Winston Churchill: Defender of Democracy

Page 6 of 7

• 1. A statesman transformed
• 2. Threat of invasion
• 3. Unfailingly brave
• 4. Man of the people
• 5. Grand alliance
• 6. Achievements of war
• 7. Find out more
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Achievements of war

There is no doubt some of Churchill's ideas were impractical, even silly. On the other hand, some were good, and others were politically necessary. He was surely right, moreover, to believe that the generals tended to plan too stolidly and move too slowly, and that without his zeal for aggressive activity early on, the British armed forces would have lapsed into mere defensiveness. When large-scale offensives did become practical, in 1943, his big idea was, oddly enough, one that appealed to Alanbrooke: the idea of attacking Germany through Italy and, if possible, the Balkans.

'... his achievement in the war to save democracy ... was enormous.'

Undertaken with maximum force, this would have been at the expense of the 1944 Normandy landings upon which the Americans had fixed their aim. Whether Churchill's 'Mediterranean strategy' was a good or a bad idea remains controversial; as do the questions of whether more or less resources should have been put into the costly bombing offensive gallantly conducted by the RAF, encouraged by Churchill, and of the rights and wrongs of its methods. In this fourth dimension of his leadership, one has to conclude that Churchill's achievement was not as indisputably great as in the other three. But overall, as is almost universally agreed, his achievement in the war to save democracy and the liberties of Western Europe was enormous.

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Published: 2002-06-14