Thanks so much. RL

Pursuing sins of omission is endless and leads nowhere. Darkest Hour is about British leadership and politics. It is perfectly understandable that British sacrifices at Calais would be mentioned. (Let’s also note that many brave Frenchmen defended the Dunkirk perimeter, as well as Belgians, Canadians and others.) But on June 4th, Belgium was out of the war, and Churchill trying to keep France in it. It beggars belief that he would have challenged Reynaud on anything at that moment. It is rather narrow to credit Churchill for doing his best for his country. He did his best for the world. He promised the French, “we will win all back for you.” Meanwhile, for a year Britain and the Empire stood alone, until as Churchill said, “those who hitherto had been half-blind were half-ready.”

2) Baldwin’s refusal to support Flandin, who wanted only tacit support to demand that France resist the Rhineland occupation—and the logic of Belgium’s “armed neutrality” in the Chamberlain era—are discussed at length in my book, Churchill and the Avoidable War.

3) Baldwin’s and Chamberlain’s failures to comprehend the storm about to engulf them are also part of that book. Alas it seemed that they found a reason to spurn every friendly foreign hand stretched toward them, including one from across the Atlantic.

2) The Baldwin and Chamberlain governments (1935-39) had a major effect on earlier Belgian policy, especially in 1936 when they and the French did not oppose Hitler reoccupying the Rhineland. This left Belgium without its protective buffer zone. Thus King Leopold III and his foreign minister Spaak declared Belgium’s armed neutrality, which was guaranteed by Britain France and Germany. The King explained Belgium’s position in October 1939.

3) On 10 January 1940, when a German plane crashed in Belgium, Belgians learned of German war plans to attack the west. At some risk, King Leopold through Sir Roger Keyes offered Britain staff conversations and free passage to Anglo-French troops, provided the Allies guarantee to restore any lost Belgian territory after a war, and include Belgium in peace negotiations. Prime Minister Chamberlain spurned this offer, denying the Allies an opportunity to enter Belgium before the attack.

Daniel, thank-you for your further note below. I gladly recommend Joshua Levine’s book on the basis of your approval. I am relieved however that the offending statement in Churchill’s 4 June 1940 speech was edited out of Darkest Hour. A movie can’t be expected to tell the whole story, and to include it would require a lengthy explanation to correct it. It’s well that it was omitted. Dunkirk, in which heroes go unmentioned wholesale, is another story. At the same time it is unfortunate that Lord Keyes maintains that Churchill stuck to the lie “for the rest of his days.” He certainly did not, and made haste to correct himself. He and his son had prodigious rows, many in later life when he was aged and his powers were fading. That incident alone is not dispositive, and two wrongs don’t make a right. Thanks for your persistence in defending King Leopold.

Daniel, I’m surprised you would say that, without reference to my articles establishing King Leopold’s honor and innocence—considering that you helped me write them. The latest version is here.

Lord Keyes is quite right the the “great lie” about Leopold originated with French Premier Reynaud. Churchill’s speech of 4 June 1940, in support of Reynaud, was the act of an ally in desperate times. As Lord Keyes says, lies are excusable “in a great emergency.” But Keyes is dead wrong that Churchill blamed Leopold “to the end of his days.” Only seven months later, Churchill expressed “a good deal of sympathy with Leopold” to Roosevelt. In 1949 in his draft memoirs, Churchill softened his words about the Belgian surrender. And, refusing to placate French opinion, he omitted the Belgian material from his second French edition.

Rather than Churchill, blame the hysterical Reynaud (who after all was about to lose his country). Blame the scurrilous Belgian politicians, who not only vilified their King but court-martialed in absentia Belgian pilots who had flown to Britain or North Africa rather than surrender. While we’re at it, let’s not omit King George VI, for refusing to invite King Leopold to Princess Elizabeth’s wedding in 1947—apparently he was not quite so pro-Leopold as Lord Keyes would have us believe.

I don’t know about Darkest Hour, but you are right to criticize Dunkirk. That movie never mentions the valiant Belgians, fighting to hold the line so the evacuation could proceed. Viewers wouldn’t know they existed. Indeed, one hardly knows who the enemy was in this vaguely PC film, determined not to offend anybody. Belgian and Canadian evacuees from Dunkirk go unmentioned. See: “Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans.”

Thanks for the kind words. But you don’t have the latest! Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

All eight episodes are on YouTube, and if you have a Roku you can spool it on a television. Hillsdale College offers video excerpts of five key episodes. See: https://richardlangworth.com/hardy2015

Fair comment. Still, compared to The Crown, Viceroy’s House and Brian Cox, we can be grateful for this one. See “The Trouble with the Movies.”

I have rewritten the post, put more meat on the bones.