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Tucker-Jones Reviews a Half-Century of Churchill as Warlord
Anthony Tucker-Jones. Churchill, Master and Commander: Winston Churchill at War 1895-1945. New York: Osprey, 2021, 384 pages, $30, Amazon $26.99. Kindle, $12.60.
“Adrenaline junkie”
Anthony Tucker-Jones, a former British intelligence officer and respected military historian, tracks Churchill’s development from a young officer to Britain’s warlord in the Second World War. Neither a hagiographer nor a polemicist, Tucker-Jones attempts to explain what shaped Churchill as a commander, and—once in high political office—what he got right and wrong. The book also depicts Churchill as one of the greatest military and political chancers of all time. He had a lifetime propensity to for risk-taking, and the courage to withstand withering criticism or disastrous outcomes.
The author recounts how Churchill, described as an “adrenaline junkie” (25), used the British army as a means of self-promotion and political advancement. He successfully combined military service with war journalism. These exciting and lucrative activities took him to Cuba, India, Sudan, and South Africa from 1895 to 1900. They informed his military thinking and enabled him to accumulate valuable friends and allies. He later served (1915-16), on the western front in France during the First World War.
In all, Churchill was attached to nine different regiments in the British, Indian, and South African armies. It is also argued to some effect that like Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, this rendered him a warlord. But unlike them, though impatient for action and nursing autocratic impulses, Churchill never overruled his military service chiefs. He did, however, frequently attempt verbally to batter them into submission. (See Eliot Cohen, “Churchill and His Military Commanders.”)
One does question Tucker-Jones ending his study in 1945. In 1951-55, though old, deaf, and unwell, Churchill nevertheless presided over military decisions in the Cold War, and, to some extent, British security operations in Egypt, Cyprus, Iran, Kenya and Malaya.
Tucker-Jones on courage and luck
In both politics and war Churchill was ever courageous, if not always wise. He never failed to defend what he believed in. He made tough decisions, trusting to luck, which sometimes admittedly let him down. Like a moth to a flame, he was drawn to the center of the action, famously writing, “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” Churchill was part of the Victorian military tradition of honor, humor, and resiliency (42). These he put to good use in both world wars. Above all, Churchill was inspired by his illustrious ancestor John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), victorious leader of a wartime coalition against the French hegemony of Louis XIV. Winston’s masterful multi-volume biography of the Duke in the 1930s grounded him for his own wartime greatness
To what does Tucker-Jones credit Churchill’s success as a warlord? First, long before he became prime minister, he is praised for his leadership from the front line, whether as a service officer or government minister—though he often got too close to danger. The author rightly credits Churchill for being a pioneer of both tank and aerial warfare. He founded both the Royal Naval Air Service (later the Fleet Air Arm) and the Royal Air Force (RAF). He pioneered the use of air power in enforcing security from Somalia to Iraq to Afghanistan.
Tucker-Jones lauds WSC for his care of the welfare of men in the trenches, when he briefly commanded the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers. He defends Churchill’s support for the Dardanelles attack against Turkey in 1915, for which he was much blamed. He defends Churchill from leftist myths that as Home Secretary he made troops fire on striking miners at Tonypandy, Wales. Above all, he is praised for his tireless work as wartime Minister of Munitions, 1917-18. There, he made sure British forces had the necessary war supplies to win victory.
“Warts and all”
Tucker-Jones is not without criticism for the Churchill of this era. He argues that Churchill’s presence as Home Secretary directing police at the so call “Battle of Sydney Street” in 1911, was folly, and also does not favorably view Churchill’s 1914 attempts in vain to save Antwerp from German occupation. After the First World War, he is criticized for his ham-fisted use of paramilitary forces, the Black and Tans, against the IRA in Ireland. Nor does Tucker-Jones accept his obsessive attempts to crush the Bolsheviks state with military intervention. He correctly documents Churchill’s considerable cabinet opposition, including that of his “frenemy” and prime minister, David Lloyd George.
On the main event of Churchill’s life and career Tucker-Jones has much to say pro and con. He rightly credits Churchill at the Admiralty (1939-40) for organizing convoys and hunting German submarines. He praises the Navy’s forced scuttling of the “pocket” battleship, Graf Spee, at Montevideo. As Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Churchill is praised for providing central war direction, working in tandem with the service chiefs. He was right, Tucker-Jones says, to sacrifice the Calais garrison in order to enable the escape of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk.
Churchill’s leadership during the Battle of Britain was inspired. A highlight is the fine account of the 15 September 1940 aerial duel witnessed by Churchill at RAF headquarters (163-64). Churchill also wins points for his destruction of the Vichy French fleet in North Africa in 1940, for his relationship with America and Russia, and for his management of Parliament through the travails of wartime politics. For Tucker-Jones as Churchill said, “nothing surpasses 1940.”
Tragedies amid triumphs
Still, Tucker-Jones warns, we should not ignore the errors and mistakes. Churchill consistently underestimated the Japanese, he writes. That led to the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse in 1941, and Singapore in 1942. Unlike the Americans, he put too little value on the war against Japan in China. Intervention in Norway in 1940 and Greece in 1941 were unmitigated disasters. He also faults committing too many resources to Bomber Command, which cost dearly in lives and challenged moral boundaries with the wholesale slaughter of civilians.
WSC is faulted for his treatment of Lloyd George and General Slim, and for alienating certain military men: The “publicity hogging Churchill had bruised one too many egos” (320). These elements, the author contends, explain the otherwise shocking rejection of Churchill in his moment of triumph. The latter is a contentious conclusion. The Conservative rout in the July 1945 election had many causes beyond the Prime Minister’s personal faults. A broader review of that election is needed to understand the result.
Tucker-Jones offers a readable and critical account of Churchill as warlord. While worth considering, not all his criticisms are convincing. He correctly observes that Churchill took many a proverbial beating, from which he emerged still optimistic.
There are a few mistakes, such as various typos (118, 208) and describing Churchill’s 1929 and 1931-32 trips to the United States as his second and third, missing his 1900 lecture tour (221). There is an odd, almost throwaway statement that Churchill possibly suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome! (34) Master and Commander is amply supported with maps, illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, and an index. Overall, it is an excellent addition to the Churchill literary corpus.
The author
William John Shepherd is a long time contributor to The Churchill Project and serves as the University Archivist and Head of Special Collections at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.