WC02 - Never Surrender by Michael Dobbs

Author:Michael Dobbs [Dobbs, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-27T08:22:33+00:00

Even now, as Churchill continued with his review, his father was with him once more, sitting amongst the expectant faces around the table. It had happened so often during Winston's political career; he would imagine his father nearby, watching, never quite approving. It had always spurred him onwards, ensured he never relaxed or took anything for granted, but, just this once, he ached for someone to tell him he was right.

"I have thought carefully in these last days whether it was part of my duty to consider entering into negotiations with That Man," he was saying. One or two heads were slowly nodding. Perhaps they'd been talking with Halifax. And, as weariness seemed to seep from every bone in his body, he could no longer deny the possibility that they were right. If neither Hitler nor Halifax were the fool, then perhaps it was Churchill himself.

And then he saw Ruth. He ransacked his last store of energy in order to force her image into his mind. She was sitting at the other end of the table, her hair drawn back around her face, with that determined and Germanic jib of hers. She was frowning, scolding him, warning him. Don't bend, don't you dare bend! You are alone because you understand better than any man here. So take them with you. Do it your way. But trust them, and do it together!

"I will not hide from you, gentlemen, that what is happening now in northern France may turn out to be the greatest British military disaster for many centuries. We are straining every nerve and moving every muscle to get back as many of our men as providence will allow. It may be no more than fifty thousand. But I will not negotiate. It is idle to think that we would get better terms from Germany at this moment than if we went on and fought it out. The Germans would demand our fleet they would call it "disarmament" and our naval bases and our aircraft factories and much else besides. We should become a slave state, run by some puppet or other who owed allegiance only to Hitler."

Growls of support were coming from the far corner of the table; was that where Bracken was sitting? Ruth was slapping the table with her palms.

"No! I will not go naked to the negotiating table. Instead, it is my intention that we should fight on, with all our reserves and all our advantages." His head was up, his jaw set. "I cannot tell you what the outcome of that great struggle will be. But if, at last, the long story of these islands is to come to an end, it were better it should end not through surrender, but only when we are rolling senseless on the ground."

There is sometimes a moment within meetings of men when an idea catches fire and takes hold of those present. Such a moment is rarely planned and almost never scripted but comes about through a fusion of great passion and opportunity.

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