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First World War
The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > First World War
“The World Crisis” (8): The Battle of Jutland, 1916
20
Apr
2024
By GWEN THOMPSON
“Churchill was right to focus on the stakes, for one of the most difficult decisions of the Battle of Jutland was whether to fight it at all. The British already held naval superiority and need not engage unless they expected to emerge victorious. The Admiralty and the Fleet Commander, Sir John Jellicoe, thought they could defeat the Germans in a traditional naval battle. But one variable gave them pause: the torpedo.”
“The World Crisis” (7): The “Soul-Stirring Frenzy” of Verdun
05
Apr
2024
By JOSEPH STURDY
For Churchill, Verdun was a lesson on what to avoid: protracted trench warfare and slaughter in exchange for a few yards of territory. Worse was to come, at the Somme and Passchendaele. Verdun typified the horrors ahead. It was also a proving ground for terrible new technologies like machine guns, poison gas, anti-aircraft guns and flamethrowers. All these were features of a war Churchill had feared and tried to stop.
“The World Crisis” (6) Lessons of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli
29
Mar
2024
By KEARA GENTRY
Winston Churchill usually avoided making the same mistake twice. He certainly regarded the Dardanelles and Gallipoli as his worst experience. “I was ruined for the time being in 1915 over the Dardanelles,” he wrote. “[A] supreme enterprise was cast away, through my trying to carry out a major and cardinal operation of war from a subordinate position. Men are ill-advised to try such ventures. This lesson had sunk into my nature.”
“The World Crisis” (5) Dardanelles to Gallipoli: Failure is an Orphan
09
Mar
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
What a story! A prime minister unwilling to be prime; a war minister reluctant to make war; backbiting among colleagues; idle babble to outsiders; changes of tune; dreams about the spoils of war; unwillingness to hear those who understood. It doesn't sound so far removed from the criticism now thrown at Western governments who have inherited the mistakes of a generation, and are expected to mend them overnight.
“The World Crisis” (4) Dardanelles: Success Has 1000 Fathers
04
Mar
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
The War Council waxed euphoric over Dardanelles prospects, "turning eagerly from the dreary vista of a ‘slogging match’ on the Western Front." Next, why not a naval attack up the Danube, landing at Salonika, and sending a fleet up the Adriatic? One member envisioned the end of the Ottoman Empire and expansion of the British Empire as far as Palestine. None of these naively optimistic visions were voiced by Winston Churchill.
“The World Crisis” (2): The Marne and Its Meaning
29
Jan
2024
By GWEN THOMPSON
“One must suppose upon the whole that the Marne was the greatest battle ever fought in the world,” Winston Churchill wrote in 1931. Its scale, he added, “far exceeded anything that has ever happened.” It actually “decided the World War,” for “never after the Marne had Germany a chance of absolute triumph.”
Jack Pease Insights on the 1911-15 Liberal Government
15
Jan
2024
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Pease enhances our understanding Cabinet decisions during the Great War’s first critical months, hitherto mainly represented by Asquith’s gossipy letters to his lady friend. But virtually every entry is accompanied by a superb editorial gloss that not only fills in the context but acts as a review of all recent scholarship on the subject covered, or alluded to in the entry. Everything is good about this book—except the price.
Robin Prior Describes Britain’s Role in Two World Wars
02
Nov
2023
By CYRIL MAZANSKY
Robin Prior concludes that the critical need in war for the correct political leadership. Lloyd George in the First World War and Churchill in the Second were right for the task. Both managed to gain the support of their citizens. Once that is accomplished, Prior concludes, “democracies at war can be fearsome.”
“Churchill Sank the Lusitania to Get America into the War”
19
Oct
2023
1
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
For a century now, rumors have swirled that “Lusitania” was deliberately sacrificed by the British, chiefly Churchill. His alleged aim was to so infuriate the Americans as to bring them into the war against Germany. More recently, critics charged that Churchill’s Admiralty conspired to steer the ship into harm’s way. Scholarly testimony to the truth exists—but lacking glitz and pathos, it tends to be ignored. Yet the facts refuting this slander have been known for decades.
“The World Crisis” (1): Exploring Churchill’s Masterwork
20
Jul
2023
2
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“It was the custom in the palmy days of Queen Victoria for statesmen to expatiate upon the glories of the British Empire, and to rejoice in that protecting Providence which had preserved us through so many dangers and brought us at length into a secure and prosperous age. Little did they know that the worst perils had still to be encountered and that the greatest triumphs were yet to be won....”
Great Contemporaries: Asquith: The Last Victorian Liberal (2)
06
Mar
2023
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
“Asquith fell when the enormous task was but half completed. He fell with dignity. He bore adversity with composure. In or out of power, disinterested patriotism and inflexible integrity were his only guides. Let it never be forgotten that he was always on his country's side in all her perils, and that he never hesitated to sacrifice his personal or political interests to the national cause.” —Churchill
Alistair Cooke, Churchill at the Time (Part 1): The Liberal Lion
25
Aug
2022
By ALISTAIR COOKE KBE
“My father was a Manchester Liberal. bearing with cheerful stoicism the fact that his wife always voted Conservative….. His youth was spent during what he always said were Winston’s great years, 1906 to 1910, during the memorable Liberal Parliament, when the two great radicals, Lloyd George and Churchill, embarked on the reform of British society.”