German aircraft attacked Poland
In the early morning of September 1, 1939, the Germans suddenly attacked Poland, and World War II broke out. Germany first attacked Belgium , the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and bypassed the Maginot line, crossed the river from the Sedan area, and invaded France.
France could not withstand the German invasion and retreated step by step. The Germans pressed forward step by step and advanced fiercely. The French commander had neither strategic reserves nor battlefield air supremacy.
On May 21, 1940, the German army went straight to the English Channel, besieging nearly 400,000 British and French coalition forces in a narrow area in the north, and 400,000 Allied forces were in danger of destruction of the entire army.
A total of 400,000 Allied troops were about to be made by the Germans. Of the 400,000 allied troops, 200,000 were British expeditionary forces. If the entire army was destroyed, Britain would suffer heavy losses.
As the saying goes, the lips are gone and the teeth are cold. Once France is lost, the UK will face unprecedented disasters. So what is going on in the UK at this time?
German army invaded France
British people expressed great dissatisfaction with the weakness of the British government and began to hold demonstrations and marches continuously. Many young people held placards and demonstrated in front of the British Lower House and the Prime Minister's residence, posting posters and shouting slogans. The placards all wrote the same sentence: " Churchill should return to the British cabinet", so where is Churchill at this time?
Youth Churchill was born on November 30, 1874 in a prominent family in England. It is said that parents are the best teachers for their children. Churchill's father once served as the British Finance Minister, second only to the British Prime Minister.
Churchill's mother came from a prominent family in the United States. As early as when he was 18 years old, there were always some upper-class politicians in his family. Their topics were almost always centered on political issues, which made Churchill develop a strong interest in politics.
So, Churchill has cultivated a very creative personality since he was a teenager. He is planning things for tomorrow all day long. His brain is always thinking about future issues and things that others have not thought about. This has a very impact on his later political career, especially Churchill's career in World War II.
This is considered one of the most important political leaders of the 20th century. At this time, Churchill was impeached due to party struggles in the UK. At this time, Churchill had been idle at home for a full ten years, and during this decade, Churchill wrote books and paintings at home.
Why can a person who has been drawing and reading books at home for ten years still have such appeal? And why would such a person be willing to retreat to the second line?
Champion
The British Prime Minister at that time was Chamberlain, who was a politician who lacked vision. Politically, he was extremely eager to maintain peace in Europe at any cost, believing that war could be avoided through negotiation.
When Germany attacked Czech Sudeten District, Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Dara signed an agreement with Hitler in Munich, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudeten District, almost agreed to all Hitler's request, but hoped that Hitler would no longer launch a new war.
Chemicalen signed the Munich Agreement
If Hitler really did not start the war as promised, Churchill might have been a speaker, writer, or even a painter, but Chamberlain's nightmare still came.
At 4 a.m. on September 1, 1939, 1.5 million German troops launched a large-scale attack on Poland. After the war broke out, Chamberlain still took a lucky mentality and ordered the ambassador to Germany to write a letter to the German government, demanding Hitler withdraw his troops at 11 a.m. on September 3, 1939, and warned: "If such a guarantee is not received, the two countries will enter a state of war."
Hitler certainly did not respond. Later, Chamberlain announced the news of Britain's participation in the war through the radio station to the world through the threat of parliament. The British Foreign Secretary sent the printed and manually filled out the complete declaration of war to the British Ministry of War, declaring the beginning of the war in writing.
However, even though the Chamberlain government has started war, it still has not really participated in the war. We all know that this will only completely isolate Britain and fall into an unprecedented crisis.
Churchill and Chamberlain
Chengel's compromise and avoidance aroused strong dissatisfaction among the British people. At the request of the public, Chamberlain was forced to ask Churchill to come out, but although the cunning Chamberlain recruited Churchill back into the cabinet, he sent Churchill to the forefront of the war.
At that time, although the land war on the Western Front was relatively calm, the battle at sea was going on fiercely. Hitler issued an order to Germany to impose a comprehensive blockade on Britain and violently attacked British fleets and merchant ships. Hitler also gritted his teeth and said, "Even if Britain is not killed in battle, it will also trap Britain to death."
On the evening of September 3, 1939, the British passenger ship Athena was sunk by a German torpedo. On September 5 and 6, three more passenger ships were sunk along the coast of Spain.
0 The sunken Athena passenger ship
Faced with such a severe war situation, Churchill was ordered to serve as British Navy Secretary. However, will he still fight after being laid off for ten years? Does he still have the ability to lead the British Navy to win battles?
As early in World War I, Churchill fought with the German Navy as the Minister of Navy and had a certain understanding of the German Navy. But in 1939, when Churchill returned to the British Admiralty, all the officers and generals were gone and all replaced with new faces.
Although he is young and energetic, he has no experience. Most of the ships were built during his tenure, and none of them were newly built.
But fortunately, Churchill's reputation is still there, and these are all very familiar to him. As the saying goes, after ten years of hard work, Churchill stayed at home for 10 years, but returning to the Admiralty was his first step to return to the political stage.
Churchill in painting
It turns out that during these 10 years, Churchill has been paying attention to the development of the international situation in addition to writing books and paintings at home. Churchill realized the threat from Germany to Britain very early on, and he even carefully read and analyzed Hitler's "My Struggle".
The first thing Churchill did after becoming the Minister of the Navy was to inspect almost all the major naval bases. He traveled through all the large warships to learn in detail about the deployment of the fleet and the needs of the fleet. He even hung a large map in the Navy, which indicated the deployment of the German Navy. The purpose of doing this is to keep yourself in the sense of enemy situation at all times.
In the first month of Churchill's appointment as Navy Minister, the Navy implemented an escort system, stepped up arming merchant ships, and launched a counterattack on the German submarine , and the maritime combat situation improved significantly.
Churchill reviews the Royal Navy Fleet
1939 On November 13, 1939, a fierce battle was taking place on the sea in the Atlantic Ocean, and Churchill carefully prepared a sumptuous dinner in the British Admiralty Building. Churchill and his wife specially invited Chamberlain to have dinner together. The atmosphere was very harmonious, and it was impossible to see that there was any difference between Churchill and Chamberlain.
Just while drinking the soup, an officer suddenly ran up from the combat room downstairs to report to Churchill: "A German submarine was sunk." And while using desserts, the officer came up to report, "The second German submarine was also hit." When the meal was over and the Chamberlain and his wife were about to leave, the officer came up to report, "The third German submarine was sunk again."
called the police three times in a day, but this has never happened before. Chamberlain smiled and asked Churchill: "Did you arrange this in advance?" Churchill replied humorously: "If you come again next time, there will be such good news."
Churchill told Chamberlain in his way that he was a minister of the navy, but Churchill did not just want to be a minister of the navy, because the passive battle of the Chamberlain government made Churchill unable to show his strength on the battlefield.
Of course, Napoleon once said this: "A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier." Churchill has ambitions and preparations.
Churchill in the speech
When Churchill became the Minister of the Navy, he not only cared about the affairs of the Navy, he cared about things outside the Navy more than ever. Because Churchill believed that he would definitely become prime minister and must be familiar with many aspects.
Churchill specially established an intelligence statistics office in the Admiralty Department, where a group of enthusiastic and capable experts gathered here. They provided Churchill with not only information on naval statistics, but also icons and commentaries on all the battle situations. At the same time, Churchill also established direct contact with US President Roosevelt during this period.
Churchill met Roosevelt
At this time, he may not have expected that this friendship with Roosevelt would have greatly helped him in the future. It can be said that Churchill has been preparing for being the prime minister since the day he returned to politics, but this is not an easy thing, and Chamberlain is also ahead of him.
In the spring of 1940, Chamberlain thought that the victory of the British war against Germany had been guaranteed, but on April 9, Germany launched an attack on Denmark and Norway and quickly occupied the two countries.
German invasion of Denmark
Britain wanted to use the navy, air force and army to resist Germany in Norway, but failed. For this reason, the British government has been criticized unprecedentedly. Chamberlain received only 81 votes in the vote of confidence in the government.
This can be said to be a very tragic thing, because the number of votes supporting the government in the past was above 240 votes. Even so, Chamberlain still refused to delegate power. In just one sentence, he didn't want Churchill to be the prime minister.
The British people are extremely firmly supporting the anti-fascist struggle, and their sentiment is unprecedentedly high, which is extremely unfavorable to Chamberlain, who has always pursued an appeasement policy. Because, at that time, in British politics, only Churchill had the ability to lead this war, and he had always insisted on actively resisting Hitler.
Just as this unprecedented power-grabbing struggle by the British Conservative Party-led group was in a difficult situation, Germany launched an offensive on the Western Front after conquering Northern Europe, attacking France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The British and French coalition forces retreated step by step and were defeated.
German invasion of Belgium
Subsequently, Chamberlain went to the palace to submit his resignation, and then Churchill was summoned to the palace. According to Churchill's own records, the British King found Churchill and asked him directly to reorganize the cabinet immediately.
Churchill took office, however, internal and external troubles. Facing the mess left by the Chamberlain administration, Churchill showed no frustration. On the contrary, he was very excited.
On May 13, 1940, Churchill, who had just taken office, delivered a short and famous speech in the House of Representatives of the United Kingdom, which made Churchill's attitude clear. After listening to his speech, the British people were in a state of excitement. But at this moment, an ominous sign was quietly attacking Churchill.
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