The Last Lion: Visions of Glory, 1874 - 1932 by William Manchester

Author:William Manchester [Manchester, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political, Biography & Autobiography, History / Europe - Great Britain, History / Military - World War Ii, Biography & Autobiography / Political, History / Modern - 20th Century
ISBN: 9780316545037
Google: rm9hMQEACAAJ
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 1983-05-30T07:00:00+00:00

Thus the rush of cataclysmic events came down to Tuesday, August 4, 1914, when at midnight Berlin time—11:00 P.M. in London—Grey’s ultimatum to Germany would expire. In Pear Tree Cottage, Clementine, troubled by the peremptory retiring of Admiral Callaghan, was writing her husband, begging him to consider “the deep wound in an old man’s heart…. Please see him yourself & take him by the hand and (additional) offer him a seat on the Board, or if this is impossible give him some advisory position at the Admiralty…. Don’t think this is a trivial matter. At this moment you want everyone’s heart & soul.” It was excellent advice; Winston had made altogether too many enemies, some on matters of principle but others through sheer thoughtlessness, and the moment was rapidly approaching when he would need every friend he could find. That Tuesday was not the day to start making them, however. There wasn’t time. He was alerting the captains of all British merchant ships, which flew the red ensign, and he was engrossed in the movements of the Goeben. Two British warships had sighted her at 9:30 A.M. He wired: “Very good. Hold her. War imminent.” He wanted to attack at once. “Winston with all his war paint on,” Asquith wrote Clementine’s cousin, the beautiful, worldly young Venetia Stanley, with whom he was infatuated, “is longing for a sea fight to sink the Goeben.” The prime minister had no objection, but the cabinet vetoed the firing of a single shot before the expiration of Grey’s deadline. Prince Louis pleaded with Churchill to give the British gunners a green light before dusk, but the first lord felt he had been insubordinate enough. Night fell and the enemy battle cruiser escaped.220

Winston dined at Admiralty House with his mother and brother. Heavy fighting was reported in Belgium. Berlin had ignored Grey’s note. The largest human event since the French Revolution was now imminent. The last minutes of peace were ticking away, and vanishing with them, though no one knew it, was England’s century of security and supremacy—its “intolerable hegemony” in world affairs, as the German Matthias Erzberger called it. Churchill left the table to give a council of admirals and captains their final instructions. Big Ben struck the fatal hour. The message went out:221

Admiralty to all HM ships and Naval

Establishments

Signal

4 August 1914

11 pm

Admiralty

COMMENCE HOSTILITIES AGAINST GERMANY

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