When World War Two was declared in Europe on September 3, 1939, Winston’s long struggle to make the British government wake up to the dangers posed by a militaristic Germany and its Nazi leader, the Führer Adolf Hitler, was at last revealed as justified.
Winston the “warmonger”
For years, Winston had endured vicious criticism from his enemies within and outside Parliament. He was labelled a warmonger for his predictions about hostile German intentions and for spreading lies and exaggerations about the build up of armaments by the Nazi regime.
Winston’s warnings had a protracted history. As far back as 1919, he had opposed the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles which imposed punitive reparations on the vanquished Germans at the end of World War One. The Treaty also enforced drastic reductions in the German armed forces and banned the possession of tanks and heavy artillery and the creation of an air force.
Dangerous Germany
Winston predicted that these onerous demands would cause fierce resentment which the Nazis meant to exploit in their bid for power in Germany. He painted Hitler as a cynical opportunist, well able to capitalize on the bitterness of the German nation over the perceived wrongs of Versailles. Hitler promised to retrieve lost German territories and restore the country’s prestige and influence.
After failing to seize power by violent means in the Munich putsch of 1923, Hitler instead used Germany’s new democratic system of government to gain electoral advantage. By late 1932, after a series of elections, Hitler’s National Socialist or Nazi Party became the largest single group in the
Reichstag, the German parliament.
On January 30, 1933, the Nazi leader was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the venerable, but very reluctant, President Paul von Hindenberg, At the same time, Franz von Papen was made Hitler’s Vice-Chancellor. Both von Papen and Hindenberg believed they could control Hitler, but in this, they were gravely mistaken.
Pacifist Britain
In Britain, an entirely different ethos was prevalent. The horrors and tragic waste of World War One, which had left few families untouched, were still fresh in the popular mind and pacifist sentiment dominated British policy.
However, this desire for peace was not the only reason for the stance taken by the government: in Britain, the Great Depression of the 1930s had given rise to mass unemployment, near-destitution, business failures, a slump in industry and a widespread feeling of gloom and hopelessness.
The government’s main priority was to ensure industrial recovery, and ministers were unwilling to jeopardize this by plowing money into defence and armaments. There was also a certain remorse for the punitive reparations the Germans were made to pay and the war guilt they were also forced to bear under the terms of the Versailles Treaty.
Adolf Hitler, whom Winston considered so dangerous, was viewed in quite another light by those who were more afraid of the relatively new communist Russia. They saw Nazi Germany as the antithesis of communism and a protection against it.
Appeasing Hitler
In this light, the policy of appeasing Hitler, which was supported by King George VI himself, appeared to be a just means of salving the conscience of the victors on the one hand and providing an insurance policy on the other.
Winston held more pragmatic but also more sombre views. He had witnessed the new, militant, racist Germany at first hand in July 1932 when he visited the country to research his biography of his illustrious ancestor, John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough.
Winston viewed the battlefield of Blenheim, where Marlborough had defeated the French and Bavarian armies in 1704, but he also witnessed Germans, both young and old, whipped up to a frenzy of nationalist and antisemitic fervor by Hitler’s rousing speeches. Back in England, Winston told the House of Commons on March 23, 1932:
“When we read about Germany, when we watch with surprise and distress the tumultuous resurgence of ferocity and war spirit, the pitiless ill-treatment of minorities... the denial of the normal protections of civilized society of large numbers of individuals solely on the grounds of race - when we see that occurring in one of the most gifted, learned, scientific and formidable nations in Europe, one cannot help feeling glad that the fierce passions that are raging in Germany have not found, as yet, any other outlet (but) Germans.”
In addition, Winston also viewed the many calls for disarmament with great alarm, insisting that it must not be carried out while Germany remained a danger to the peace of Europe.
“The removal of the just grievances of the vanquished ought to precede the disarmament of the victors” Winston told the House of Commons in November 1932. “To bring about anything like equality of armaments .... while those grievances remain unredressed would be almost to appoint the day for another European war - to fix it as if it were a prize fight.”
Winston in the wilderness
Winston’s opponents in Parliament had already dismissed him as a lone voice in the wilderness, but he was not to be diverted. One of his major concerns was the government proposal to reduce spending on the Royal Air Force (RAF) and to close down one of Britain’s four flying schools.
He was aware that the development of aircraft in World War One and later technological advances had made fundamental changes in the scope of warfare. Aircraft could now bomb and machine-gun towns and cities from the air, putting civilians at grave risk.
Secret intelligence
Winston did not have access to Cabinet and Foreign Office intelligence, but he had his own grapevine of informants - civil servants, army and RAF officers - who shared his anxieties.
They also shared with Winston their own secret intelligence reports which revealed that the Nazis had violated a ban on military aircraft imposed at Versailles to create a sophisticated air force, the Luftwaffe. They were also actively re-equipping the German army and navy.
Please see also: The Life and Struggles of Winston Churchill: Winston ignored
Sources
McDonough, Dr. Frank: Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party (Seminar Studies In History) by Dr Frank McDonough (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 2003) ISBN-10: 0582506069/ISBN-13: 978-0582506060
Gilbert, Martin: Winston Churchill - the Wilderness Years: A Lone Voice Against Hitler in the Prelude to War (New York, NY: Tauris Parke paperbacks, 2011) ISBN-10: 1848859333/ISBN-13: 978-1848859333
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
