Churchill by Ashley Jackson

Author:Ashley Jackson [JACKSON, ASHLEY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2014-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

Churchill and the Rise of Hitler

A fundamental fact of 1930s politics is that Churchill’s “judgement on Hitler was sounder than the dozens of European pilgrims to Berlin and the Berchtesgaden.”14 Churchill’s misgivings about Germany dated from very early in the decade, predating Hitler’s accession to power in 1933. He had visited Bavaria in 1932 in order to tour the battlefields trodden by the 1st Duke of Marlborough. As well as contracting paratyphoid, he was disturbed by the spirit of militarism he observed, which he described in the Commons in November 1932 as “bands of sturdy Teutonic youths, marching through the streets and roads of Germany, with the light of desire in their eyes to suffer for the Fatherland.”15 From this point on, Germany’s card was marked in Churchill’s mind—and Churchill was soon to become viewed in Germany as an enemy of its “rightful” progress as a major power. Given his concerns about Germany, it was logical for Churchill to oppose the general policies of disarmament that were pursued under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald. While by no means decrying “collective security” (a contemporary buzz term and political movement too popular to work against), he argued strongly against placing all the eggs in one basket and hoping that others would do the same, seeing in this a crashing naivety as to the nature of international affairs.

Churchill also realized how the advent of air power had transformed the strategic situation; “this cursed, hellish invention and development of war,” he said in the Commons in February 1934, “has revolutionized our position. We are not the same kind of country we used to be when we were an island, only twenty years ago.” He went on to argue that it was inconceivable that Britain should delay establishing “an Air Force at least as strong as that of any Power that can get at us.”16 He struck an uncompromising sense of urgency. In March 1934, he implored the House to realize that “this is the stage [at which to increase the air force]. The turning point has been reached. . . . The scene has changed. This terrible new fact has occurred. Germany is arming—she is rapidly arming—and no one will stop her.”17

Churchill had denounced Hitler’s regime as soon as it attained power in 1933 and railed against its “pitiless ill-treatment of minorities.” He never fell for Hitler’s blandishments and empty reassurances about the reasonable claims of German foreign policy. The renaissance of German militarism led Churchill to appreciate the towering importance of the French army and the Royal Navy, the key instruments in any plan to contain German power. But Churchill’s warnings about Germany met with little favor in either the Commons or the country. There was no interest in visions of future war, and there was an obsession on the left with collective security, not rearmament. Both in Britain and France, the public were “keener on hearing what Hitler said about peace than what Churchill said about war.”18

In 1933 Churchill called for the scrapping of the ten-year rule.

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