http://localhost:8080/netflix-churchill-atwar Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Writer and Historian Sun, 12 Jan 2025 21:07:08 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 http://localhost:8080/netflix-churchill-atwar#comment-88114 Tue, 07 Jan 2025 06:21:16 +0000 https://richardlangworth.com/?p=18557#comment-88114 I enjoyed it especially readings from Churchill’s own speeches and writings but gave it a B+ I agree that some of the celebs and speech writers were weak and really distracted from the real story. Liked your ending: “After Part 1 I was expecting the worst, but on balance it’s a good show, and the finale is well done. Kudos to Lord Roberts and others for keeping it on track, and for his eloquent finale: ‘Physically brave, morally brave, full of insights and foresight, humorous to the point that he can still make people laugh sixty years after his death, Winston Churchill represented a resolute spirit that is very, very rarely seen in human history.’”

]]> http://localhost:8080/netflix-churchill-atwar#comment-88071 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:33:42 +0000 https://richardlangworth.com/?p=18557#comment-88071 In July 1940, Churchill “sank the French navy.” What was not mentioned was the degree of resentment amongst the Vichy French after the deaths of French sailors at Mers el Kebir. It manifested in Vichy forces putting up stronger resistance than anticipated in engagements such as the Battle of Casablanca, where in Operation Torch, 1,300 French, 526 Americans, and 574 British were killed. The Americans had anticipated a soft landing from their long-time ally, “France”. Instead, they were met with fierce resistance; why? Churchill was desperate to hold onto the Suez Canal, and the measures taken at Mers el Kebir undermined America’s first engagement in North Africa. This is particularly significant because the American High Command did not want to land in North Africa; they wanted to go straight for a European Invasion landing via the North Sea.
Acquiescing to Churchill’s Suez Canal priorities, the Americans thought the landings at Casablanca would be an easy way to get into the war. Sadly, they found out differently. These and other missteps by the British would lead to the decision that the Supreme Commander of all allied forces would be an American, Eisenhower.
=
There is I think a connection between Mers el Kebir in July 1940 and resistance to the “Torch” landings eighteen months later; but none in the selection of an American supreme commander four years later. Churchill’s 1940 action, which pained him to the bone, was taken for both military and psychological reasons: A major French fleet in German hands was unthinkable. As for the psychological, Churchill wrote: “Here was this Britain which so many had counted down and out, which strangers had supposed to be quivering on the brink of surrender to the mighty power arrayed against her, striking ruthlessly at her dearest friends of yesterday and securing for a while to herself the undisputed command of the sea. It was made plain that the British War Cabinet feared nothing and would stop at nothing.” This was indeed proven by subsequent events. See also the remarkable about-face by General de Gaulle when upbraided for his remarks by Clementine Churchill. There was more to the North Africa decision than the Suez Canal; the Allies were in no way ready to invade Europe, so military reality prevailed. —RML

]]>