On the 10th May, 1940, as German forces drove into France, Belgium and Holland,
Churchill became Prime Minister. He was 65.
I speak to you for the first time as Prime Minister, in a solemn hour for the life of our country,
of our Allies, and above all, of the cause of freedom.
A tremendous battle is raging in France and Flanders.
The Germans, by a remarkable combination of air bombing and heavily-armoured tanks...
Within two weeks of his becoming Prime Minister,
the German Army had smashed through the Allied defences in France,
who were in full retreat before the German Blitzkrieg.
There was no question of surrender.
Arm yourselves and be ye men of valour
and be in readiness for conflict.
It is better to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation.
It was as if he had been waiting for this moment all his life,
and as if we had been waiting all OUR lives for him to come forward.
When you're up against the threat of defeat,
and when you are standing alone,
then you have to have someone like Churchill,
who isn't rational, isn't weighing the chances soberly,
but who is giving rein to his romantic fantasy life in his speeches,
who rallies people into becoming heroes and working twice as hard.
CHEERING
'Now at last the gloves are off. We must return ten blows for every one we get.
'The Allied war machine rolls on...'
When Mr Churchill took over in May 1940,
the whole place exploded.
It was as if a current of high voltage electricity was let loose,
not only in Number 10 itself, but throughout the fusty corridors of Whitehall.
And we heard that Civil Servants - elderly Civil Servants - were seen running along the corridors.
The even tone of our life was entirely upset by this tornado which appeared on the horizon.
But it was frightfully exciting, because the country was at war.
He introduced stickers saying, "Action this day",
or, when requesting information from Heads of Department or Ministries,
he would put "Report to me" on one side of the page.
For those who worked personally for him, night duty meant just that.
I never remember being released to get to bed before 1 am
and it was more often 2 to 3 am.
In six months of Churchill there were five years of change.
It was quite remarkable. He cut through all the red tape.
He put Beaverbrook into aircraft production
and in a very short time, Beaverbrook had doubled the number of aircraft being produced,
simply by cutting through red tape.
Churchill now had to guide Britain through its greatest military disaster.
In May, 1940, the British and French Armies were trapped at Dunkirk.
We have before us a grievous ordeal. We have before us many long months of struggle and of suffering.
You ask what is our policy. It is to wage war by sea, land and air with all our might,
to wage war against a monstrous tyranny
never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.
That is our policy. You ask what is our aim.
I answer, "Victory! Victory at all costs!"
More than 300,000 British and French troops were evacuated from Dunkirk.
It was a miracle. But Churchill knew wars were not won by evacuations.
Sometimes he'd put his head in his hands and hardly eat.
And...er, then suddenly he'd say, "This is one of the hardest times."
I mean, he reflected everything that was going on.
And there were some VERY bad times. Some worse times than most of the normal people KNEW about.
We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading Britain.
We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets.
We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
I mean, the whole situation was so desperate and so emotional.
There could have been a wave of panic and despair, but he was like a rock
with his great speeches in the House - "We will NEVER surrender."
We shall defend our island,
and with the British Empire around us, we shall fight on, unconquerable,
until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brows of men.
I can tell you that every man there, they rose in spirits. You could almost measure it.
We would have beaten the Nazis off with broom handles, such was the magic effect of Churchill.
In France the situation was critical. With the French Army collapsing, a desperate appeal was made
by the French PM, Paul Reynaud.
At 7.30 am I telephoned Churchill.
I woke him up. I told him, "We have lost the battle. We are beaten."
He seemed so astonished, I repeated, "We are beaten. We lost the battle."
"Impossible!" he said.
Churchill flew to France. If France surrendered, Britain would stand alone.
His destination was a crisis meeting of the French War Cabinet.
He made a dramatic, personal attempt to keep France in the war.
When Churchill arrived, the German Army was poised to enter Paris.
The French Government had retreated to this small chateau.
Churchill needed to know that France would fight on, and above all, would fight for Paris.
But General Weygand had already ordered Paris to be abandoned.
Seeking to stiffen French resolve and knowing that several of the Ministers wanted France to fight on,
Churchill asked, "Where are the French Reserves?"
To which Weygand answered, "There are NO Reserves."
To fight on, Reynaud needed more British planes.
But they would be needed to defend Britain if France were to fall.
Churchill had told the French that even if France capitulated,
Britain would fight on until victory was secured.
As he left, he knew that those in charge of France's destiny
had lost the will to fight.
France was very important for him.
So to speak, he could be considered as a lover of France.
And France betrayed him,
as a girl who leaves a man drops him abruptly without explanation
and at a moment which was absolutely unexpected. without explanation
and at a moment which was absolutely unexpected.
He had his head buried in his hands saying, "Poor France!"
On the 14th June, 1940, German forces entered Paris.
A week later, France sought an armistice with Germany.
The Battle of France is over.
The whole fury and might of the enemy must soon be turned on us.
Hitler knows he has to break us in this island or lose the war.
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed
and the life of the world may move forward
into broad sunlit uplands. But if we fail,
then the whole world, including the United States,
including all that we have known and cared for,
will sink into the abyss of a new dark age
made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted science.
Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duty.
So bear ourselves,
that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years,
men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
Churchill expected a German assault to come at any time.
He had spent ten years in vain urging a greater rearmament.
Now he awaited the invasion of an ill-defended Britain.
We had no guns, no rifles. We had one Lee Enfield rifle
which we were allowed to take on the range to fire only two bullets, because there wasn't enough.
So we trained with broom handles. If Hitler had known, he should have come straight away, you know.
I remember once when there was talk of an invasion and all the barriers were going up around the coast
and talk of children being sent overseas,
I can remember him one night at the dinner table saying,
"You can each take a dead German with you."
And I said, "Papa, I don't know how to shoot. I haven't got a gun."
He looked at me very severely and said, "You can use a carving knife."
To those in Britain who talked of surrender, Churchill said,
"Let it end when each one of us lies choking in his own blood."
He ordered the French warships in N Africa to surrender to the British or to sail to neutral ports.
He could not risk the Germans using the French Navy against Britain.
His ultimatum was refused. On 3rd July, 1940, the Royal Navy opened fire on its ally's warships.
Over 1,200 French sailors were killed by British guns.
SPEAKS IN FRENCH
This ruthless decision to sink the French warships was the hardest Churchill had to take during the war.
Churchill realised that many countries, notably the US,
believed Britain could not carry on alone after France's collapse
and he was determined to show that the opposite was the case.
Six months later, he told President Roosevelt's emissary
that Oran was the turning point in our fortunes.
It showed the world that we were sincere and determined
in our intention to carry on the war.
We cannot tell when they will try to come.
We cannot be sure that they will try at all.
But no-one should blind himself to the fact that a heavy full-scale invasion
is being prepared with all the usual German thoroughness and method,
or that it may be launched at any time now,
upon England, upon Scotland, or upon Ireland, or upon all three.
If this invasion is going to be tried at all, it does not seem that it can be long delayed.
The first stage of Hitler's plan to invade Britain
was to win air supremacy so his army could cross the Channel unchallenged.
During August, hundreds of German aircraft launched daily raids on Britain's ports and airfields.
The Battle of Britain had begun.
Britain's fate now lay in the hands of a few hundred pilots. Many had learned to fly for fun.
Now they were taking on the full might of the German Airforce.
He said, "There is a time to live and there is a time to die."
He was referring to the pilots. Winston related to young people,
and he was terribly conscious that he was the person instigating them going to their death, possibly.
And I think this bothered him enormously.
By September, over half of Britain's pilots had been shot down and many killed.
On one occasion, Churchill could see that EVERY squadron was in the air. But he refused to be downhearted.
Never despair, but certainly...gloom
when the news was very bad, the loss of lives awful.
And my father, of course,
understood what each loss meant in relation to our actual strength.
All our hearts go out to the fighter pilots
whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes every day.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Hitler lost the battle against Britain's airfields.
Now he sent bombers over Britain's cities. When the raids took place over London,
Churchill stayed in the capital, often watching from the roof.
I remember on one occasion it was very lively around St James' Park,
and he said, "Are you frightened, Miss Holmes?"
And I said, "No, I'm not frightened."
It was impossible to be frightened in his presence.
As more and more German bombs fell on London, Churchill and his close advisors had to move underground.
Here they worked in cramped conditions, often hearing the thud of bombs falling on London above.
Churchill had a study. This was his bed.
To this room, British Intelligence brought the news of Germany's most secret invasion plans.
Behind this curtain was a map on which were marked
the most vulnerable points of Britain's sea defences.
Churchill alone knew the extent of the dangers,
yet the public looked to him for reassurance Britain would not fall.
The British nation is stirred and moved as it never has been
at any time in its long, eventful history.
And it is no trope of speech to say that they mean to conquer or to die.
What a triumph the life of these battered cities is, over the worst that fire and bombs can do.
'He scarcely stopped in his journey through cheering crowds...'
By the end of December, 1940, London had been severely damaged.
In five months, 22,000 civilians had been killed.
In the outer suburbs somewhere,
in a rather poor region of London, little shops and things,
there was a long queue of people outside a shop.
So he instantly told his driver to stop and told his detective to go and see what it was about.
Queues of anything in conditions like that are a danger signal.
Serious shortages may herald discontent and he always wanted to be sure on that.
So the detective went off to investigate and he came back
and Churchill said, "What are they queuing for?"
"Birdseed, sir." And Winston almost... Well, he DID. He cried.
The thought of the wretched people queuing in the dusk, the raids just beginning, for their canaries.
I think it was part of his quality that he wasn't ashamed of emotion.
The people of Britain, they wouldn't have shown that heroism and stamina if they thought they'd a weak leader
that was waiting to sell them down the river.
And Churchill epitomised that fighting spirit.
You had a feeling that if you were in those blitzes,
that as you walked around the bomb-racked streets,
you could run into Winston Churchill because he was in touch.
He would go out and see for himself, he would share risks and danger.
And he completely created the will of the British people
to fight at whatever the cost
to the very end. Surrender seemed inconceivable.
And you need that, when you're all in the front line, as we were then.
We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction.
On the contrary.
If tonight the people of London were asked to cast their votes
as to whether convention should be entered into to stop the bombing,
an overwhelming majority would cry, "No, we will mete out to the Germans the measure
and more than the measure they have meted out to us. APPLAUSE
We will have no truce or parley with you or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.
HEAR-HEAR !
You do your worst and we will do our best.
Throughout these critical times,
Churchill was supported by his wife, Clementine.
The marriage of Clementine and Winston Churchill was remarkable.
The tender love between them for a young girl to observe was most interesting
and a great example of the wisdom that if you love somebody, lose no opportunity to express it.
And this they did verbally, and when apart, nurtured in tender notes.
They had this amusing side that he would sign his letters with a pig
and she would sign hers with a cat. It was a lovely relationship.
This does not mean to say that they agreed on everything. Far from it!
I don't think I'd quite describe it as contented,
because they naturally had arguments and so on.
I think one of my first impressions was that they were both selfish,
but perhaps they had to be. They absolutely matched.
They could talk, and obviously they were very much in love.
They were tremendous companions. She was an educated woman. She wasn't just beautiful.
He liked beautiful women, but they had to have a brain as well.
She could match him in conversation and in every way.
I think it was very important to have Clemmie there, who didn't believe in flattery.
You know, there was a wonderful letter that she wrote to him at one point during the war
saying that he was being very rude and objectionable to all his staff.
They were all very unhappy and he should know about it and shape up.
Churchill's rough, sarcastic manner worsened as the bombing intensified
and the burdens on him grew almost to breaking point.
These were hard times and the stress was beginning to tell.
He could get into a rage. Once he threw his telephone on the floor because somebody had annoyed him.
It broke. And when he'd recovered a bit, he said, "Don't tell them how it happened!"
I'd been warned that he would not be pleased to see a new face.
And this evening, it was in the study at the annexe.
I went in for dictation
and he gave me a sharp look as I went in but said nothing.
When I started typing, I found that somebody had left the typewriter at single spacing
when we all knew it had to be done in double spacing at all times.
I didn't know what to do, so I just carried on.
Presently he came behind to see how I was getting on and he exploded like a rocket.
I heard him say to his Ministers at the other end of the study, "The mug! Idiot! Bloody fool!"
He sent me out and sent for someone "who could do his work right for the first time."
It was a sin to ask him to repeat anything,
because it upset his train of thought.
I did a lot of work straight onto the typewriter,
and I learned from experience that if you didn't hear a word,
you couldn't say, "Prime Minister, I didn't hear."
You'd just leave, you hoped, a sufficient blank to put in a missing word when it was finished.
Then he would, not very happily, tell you which words you missed.
Then you tried to squeeze them in.
In public, Churchill spoke of victory,
but he knew that Britain could win only if America entered the war.
Roosevelt had assured America it would remain neutral. Churchill had to persuade him otherwise.
Before war broke out, Roosevelt was seen as an isolationist.
He was not a supporter, he was not pro-Nazi,
but he was all for the US keeping out of any European problem, regardless of what it was.
And he was slowly won over and brought over, for the most part, by Churchill.
Churchill decided to appeal directly to the American people.
Every month that passes adds to the perils of the journey that must be made.
United we stand. Divided we fall.
When Churchill made speeches that were obviously designed to bring America into the war,
I just wished he'd shut up and go away.
At the time I felt it was not helpful to what was going on.
I felt there was trouble ahead for the US and the rest of the world.
There were many Americans who were very distrustful of British imperialism,
particularly as represented by Winston Churchill.
He was an old-fashioned man who, some of us thought, was not a real democrat at heart.
The British had maintained their colonies for years and Churchill was loath to give them up.
The British colonies proved a vital bargaining point.
In return for providing America with bases in the British W Indies,
Roosevelt gave Britain 50 old destroyers.
Churchill knew that he needed the destroyers for our survival.
He was quite keen to involve the Americans as far as possible,
and anything that brought them nearer to the war was advantageous.
Under Lend-Lease, American supplies would come on a pay later basis.
This was a generous gesture.
Churchill called it, "The most unsordid act in the history of any nation."
Britain was still bracing itself for a German invasion
when in June 1941, Hitler attacked Russia. From secret intelligence,
Churchill had been able to warn Stalin of Hitler's impending attack.
SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN
Churchill was never a real friend of Russia.
He knew Russia was now needed because it was fighting the enemy threatening Britain.
It was a great relief for him when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Then he knew Britain would survive.
It was a political gesture when he immediately pronounced his speech next day after the invasion.
Any man or state who fights against Nazism will have our aid.
It follows, therefore, that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people.
The Communist state Churchill had wished to strangle was now an ally.
But as Hitler swept through Russia, Churchill feared German world domination could become a reality.
Of that summer Churchill wrote, "Normally I wake up buoyant to face the new day.
"Then I awoke with dread in my heart."
He had to bring America into the war.
In August, 1941, he crossed the Atlantic for his first meeting with President Roosevelt.
Churchill was going to come aboard,
and he was coming aboard from the Prince of Wales, which had just anchored.
And Father was standing at the... I was holding his arm to steady him.
And he was getting ready at the head of the gangplank for the Prime Minister to come aboard.
Well, the PM came aboard
and advanced towards my father with his hands out. It was a most moving experience.
It was just like they were old, old friends who hadn't seen each other for quite a while.
It was the beginning of a very close relationship.
One could tell whenever the PM referred to President Roosevelt,
as he would in messages to London and so forth,
that there was this tremendous confidence, relief, and already a sincere friendship.
As a result of Churchill's urging and arguments with Chiefs of Staff,
Roosevelt agreed to send more arms to Britain and aid to Russia.
But despite the friendliness,
"not a single US officer" one of Churchill's staff recorded, "showed any keenness to join us in the war."
All of the crews of both vessels
were gathered together on the Prince of Wales. The service was held on the fantail.
The President and Prime Minister sat together with all their advisors ranged around them
and the crew were perched all over the rest of the vessel.
# Onward, Christian soldiers... #
The Prime Minister chose the hymns
and it was really most impressive.
And I could see he was obviously visibly affected.
He was a very kind-hearted, emotional man.
# ..Marching as to war
# With the cross of Jesus
# Going on before. #
You could see my father very, very moved.
And while I couldn't see whether he was actually crying, I knew he was very close to it.
I felt this was probably one of the great moments of history.
After four days of talks here off Newfoundland,
they signed the Atlantic Charter pledging to restore sovereignty
to all states overrun by the Nazis.
Churchill was disappointed, however, that America still had no intention of entering the war.
In December, 1941, the Japanese struck the American fleet at Pearl Harbour.
ROOSEVELT: Yesterday, December 7th, 1941,
a date which will live in infamy,
the United States of America was deliberately attacked
by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
To Churchill's amazement, Germany now declared war on America.
America had at last become Britain's ally against Hitler.
"I went to bed," he later wrote, "and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
Winston was delighted, because this meant the Americans were in the war.
They wouldn't have come in for a long time without this event.
Within a week of Pearl Harbour,
Churchill left Britain for Washington. Britain and America were at war with Germany and Japan.
Churchill and Roosevelt pledged that war and peace would be made together
and Roosevelt agreed that the defeat of Germany must come before Japan's.
Churchill worked day and night that Christmas on the most important speech of his life.
He had to address Congress, still reluctant to enter a European war.
The fact that my American forebears have for so many generations played their part in the life of the US,
and that here I am, an Englishman, welcomed in your midst,
makes this experience one of the most moving and thrilling in my life,
which is already long and has not been entirely uneventful.
By the way, I cannot help but reflect
that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of vice versa,
I might have got here on my own! LAUGHTER
I was deeply impressed, not only with the rolling cadences and the prose, but with the substance,
and also with the joke, which amused Congress so much,
about how he might have got there on his own if his parentage had been turned around.
It was a talk that left a lasting impression on me.
I am so glad to be able to place before you,
members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives,
at this moment, when you are entering the war,
the proof that with proper weapons and proper organisation
we are able to beat the life out of the savage Nazis.
APPLAUSE
Lastly, if you will forgive me for saying it,
to me the best tidings of all, the United States, united as never before,
has drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard. APPLAUSE
The substance of it was a message of hope, of the vital necessity of fighting the war.
And for young soldiers who were just in the army
and who were not really all that perhaps convinced that we actually had to fight,
it was not only an enormous inspiration, but it was a very welcome lift,
not just to the day but for most of the years of the war.
But the pace and pressure of Churchill's visit to America now began to take its toll.
Late one night, after more talks, Churchill felt the need for fresh air.
Struggling to open a window, he collapsed. It was a heart attack.
"You're not to tell me to rest," he told his doctor. "I can't. Nobody else can do this job. I must."
At the very moment America entered the war, Britain could not be seen to have an invalid Prime Minister.
The news of the illness had to be kept secret.
Three days after his heart attack, the 67-year-old Prime Minister
went by train to Canada.
'When Mr Churchill went to Canada, what a reception he got on arrival in Ottawa!'
It was like having a god come out.
One realised why the Romans deified their successful generals and emperors.
One of my duties was to take care of all the presents sent to him.
Thousands of presents from all over Canada came -
silk handkerchiefs embroidered with the hair of young women
and cigars by the thousand. He wasn't allowed to smoke them for security reasons.
We had to destroy them "by fire".
'At Parliament House he made his second great overseas speech.'
We have been concerting the united pacts and resolves of more than thirty states and nations
to fight on in unity together
without any thought except the total and final extirpation of the Hitler tyranny,
of the Japanese frenzy and the Mussolini flop. LAUGHTER
'Presently he referred to those black days in 1940 just before the fall of France.'
When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did,
their general told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet,
"In three weeks, England will have her neck wrung like a chicken."
Some chicken. LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
THEY DRUM THEIR APPRECIATION
Some neck!
From Canada, he went back to Washington. He was exhausted.
The change in him was noticed immediately.
He was NOT in very good shape.
I was quite surprised at his wan expression,
because he was quite a ruddy, round-faced individual.
But he looked so terribly drawn that it was quite, quite noticeable.
And also, he didn't seem to have the bounce.
Despite his success in America, in Britain, Churchill's leadership was being questioned.
In the Atlantic, Britain was losing over half its convoys.
I don't think people ever really appreciated what a desperately close-run thing that was.
The German Wolfpack submarines
out in the Atlantic really were in serious danger of cutting our lifelines. It was desperate.
The losses in merchant shipping simply could not have gone on.
In N Africa, the British Army was in defeat. In the Far East, the Empire was overrun by the Japanese.
The biggest blow came in February, 1942, when Singapore surrendered. 62,000 troops were captured.
At home, people were becoming dispirited and resentful.
Where was the promised victory?
That summer, a Vote of Censure was brought against Churchill in the Commons.
This was a very, very difficult period,
and it was a period when also we felt that Winston was being criticised.
And I remember going to the Commons to listen to one of his speeches, and being really quite worried.
I don't think any of us thought that his reign as Prime Minister
was as secure as when you read history it seemed to be.
It was the only time in the whole war I saw him look REALLY anxious.
because the only thing he feared in the world was Parliament.
He was a good democrat. He knew it was a critical debate.
Churchill won by a large majority, but an opinion poll showed half the country dissatisfied with the war.
The end may be far off. We cannot tell. That depends upon the enemy.
How long he will resist we cannot tell.
How long that wicked man will torture and afflict the nations,
how often and in what directions he will set his murder machine in motion, we cannot tell.
The war situation worsened with every day. German forces were within a few miles of Moscow.
Russia was bearing the brunt of Hitler's aggression and Churchill and Clementine urged public support.
The people of Russia have set up
a new standard of courage and of endurance in the terrible sufferings
through which they are going.
We must pray to God that we shall not be subjected to the same trials which they are undergoing,
but if we are, we shall have a very great example to follow.
In N Africa, the British Army had been thrown back to Alamein.
Egypt and Suez were threatened. A young British officer in London
asked to see Churchill to tell him the Desert Army had lost confidence in its commanders.
Suddenly a call came through - Downing Street on the line.
A senior official I was talking to thought it was for him.
"Could Julian Amery come round to Number 10 at once?"
I went round and found Churchill at the Cabinet table with Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of General Staff.
Otherwise nobody.
And he asked me about the situation. I explained that I thought the army was demoralised.
Sir Alan Brooke looked pretty cross that a junior officer could express that sort of opinion.
He tried to intervene, but Churchill shut him up.
Churchill then said, "Is there anything we can do?"
I said, "If you were to go out there yourself and show yourself to the army,
"it may make all the difference."
'The Premier paid a visit to...'
In August, 1942, after nearly three years of war, Churchill needed a victory in the field.
He flew to N Africa to visit the British Eighth Army.
He arrived in a curious hat, rather like a tortoise on his head,
and I imagined that he'd asked for this hat
as a memory of his own time in India, because he had very sensitive skin.
He sunburned very easily. So this enormous topi...!
Anyway, he appeared and shuffled across the sand for introductions.
Then after we'd shaken hands with this small man - a great surprise, that,
because one held him in such respect.
That he should be so tiny, although rather paunchy, was a great surprise.
He loved being the man on the spot
and he loved the smell of powder. He liked taking part in things.
He'd visit the forward troops and if there were any guns about,
he liked to fire them! He'd been a soldier in his day,
and he now was an old war horse sniffing powder, I think.
Churchill found the British troops in bad shape.
"This splendid army," he wrote to Clementine, "is baffled by defeat.
"There seem to be no plans for an offensive, no attacking zeal." Rommel seemed invincible.
I remember him in his bedroom in Cairo
with his dressing gown with dragons all over it and his little black velvet slippers,
stamping up and down the room saying, "Rommel, Rommel! What else matters but beating Rommel?"
In other words, his mind was entirely fixed
on winning a battle in the desert.
The British commander was General Auchinleck, the Auk.
Senior officers told Churchill that Auchinleck should be replaced.
He said to the Auk, "Well, General, what are you going to do?"
and the Auk was very inarticulate and left the impression he wasn't clear what he was going to do.
I remember Hugh Mainwaring and I walked away through the sand wondering who would replace the Auk.
We said, "Who will we get now?"
It was to be General Montgomery.
Churchill told Clementine, "If he is disagreeable to his men, he is also disagreeable to the enemy."
Churchill then flew eastward to Moscow for his first ever meeting with Stalin.
Nobody expected that Churchill would come out from the belly of the plane.
It was from the door usually.
We saw first his legs, then the upper part of his body, then finally came his head.
Churchill brought bad news. It was like carrying ice to the North Pole.
Churchill had come to Moscow to tell Stalin the brutal truth -
Britain and the United States simply did not have the resources to launch an invasion of W Europe in 1942.
With the German Army less than 100 miles from Moscow, and preparing a new offensive in the South,
the Russians had their backs to the wall. Churchill feared a Soviet capitulation.
When the two leaders met here in Stalin's study,
Churchill knew that what he had to say could seriously threaten the fragile Alliance.
Stalin demanded an Anglo-American invasion of Europe in 1942.
Churchill explained the Western Allies did not have the resources.
Of course it was a great discouragement for Stalin.
So he said that he can't accept the decision.
Then he said, "You British are afraid of fighting. You cannot win a war if you don't fight."
Stalin was his usual gruff, ungrateful, rude self.
He was complaining about no Second Front
and never once showed any appreciation for the equipment England was shipping out there,
or even said, "I'm sorry you've lost so many ships on the N Atlantic run to Russia."
He made the most outrageous remarks
such as, "If you fought the Germans a bit more, you wouldn't be so frightened of them."
Well, you can imagine saying that to Churchill !
When he returned he was in a filthy mood. He never HAD cared for him.
And he said to me, "Take a telegram to Mr Attlee". Mr Attlee was the Deputy Prime Minister.
And he started saying in this telegram exactly what he thought of Stalin -
"This rude, ungrateful man..." etc.
And Clark Kerr, the Ambassador, said,
"Prime Minister, this room will be bugged, like all the rooms in Moscow."
I think he thought Winston would quieten down his criticism,
but it had the exact opposite effect, knowing Winston.
Then he REALLY said exactly what he thought about Stalin,
and all I've said before about being ungrateful and rude.
He said, "If this continues, we shall return to England."
Anyhow, the next day, Winston had another meeting arranged with Stalin
and the whole atmosphere had changed. He'd obviously had a transcript of this telegram,
and obviously he didn't want the British Prime Minister to leave.
It changed the whole atmosphere.
Despite his disappointment, Stalin accepted Churchill's reasons as valid.
Stalin was a pragmatic person.
He couldn't force the British and Americans to change their mind and start the invasion.
But on the other hand, he knew how important is the Alliance.
The visit ended with a banquet. Toasts were drunk to the defeat of Hitler.
Britain's substantial military aid to Russia would go on. The Alliance had held.
On his way home, Churchill returned to the desert.
There he greeted Montgomery, the new Commander of the 8th Army.
He sensed that the arrival of Montgomery had made a real difference to the troops' morale.
As he went about, he himself got cheered, naturally enough.
Churchill then went away aware that the situation was in safe hands.
I want to impress on everyone that the bad times are over.
Our mandate from the PM is to destroy the Axis forces in N Africa. It can be done and it will be done.
Montgomery had to wait for reinforcements and for confirmation the Germans were running out of fuel.
Churchill fretted at any delay on the part of his commanders.
Monty, like all generals, annoyed him at various times,
because they didn't always do what he WANTED them to do.
Monty wouldn't be pushed about.
On October 23rd, 1942,
launching the heaviest artillery barrage of the war, Montgomery struck at Alamein.
After 12 days of battle, the Allied breakthrough came.
Rommel's once invincible army was in full retreat.
Hitler had ordered victory or death.
Now 10,000 Germans and Italians were dead on the battlefield. A further 30,000 had surrendered.
Here at last was Churchill's victory.
We have victory. A remarkable and definite victory.
A bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers and warmed and cheered all our hearts.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
On Churchill's instructions, the church bells, silent since the war began,
were rung throughout Britain. "Tonight there is sugar on the cake."
The Battle of Alamein takes its place with the most famous victories in British history.
Up till Alamein we survived.
After Alamein we conquered.