72 Hours: Churchills Cabinet Crisis (Part Two)
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- The second part of the inside story of the actual political and military events during the three critical days - 26th, 27th and 28th May 1940 - that would change the course of the Second World War and world history.
in Part One, the British army had been forced back to the sea and the French and Belgium armies were collapsing. Meanwhile, Germany’s Panzers had halted giving rise to suggestions that Hitler wished the British to escape.
This video continues the story and looks at the chronological look events and the fierce debate that was to come within the British War Cabinet which threatened to bring down Churchill’s fledgling coalition government. It shows a much more intricate story that the one usually told complicated by British manoeuvrings, French duplicity and Italian machinations.
Did Hitler purposely halt his tanks to let the British get away, and did the British come close to seeking peace terms with Hitler? In this, the second of two videos, we provide the insight that answers both these questions.
A wonderfull documentary, clear and accurate English, the likes of this should be played in schools history lessons.
Thanks.
Strong words against oppression and tyranny that are just as relevant today. Stay vigilant👍👍👍
absolutely agree
This is a great documentary. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching
I've really enjoyed these two posts, thank you.
Thanks for watching. Hope to have more for you soon.
Gordon Welshmen at Bletchly Park came up with the idea of " Traffic Analysis . "
- In Hut 6 , they had a chart showing the hierarchy of the German Generals
- Using triangulation of radio transmissions , they knew in Hut 6 where each enigma machine was
- from the call sign and "touch" of each morse code operator , they knew which German General was transmitting , how often and the length of each message
Recall the famous photo of Heinz Guadarian in the communication truck .
- So during the Battle of France , the British War Cabinet and Lord Gort would have know exactly where Heinz Guadarian was , even though they weren't breaking the enigma code .
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As I just posted in Part 1 , really appreciate that " Great Stories " has explained the British War Cabinet Crisis in context of the Battle of France , Italy , Belgium and other events .
- and the Americans were maintaining their position of Isolationism
- and at the time , the Soviets had a non aggression pact with Hitler ( Which turned out to be worthless ) .
- 18:05 When Paul Reynaud came to office , one of his first acts was to negotiate and agreement with Chamberlain that neither France or Britain would negotiate terms with Hitler without mutual consent.
- Also in context , the Kriegsmarine had been devastated during the Norwegian campaign , and its infamous battle ships were not in use at this time . Where as the Royal Navy's home fleet had 5 capital ships and was totally dominant .
Paul Reynaud was actually an associated of Churchill's. Churchill was extremely pleased when Reynaud came to power because he thought he was the only politician in France that would be prepared to stand up to Hitler. Churchill made numerous efforts to support Reynaud and keep France in the war. However, it appears that Reynaud somewhat had feet of clay especially when his cabinet became reluctant to support him and he was eventually stabbed in the back by the fascist Petain.
With regard to the Kriegsmarine, their U-Boats had torpedo detonation problems at this time otherwise the evacuations from both Dunkirk and Narvik would have been blood-baths.
Well presented with good analysis. I have read through the cabinet papers for this period on the national archive website and I have to say this 2 part series made droll meeting minutes into a flowing story. New subscriber here.
Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it!
Very enjoyable and informative. The historian James Holland has stated that if he was able to travel back in time to any historical moment he would have chosen to be a fly on the wall during these momentous seventy-two hours. One small criticism, Sir Alexander Cadogan was the Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign Office and not a secretary of state.
You are enrirely correct above Alexander Cadogan. He did have a reputation as Churchill's Mr Fit It.
The Cabinet got it all right in 1938-39-40, by discussion. The only difference in 1940 was the relevance of the RAF, the question of whether the RAF could protect the ports and factories, the RAF reply gave the Cabinet the option to continue the war. Chamberlain recorded Churchills readiness to end the war if it could be cheaply bought, possibly as another act of denying Churchill a clear field to claim all credit for good results.
In his book about the Second World War, Churchill puts more emphasis upon the ability of the Royal Navy than the RAF to keep Britain safe and to prevent an invasion. But perhaps, he would have said that having previously been responsible for the Navy! I have also come across reports that at this time the Royal Navy seriously mistrusted the RAF's ability to maintain vigilance particularly with regard to their ports in the south of England. So to test the situation, the Navy flew, one night, some of their planes over Portsmouth, Weymouth and Plymouth without any of them being intercepted. Hearing nothing further the Navy messaged the RAF saying that they had received reports of enemy planes flying over their ports the previous night. The RAF replied that their records showed that no planes whatsoever had flew over any of the aforementioned ports the previous night!
Thanks for watching.
@@GreatStoriesNow933 your particular field of study involves the question of Halifax and Churchill who disagreed over India, and Churchill also disagreed with forcing Edward VIII to abdicate, so surely it must have been at the back of Chamberlains mind and on Halifaxs mind that Churchill might once again play the die-hard, except this time as PM with the future of England in the balance.
This surely helps to explain the Cabinet sparks, and certainly Halifax was advised not to disagree on account of Churchills bombast, and it may be wrong therefore that historians dig in to the sparks and explain them as appeasement versus victory, the personality and knowledge of the two is important to consider, and in my judgment the sparks represented something of a show-down between Churchill and Halifax, although Halifax stated that Churchill was not alone speaking what he called rot.
History of course is rarely truly accurate, and Churchill certainly made no effort to be accurate in his written version of those times.
Great story, quote Chamberlain, I am not such a mug as is generally supposed!
The image used of where Brigadier Claude Nicholson died. Clearly looks like Colditz Castle. When he was never a prisoner of war at that location. He died at Rotenburg an der Fulda, Germany.
Colditz Castle (or Schloss Colditz in German) is in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany.
Two different places in totally different parts of German. Rotenburg a.d. Fulda) is a town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, in central Germany, situated, as the name says, on the river Fulda.
You are entirely correct but were unable to obtain image of the place he died. Thanks for watching
As the author of two books which in large part focus on the British War Cabinet debates from March 26-March 28,1940, (NO PEACE WITH HITLER and THE ANTAGONISTS WHO SAVED DEMOCRACY which will be published on March 31,2025) I was extremely pleased when I came across 72 Hours: Churchill’s Cabinet Crisis (Part Two)
However, my excitement soon changed to disappointment because the ambitious 25 minute presentation painted with too broad a brush, ignored some important points, spent too much time on others (e.g. Italy’s posture on European equilibrium) and was just wrong about several things. The latter includes the following assertions:
1. During the debate Chamberlain said an outright refusal “to Italy” might be unfavorable to British efforts to keep France fighting.
a. Chamberlain made the statement at the War Cabinet meeting on May 27th at 4:30 that Britian’s response to France’s request that it and Britian jointly ask “Mussolini to mediated the dispute [with Germany] should not be a complete refusal.”
2. Halifax and Chamberlain controlled the majority support among Conservative MPs.
a. That power was Chamberlain’s and Chamberlain’s alone.
3. It was not until the War Cabinet meeting at 2 PM on May 28 that Chamberlain indicated he supported Churchill’s no-peace-talks position.
a. Chamberlain unequivocally indicated that he supported Churchill’s position on the 26th, reiterated it on the 27th and in fact had agreed with Churchill ever since the Germans invaded Poland that Britain must fight to the finish
For more interesting reading about what took place during these very important War Cabinet debates, I suggest that you read John Lukac’s FIVE DAYS IN LONDON, MAY 1940 and Anthony McCarten’s DARKEST HOUR and watch the extremely entertaining movie made from that book. For both an interesting and more historically accurate reading on the subject I would immodestly commend NO PEACE WITH HITLER to you. An even more exacting examination of the War Cabinet debate will be found in THE ANTAGONISTS WHO SAVED DEMOCRACY which will be available in early spring.
Alan Saltman
I normally don't like "what ifs", but it's an interesting thought what could have happened with Lord Halifax as prime minister.Much can be said a bout Churchill, but at least he was a fighter....
I think the issue for Halifax was that, if he became Prime Minister, he would have had to appoint Churchill as the person who ran the war as Churchill was in the House of Commons. In such circumstances, Halifax was clearly fearful of being responsible for what Churchill might do!!
Halifax didn't become PM, because at the Labour Party conference which was held around the same time in May 1940, conference voted to support Churchill as PM. Even the Miners' delegates and they hated his guts! Probably because half the Labour Party would have been arrested if Hitler had invaded Britain.
Excellent
Thank you so much 😀