At least, I reached the end

As you will have gathered from my previous, and frequent, mentions, I have been utterly fascinated recently with Nicholas Shakespeare's superb history of perhaps the most dangerous few weeks in the history of Britain.  I refer, of course, to April/May 1940.  Reading it has muted the 'alarums and excursions' of current brouhahas which sink into the tedious sludge of nothing more than mere "events, dear boy, events".  

The three leading actors in this all too real drama were, in their different ways, utterly fascinating.  Neville Chamberlain, handsome but deeply introverted - almost a caricature of an upper-middle class Englishman, came to his premiership late in life and thus with plenty of political experience.  His reputation has been forever blackened by the Munich agreement and it is forgotten that actually, in 1935, he pulled the trigger to start a huge re-armament programme which may not have been enough by 1940 but which did produce a sufficient number of Hurricanes and Spitfires for the Battle of Britain.

Lord Halifax, Foreign Minister at the time, was a toff of the first order!  He had moved effortlessly through the upper ranks of the Tory party without making too many waves which allowed his reputation to rise and rise.  He was described by one contemporary as "half unworldly saint, half cunning politician".  By 1940 his reputation was such that he was considered the natural successor to Chamberlain who was forced to resign as PM following the debacle in Norway which, of course, was almost entirely the fault of Winston Churchill, the then First Lord of the Admiralty.

The leadership crisis that occurred in May 1940 was the stuff of truly high drama.  It ended when the three men, plus the Chief Whip of the Tory party, met in private in No. 10.  Amazingly, or perhaps not when you think about it, no agreed version is available of what took place in that room, as German tanks were unleashed across France and the Low Countries.  Both public and press and political wisdom had it overwhelmingly that Chamberlain would go and Halifax would take over.  The rest, as they say, is history!

Six Minutes in May by Nicholas Shakespeare

 

Comments

[AussieD]

Halifax was the bloke who wanted to make peace with Hitler was he not?

Just as well he didn't succeed Chamberlain

[David Duff]

AussieD, I take your point but I can't help wondering exactly how much of a difference it would have made!

[TDK]

I thought that the Labour Party refused to serve under Halifax, and that this was a key factor in the decision?

[Whitewall]

Good Lord, I took a sudden chill at the title of this piece! Thought it was a start of an obituary.

[David Duff]

TDK, it was a factor but they would have served under Chamberlain and, as you know, very reluctantly they agreed to serve under Churchill. The key factor I gather from the book is that Halifax just did not want the job because it would have meant running the government from the House of Lords with Churchill actually fronting it in the Commons. He knew that pretty quickly Winnie would, in effect, take over and he would simply become an effigy.

[David Duff]

Whiters, you really must control your excitement!