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Articles
Taylor Downing Adds a New Dimension to the Monumental Churchill Canon
- By WILLIAM J. SHEPHERD
- | May 30, 2023
- Category: Books
Taylor Downing. 1942: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Darkest Hour. New York and London: Pegasus, 2022. 432 pages, $29.95, Amazon $25.81, Kindle $19.99.
“The End of the Beginning”
Downing, a Cambridge historian, is author of several books, including Churchill’s War Lab (2011), which is briefly summarized and appended below.
Downing’s premise in 1942 is not unlike that of several other historians. They argue that the very real heroics and attending mythmaking that enshrined Churchill as the “Hero of 1940” obscured his many other challenges and accomplishments over a long eventful career. “Darkest Hour,” the the title of the Gary Oldman film, applies to 1940, though only a few weeks of that year. But Downing thinks the sobriquet “Darkest Hour” is more aptly applied to the first half of 1942. He could be right.
By 1942, Britain and the Empire-Commonwealth no longer stood alone. They had been joined by two mighty allies, the United States and the Soviet Union. But British arms and Churchill’s reputation were being thrown back on every front. There were major disasters, not least of which were the ignominious capitulation to the Japanese at Singapore—and to the Germans and Italians at Tobruk. The former was the largest surrender in British military history. The latter carried the special humiliation of occurring while Churchill was visiting Roosevelt in Washington. Overextended, ailing, exhausted, and facing parliamentary revolt, Churchill in 1942 faced and surmounted his greatest tribulations. By the end of the year he’d turned the tide in what he would call “The end of the beginning.”
The Downing catalog of defeat
Downing’s book engagingly presents a play by play account of 1942’s unfolding events. He explains how Churchill was affected, and responded, to each new or ongoing crisis. True, most standing biographies cover these events. But Downing gives them more precedence, arguing that 1942 was the crucial year in ultimately winning the war.
Churchill himself contributed to the Downing thesis in his memoirs. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he wrote, brought America in as as a fully committed ally and meant “we had won after all.” He admitted that he went to bed that night and “slept the sleep of the saved and thankful” (22). But he also explained how his rosy view was highly premature. Before December 1941 ended, Hong Kong had fallen. Four major Royal Navy battleships or battlecruisers were sunk—two by Japan off Malaya, two by the Italians in Alexandria, Egypt.
Churchill was in a unique position, being both Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. The full weight, and responsibility of political and military mishaps were his alone. Downing tracks the litany of defeat and setback. After Singapore and Tobruk came the loss of Burma, the longest retreat—900 miles—in British history. There were naval defeats in the Java Sea and Indian Ocean, huge shipping losses in the Atlantic, and Arctic convoys to Russia.
Facing down his challenges
A seemingly smaller setback was the so-called “Channel Dash” of four German capital ships from Brest to Kiel. Executed on Britain’s doorstep, this was especially galling to Britons. American and Soviet forces were also losing, but nevertheless fighting valiantly. British ships, Downing notes, were often sunk without opposing losses, and large groups of soldiers were surrendering. The greatest empire in history seemed to be going out, not with a bang but a whimper.
While Churchill and Britain had been battling Fascism longer than anyone else, the Prime Minister was inevitably held accountable. The defeats combined with three years of food and fuel rationing to make Britons uneasy, and Members of Parliament questioned Churchill’s leadership. He fought and defeated two votes of no-confidence, but was stung by the remark of his Labour bête noire, Aneurin Bevan: “The Prime Minister wins debate after debate and loses battle after battle. The country is beginning to say he fights debates like a war and war like a debate” (275).
The good news for Churchill and Britain was not only his legendary combativeness and core of loyal supporters. He was backed now by the weight of America: the “Special Relationship,” as it was becoming known. U.S. victories against Japan in the Pacific at Midway in June, and Guadalcanal in the autumn, combined with British victory at El Alamein and the joint Anglo-American invasion of North Africa in November. That cemented the final Axis defeat in North Africa six months later. Meanwhile, German U-boats in the Atlantic were being repulsed, and Artic convoys getting through. A massive Soviet counterattack doomed the Germans at Stalingrad. The year 1942 ended with all indications of final victory in place, even though years of fighting remained.
The year as it happened
Downing makes extensive use of Mass-Observation, a compilation of surveys and observations on the concerns of Britons. He does a great job in presenting the story in a near-real time format. This enables the reader to have a better understanding of the impact of intertwining events. His book is very illuminating in light of the later hindsight that sometimes now approaches dogma.
The book includes an index, bibliography, endnotes, four useful maps, and nearly two dozen contemporary photographs interspersed throughout the text. There are only a few very minor typos. 1942 is highly recommended. Perhaps surprisingly, it genuinely adds a new dimension to the monumental Churchill canon.
The author
William John Shepherd, archivist and historian, is a long-time contributor to The Churchill Project, several academic journals, and many history magazines.
Further reading
Taylor Downing. Churchill’s War Lab: Code Breakers, Scientists, and the Mavericks Churchill Led to Victory. New York: Overlook Press, 2011. Hardcover, 416 pp.
Downing masterfully contends that Churchill’s leadership and symmetrical thinking encouraged new ways of approaching military challenges. This inspired the mavericks and innovators who were the core of Britain’s victory in the Second World War. No other conflict, he convincingly argues, generated more incredible ideas, technical advances, and scientific leaps. From the development of radar and bouncing bombs to the decoding brilliance of Bletchley Park, all were fueled by Churchill’s passion for radical solutions to apparently insurmountable problems. —WJS