without the ovation. So what exactly did Churchill announce that fateful day? To understand what our English cousin did (Churchill was half-American by birth; his mother was Jennie Jerome of New York), it is essential to first recall the dire circumstances he faced. England was at war with Germany, standing alone against a seemingly insurmountable foe. Churchill and the rest of the world had watched in amazement as Adolf Hitler had swallowed up countries wholesale: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Po-land, Denmark, Norway and now France had all capitulated under the Nazi blitzkrieg and surrendered to the Fuhrer. Churchill stood alone. Popular opinion, especially in America, favored compromise: Churchill should sue for peace lest he face annihilation by a superior enemy. Remember, these were the days when people thought Hitler’s daring couldn’t miss — and five years before the full measure of his wickedness would be revealed. Tiny England, common sense suggested, would fare no better in the face of Hitler than her allies had; more to the point, the United States showed no interest in entering another European war. America was officially neutral. President Franklin Roosevelt even made keeping our boys out of the conflict a campaign theme. Joseph P. Kennedy, our ambassador to England, thought the war already lost, declaring, “Democracy is finished in England,” before resigning his post later that year. His words seem strange today but accurately expressed the common sentiment of the time. Churchill believed otherwise. “We shall never surrender!” he declared to a beleaguered nation, famously adding, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” And so, on July 4, 1940, Churchill revealed to Parliament that he had personally given the order to fire upon and sink three French battleships stationed at Oran in French North Africa, resulting in the death of nearly 1,300 French seamen. Young men, mostly; men who considered the British their brothers in arms; men in the prime of their lives, yet now entombed at the bottom of the sea. Why on earth would Churchill have done it? The answer is brutally simple. Though France had surrendered to Germany, its navy was still intact. (Its army was decimated.) Britain, understandably, asked its ally to turn its warships over to the U.K., the United States or any other neutral port, lest they be seized by Hitler and turned on Britain. But the French Navy refused, naïvely believing the ships were unimportant or could defend themselves. Churchill proved this reasoning a myth by sinking the ships in mere minutes. Upon learning of the sinking of the French fleet, the world bristled. But no one now doubted Churchill’s resolve. Roosevelt was particularly impressed, believing that England just might hold out. France was stunned. The act caused outrage, but it also inspired. Two French families who lost their sons by British fire actually requested that the Union Jack lie with the French flag on their sons’ caskets. In his memoir, Churchill praised the families, noting that “the comprehending spirit of simple folk often touches the sublime.” Indeed. One week after the fleet at Oran was destroyed, Hitler, as Churchill predicted, launched the Battle of Britain with a massive bombardment by the Luftwaffe of England. The English survived, but just barely, and, perhaps, because Germany offered no naval challenge. You know the rest of the story. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and brought America into the war — war in the Pacific, initially. Amazingly, it was Hitler himself who brought America into the conflict in Europe: He declared war on America on Dec. 11. Upon hearing the news, Churchill retired for the night “and slept the sleep of the saved and the thankful,” knowing that with America by his side, the war was won. As we remember our many heroes this Independence Day, perhaps we might also raise a glass to the memory of our distant cousin, Sir Winston S. Churchill: the weeping warrior who fired upon his friends so that we could freely embrace ours; the man who stood alone and promised a frightened world blood, sweat and tears, and chillingly delivered on all counts, so that we might enjoy our own freedoms today. Daniel F. Harrington is president of Chartwell Investment Services, in Rumford. His business is named after Churchill’s beloved estate in Kent, England. ©2013, Published by The Providence Journal Co. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or commercially redistributed. Back Continue

‘Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a trickle of information has emerged from archives in Moscow, shedding new light on the subject. While much of the documentary evidence remains classified “secret” in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian State Archive of the Economy, Western and Russian researchers have been able to gain access to important, previously unavailable firsthand documents. I was recently able to examine Russian-language materials of the State Defense Committee—the Soviet equivalent of the British War Cabinet—held in the former Central Party Archive. Together with other recently published sources, including the wartime diaries of N. I. Biriukov, a Red Army officer responsible from August 1941 on for the distribution of recently acquired tanks to the front lines, this newly available evidence paints a very different picture from the received wisdom.

In particular, it shows that British Lend-Lease assistance to the Soviet Union in late 1941 and early 1942 played a far more significant part in the defense of Moscow and the revival of Soviet fortunes in late 1941 than has been acknowledged.

http://www.historynet.com/did-russia-really-go-it-alone-how-lend-lease-helped-the-soviets-defeat-the-germans.htm#sthash.ciPG09uE.dpuf

I was alive in 1965 when Churchill passed away. The huge headline in the local paper stated Man of the Century Dead. True today as much as it was then despite Time magazine giving Einstein that honour. I was 7 at the time. It was the first time in my life I had become aware of a famous person dying. I was unable to comprehend much about the Kennedy assassination a little over a year prior. That said you don't get a champagne named after you for nothing and I think Churchill would have appreciated that honour better than the Time magazine one.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R354FNQZ4MAG8X/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R354FNQZ4MAG8X
provides a review of Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War - which seems to be the title under which your suggested reading is available here.

I will say that I’m surprised that Britain would have given Stalin a battleship. I had known, of course, that Churchill had proposed to send aid to the USSR, his own hostility to Communism notwithstanding. It was all to clear from my own reading that FDR had recognized the USSR as his first diplomatic act, and that his administration was riddled with commies. Including Alger Hiss. The attitude of American conservatives towards the war on Germany’s Eastern Front was, simply, that the pity was that they couldn’t both lose. But once we were fighting the Germans . . .
But it turns out that helping Afghanistan fight the Soviets wasn’t all that much more of a bargain than helping the Soviets against the Germans ended up being.

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