Churchill & America by Martin Gilbert

Author:Martin Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Europe, Churchill, World War II, Great Britain - Politics and Government - 20th Century, Winston, Political, General, Great Britain, Nonfiction, Historical, Biography & Autobiography, Military, Prime Ministers, Prime Ministers - Great Britain - Biography, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780743291224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2005-10-05T23:00:00+00:00

concerns. A week after his visit to Chartwell, Wigram sent Churchill the Government's own most recent, and secret, figures, which showed that the minimum German first-line air strength had reached 800 aircraft, as against Britain's 453. When he had first seen these figures, Wigram had noted in an internal minute, 'These are grave and terrible facts for those who are charged with the defence of this country.'

Churchill later wrote ofWigram: 'He was a charming and fearless man, and his convictions, based upon profound knowledge and study, dominated his being. He saw as clearly as I did, but with more certain information, the awful peril which was closing in upon us. This drew us together.

Often we met at his little house in North Street, and he and Mrs Wigram came to stay with us at Chartwell. Like other officials of high rank, he spoke to me with complete confidence.'

On April 13 Churchill wrote to Clementine: 'The only great thing that has happened has been that Germany is now the greatest armed power in Europe. But I think the Allies are all banking up against her, and then I hope she will be kept in her place and not attempt to plunge into a terrible conflict.' He added: 'My statements about the air last November are being proved true, and Baldwin's contradictions are completely falsified. There is no doubt that the Germans are already substantially superior to us in the air, and that they are manufacturing at such a rate that we cannot catch them up. How discreditable for the Government to have been misled, and to have misled Parliament upon a matter involving the safety of the country.'

On May 2, France and the Soviet Union signed a pact of mutual co-operation. It seemed that Churchill's vision of a union of 'the nations who want to be let alone' was coming to pass. 'Never must we despair,' he told the Commons that day, 'never must we give in, but we must face facts and draw true conclusions from them.' On the following day the Daily Express apologised to Churchill for having in the past 'ignored' his warnings of German air strength; an apology put in front of its 1,857,939

readers. Then, on May 22, during a Defence debate in the Commons, Baldwin admitted he had been 'completely wrong' the previous November in his estimate of future German air strength.

Churchill's claims of the pace and scale of German air construction, hitherto mocked as alarmist, were vindicated. He at once proposed a Secret Session of the House, as in 1917, for an unfettered discussion of German air strength and British air policy, b,ut Baldwin refused. 'Speech successful,' Churchill telegraphed to Randolph after the debate, 'but Government escaped as usual.' Nine days later, on May 31, he drew the attention of the House of Commons to theNazi-type movement which had been created among the German-speaking inhabitants of the Sudeten 544

CHURCHILL: A LIFE

1935

mountain region of Czechoslovakia. As a result of Germany's growing power, he warned, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and even Yugoslavia were beginning to look with admiration at Germany.

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