Winston S. Churchill was one of the outstanding figures of the 20th century. He was the son of a British politician and an American socialite and a graduate of the British military academy at Sandhurst. He first came to public attention for his adventures in the Boer War and was elected to Parliament as a Liberal prior to the First World War. During the war, he served as First Lord of the Admiralty (equivalent to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy) and was a major advocate of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. On the other hand, he was also the political godfather of the tank.
Between the wars, Churchill switched party affiliation to the Conservative Party. Alienated from his old Liberal colleagues and distrusted by other Conservatives, who considered him a political opportunist, he became “the voice in the wilderness,” warning against the Nazi threat from 1933 onwards. When war came, his foresight earned him a place in Chamberlain’s cabinet. Though he took considerable (and probably deserved) criticism for the Norwegian fiasco, he became Prime Minister just as the battle of France began in 1940, largely because the leaders of Labour and Liberal Parties made it clear that they would not join a national government led by any other Conservative. Churchill remained Prime Minister until nearly the end of the war.
Churchill was an excellent writer and superb orator whose greatest contribution was sustaining British resistance in the difficult year between the spring of 1940 and the spring of 1941. His military leadership was sometimes faulty; he had a fondness for wild and impractical schemes that he hoped could end the Second World War without the bloodshed that characterized the First. Another of his blind spots was his stubborn opposition to Indian self-rule. But he usually took the advice of his generals and admirals on the overall conduct of the war. He was a champion of radar and electronic warfare, the escort carrier, and strategic bombing, but supported the Normandy invasion only with great reluctance.
Churchill appears to have suffered from bouts of severe depression, as illustrated by the account in his own writings of a visit to the fleet at Scapa Flow early in the war. He self-medicated with liberal doses of alcohol. He adored his wife Clementine, who was usually a pillar of strength during his black periods.
For all his faults, Churchill became one of the great heroes of Western democracy, who more than any other single individual saved the world from another Dark Age. He was arguably the greatest man of the 20th Century.
References
The Pacific War Online
Encyclopedia (c) 2007-2008 by Kent G. Budge. Index