Providential acts that led to Great Britain’s being led by a great leader during World War II:
- Winston Churchill (1874-1965) became prime minister in 1940 at the age of 65. A few years earlier, it looked like his long career as a politician was finally over. From Wikipedia: “Churchill’s reputation in Parliament and England as a whole was badly damaged. Churchill himself later wrote “I was myself so smitten in public opinion that it was the almost universal view that my political life was at last ended.”[375] Yet, he became “the most powerful wartime prime minister in British history.”[379] This happened on 10 May 1940, when “the country had no confidence in Chamberlain’s prosecution of the war and so Chamberlain resigned… Although a prime minister does not traditionally advise the King on a prime minister’s own successor, Chamberlain wanted someone who would command the support of all three major parties in the House of Commons. A meeting between Chamberlain, Halifax, Churchill, and David Margesson, the government Chief Whip, led to the recommendation of Churchill, and, as constitutional monarch, George VI asked Churchill to be prime minister. Churchill’s first act was to write to Chamberlain to thank him for his support.”[392] Thus, a very unpopular prime minister recommended the appointment of a very unpopular former politician who was his fierce critic. Why Chamberlain’s recommendation would carry weight when both he and his suggested appointee was so unpopular, and why Chamberlain would even suggest to appoint someone of such different views than his own was a providential act that enabled the 65 year old Churchill to lead his country when it needed him most. This unpopularity lasted for a very short time until the country realized that Churchill was indeed the best man for the job. According to Wikipedia: “Churchill was still unpopular with many Conservatives and the Establishment,[379][393] who opposed his replacing Chamberlain; the former prime minister remained party leader until dying in November.[394] Churchill probably could not have won a majority in any of the political parties in the House of Commons, and the House of Lords was completely silent when it learned of his appointment.”[379] However, a few months later, the opinion in the country changed: “Ralph Ingersoll reported in late 1940 that, “Everywhere I went in London people admired [Churchill’s] energy, his courage, his singleness of purpose. People said they didn’t know what Britain would do without him. He was obviously respected. But no one felt he would be Prime Minister after the war. He was simply the right man in the right job at the right time. The time being the time of a desperate war with Britain’s enemies.””[395]
- The energy that Churchill, a man prone to strokes (who eventually died at age of 90 in 1965 after his 10th stroke) and depression had during the War was nothing short of astonishing. Wikipedia states: “The war energized Churchill, who was 65 years old when he became Prime Minister. Stating that he was the only top leader from World War I who still had an important political job, John Gunther wrote that Churchill “looks ten years younger than he is”. H. R. Knickerbocker wrote that “The responsibilities which are his now must be greater than those carried by any other human being on earth. One would think such a weight would have a crushing effect upon him. Not at all. The last time I saw him… he looked twenty years younger than before the war began … His uplifted spirit is transmitted to the people””.[406][393 It has been often said that it is unfortunate that the young have the energy but not the wisdom and the old have the wisdom but not the energy, as a result of which neither is able to accomplish according to his potential. It was an act of providence that enabled the wizened and seasoned man to have the energy of a youth, at the time England so desperately needed it.
- Another major act of providence that enabled Churchill to lead England during World War II was his tremendous oratorical ability. What makes this even more shocking is that he had a very noticeable lisp. According to Wikipedia: ” From childhood, Churchill had been unable to pronounce the letter s, verbalizing it with a slur.[47] This lateral lisp continued throughout his career, reported consistently by journalists of the time and later. Authors writing in the 1920s and 1930s, before sound recording became common, also mentioned Churchill having a stutter, describing it in terms such as “severe” or “agonising”.[633] The Churchill Centre and Museum says the majority of records show his impediment was a lateral lisp, while Churchill’s stutter is a myth.[634 Yet, during the War, his speeches were masterpieces, enabling Britain to survive on his words which were in stark contrast to the actual truth of the early years of the war which was that Britain very nearly was brought to its knees by the superior Axis power. (See other related articles on our site which lists some of the acts of providence that allowed the Allies to emerge victorious.) Wikipedia states: “Churchill’s speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled British. His first as prime minister was the famous “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech. One historian has called its effect on Parliament “electrifying”. The House of Commons that had ignored him during the 1930s “was now listening, and cheering””.[380] Additionally, in the early years of the war, Churchill had no good news to give the populace. But he used his oratorical ability to inspire the people without covering up the truth in a brilliant way. Wikipedia states: “Without having much in the way of sustenance or good news to offer the British people, he took a risk in deliberately choosing to emphasize the dangers instead. “Rhetorical power”, wrote Churchill, “is neither wholly bestowed, nor wholly acquired, but cultivated”… Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister, said of Churchill during the Second World War: “His real tyrant is the glittering phrase so attractive to his mind that awkward facts have to give way.””[404] (For the record, the Australian Prime Minister did not mean this a compliment.)
- Churchill’s excellent relations with the other Allied leaders was an act of providence as well. Wikipedia states: “Churchill [had] good relations with United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt—between 1939 and 1945 they exchanged an estimated 1700 letters and telegrams and met 11 times; Churchill estimated that they had 120 days of close personal contact[429]—helped secure vital food, oil and munitions via the North Atlantic shipping routes.[430] It was for this reason that Churchill was relieved when Roosevelt was re-elected in 1940. Upon re-election, Roosevelt immediately set about implementing a new method of providing military hardware and shipping to Britain without the need for monetary payment. Roosevelt persuaded Congress that repayment for this immensely costly service would take the form of defending the US; and so Lend-Lease was born. Churchill had 12 strategic conferences with Roosevelt which covered the Atlantic Charter, Europe first strategy, the Declaration by United Nations and other war policies. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Churchill’s first thought in anticipation of US help was, “We have won the war!””[431] Providentially, Churchill had good relations with Russian leader Stalin too, although he detested Communism and after the war, he even suggested to bomb the Soviet Union with an Atom Bomb. [494][495] Churchill had good relations with US President Harry Truman as well, who was the United States president at the end of the war. The following passage in Wikipedia illustrates the the negotiating ability and positive relationship with the other Allied leaders: ” Proposals for European boundaries and settlements were officially agreed to by President Harry S. Truman, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at Potsdam. Churchill’s strong relationship with Harry Truman was of great significance to both countries… Churchill was enormously supportive of Truman in his first days in office, calling him, “the type of leader the world needs when it needs him most.”[435] Another passage states: “During October 1944, [Churchill] and Eden were in Moscow to meet with the Soviet leadership. At this point, Soviet forces were beginning to advance into various eastern European countries. Churchill held the view that until everything was formally and properly worked out at the Yalta conference, there had to be a temporary, war-time, working agreement with regard to who would run what.[448] The most significant of these meetings was held on 9 October 1944 in the Kremlin between Churchill and Stalin. During the meeting, Poland and the Balkan problems were discussed.[449] Churchill told Stalin: “Let us settle about our affairs in the Balkans. Your armies are in Rumania and Bulgaria. We have interests, missions, and agents there. Don’t let us get at cross-purposes in small ways. So far as Britain and Russia are concerned, how would it do for you to have ninety per cent predominance in Rumania, for us to have ninety per cent of the say in Greece, and go fifty–fifty about Yugoslavia?”[448 Stalin agreed to this Percentages agreement, ticking a piece of paper as he heard the translation. In 1958, five years after the account of this meeting was published (in The Second World War), authorities of the Soviet Union denied that Stalin accepted the “imperialist proposal””.[449] What this last sentence in Wikipedia implies is that Churchill was so successful in negotiating with Stalin, a man he detested, that the Soviets later denied that Stalin would have agreed to it. (It should be pointed out that Churchill did not let his personal opinion of the Soviet Union get in the way of what the best thing was that was needed for the war effort. Wikipedia states: “When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Churchill, a vehement anti-communist, famously stated “If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons”, regarding his policy towards Stalin.[436] Soon, British supplies and tanks were being sent to help the Soviet Union””[437])
