Allied Leaders of World War Two/Churchill, Part 3
"Churchill, War & Postwar"
Churchill was (and has been) criticized by some for not pursuing the North African campaign against the Italians in early 1941, but instead, of choosing to withdraw forces to help bolster Greece against the Italians. While not a total certainty, the Italians were on the verge of collapse in Libya, and their total defeat would have removed the possibility of German forces coming to their rescue (the forces under the command of Rommel, aka "the Desert Fox"). Churchill, however, was always aware of a potential communist threat, and southeastern Europe remained such a concern for him throughout the war, as he tried to balance the war against Hitler, with an attempt to stay one step ahead of communists, including Stalin.*
While Churchill was wary of Stalin's expansionist goals, as displayed by the Soviet leader's deal with Hitler in 1939 to divide up eastern Europe between them, Churchill met with President Franklin Roosevelt and Free French representative Charles de Gaulle at Casablanca, in then French Morocco, in early 1943,** and the conference resulted in the Allied announcement that they would only accept the "unconditional surrender" of the Axis powers. This limited their ability to negotiate any deal with Germany, even if Hitler had been killed or deposed,*** and it did little to placate the always suspicious, if not paranoid, Stalin. In 1944 Churchill met with Stalin and they reached an agreement about the Balkans, with the Soviets getting the influence over Rumania and Bulgaria, but Britain getting the same with Greece. Influence was to be shared regarding Yugoslavia, but the point became irrelevant, as Marshall Tito, the communist resistance leader there, ended up running the country, and he was often at odds with the Soviets, who found they could not dominate him.
Churchill advocated a strategy of attacking southern Europe to knock Italy out of the war and to force the Germans to commit military resources to defend what he called, "the soft underbelly" of Axis Europe. Stalin pressed for a major Allied landing in western Europe to tie down the German army so that Hitler would be forced to defend two major combat areas, eastern Europe, against the Soviets, and western Europe, against Britain, the U.S., and the Free French. Instead, the Allies basically took Churchill's advice and invaded Italy, bringing about the surrender of the Italian government, although Mussolini was rescued by his German ally and then propped up by them as a counter force to the Allied liberated parts of southern Italy. The Allies finally delivered the major invasion blow in June 1944, as their armies landed in the Normandy part of France. A few weeks later the Soviets launched a massive offensive against the German forces in the central Soviet Union, staggering the German army. The huge losses incurred by the Germans in France and in the Soviet Union meant the war was nearing an end. The Allied leaders met in the Soviet Union at Yalta in February 1945, where they decided the postwar fate of eastern Europe and Germany. The Western Allies agreed to return all Soviet citizens in their occupation areas to the Soviet Union.****
Just after the war ended, Britain held new elections, and in a stunning outcome, Churchill's Conservative Party suffered a major defeat to the Labour Party, and Churchill was out as prime minister. He remained active in politics, however, and he again became prime minister in the early 1950s when he was well into his 70s. His health deteriorated from a stroke, and he retired in the mid 1950s. Never out of the public eye, Churchill was made an "Honorary Citizen of the United States in 1963 (remember, his mother had been an American). He suffered another stroke in early 1965 and passed away about a week later. He was 90 years old.
* Mussolini's Italy had invaded Greece from Albania (then an Italian possession) in the fall of 1940, but had met very tough resistance from the Greeks. Churchill sent small forces to help the Greeks at first, but then increased the British commitment there. There were already communist movements in Greece and elsewhere in southeastern Europe, and during the later occupation of the Balkan countries, communist resistance movements battled the German and Italian occupation forces there, although there were also non-communist resistance elements in these areas too, and it was not uncommon for the two sides to do battle with one another, in a prelude to postwar control of each respective country.
** Interestingly, the war in North Africa was still being fought not all that far from there in Tunisia. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not attend the conference, as the decisive battle of Stalingrad was nearing its end in the Soviet Union; a crushing defeat for Hitler and a major sign he could not win the war.
*** The hope among the German opposition to Hitler, within the military in particular, was to arrest or to kill Hitler and major Nazi leaders, but then to negotiate a separate peace treaty with the Western Allies to permit Germany to continue the war against the Soviet Union, perhaps even with Allied participation. This was also in Churchill's mind, it seems.
**** This was important because many Soviet citizens had taken up arms AGAINST Stalin. By returning these people to Stalin's control, it was a death sentence and untold hundreds of thousands (millions?) died as a consequence. It is important to remember, the Soviet Union was a multi-ethnic, multi-national empire based upon the old Russian Empire, but with the Tsar (or Czar, if you like) replaced by Soviet leaders who were every bit as ruthless as the Tsars, if not more so, at times, but with the empire's wealth no longer concentrated in the very few in the nobility and upper class as under the Tsars.
WORD HISTORY:
Drive-Known forms of this word are only present in the Germanic languages. Whether it was a Germanic creation, or an altered form of some Indo European word (as some believe), or a borrowing from a non-Indo Europan source, is unknown. Anyway, Old Germanic had "driban," with the meaning "to push, to force, to cause to move." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "drifan," with the same basic meaning. Later this became "driven" (with a long "i"), before the modern spelling. The basic notion behind the meaning was that ancient people either pushed carts, or used animals to pull the carts/wagons, but it took humans to "force" the animals to draw the vehicle. The same notion has continued into modern times, as it takes someone to step on the gas to "force" the vehicle to move. German has "treiben" (the "ei" is pronounced like a long "i," and notice the change of "d" to "t"), which was originally "triban," in Old High German, Low German Saxon has "drieven," some Low German dialects have "driewe," Dutch has "drijven," West Frisian has "driuwe," Swedish has "driva," Icelandic has "drÃfa," Danish and Norwegian have "drive." The meanings all center around "push, force, cause to move," but not all are necessarily used for "driving" a motor vehicle, as in English.
Churchill was (and has been) criticized by some for not pursuing the North African campaign against the Italians in early 1941, but instead, of choosing to withdraw forces to help bolster Greece against the Italians. While not a total certainty, the Italians were on the verge of collapse in Libya, and their total defeat would have removed the possibility of German forces coming to their rescue (the forces under the command of Rommel, aka "the Desert Fox"). Churchill, however, was always aware of a potential communist threat, and southeastern Europe remained such a concern for him throughout the war, as he tried to balance the war against Hitler, with an attempt to stay one step ahead of communists, including Stalin.*
While Churchill was wary of Stalin's expansionist goals, as displayed by the Soviet leader's deal with Hitler in 1939 to divide up eastern Europe between them, Churchill met with President Franklin Roosevelt and Free French representative Charles de Gaulle at Casablanca, in then French Morocco, in early 1943,** and the conference resulted in the Allied announcement that they would only accept the "unconditional surrender" of the Axis powers. This limited their ability to negotiate any deal with Germany, even if Hitler had been killed or deposed,*** and it did little to placate the always suspicious, if not paranoid, Stalin. In 1944 Churchill met with Stalin and they reached an agreement about the Balkans, with the Soviets getting the influence over Rumania and Bulgaria, but Britain getting the same with Greece. Influence was to be shared regarding Yugoslavia, but the point became irrelevant, as Marshall Tito, the communist resistance leader there, ended up running the country, and he was often at odds with the Soviets, who found they could not dominate him.
Churchill advocated a strategy of attacking southern Europe to knock Italy out of the war and to force the Germans to commit military resources to defend what he called, "the soft underbelly" of Axis Europe. Stalin pressed for a major Allied landing in western Europe to tie down the German army so that Hitler would be forced to defend two major combat areas, eastern Europe, against the Soviets, and western Europe, against Britain, the U.S., and the Free French. Instead, the Allies basically took Churchill's advice and invaded Italy, bringing about the surrender of the Italian government, although Mussolini was rescued by his German ally and then propped up by them as a counter force to the Allied liberated parts of southern Italy. The Allies finally delivered the major invasion blow in June 1944, as their armies landed in the Normandy part of France. A few weeks later the Soviets launched a massive offensive against the German forces in the central Soviet Union, staggering the German army. The huge losses incurred by the Germans in France and in the Soviet Union meant the war was nearing an end. The Allied leaders met in the Soviet Union at Yalta in February 1945, where they decided the postwar fate of eastern Europe and Germany. The Western Allies agreed to return all Soviet citizens in their occupation areas to the Soviet Union.****
Just after the war ended, Britain held new elections, and in a stunning outcome, Churchill's Conservative Party suffered a major defeat to the Labour Party, and Churchill was out as prime minister. He remained active in politics, however, and he again became prime minister in the early 1950s when he was well into his 70s. His health deteriorated from a stroke, and he retired in the mid 1950s. Never out of the public eye, Churchill was made an "Honorary Citizen of the United States in 1963 (remember, his mother had been an American). He suffered another stroke in early 1965 and passed away about a week later. He was 90 years old.
* Mussolini's Italy had invaded Greece from Albania (then an Italian possession) in the fall of 1940, but had met very tough resistance from the Greeks. Churchill sent small forces to help the Greeks at first, but then increased the British commitment there. There were already communist movements in Greece and elsewhere in southeastern Europe, and during the later occupation of the Balkan countries, communist resistance movements battled the German and Italian occupation forces there, although there were also non-communist resistance elements in these areas too, and it was not uncommon for the two sides to do battle with one another, in a prelude to postwar control of each respective country.
** Interestingly, the war in North Africa was still being fought not all that far from there in Tunisia. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not attend the conference, as the decisive battle of Stalingrad was nearing its end in the Soviet Union; a crushing defeat for Hitler and a major sign he could not win the war.
*** The hope among the German opposition to Hitler, within the military in particular, was to arrest or to kill Hitler and major Nazi leaders, but then to negotiate a separate peace treaty with the Western Allies to permit Germany to continue the war against the Soviet Union, perhaps even with Allied participation. This was also in Churchill's mind, it seems.
**** This was important because many Soviet citizens had taken up arms AGAINST Stalin. By returning these people to Stalin's control, it was a death sentence and untold hundreds of thousands (millions?) died as a consequence. It is important to remember, the Soviet Union was a multi-ethnic, multi-national empire based upon the old Russian Empire, but with the Tsar (or Czar, if you like) replaced by Soviet leaders who were every bit as ruthless as the Tsars, if not more so, at times, but with the empire's wealth no longer concentrated in the very few in the nobility and upper class as under the Tsars.
WORD HISTORY:
Drive-Known forms of this word are only present in the Germanic languages. Whether it was a Germanic creation, or an altered form of some Indo European word (as some believe), or a borrowing from a non-Indo Europan source, is unknown. Anyway, Old Germanic had "driban," with the meaning "to push, to force, to cause to move." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "drifan," with the same basic meaning. Later this became "driven" (with a long "i"), before the modern spelling. The basic notion behind the meaning was that ancient people either pushed carts, or used animals to pull the carts/wagons, but it took humans to "force" the animals to draw the vehicle. The same notion has continued into modern times, as it takes someone to step on the gas to "force" the vehicle to move. German has "treiben" (the "ei" is pronounced like a long "i," and notice the change of "d" to "t"), which was originally "triban," in Old High German, Low German Saxon has "drieven," some Low German dialects have "driewe," Dutch has "drijven," West Frisian has "driuwe," Swedish has "driva," Icelandic has "drÃfa," Danish and Norwegian have "drive." The meanings all center around "push, force, cause to move," but not all are necessarily used for "driving" a motor vehicle, as in English.
Labels: America, Balkans, Britain, England, English, etymology, Germanic languages, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Stalin, Winston Churchill, World War Two
posted by Randy at 12:20 PM
3 Comments:
Do you think some of his critics had hindsight 20/20 vision on north Africa? Didnt realize he lived that long...90!
Certainly some of the criticism was in hindsight, but that's what historians do, and that's how we try to learn from history. The British army was not happy with his decision back then however.
I wish I paid more atention to history earlier in my life.
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