Posted on 08/14/2009 6:32:58 PM PDT by pissant
On Sunday, September 3, 1939 - 70 years ago next month - Britain declared war on Germany in fulfilment of its pledge to aid Poland, invaded by the Nazis. 'I know now that it will come to me to deal with Mr Hitler,' Winston Churchill told a cousin a few days earlier. He perceived his own hour of destiny at hand.
That same afternoon, he was summoned to Downing Street by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. For most of the decade Churchill had been a scourge of the Tory government. From 'the wilderness' of the Commons back benches, he denounced the folly of appeasing the dictators.
Only amid the crisis of war did his party overcome its bitter resentment to offer him office. He became once more First Lord of the Admiralty, the post he had occupied through the first year of World War I.
The early months of the greatest struggle in human history became known as the 'phoney war'. It seemed to many British people ridiculous and humiliating that though the country had committed itself to fight Hitler, it lacked the means to do so.
Poland was crushed in three weeks, without a French or British finger being lifted to save it. The two allies feared even to bomb Germany, lest they provoke devastating reprisals from the Luftwaffe.
On the Franco-German border, 94 French and nine British divisions confronted Hitler's army. But in neither Paris nor London was there the slightest will to launch an attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Erm, no.
Firstly, re the atomic bomb, that would never have been built had it not been for the huge influence of British research from British and Jewish emigre scientists in the late 30’s and early days of the war.
We gave you all of our nuclear secrets, plans and technology in 1940 for nothing. And lets us not forget, in fact it tends to be forgotten, that Britain was prior to that developing its own nuclear programme, testing grounds in Canada had already been set up, if Britain had to go it alone and America stayed out.
Secondly, and very simply, without a Britain that stood alone in 1940 and 1941, there would have been no way to defeat the Nazis.
Britain could not have defeated the Nazis without America and Canada. But America could never have defeated the Nazis without Britain and Canada.
The NHS came from the Beveridge Report of 1944, whose ideas were opposed by Churchill and the Tories, or at least some of the report’s ideas were.
Remember also that the report was commissioned at a time when Britain had a ‘National Govt’, which was a combination war govt of Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats.
Nope. Its a reaction to the perceived attitude of Americans post war, the ‘we saved your ass’/’if not for us, youd be speaking German’, an attitude sadly reinforced by film and TV and ‘bad history’. To that, we react by having a dig ‘at the Yanks’ for not being there in 1939. IE, ‘turning up late and claiming all the glory’.
Of course, both attitudes are simplistic shorthand.
It says a lot about Hussein that he made it a point to return the bust of Churchill that had been given to W by Tony Blair.His act demonstrates contempt for W...Blair...and,most importantly,Churchill himself.
Yes,we were inexcusably absent for a while back then.Just as Europe was inexcusably absent for Vietnam (which wasn't a "civil" war but,rather,a small part of the USSR's and China's larger chess game) and are currently absent from Iraq (sharia law in British courts? Astounding!).
We don't claim all the glory.The RAF deserves some of it.Montgomery deserves some.Churchill deserves a good deal of it.The US Army and Army Air Corps deserves much of it in Europe and the US Marine Corps,Navy and Army Air Corps deserves much...but not all...of it in the Pacific.
Perhaps it is fitting that Churchill’s bust was repatriated to Britain from America so that both nations might properly reflect upon that which they have lost.
Canada and the Commonwealth/Empire deserves a lot of credit too.
They certainly deserve credit...but not "a lot" in terms of absolute numbers.In terms of money,equipment and/or lives (military lives,not civilians) the US deserves the most,the USSR deserves a good bit and the other Allies deserve the rest.In terms of "bravery","resolve" and "selflessness" the UK and her Commonwealth allies deserve *enormous* credit....of course.
True, but he did not reject the overall concept. This is more an argument about details. Please note that as PM in the 1950s he made no attempt to dismantle or even scale back the system (which had only recently been established).
The NHS was (and still is) such a popular British institution that to dismantle the NHS even in 1951 would have been an utterly disasterous political move.
Even a move that would have led to actual public unrest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.