RUNNING UP TO D-DAY

 

My review of Winston Churchill’s Closing the Ring (1951)

Part V of Winston Churchill’s World War II memoirs

(Rating 3 of 5)

                Churchill’s fifth volume goes over the remainder of the 1943 and the first half of 1944 leading up to the D-day invasion.  The focus of the book has to maintaining the alliance the three great powers of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union; the fall and future of Italy; with a little bit of the Pacific theater thrown in for good measure.  Like the previous volumes I find Churchill’s personality clashes with other historical figures to more interesting than his description some of the events that were happening.  

                As the allies hopped from Africa to Italy and toppled the dictator Mussolini there was now a concern about control of the peninsula.  It would be good for locals to cooperate and the best way for that to occur was for a local popular based authority to emerge from the population.  So the allies needed to find local support quickly.    

Operation Torch

“My position is that once Mussolini and the Fascists are gone, I will deal with any Italian authority which can deliver the goods.  I am not in the least afraid for this purpose of seeming to recognize the House of Savoy or Badoglio, provided they are the ones who can make the Italians do what we need for our war purposes.  Those purposes would certainly be hindered by chaos, Bolshevisation, or civil war.  We have no right to lay undue burdens on our troops.  It may well be that after the armistice terms have been accepted both the King and Badoglio will sink under the odium of surrender and that the Crown Prince and a new Prime Minister may be chosen.” (p. 64)

Needed some local support to complete Mussolini's overthrow

The local was in the person of King Victor Emmanuel III and his Prime Minster Pietro Badoglio.  Despite the former cooperation with Mussolini, they proved to the best option in a bad situation.  In Churchill’s view they were allies who came through.

“From the moment when the Armistice was signed and when the Italian Fleet loyally and courageously joined the Allies, I felt myself bound to work with the King of Italy and Marshal Badogio, at least until Rome should be occupied by the Allies and we could construct a really broad-based Italian Government for the prosecution of the war jointly with us.  I was sure that King Victor Emmanuel and Badoglio would be able to do more for what had now become from the exiles or opponents of the Fascist regime.  The surrender of the Italian Fleet was solid proof of their authority.” (p. 188)

King Victor Emmanuel III

Nevertheless Churchill still felt that Italy was going to be a strong challenge.  Still with German troops, Italian fascists, and other various forms of resistance, Churchill tried to properly inform the Parliament of the tough road that they would be facing.   

“The battle of Italy will be hard and long.  I am not yet convinced that any other Government can be formed at the present time in Italy which could command the same obedience from the Italian armed forces.  Should we succeed in the present battle and enter Rome, as I trust and believe we shall, we shall be free to discuss the whole Italian political situation, and we shall do so with many advantages that we do not possess at the present time.  It is from Rome that a more broadly based Italian Government can best be formed.  Whether a Government thus formed will be so helpful to the Allies as the present dispensation I cannot tell.” (p. 498)

Prime Minster Badoglio

As always what I enjoy most about these books are Churchill’s interactions with other world leaders.   FDR often had to be the go-between when it came to his fellow titans, as Churchill would often be badgered by Stalin frankness of who and what he was,  such as his suggestion the execution of German officers as a way of upsetting Churchill, where Roosevelt treats it as a joke. 

In Churchill’s retelling he never loses his cool.  When it joked that the unwritten British Constitution is what “Mr. Churchill wants it to be at any moment” he is quick to remind his colleagues that the House of Commons could dismiss him at any moment while Mr. Roosevelt’s term is fixed and Stalin is a dictator.  Churchill also denies reports that the British were against a second front in France, instead keeps the focus on overlord and joins with Stalin in pressuring Roosevelt to choose his commander. 

“The President remarked on the importance of the timing of operations in all the theaters.  Now that the three Staffs had got together, he hoped they would keep together.  He had informed Marshal Stalin that the next step was to appoint the Commander for ‘Overlord.’  After consultation with his own Staffs and with me, it should be possible to make a decision within three or four days.  Now that the main military decisions had been taken, it seemed right for the British and American Staffs to return to Cairo as soon as possible to work out the details.  To this Stalin and I agreed.” (p. 383)

Churchill and Stalin are pressuring Roosevelt to appoint a Commander for Overlord 

There has been since World War II a nice little story about King George VI and Churchill.   This old story repeated by General Eisenhower in his own memoirs and also by his grandson.  It is shown in many bio films about Churchill.  The story goes that Churchill wants to take an active part in the D-day operations from one of the British battleships.   Generals are opposed but Churchill insists.  That is when the King intervenes.   Informing Churchill that he wants to lead the troops as King, His Majesty is opposed by Churchill citing the very reasons the generals didn’t want him to go.  Churchill sees the King’s point and they both agree not to go.

However in Churchill’s own account of it, that he provides with the King’s permission to correct the record, it was not one event but a series of exchanges between the King and the Prime Minister.  Basically the King had to almost beg Churchill not to go.

 “I want to make one more appeal to you not to go to sea on D-Day.  Please consider my own position.  I am a younger man than you, I am a sailor, and as King I am the head of all these Services.  There is nothing I would like better than to go to sea, but I have agreed to stay home; is it fair that you should then do exactly what I should have liked to do myself?  You said yesterday afternoon that it would be a fine thing for the King to lead troops into battle, as in the old days; if the King cannot do this, it does not seem to me right that his Prime Minister should take his place.” (p. 622)   

Churchill's owed King George a little more respect 

Churchill relents but in a passive aggressive fashion notes that the ship he was going to be on board did not take fire during the attack.  In an attempt to clear the record on this matter he comes off as a totally jerk to a King who was doing his best to help him.

As the book ends the Countdown to D-Day has begun.