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 ...
And Churchill did a lot to make that happen. Representatives of the Polish government in exile were not invited to the conferences at Tehran or Yalta, which determined their country's fate. Churchill agreed to setting Poland's eastern border at the Curzon Line, the territory that Hitler had given Stalin as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Many of the 200,000 Poles fighting in the British Army were from that region. And at Yalta and Potsdam, the Western Allies completed the handover of Poland to the Soviet Union.
Good leaders are always prepared for foreseeable contingencies. Poor leaders don’t even consider the foreseeable consequences of their own actions.
This was not an uncommon thought at the time; for anyone.
Still waiting for a thank you from the UKvfor saving them 3 times.
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