Posted on 05/18/2024 10:39:34 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Winston Churchill will always be one of the vital figures in British history, remembered largely for his wartime leadership.
But few have heard of ‘Operation Unthinkable’, one of Churchill’s most top secret war plans during his time in office. It was nothing to do with fighting the Nazis or Italy - but about invading Soviet controlled territories.
The Soviet Union - or USSR, the name of the communist regime in Russia between 1922 and 1991 - controlled eastern Germany and large swathes of eastern Europe by 1945, after the Nazis were crushed. And Churchill became concerned about the communist threat in Europe, drafting up ‘Operation Unthinkable’ with his closest military advisers.
The plan aimed to prevent East Germany and Poland living under Soviet domination - allegedly, Churchill felt especially guilty about the Poles who fought for the allies during the war, but would now be ruled by Stalin.
At the time, the United States were ready to move their military to fight out the rest of the war in mainland Japan - which meant Western Europe would be facing Stalin alone in the early months and years of the Cold War. When VE day came along, the British army would drastically reduce in size - which meant the plan would have to be conducted soon, according to The History Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at mirror.co.uk ...
Roosevelt gave the Ruskies everything they needed to repel any invasion by the “allies”.
The British cached enough captured German munitions to re-equip 250,000 Wehrmacht soldiers in case Stalin tried to move west from the Elbe.
Churchill was known for his hairbrained ideas at times.
Like Gallipoli?
“The Soviet Union - or USSR, the name of the communist regime in Russia between 1922 and 1991”
I have trouble believing this article has readers who didn’t already know that.
Gallipoli was such a horror show it's amazing that Churchill was trusted with anything after that.
But it's a good thing that he was.
Yes, Gallipoli was a Shiite show.
IIRC, Patton said “give me 10 days and I’ll have a war whipped up with them.”
It really means nothing. We have lots of contingency plans drawn up to do lots of these we never will. So do all major countries. It is the job of responsible people to consider unlikely possibilities and draw up plans for them that sit on a shelf somewhere just in case.
If not for Churchill, England would have surrendered to Hitler’s peace offering and in a one war front, the outcome of WW II could have been much different and at the very least prolonged by years
“If not for Churchill, England would have surrendered to Hitler’s peace offering and in a one war front, the outcome of WW II could have been much different and at the very least prolonged by years”
Maybe not. Stalin didn’t expect Hitler to attack before finishing Britain off. It’s likely he would have taken steps to be better prepared in that case.
I don’t know. This sounds like one of his cigar butt strategies, not a serious plan.
That is beyond hare-brained....
Like his infatuation with *eugenics?
*Winston Churchill supported the British Eugenics Society and was an honorary vice president for the organization. Churchill believed that eugenics could solve "race deterioration" and reduce crime and poverty.
Currently reading Churchill's account of WW2.
He strengthened both the will of the British, the hardware needs of its military, and that was an extraordinary task which he accomplished in the nick of time, just as the Battle of Britain began.
Had he not done so, and had Britain been forced into a truce (or worse) by Germany after the fall of France, then it is quite possible Hitler's planned conquest of Britain would have been successful.
Churchill's persistence, organizational genius, and huge geopolitical and historical brainpower made him the savior of Europe. Largely this was his ability to anticipate enemies' moves long before they acted. (Was this quality of his the result of the hard lessons of Gallipoli?)
Fortunately, Hitler was too euphoric from his early prodigious sucesses, and he foolishly attempted to conquer Russia while still maintaining his western front. It obviously was too much, too fast.We were actually lucky that Churchill had the supreme judgment to anticipate exactly what Hitler would do, and scare enough Britons into doubletime preparing for the Island's defense.
Indeed we are all lucky that he did what he did.
Churchill certainly failed with Gallipoli, but he more than made up for it by saving Europe, with our help of course.
Sorry for the length and the Captain Obviousness of the above, but people now just assume that victory in WW2 was a foregone conclusion.
When I was a teenager my dad, who was born in 1920, lived in DC and served in the Navy during WW2, said that initially, lots of young men in his neighborhood were killed at the start of the war, and there was grave concern about Germany and Japan being victorious.
We certainly need to re-cultivate that pre-and-early-war Churchillian mindset now, even though the war we are currently engaged in is like the slow onset of WW2: The Phony War of 1939-40 very much resembles the current 'pre-kinetic' phase of our war with the Internationale which we now are involved in --and hopefully are awakening to.
There are modern plans to invade Canada as well.
I say we avenge the war of 1812 and take Montreal.
How it happened, with all the salacious detail.
I've been to Montreal. We don't want it.
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