THE WAR WAGES ON

 

My review of Winston Churchill’s The Hinge of Fate (1950)

Part IV of Winston Churchill’s World War II memoirs

(Rating 3 of 5)

                The third book in Sir Winston Churchill’s World War II memoirs covers the year 1942 and most of 1943.  At this point the Grand Alliance was formed the United States of America, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain were combining their strengths to bring down the regime of the Axis leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.  Also on the Pacific the American and Royal Navies are waging war against the Japanese Empire. 

                Most of this book consists of is Churchill’s communications between his allies President Roosevelt and Premier Stalin, as well as numerous communications back and forth between him and his subordinates.  The book is a middle chapter with neither a real beginning nor real end.  Churchill mostly discusses the military campaigns in Africa, pressure from the Soviets for a second front in Europe, sea battles with the Japanese, and some internal political struggle within Great Britain itself. There are points where the book focus not on the main events at the time but on plans and discussions for what is about to come.  This can be especially dark when reading about the discussions on weapons research.

“I told the President in general terms of the great progress we had made, and that our scientists were now definitely convinced that results might be reached before the end of the present war.  He said his people were getting along too, but no one could tell whether anything practical would emerge till a full-scale experiment had been made.  We knew what efforts the Germans were making to procure supplies of ‘heavy water’—a sinister term, eerie, unnatural, which began to creep into our secret papers.  What if the enemy should get an atomic bomb before we did!  However skeptical one might feel about the assertions of scientists, much dispute among themselves and expressed in jargon incomprehensible to laymen, we could not run the mortal risk of being outstripped in this awful sphere.” (p. 380)

                Julius Caesar may have a mocked his defeated rivals for making plans about what they were going to do when they came to power after his defeat, but in actuality is actually smart to make plans for what is to come after the conflict.  It is how you win the peace after you have won the war.  Amongst the allies there was a good deal of talk about what the postwar world was going to look like especially in Europe.

“In the course of a general talk I said that the first preoccupation must be to prevent further aggression in the future by Germany or Japan.  To this and I contemplated an association of the United States, Great Britain, and Russia.  If the United States wish to include China in association with the other three, I was perfectly willing that this should be done; but, however great the importance of China, she was knocked comparable to the others.  On these Powers would rest the real responsibility for peace.  They together, with certain other Powers, to form a Supreme World Council.” (p.802)

FDR, Churchill, and Stalin

At times during these discussions the future of a defeated Germany did not look very good for the Germans.  Germany, having only been unified since the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, was not naturally viewed by either Churchill or Stalin as being necessary to continue as a unified state.  We know now that Germany would spend over four decades split apart.  However the division between East and West Germany could have been far worse.

“I said that I would like to see Prussia divided from the rest of Germany, forty million Prussians being a manageable European unit.  Many people wish to carry the process of division further and divide Prussia itself into component parts, but on this I reserve judgment. Poland and Czechoslovakia should stand together and friendly relations with Russia. This left the Scandinavian countries and Turkey, which last might or might not be willing, with Greece, to play some part in the Balkan system.” (p.803)

Let's undo this!

Some of the things I enjoyed about this book happen not to be the great events that we already know happened but some of the smaller ones. For example, Churchill citing from memory American poetry from the US Civil War and impressing his audience.  More practically I love Churchill’s comments about when traveling across time zones biplane they should keep their eating routines identical to the time zone where they first got on the plane in order not to create confusion.

Having finished this book we are now two thirds of the way to completion of this entire series. Although I enjoyed his earlier books I am really more excited for the coming chapters as we come to the fall of Hitler and the rise of the United Nations.

 [Video posted by the YouTuber British Pathé]