Chapter 1 - Churchill's view of events, 1929-40

Context to Churchill in the 1930s

Churchill was a senior Conservative MP but had been excluded from government since 1929

He was distrusted by conservative leadership, the labour party & most of the public due to this long record of misjudgements on returning to the golden standard, opposition to india & the abdication crisis

Most politicians & public would dismiss him on his views over Germany as attention seeking

Before 1933, Churchill supported the Locarno Pact & the idea of Germany being reintegrated back into Europe

The public widely accepted that Germany had been treated too harshely by the TOV & were sympathetic towards Germany

Churchills views after 1933

• Hitler became Chancellor in Jan 1933, Churchill saw him as a threat, this was because he was set on driving Germany to war, Churchill pressed the government to take German rearmament seriously & to rearm Britain in response

• Churchills call for rearmament in Parliament, He knew about the power of air bombing from WW1 & when the German Luftwaffe was growing faster than the British government would admit, he called for an expansion of Biritish air power

• German conscription in March 1935, Hitler announced the existence of the Luftwaffe & conscription which proved Churchill was right and the Government was embarrassed. They responded with the Anglo-German Naval Agreement (June 1935) which allowed Germnay a navy 35% the size of Britian which Churchill attacked as it legitimised German rearmament

• Germany reoccupied the Rhineland in March 1936, which was another breach of the TOV, the French did not react & Britain restrained where Churchill argued that this was the last moment Germany could have been stopped

Public viewpoint

• Pacifist due to the 700,000 British people that died in WW1

• There was a Peace Ballot in 1935 where 11 million people showed huge support for collective security & disarmament

• Rearmament was associated with the arms race that caused WW1

• The East Fulham by-election (19330 saw a dramatic swing to Labour due to them calling for pacifism which the government saw as proof that the public wouldn’t support rearmament

• The Times & Daily Mail were in support of appeasement

Baldwin, Camberlain & general Conservative leadership

• Curchill was seen as attention seeking

• Baldwin argued that rearmament would be electorally suicidal due to a lack of public support

• Chamberalin saw Churchill as emotionally unstable

• Many Conservatives supported appeasement as just following the rest of the party

• Chamberlain called Churchills speech in the house of commons after Munich as “mischevious”

Attlee, Lansbury & the general left

• Labour was deeply pacifist

• Lansbury (labour leader) was an absolute pacifist

• Labour voted against the military budget as late as 1937

• Saw Churchill as an enemy who sent troops to due in 1910

• Labour refused to vote for arms spending

Halifax & the appeasers

• Lord Halifax (foreign secretary from 1938) believed Hitler could be satisfied with limited losses

• Churchills approach would provoke Hitler into war

Evidence that validated Churchill’s viewpoint

• Germany left the League of Nations in October 1933

• The Saarland was voted to return to Germany in 1935

• Conscription was introduced in 1935 with an army of 500,000

• The Rhineland was remilitarised in March 1936

• Rome-Berlin axis in October 1936 where Germany would be in a coalition with Italy over right-wing views

• Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany & Japan in November 1936 which Churchill saw as an aggressive bloc with Germany gaining allies

• Germany annexed Austria in March 1938

• Hitler demanded the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to be German territory as it had 3m ethnic Germans, Churchill argued that Czechoslovakia should be defended by Britain & France

Reasons for appeasement

• Britain was too poor & the Empire was overstretched with a fragile economy

• Germany was seen as done poorly by the TOV

• War would cause cities to be bombed

• If German grievences from the TOV were reached then maybe Hitler would give up

• Appeasement could be a good time to rearm & prepare which is what Chamberlain did in 1937

• The Dominions were strongly opposed to war

• The USA was seperate & did not want war

Public view on appeasement

• Supported appeasemnet throughout the 1930s from the memories of WW1

• Chamberlain was popular as he was trying to prevent another war

• Churchill was in the minority

The Munich Agreement, September 1938

• Chamberlain, Daladier (France), Mussolini & Hitler met in Munich

• Britain & France agreed that Germany could annex the Sudetenland

• In return Hitler promised that this was his final territorial demand

• Chamberlain saw this as peace & Czechoslovakia was made defenceless

Churchills reaction

• Called it a total defeat

• Argued Britain had chosen to be dishonourable

• Said Czechoslovakia had been sacrificed

• Warned that Britain had lost significant power

• Predicted that Hitler wouldn’t stop

• One of 30 Conservative rebels who voted against the Munich agreement

Chamberlains defence

• Britain was still militarily unprepared

• France was not ready to fight

• The dominions would not support war

• Public opinion was for peace

• More time would lead to more rearmament

• Hitler did have a valid claim to 3m ethnic Germans

Public view on Munich

• Chamberlain was seen as a hero

• Churchill’s speech condeming Munich was unpopular & he was booed & heckled in the House of Commons

• His own constituency came close to passing a vote of no confidence

• Only 1 member resigned from the cabinet

Was Churchill realistic?

The situation after Munich

• Kristallnacht in November 1938 caused British opinion to shift

• Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939 in the Prague spring. Chamberlain felt personally betrayed

• Chamberlain issued a guarantee to Poland that Britain would go to war if they were attacked in March 1939, which was a dramatic reversal of appeasement

• Nazi-soviet Pact so that Hitler could attack Poland without USSR resistance in August 1939

• Germany invades Poland 1st September 1939 where Churchill was brought back into government

Summary arguments against Churchill’s views on appeasement

• Britain couldn’t fight, no continetnal army, RAF was underpowered, the navy was stretched across the Empire

• German greievances were real & Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland were all German-speaking territories

• Churchill had backed Mussolini in 1927, opposed Indian self-government, pushed for lowering military spending as chancellor in the 1920s

• Churchill often exaggerated German air strength in his house of commons speaches

• None of the allies were willing to act