The Greatest Britain (and 1/2 American) in there last 150 years! ~ Bob Barney
Winston Churchill was in a maudlin mood during dinner with his Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden. ‘I am ashamed,’ he said. It was July 1942 and, despite his outward public confidence, the Prime Minister was in despair at Britain’s humiliating lack of success.
That year, the Army had thrown in the towel against far smaller forces in the Far East and North Africa – defeats seen, quite fairly, as a national disgrace and which left two vitally important regions in danger of being lost entirely. 1942 had brought a series of military disasters for Britain – and a crisis. Public morale nearly collapsed.
There was a widespread feeling that Churchill was no longer the right man to lead the nation, and his popularity plummeted.
Despite his later heroic reputation, Churchill faced two motions of no confidence that year and, although he ultimately won both, the Labour MP Aneurin Bevan spoke for many when he commented: ‘The Prime Minister wins debate after debate and loses battle after battle.’
Although his energy appeared boundless, Churchill had suffered a minor heart attack at the start of 1942. His physical and mental health would come under further immense strain.
Although his energy appeared boundless, Churchill had suffered a minor heart attack at the start of 1942. His physical and mental health would come under further immense strain
People think that 1940 was Churchill’s toughest year, the time memorably described as his ‘darkest hour’. But it was not. It was his finest hour.
Churchill’s most difficult time came in 1942, when Britain came far closer to losing the war than most realise to this day.
The catastrophe of the Channel Dash in February was an inauspicious start. Two German battleships and a heavy cruiser, Prinz Eugen, were in dock for repairs at Brest on the French Atlantic coast when Hitler decided to recall them to home waters via a surprise break through the Channel.
Britain’s codebreaking Enigma intercepts picked up suggestions of the plan, but the Royal Navy response, Operation Fuller, was a sorry story of blunder, inertia, failed communications and a pathetic lack of unified command.
It totally failed to prevent the German warships escaping through the Strait of Dover.
Worse was to come on the other side of the world. The fortress of Singapore, symbol of British power and prestige in the Far East, fell to the Japanese on February 15, 1942, the largest surrender of British-led troops – about 100,000 – in history. Fifty-five thousand British and Australian troops then endured years of horror in Japanese prisoner-of-war and slave labour camps.
FORTRESS SURRENDER: Singapore’s fall to the Japanese was seen as an imperial disgrace
Photographs of the defeat went around a stunned world: the British delegation marching to surrender with the Union Flag; Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, the commanding Allied officer, looking weak and puny at the negotiating table with an all-powerful General Yamashita.
For many Malays, Chinese and Indians there was a strong feeling that Britain had left them to the mercy of a brutal Japanese occupation. Across Asia, the defeat was viewed as an imperial disgrace. In India, British prestige was shattered. Resentment simmered in Australia for decades.
Meanwhile, Britain faced a mounting shipping crisis. German codebreakers had succeeded in breaking Britain’s naval cipher and were now tracking convoys as they crossed the Atlantic.
In the first six months of 1942, U-boats sank 300 British ships in the Atlantic. Aside from the terrible loss of life, it meant that millions of tons of supplies including basic foodstuffs, fuel, chemicals and the material of war ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic.
On more than one occasion, the Prime Minister embarrassed General Sir Alan Brooke, head of the British Army, in Cabinet by demanding: ‘Have you not got a single general who can win battles? Have none of them any ideas?’
There was further misery on Friday, April 24, 1942, when 40 Dornier bombers attacked Exeter, dropping at least 60 250kg high-explosive bombs and 2,000 incendiaries, killing 73 people and damaging 600 properties.
