Did you know that Churchill had a secret, last-ditch plan to flood London using the Thames? That’s right! If the Nazis had invaded Britain during WWII, Churchill was prepared to destroy key flood barriers along the Thames, unleashing massive floods to slow down or trap the advancing German forces. This drastic move was kept hidden from the public, and most British citizens had no idea their capital city could have been sacrificed in the event of an invasion.
Churchill believed that flooding parts of London might give Britain the upper hand, even though it would have left large sections of the city uninhabitable for years, wrecking infrastructure and making post-war recovery extremely difficult. The German invasion never happened, but the fact that such a desperate plan existed shows how high the stakes were during WWII.
This little-known plan also sheds light on why Churchill, despite being hailed as a war hero, lost the election right after the war. His extreme strategies, while focused on survival, may have left people uneasy about his leadership moving forward.