Sir Winston Churchill, who died 60 years ago, was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, won the Nobel Prize for Literature and was one of the main political leaders who won the Second World War, along with the American Franklin Roosevelt, the Soviet Joseph Stalin and the leader of Free France, Charles de Gaulle (the subject of our series on 1944).
Before that, the future "Her Majesty's Bulldog" began his career as a soldier. "He was both an officer and a politician," says historian François Kersaudy, a former professor at Oxford and the Sorbonne and France's leading Churchill expert. "His father encouraged him to take up a military career, and he went into it convinced that he would command the armies.
This certainty did not come out of nowhere. When he was born on 30 November 1874, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was immediately confronted with his heredity, the most prestigious of all for an Englishman wishing to serve his flag: he was born in the immense Blenheim Palace, built by his ancestor John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. Still regarded across the Channel as one of the greatest officers in history, the "Malbrouk s'en va-t'en guerre" of the song was "the most talented opponent of the armies of Louis XIV", according to François Kersaudy.
"Churchill was convinced that he had inherited Marlborough's strategic genius," laughs the historian. "He thought you could have that genius without training, which was obviously bold and not very reasonable. The Sandhurst military school, which he entered on his third attempt, trained cavalry officers at the time, not strategists. He graduated honourably (20e out of 130), Second Lieutenant Churchill had his baptism of fire in Cuba.
STRONG-HEADED, BUT UNTOUCHABLE "FOR HIS VALOUR AND ACTS OF COURAGE".
Campaigns in British India and Sudan followed. A strong head, young Winston committed acts of insubordination. But he was untouchable, partly for family reasons: "His mother was the mistress of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII," explains François Kersaudy. "And his name is Churchill: it's as if, in France, a young lieutenant was called Bonaparte.
According to the historian, he was also "untouchable for his valour and acts of courage":
"He is not only brave, he is intrepid: he knows no fear, he never bends down, the others are killed around him and he never gets a scratch. He went out to reconnoitre at dawn with the vanguard and came back in the evening with the rearguards, fetching the wounded behind enemy lines...".
His pay and the pension paid by his mother were insufficient to maintain his lifestyle, so the young aristocrat resigned and took up the more lucrative job of war correspondent for London newspapers. It was as a journalist that he became famous during the Second Boer War in southern Africa at the end of 1899.
He accompanied soldiers on an armoured train that was ambushed by the enemy, and distinguished himself in the process. Captured and transferred to a prison camp, Churchill escaped and joined the British army, which gave him a command although he was still a reporter, and he again distinguished himself.
DECISIVE ACTION AT THE HEAD OF THE NAVY
Emblazoned with the image of a Boer War hero, Winston Churchill was elected to Parliament as soon as he returned to England in 1900. The politician stood out for his commitment to social liberalism - which earned him the animosity of his own class, the aristocracy - but also for his reputation for firmness. He entered government for the first time as Under-Secretary of State at the age of 31, at the end of 1905.
After a succession of increasingly prestigious portfolios (Trade, Home Affairs), he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty (Minister for the Navy) in October 1911. François Kersaudy recounts that his actions in this position were to prove decisive:
"If the British dominated the seas during the First World War, it was largely thanks to him. It was he who pushed for the adoption of fuel oil for ship propulsion, by buying oil concessions in the Middle East: battleships could go faster and needed less refuelling, while German ships still ran on coal.
He also increased the calibre of cannons and changed the way officers were recruited, ensuring that talent rather than just aristocratic origins was taken into account.
He even managed to launch a programme outside the scope of his ministry, without the knowledge of the War Cabinet, using Admiralty funds: the first tanksThe tanks owed their nickname to the idea he came up with to mislead German intelligence, passing them off as water containers destined for the Russian ally. "He kept stepping outside the scope of his responsibilities," says the historian.
"PRODIGIOUSLY EFFECTIVE" AS MINISTER FOR ARMAMENTS
Forced to resign from the Admiralty in the spring of 1915, Churchill left to serve at the front, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. "Meanwhile, the engineers continued to work for him on tank prototypes, without their minister knowing," recounts François Kersaudy. And when he was appointed Minister for Armaments in July 1917, he continued to push for the use of tanks, but not only:
"In this post, he proved to be prodigiously efficient, ensuring the supply of arms and munitions not only to the British, but also to the French and American armies. He motivated the workers in the factories by telling them that those who went on strike would have the honour of serving their country in the trenches!
With Georges Clemenceau, whom he greatly admired, he also supported the soldiers at the front:
"The two of them went head to head with the German machine-gun fire. Like Clemenceau, he was fascinated by danger, "his eyes sparkling with danger". It was a big problem for the people charged with protecting him.
Minister of War when the war ended, he then held a number of portfolios before going into the wilderness, where he devoted himself to writing, in particular a biography of Marlborough.
A "WHISTLEBLOWER" IN THE FACE OF GERMAN REARMAMENT
In the 1930s, he was what we now call a "whistleblower" in the face of German rearmament, explains the historian:
"From 1935 onwards, he was taken seriously by the military because of his exploits during the First World War. Some officers and ministers even came to inform him secretly, enabling Churchill to prove to the House of Commons that the pace of British rearmament was far too slow, and that it was sheer madness to sell aircraft engines to Germany."
Successive Prime Ministers MacDonald, Baldwin and then Chamberlain thought that war would not break out, "but they kept Churchill in reserve in case of war", says François Kersaudy. In fact, he was appointed head of government on 10 May 1940 - "for want of a better word", according to the historian - and remained so until 26 July 1945.
He came to power on the strength of his reputation, his qualities as a "formidable leader of men" and his oratorical skills:
"In May-June 1940, the temptation to negotiate a capitulation on reasonable terms was widespread in England among a number of politicians. It was Churchill's speeches that made it impossible for pacifists to be heard in Parliament.
As wartime Prime Minister, Churchill was not without his faults: "He was still an amateur strategist: he confused the desirable with the possible, immersed himself in detail to the detriment of the whole, and had absolutely no understanding of logistics."
AN "EXTREMELY FERTILE BRAIN" WHO KNEW HOW TO SURROUND HIMSELF WITH PEOPLE
But he counterbalanced these weaknesses by knowing how to surround himself with people. "He was an extremely fertile brain. Roosevelt said that he had 200 ideas a day, of which only three were good, the problem being that he didn't know which three. His collaborators helped him to discern, unlike Adolf Hitler, according to the historian:
"Hitler surrounded himself with yes men. Churchill was the opposite: he hired people capable of standing up to him, like Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Chief of Staff Alanbrooke. This is what prevented disasters, such as his ideas to invade Norway in 1941 (Hitler was waiting for him there), or to land in France in 1942.
Another difference with the Führer of IIIe Reich, he was able to follow his orders:
"He was a champion at bypassing bureaucracy. He would send his staff little red cards saying 'Act today', and the very next day: 'Please let me know how the situation has improved since my message yesterday'."
Churchill supported the use of guerrilla warfare, creating the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose agents sabotaged Nazi installations and supported resistance movements in occupied Europe: "It's his child, he keeps it going, gives it resources". He also allocated all the funds needed for decryption, the value of which he immediately understood.
At the end of May and beginning of June 1940, the British Prime Minister travelled to France to urge the government not to capitulate. He found himself up against "an army of defeatists, General Weygand, Marshal Pétain... But he noticed someone who wasn't, the young Under-Secretary of State for War, Charles de Gaulle", recounts the historian.
CHURCHILL SUPPORTS DE GAULLE... AND USES HIM POLITICALLY
On 16 June, the head of the Reynaud government was replaced by Pétain; on 18 June, De Gaulle launched his appeal from London on the BBC; on 22 June, France capitulated. Churchill was delighted to be able to use the Frenchman politically:
"He used it to fight the pacifists, telling them: "Do you think the French have capitulated? But not at all, look, they're still fighting with this General de Gaulle! He showed it in the House of Commons, had it photographed with the King and Queen, and supported the parades and public ceremonies of the Free French Forces... "
In 1943, when Churchill and Roosevelt want to get rid of De Gaulle in favour of General Henri Giraud, it was too late: De Gaulle now had the support of public opinion, the press, Parliament, ministers and even the King in Great Britain.
After the war, Churchill and his Conservative party lost the election, in particular "because he had shown little concern for the population: supplies, housing, medical care - Labour provided this for him...". He led the government again from 1951 to 1955, devoting the rest of his time to painting and writing, before dying at the age of 90 on 24 January 1965.
"The committee that awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 for his body of work knew that his 'Memoirs of the Second World War' were a team effort," says François Kersaudy. "I would recommend My Early Life and his Memoirs of the Great War: they are masterpieces, among two dozen others.
Works by François Kersaudy about Winston Churchill
- "Churchill and de Gaulle", Collins, 1981, translated by the author: "De Gaulle et Churchill", Plon, Espoir collection, 1982.
- "Winston Churchill: le pouvoir de l'imagination", Tallandier, new revised and expanded edition, 2015.
- "Churchill et Monaco", Editions du Rocher, 2002.
- "Churchill contre Hitler, Tallandier, 2002.
- New translation, introduction and commentary on Winston Churchill's "War Memoirs", Tallandier, 2009 and 2010.
- "Le Monde selon Churchill: sentences, confidences, prophéties et reparties, Tallandier, 2011.
