The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson who is one my favorite history authors. He’s written books about the sinking of the Lusitania before WW1, the competition between Tesla and Edison to produce commercial electricity, the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1906, and another WW2 book, In the Garden of Beasts, which examined the period between 1933 and 1938 as Hitler amassed his power.
The Splendid and the Vile is based on the period between May, 1940, when Churchill became Prime Minister, and December, 1941, when he traveled to meet with President Roosevelt to plan how to win WW2. Larson relies on a lot of primary source material from Churchill’s family and his staff. His 18-year old daughter’s comments are strewn throughout the book; Mary happened to be around at many important historical occasions.
Churchill was seen by many as not up to the job. He was too fat; he drank too much; even FDR had misgivings about him as Prime Minister. Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph Kennedy said that Churchill was “a fine two-handed drinker and his judgment has never proved good.”
While Churchill brought a focused energy to his administration, the first year of his tenure was not good. With Poland gone to the Nazis, France fell around the same time Churchill took office. A few months later, the Nazis occupied Iraq and North Africa.
England had people with a cultural resilience and ingrained resistance to being pushed around. Churchill, a gifted leader who was up to the challenge, had a gift for “making people feel loftier, stronger, and above all, more courageous.”
He gave great speeches, which were an important tool in his arsenal of hope. His first speech in May of 1940 contained the classic line, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Often his early speeches were directed as much at Americans as they were to the British people, since Churchill was desperate to get the US into the war against Germany.
The Nazis held rigid beliefs on the superiority of the German “race” over others. Their leaders believed that Churchill was a weak drunk and that the English people would demand an armistice with Germany as soon as the first bombs fell. Hitler’s plan was to bomb England into signing a peace treaty early, which would let the Axis countries concentrate on other theaters – the Middle East and North Africa.
The German high command saw the Luftwaffe (the air force) as invincible and the Royal Air Force (RAF) as inept. Both assumptions were proven wrong, as the RAF, while literally outgunned, managed to do a lot of damage to the Germans planes and prevent them from bombing Britain into submission.
In April of 1941, Swansea was bombed and Churchill shows up. Daughter Mary was on the trip and observed, “Never have I seen such courage – love – cheerfulness & confidence expressed as by the people today. Wherever he went they swarmed around Papa – clasping his hand – putting him on the back – shouting his name.” His constant confidence did inspire the British people.
After a year of being bombed ruthlessly, they should have had PTSD; instead they were really PO’ed and carried on admirably.After a night of bombing London, an American observer marveled at the calm behavior of the people, “They acted as if the bombing were like a thunderstorm.” Often, once residents figured out that their neighborhood was not under attack, they would come out and watch the light show.The final Blitz tally: On May 11, 1941, the blitz ended with 44,652 dead and 52,370 injured.
This and that
— High tech. The operations room (“The Dress Circle”) had a huge table with a map on it with banks of colored bulbs that indicated the status of the RAF and the Luftwaffe planes engaged in a specific raid. The lights were turned on and off manually, based on radar. This was cutting edge technology for the times.
— There was constant fear that the Germans would attack with a super weapon, probably poisonous gas, so gas masks were required garb. Kids really liked the masks that looked like Mickey Mouse. They would put them on and head to the bomb shelter singing: “There’ll Always Be an England.”
— After the House of Commons was destroyed by bombs, Churchill said, “Our old House of Commons has been blown to smithereens. The Huns obligingly chose a time when none of us were there.”
— Happily, for Churchill, rationing did not apply to certain critical commodities. He found no shortage of Hine brandy, Pol Roger champagne, or Romeo y Julieta cigars…”.
Churchill’s task was to fend off the Nazis long enough to get FDR into the war. He did. The Lend Lease Act, which was passed in March of 1941, provided warships, planes, food, oil and other material to England (and later to other countries) and cheered up Churchill since it showed that the US was no longer claiming neutrality. He also needed the stuff.
At Christmas 1941 Churchill was at the White House. There was war talk, food and drink, and a great speech by Churchill to the American and British people. Outside the White House, 30,000 people gathered and sang Christmas carols. Churchill was confident that the tide had turned with our entry into the war.
Bob’s Take
It is clear that Winston Churchill was the right man at the right time to inspire his people and shape his administration so that England could figure out how to resist the Nazis long enough to get the US into the war. He continued to provide exemplary leadership throughout the fight. I can’t help but compare Churchill to our great leaders – Washington, Lincoln and FDR – and they match up well. Each was called upon to do extraordinary things during tough times, and each came through. Washington literally implemented the game plan for the United States. Lincoln saved the nation that Washington had helped create. Roosevelt got us through a major economic depression and won the largest conflict in history
I also can’t help but notice that we haven’t had leaders like that for a long time. LBJ came close with his extraordinary legislative record, but his handling of Vietnam really eroded his greatness index. While many people are really unhappy with the current president, I’m not sure that any of his predecessors would have had the right stuff to rise to the challenges faced by Churchill
Another interesting book that covers the full time span of the war in England is Citizens of London by Lynn Olson, which chronicles the wartime careers of John Winant, US Ambassador to England after Joseph Kennedy left; Edward R. Murrow, legendary CBS reporter, and W. Averill Harriman, a business tycoon who was part of FDR’s inner circle. Each of these men were close to British government officials, including Churchill. Each also had affairs with members of Churchill’s family. Murrow brought the ugly reality of the war and the heroism of the British people home to Americans; Harriman shepherded implementation of the Lend Lease Act which was essential to helping Britain defend against the Nazi onslaught; and Winant pushed FDR to enter the war against Germany and “danced a little jig” with Churchill when he learned that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, a precipitous attack that led to America’s involvement in the war.
