Winston Churchill And His Role In The World Wars
Winston Churchill is a very known and effective man in history today. He was an author, a statesman, leader, and a prime minister in the world wars. He spent a lot of his time switching from conservatives and liberals, and from government jobs to government jobs. He wrote many books from 1874-1965 discussing wars, his childhood and adulthood, and his first book was his experience in India’s North West frontier Province. Even though he was a great author, he is mostly remembered by his actions during the world wars.
Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874 in Blenheim Oxfordshire with a rough childhood. His father, Lord Randolph Spencer- Churchill, was an alcoholic and abusive and his mother was very promiscuous. Due to his terrible actions in school, he was sent to Harrow school for punishment. There, he worked hard on his English and History to, soonly, get accepted into military college. Within his life, Winston got married to Clementine Hozier and had four children, Diana, Randolph, Sarah, Marigold, and Mary Churchill.
Churchill started his war experience early when he joined military school at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1893. In the academy he would draw and write out maps of the hills surrounding him, design plans and planners for the guards, and he learned how to build helpful war objects out of wood. He then got involved with politics as he got elected as a conservative for Oldham in the House of Commons but soon switching to the Liberal Party. As World War I broke out in 1914, Winston became the First Lord of the Admiralty. To help prepare the Germans for the war he modernized the British army, established the Royal Naval Air Service, and helped in the making of the earliest tank. He also developed the Dardanelles naval campaign and helped plan the military landings on Gallipoli, which were both unsuccessful and led to many Allied deaths. After these campaigns failed, Churchill resigned from the government jobs, joined the Army, and only served on the Western Front until 1916.
He was placed on the Western front’s quiet sectors. This means he was not involved in larger battles and on the frontline of war. However, occasionally, he would place himself in more danger than normal officers by visiting the trenches and no man’s land. Churchill and other officers begin, to push forward, dangerously, to the middle of no man’s land to get closer to the enemies. During the war he was anxious because he believed Turkey would become allies with Germany. Due to this, Winston ordered two Turkish battleships to be destroyed so they could not be used against Britain. It has been said that at this time, Turkey was deciding to become allies with Germany or England and after the destroyment of the ships. Eventually, Turkey came closer to Germany for help and alliance.
Between wars, Winston re-joined the Conservatives. He tried to warn everyone once the Nazi’s and Hilter came to power but Britain was ready for war and to get involved in international affairs again. Instead of listening to Churchill, the British ignored him and did everything they could stay out of the way of Hitler. However, Hitler soon invaded Poland, which led to Britain and France to declare war. Then in 1940, the former prime minister of Britain, Neville Chamberlain, resigned, and Winston became the new prime minister. The public supported him tremendously but some politicians believed he was too unpredictable and a maverick. Eventually, the British saw Winston Churchill as a reliable minister that could successfully defeat Germany.
The beginning of WWII was very difficult for Churchill when the Germans raided Britain with fighter planes. To keep spirits high, Winston gave up-lifting speeches on radios and also persuaded President Roosevelt to give the allies war supplies. Soon enough, Hitler began looking at Britain as their next target and the panicking started. To get an easier access of them, Hitler had to take out the Royal Air Force, this led to a massive air battle over England. The battle reached its peak on September 15, 1940, when Britain had no other reserves to protect themselves. Luckily for them, Hitler blew off his plan to invade Britain and the Battle of Britain was over. British won the war in the skies but German ships had sunk over 2 million British supplies and Churchill had to decide what to do next.
As prime minister, he had more power than any other minister so he fought against the decision of making peace with Germany and wanted to fight. Churchill created the Special Operations Executive that ran secret-missions into Germany territory and set up the Special Forces. When German had invaded France, Winston sent the British Expeditionary Force to help out but failed and had to evacuate and leave equipment behind. France then asked if he would send fighter planes to help take down Germany but he had to refuse incase Britain needed the planes to defend themselves.
After the war ended, he had lost the election of 1945 but still remained in the conservative government. In 1951, Winston was elected and became prime minister for the second time and created the “Iron Curtain” He created this to try to eliminate or decrease the communist threat across Europe. His Iron Curtain Speech states how Eastern Europe was mostly controlled by the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain was also going to make it clear that it would be, finally, controlled by Europe. Churchill resigned, for the last time, in 1955, but continued doing speeches and writing for the next ten years.
He won many Nobel Prizes for his actions in WWII and in his literatures he wrote. At age seventy-eight, Queen Elizabeth honored him with the name A Knight in the Order of the Garter. Before he died, he also got the reward of an honorary American citizen.Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965 of a stroke at age ninety. He had a state funeral with thousands of people, queens, kings, and other historians.
Winston Churchill will always be remembered for is great impact on the world and in wars. He grew past his rough childhood and did great things in his lifetime. He was a great conservative in World War One and was prepared for it. He was a huge part in the World War II leading Britain to victory and is a big part of History.
