WINSTON'S WAR by MICHAEL DOBBS

Author:MICHAEL DOBBS
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2010-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

The second of August. A Wednesday. The House had a stale, masculine atmosphere that left tempers frayed and caused rings of sweat to gather around the collars. Time to leave. Already millions of ordinary Britons were on holiday, their thoughts distracted from the threats that hovered over them, and now MPs were to be sent to join them. In normal circumstances such an announcement would be greeted with an outpouring of ill-concealed rejoicing, but the days of August 1939 were not normal times.

Only the previous week when rumors of the recess had begun to circulate, Churchill had risen to demand that the House should not be sent away to be lost in the mists of autumn, and Chamberlain had responded that such a suggestion was “hypothetical.” Now hypothesis turned to hardened fact and the Prime Minister rose to inform MPs that they were to be banished until October.

It was a simple and straightforward parliamentary procedure, a motion for the Adjournment of the House, which would normally raise no more concerns than the spillage of tea into the saucer. But this was August 1939. MPs rose to offer their views—almost all were concerned, many hostile. What signal would it give to the dictators if the democracies shut up their stall and ran away to build sand-castles? Was Hitler going to take a holiday, too?

Churchill spoke in opposition—the first time he had engaged in a debate in the House in many weeks. It was not an onslaught—perhaps he was still held back by the enticements of office, but clearly nothing on that front could happen now until October, if it ever did. So his speech was at times jocular, but the wit was often biting. He spoke of “the danger months in Europe, when the harvests have been gathered and when the powers of evil are at their strongest.” He talked of the two million men already under arms in Germany, and the five hundred thousand who had been called up in recent days and would be added to that number before the end of August, massing along the Polish frontiers from Danzig to Cracow. He said their public buildings were being cleared out on a massive scale—and why? To become makeshift hospitals and reception centers for the wounded.

His wit dug deep into the flesh of his Prime Minister. How could it be, Churchill demanded, that in such awesome circumstances Chamberlain could say to the House: “Begone! Run off and play! Take your gas masks with you! Do not worry about public affairs.” After all, this Government had such a splendid record in predicting the outcome of public affairs…

The smile at the corner of the old man's mouth did little to take the sting from the lash as he laid it across his leader's back. Chamberlain sat, and smarted, and sulked, even more so as others rose to their feet to call on him to be more flexible, to compromise, to bring the House back earlier. To be prepared.

Less than two hours after Churchill had resumed his seat, Chamberlain was forced to rise once more.

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