HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1970-04-02, Page 16ILA, 0
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IONAL-S•�1�A11, iT URSDA ,,A R•.1 2, 1970
BY G. MIcLEOD ROSS
'rhe recent publication of the
Minutes of the British 'Cabinet
' "tr 1939 has serv"ed to answer
the nurnercius speculations of
the, professional .historic s as to
• how, o exactly, war c e to
'Britain inthis fateful ar. But
they do More than pin -,point the'
Mon -lent of decision, the point
beyond which there could be no--,
'turning back, for they reveal the
reactions of the several principal
actors as they came~ face to face
with menacing circumstances
from which there was no escape.
On March 15th 1939 Hitler
entered Prague .and• while the.
British , ,Ambassador in Berlin "Hitler Hitler hasgone off the
deep end," the Cabinet appeared
unruffled in the face of its
guarantee of Czechoslovakia at
Munich. Yet by this act
Germany had established
dominance over non -German
people for the first time. Only a
week previously "I4itter's
attitude made it impossible to
negotiate... with the Nazi
regime," but this did' not
Occlude the German people.
' Now the Cabinet decided to
app roach Russia, Poland,
Jugoslavia, Greece and Rumania,
to discover which, if any, would
resist acts of German aggression.
1939.
Ghamberlain was now talking
about attacking Germany, not to
save a particular victim, but to
hull down the 'Mad Dog.' In the
result, ?Oland refused any
alliance which included Russia, a
decision which showed she knew
a good deal . more ' abou a h.e,
Russian character than /' s ` the
British, and the idea of : mutual
alliance -collapsed.:
By March. 18th the British
Cabinet had decided „to let war
cotne to them,rather than seek
',.it. March 30th Halifax proposed
they resolve to support Poland
unilaterally if attacked l y
''perrnany and it was thus that
the triggering mechanism was set
up for British involvement in
war.
This. action was taken
without any reference to
military advice, for it wad purely
a political decision such as a
country takes irrespective of its
chances of success, when it
recognizes that one of the
nations forming the concert of
Europe has become rabid once
more. Thus it was that the
guarantee`" to Poland either did,
__ or did not, deter Germany from
I4iolating Polish sovereignty: 'In
the latter event war was
inevitable anyway. Meanwhile
Chamberlain was insisting that
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.IANL:ES -
How war .to. Britain
Hitler could not fight on two
fronts simultaneously and,
proceeded to spell out the
implications of the guarantee to
Poland. At the precise moment
it was mere anticipation, yet it
was the actual "Crossing of the
stream" as far as the Cabinet was
concerned.
R v
"THE PHQNEY WAR"
-)r ar from being a period of
phoney war, the Minutes reveal
the first months were a carefi fly
calculated 'period of restraint.
"Every day that passes will
improve on.r-position.!" The valid
reasons for deferring operations
until 1940 were' based on a
variety of circumstances. First,
the British •Army had no armour
worthy of the name, nor were
they armed with a full
complement of automatic small
arms. Only a few --months before
there had been a general alarm
when Hitler was expected to
" send the Luftwaffe to bomb the
south coast of England. The
Territorials were mobilized for
anti-aircraft duty,' and issued
with World War One Lewis guns
which had been in storage since
1918, the springs of which were
rusted, so that they broke. An
anti-aircraft brigade found it had
no keys to set the fuses on the
hells and the C.O. saw one of
s ,
his officers disappearing down a
side street int Portsmouth to an
old fashioned smithy, with a live
round under his arm, so that he
�vurl^haveaeyftted.hereA nutes._bear .witness. tornvch
Was --certainly' every reason- to __.
defer the opening rounds of war.
Then the Generaf Staff feared
"ari'lther. Mons," whilst in
France Geirerat-Gam din- said he
had no intention of *risking the
loss of the flower of the French
Army in the opening enco> nters.
While Churchill 'chafed at the
inactivity, and the Cabinet did
not want action, but did. not
know what it did want, Halifax ,
?was reiterating that the_chief_aim
ori -Of Hlti'er
'Peace jnitiatives by the Swedish
businessman, Dahlerus, in 1939,
served merely to obtain for him
a' tongue-lashing from the
Germans sand Halifax told him
that no one in England believed
a word Hitler said anyntore.•
CHURCH ILL'S,REACTIONS
. •
As mentioned above, one of
the most interesting revelations
which the publication ` of these
Minutes provides, is "the ,light it
throws on the actions of
Churchill, Who was once again -
First Lord of the Admiralty,
with Britain on the brink of -war,
in fact the circumstances were
identical in many ways, not least
.the,ltopelcss. tinpreparesiness.of;._.
the British :Arrny for a-
Continental War. It 'will be
recalled that one of Churchill's
first actions in 1914 was to send
a number of Royals Marines in an
abortive attempt to hold
Antwerp in the face of von
Kluck's advance, -until such time
as the Expeditionary Force
could arrive. The result was that
the whole garrison was captured.
Too little and too late!
Later . it was the young
Churchill's.inpatiencewhich sent
a fleet to open the Dardanellas,
without the co-operation of the
Army, until it was too late;
procrastination for which Lord
Kitchener must take the blame.
Thus, -it was that the costly
attempt on the Dardanelles 'just
failed.': However it provided a
lesson in co-operation, which the
Services had learned by 1940.
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the same restlessness to the face
of Cabinet inaction, Some of the
Ministers.may be excused if their
perspective was out of focus, for
they had not ipfaced.- these
conditions before. When, three
days after war began, the
Germans, sank five British
merchantmen, Churchill said of
the occurrence: "the situation is
at its worst and will improve."
So far there was no inkling ,of
the Battle of the Atlantic. Later
still he wished to involve Turkey
and the Balkans, oblous to the
fact that they had nothing to
fight with.°°
By .mid-September he was
telling--• the Cabinet that in_ , his
()pinion an attack {on the'
W'''estern Front "would be a good
thing," yet only five minutes
before he had been told the only'
()four divisions available were not
even equipped up to 1914
standards. Then, having agreed
in principle that •the British
ought to conserve their air
power, a week later he was .
promoting attacks on German
synthetic petrol plants. There
were o other unpractical
Churchillian proposals; such as
that for _floating mines down the
Rhine, whilst later - still , he
wanted to move into Ireland and
take over, so as to obtain
submarine bases add t� deny
them:to the Germans. -
The one project promoted by
the First Lord M ich did
materialize was the disastrous -
,Narvik Expedition, a result of
„which Norway and Denmark -fell
to the . Germans, ..as well as
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However, the first . steps were
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This last was in direct' conflict
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We shall have to wait for the
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responsibility as "First Minister"
on • Churchill, for.. he did not
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* Vide "The Gathering Storm;"
'Pages 508-510. By W. S.
Churchill. `•Published• by
' Ho%i hton Mifflin Company.
1948. °
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