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00:00September the 1st, 1939. Germany attacks Poland. Adolf Hitler ignores Britain and France,
00:27which had promised to fight for Poland.
00:57Sunday, September the 3rd. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts.
01:19This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland,
01:38a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
01:56The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:03The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:10The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:12The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:14The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:16The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:18The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
03:04Danzig, taken from Germany after the First World War, welcomed its liberator.
03:09To many good Germans, the city's capture symbolized the end of the humiliating treaty of Versailles.
03:22Hitler swept forward to congratulate his victorious troops.
03:39He said they'd rescued his people from Polish barbarism.
03:44The Germans thrust into Poland from the west and north.
04:00In two weeks, the Polish army had virtually ceased to exist.
04:05Warsaw was one of the few places to hold out.
04:08The Russians, by agreement with Germany, seized parts of Poland they claimed as theirs by right.
04:14The two conquerors met at Brest-Litovsk.
04:17It was the scene of the Russian surrender to Germany in 1918.
04:26The official German greeting in Russian said German soldiers had always respected Russian soldiers.
04:34The clash of Nazi and communist was, for the moment, conveniently forgotten.
04:40The final bombardment of Warsaw began on September the 23rd.
04:44In nearly three weeks, Warsaw Radio had defiantly played the Polish national anthem.
05:12In September the 27th, the anthem stopped.
05:37Warsaw was reduced to rubble.
05:47Warsaw was reduced to rubble.
06:03The capital's commander surrendered.
06:06Warsaw was tied to Russia's territory and the international anthem being Eternal.
06:08The battle to rebel.
06:09It was located at Dallas Willow.
06:11G із
06:26las
06:34Poland, followed by Germany and Russia, disappeared into a new dark age.
06:56Arrests, deportations, executions began.
07:04Britain's war started with a false alarm, September the 3rd.
07:11I remember when the outbreak of war came, we were in the cabinet room at the moment that
07:19the ultimatum expired.
07:22Lord Butler was then a junior minister.
07:25And we were just beginning to congratulate the Prime Minister on his broadcast when we
07:32heard a terrible wailing, which of course was the first air raid siren.
07:39Chamberlain took it very seriously.
07:44And his wife then appeared with an enormous basket full of things for the night and thermos
07:52flasks and things to read and so on.
07:56And so we all went and sheltered.
07:59I went and sheltered there after some delay in the Foreign Office.
08:04The whole of the Horse Guards Parade was completely empty of people, and there was nobody in sight anywhere.
08:09When I got there, there was no furniture, so I had to sit on the floor.
08:14And an air raid warden said that there would be no gas.
08:19But of course, there wasn't really any war for some time, apart from being no gas.
08:38So, no war that day.
08:41Or for many months.
08:43People settled down to enjoy the unexpected reprieve.
08:46It was perfect weather for a late holiday, or invading Poland.
08:51But of course.
08:55The next year, 기도 botbl Volt.
09:00Think about ...
09:06The Keywords
09:10Lamentable
09:14Democracy
09:46People had braced themselves for a grimmer war. Hospitals were cleared to take air raid casualties. The experts predicted over a million injured in two months.
10:16Children and their mothers evacuated from the cities, a million and a half of them. For some a nightmare, for others an adventure.
10:31We assembled in a playground rather like this. The kids were there and the parents. Children had the gas mask over their shoulder and labels tied to them.
10:44The women had to decide whether to keep their schoolchildren with them or whether to allow them to go out.
10:54Now, one would think that this was an easy decision. Why not keep your children with you, which is the natural thing to do.
11:00But against this was the terrible thought that there was going to be gas, that there was going to be terrible bombing and death and the children would be maimed.
11:12Everyone was crying, the parents and children. And as we moved off, especially, people burst into tears.
11:24My mother, I think, was more unhappy about the wrench of us going rather than the war itself.
11:28My sister was crying. I personally wasn't. I was rather excited at the prospect of leaving this part of London.
11:41We thought we'd travel to the other side of the world, but in fact, we came to Denham, here, only 20 miles from London.
11:47I promised my mother that I wouldn't be separated from my sister, so we went to the village hall with all the other kids.
11:57And because we wouldn't be separated, we were the last ones to find a billet.
12:01It was like being auctioned off at the time.
12:05But when we finally got a house to take us in, it was fantastic.
12:09It was a new world that opened out to us.
12:12I mean, we had toothbrushes and sheets on the bed and hot water.
12:19Imagine hot water. We just couldn't get over it.
12:22And we didn't know what I did downs were for.
12:25In the morning, we went blackberry picking.
12:29Then we heard the sirens.
12:31So we rushed back to our billet.
12:34The woman there reassured us and said not to worry.
12:38And we sat down to lunch, and it was the first fully laid-out table I'd ever seen in my life.
12:45And war, war was declared, I think, that same lunchtime.
12:50She said not to worry and passed us the whole service source.
12:53But I think a number of children suffered really deeply being away from their families.
12:59They suffered a sense of rejection.
13:01They exhibited their senses of rejection and sorrow and suffering very often by strange behaviour problems,
13:12by bed-wetting, perhaps not eating.
13:16Thirty-one arrived with two junior nurses, I think.
13:20They were pretty dirty.
13:23And two of them got impetigo.
13:27I had young children at the time.
13:29And I put them into a large room.
13:32And you had no idea, I had no idea, that such things existed in England.
13:35They relieved themselves all over the carpet.
13:38The place was a shamble.
13:43Help!
13:43Help!
13:45Help!
13:47Help!
13:48There was no heroic rush to volunteer for the forces.
13:56You waited your turn to be called up for processing in the military sausage machine.
14:01Or rather, leisurely.
14:09In a rush to get married.
14:12In August and September, the highest number of weddings ever recorded.
14:15Whites the only way.
14:18White for the blackout, too.
14:22To make sure car drivers can see you in the dark.
14:27At first, the blackout was a bit of a joke.
14:34Then road casualties shot up.
14:37And the blackout wasn't funny anymore.
14:39There weren't any air raids,
14:40but thousands of people were killed or injured in accidents in the blackout.
14:44And the blackout was a bit of a joke.
14:45And the blackout was a bit of a joke.
14:46And the blackout was a bit of a joke.
14:50Depressing, too.
14:51Without it, you could almost forget there was a war on.
14:54Every night, every home had to be blacked out.
14:57The air raid warden, looking for chinks of light,
14:59became more hated than Hitler.
15:01The government closed cinemas and other entertainments at the beginning of the war.
15:09But a fortnight later, they were allowed to open again.
15:11The seaside jungle busjangers are a Vogel!
15:25We wanted to use blackout to see the language.
15:27We could discern you exactly which one of the wars.
15:30We want you to lift up.
15:30They understand which one of the participants and with their lives and volunteers at the beginning of the war.
15:34Historically, no.
15:36To be safe or스터.
15:37In spite of total war, there were nearly a million and a half unemployed.
15:55Sir John Simon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced an emergency budget.
15:59In three hours' time, all budget secrets will be revealed.
16:07I am confident that whatever may be the burdens which have to be carried by the British taxpayer,
16:18my fellow countrymen will bear them with the same resolution and courage as our fighting
16:28men will show when they discharge their grimmer task on the field of battle.
16:37The blackout budget. Income tax up to seven and six, a 60% tax on excess profits.
16:54In retrospect, mild enough.
16:57But a Conservative MP, Chips Channon, thought it demolished the edifice of capitalism.
17:02Another Tory, Leo Amory, wanted a tougher war. Why not bomb Germany?
17:09The Air Minister, Kingsley Wood, said no.
17:12German munition works were private property.
17:15And the Germans would retaliate.
17:17Well, the opening phase of the war was one of the most extraordinary periods through which I've ever lived.
17:23Because it was a sort of period of euphoria on the part of the people of this country.
17:28For a long time, there were quite a lot of unemployed.
17:32While the Germans were manufacturing arms at full stretch, particularly in the Skoda works in Czechoslovakia,
17:41which they had by that time occupied.
17:43Now, all this time, the Germans were a beehive of activity.
17:48We were doing absolutely nothing.
17:50We'd gone to war for the defense of Poland.
17:54In the event, we did nothing to help Poland at all.
17:59We never lifted a finger.
18:00For the first three months of the war, the greatest number of casualties were in the blackout.
18:07And we confined our war effort to dropping leaflets on the German people,
18:14telling them that it was a bad idea to go to war,
18:17and that it was a pity that they'd done it, and perhaps we might make peace.
18:23A phony war.
18:24When a German plane crashed in Scotland in November, people came from miles around to see it.
18:35And the Luftwaffe's dead were buried with full military honor.
18:38Three British divisions went off to France at the beginning of the war.
18:55More followed.
18:56Nearly 200,000 men, said the war minister proudly.
19:01The French had mobilized six million men.
19:04They grumbled that the British weren't taking the war seriously.
19:06Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye.
19:13Cheerio, here I go on my way.
19:19The Luftwaffe's dead, the light, the light, the light, the light.
19:24The candles are yelling again.
19:30Give me a smile, my death kiss.
19:33Keep me, oh, the water.
19:35Give me my heart.
19:36Give me hope that brings me away.
19:38Let's not stand still with you.
19:41Since again you and I.
19:45Wish me luck as you wave.
19:48Keep me away.
19:50Keep me alive.
19:51In France, training for a war that ended in 1918.
20:02The newsreel reporter tried hard to make it sound impressive.
20:05The expeditionary force, instead of being thrown into the line for immediate operations,
20:09has been able to perfect its training in conditions similar to those at home.
20:13This banner drill in gas mosques is our reply to transparent Nazi propaganda,
20:17which seems to indicate that Germany is preparing to employ poison gas.
20:21Infantry battalions exercise with their auxiliary weapons,
20:26awaiting the moment for their use in actual warfare.
20:30The mortar platoon goes into action with a rapidity only acquired by constant practice.
20:34Steel helmets assume a fashionable appearance with the addition of camouflage.
20:42French and British generals, too, prepared for their part in the battle to come.
20:51The British dug in on the Belgian frontier.
21:00In December, it was decided that when fighting began,
21:03they'd leave their defences in advance into Belgium.
21:07Anything helped to keep their mines off the wall.
21:09Now imagine me in the Maginor line,
21:17sitting on a mine in the Maginor line.
21:20Now it's turned out nice again,
21:22the army life is fine.
21:25French girls make a fuss over me,
21:27I'm not French as you can see,
21:29but I know what they mean when they say oui, oui.
21:32Down on the Maginor line.
21:34Now imagine me in the Maginor line,
21:38sitting on a mine in the Maginor line.
21:41Now it's turned out nice again,
21:43the army life is fine.
21:45At night myself to sleep I sing,
21:48to my old tin hat I cling,
21:51I have to use it now for everything.
21:53Winston's back, the navy was told on September the 3rd.
22:09Chamberlain was reluctant to recall
22:10his most bitter political opponent
22:12with a reputation for military adventure.
22:16But Churchill was popular with the public.
22:20He had warned them, war was coming.
22:24Now with surprising energy for a 64-year-old,
22:27he proved a willing leader.
22:42The RAF dropped leaflets,
22:44the army dug trenches,
22:46but Churchill's navy was Britain's strongest arm.
22:49And the first lord of the admiralty
22:52was often in the news.
22:55We are in a very different position
22:57from that we were in 10 weeks ago.
23:03We are far stronger than we were 10 weeks ago.
23:07We are far better prepared
23:09to endure the worst malice
23:12of Hitler and his Huns
23:15than we were at the beginning of September.
23:18The news that a German battleship
23:20was sinking British merchantmen
23:22gave the chance to take the offensive.
23:29Churchill concentrated much of the navy's strength
23:32on finding them.
23:33One of the hunting groups patrolled off the river plate
23:37in South America.
23:38Three cruisers, Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles.
23:42At dawn on December the 13th,
23:44they sighted a heavier German ship.
23:46It was the pocket battleship,
23:47Admiral Graf Spade.
23:49Although outgunned,
23:50the cruisers engaged her.
23:51The battle of the river plate began.
23:58Within about five minutes
24:00of the alarm being sounded,
24:03Graf Spade and Exeter
24:05were shooting at each other,
24:07and the Ajax and Achilles
24:08were both shooting at the Graf Spade,
24:12concentrating their gunfire.
24:15The Exeter was quite soon hit
24:18and received early damage.
24:22Her foremost guns
24:23only fired a few rounds each
24:25before they were out of action.
24:27She continued as long as she possibly could
24:30with her after turret,
24:32but the ship herself was badly damaged.
24:35Her speed was reduced.
24:40The six-inch gun cruisers,
24:43before long,
24:44turned directly towards the Graf Spade
24:47so as it closed the range still faster,
24:49and the captain of the Graf Spade
24:52did not follow up the Exeter entirely,
24:58but indeed before very long
25:00started heading towards Montevideo.
25:04But we could not see
25:06any spectacular damage inflicted on him,
25:10and indeed his speed seemed to be unimpowered,
25:12and his heavy guns were still firing regularly
25:17and with pretty good accuracy.
25:23In Montevideo, the Graf Spade took on fuel
25:26and put ashore the crews of the merchant ship
25:28she'd sunk.
25:36Her captain, Langsdorf,
25:38asked the Uruguayans for permission to stay,
25:41but was told he must clear the port in 72 hours.
25:49So he buried his dead.
25:52And believing that much heavier British ships
25:54were waiting for him outside,
25:55he prepared to carry out his final orders from Berlin.
25:58As soon as he started pulling his anchor up,
26:06we got news of it
26:08from our people ashore,
26:11and we sent off our aircraft,
26:15and in due course,
26:18we got the signal from the aircraft,
26:20which was a very welcome one.
26:21Graf Spade has blown herself up.
26:24Two days later,
26:31Langsdorf shot himself.
26:39Churchill made the most of a victory,
26:41won by bluff rather than gunpower.
26:43Two of the cruisers were brought home.
26:45Their crews marched through the city of London
26:53to Guildhall,
26:54and the First Lord of the Admiralty
26:56basked in their glory.
26:57The brilliant sea fight
27:00which you executed,
27:05those who are here executed,
27:10takes its place
27:12in our naval annals.
27:15And I may add
27:16that in a dark, cold winter,
27:21it warmed the cockles of the British heart.
27:24Helsinki,
27:45November the 30th, 1939.
27:48Finland has refused to hand over bases
27:50and territory demanded by her neighbor Russia.
27:52The Russians attack.
28:22The massive Russian army
28:24crossed the frontier,
28:25apparently set for the kind of easy victory
28:27the Germans had had in Poland.
28:35But the Finns,
28:36few in number,
28:37fought back.
28:38Camouflaged Finnish ski troops
28:49knew how to use their own conditions,
28:51moving round the Russian flanks,
28:53cutting their supply lines.
28:59The Russian advance ground to a halt,
29:01confirming the German belief
29:03that the Russian army purged by Stalin
29:05of many of its regular officers
29:07couldn't fight.
29:21Whole Russian divisions were destroyed.
29:24Those who weren't taken prisoner
29:25died in the snow.
29:27For the Russians,
29:29a humiliating if temporary failure.
29:31The Russian將 was in the United States.
29:32The Russian army was a far-rumped
29:35with the Russian army.
29:36The foreigners were the140
29:37and the nine-year-old
29:38to take care of him.
29:39The French army was a very admits
29:41into a very decent way
29:41and the French army was a little bit
29:42in a way
29:42to enjoy their own conditions.
29:43To turn the Russian army,
29:44a little bit in a fight.
29:45The French army killed two people
29:46in a very different place.
29:46The French army was under the army
29:47and the French army killed in a different place.
29:48The French army,
29:50the French army was under the army
29:51as the French army killed a half-rumped
29:53of the Nazi army killed
29:55for the Japanese,
29:56shore.
29:56The French army killed them
29:57as the Russians killed
29:58in Britain it was snowing too the censorship tried to hush it up but
30:14people couldn't help noticing to the trials of the blackout were added the
30:18worst winter for 45 years a cold shortage burst pipes and food rationing
30:23the RAF was grounded troops were called in to keep the trains running
30:42for the Navy another victory taking refuge in a Norwegian fjord the graph space supply ship
30:50Altmark was cornered by British destroyers ignoring Norwegian neutrality they boarded
30:56her and after a fight released 300 British prisoners for Hitler the seizure
31:04of the Altmark was a setback he hastened his plans to invade Norway
31:20for Churchill another popular trial he too had his eyes on Norway
31:26Churchill's colleagues have been discussing for months his plan for British action in Norway but
31:42some like the foreign secretary Lord Halifax were difficult to persuade
31:52Churchill now added a plan to help Finland as part of the Norwegian operation he proposed to stop
31:59Germany's important supply of iron ore which came from Sweden to the Norwegian port of Narvik then it
32:06was shipped to Germany through neutral Norwegian waters
32:13Churchill wanted to mine the waters and he added enticingly that if Narvik were captured it could be
32:19used as a base for helping Finland against communist Russia
32:23Churchill knew that his plan might mean retaliation by Hitler in Norway and helping Finland could mean war with Russia
32:33Chamberlain was concerned about innocent Norwegian lives and the effect on American opinion
32:42eventually he was persuaded I think that deep down he still hoped that perhaps the major clash of armies could be avoided he
32:52thought that Germany was on the verge of starvation or if not on the verge of starvation it anyhow would be brought to the verge of starvation by economic warfare
32:54he thought also that deep down the German people didn't support Hitler that this was a clique and that if we did our propaganda properly there would perhaps be a revolt of the generals or somebody else against Hitler and that therefore dropping propaganda leaflets by bomber command of the RAF
33:01rather than bombs was a good way of conducting the war anything to stop the real major
33:31And that is why I think to some extent the campaigns in Norway were something acceptable
33:40to Chamberlain because it kept the war distant.
33:44It kept the idea of a real big clash, a repetition of Passchendaele or the Somme far away.
33:54It meant that war would be localized and perhaps some miracle would happen.
33:59Perhaps Hitler would die or be assassinated and the whole thing would end with a minimum of bloodshed.
34:06Finland today, amidst her snows and her frozen lakes, is fighting against the forces of unscrupulous violence just as we are ourselves.
34:29Does a need cause for our sympathy and our aid?
34:36Some British aid did go to Finland, but little and late.
34:46The Russians at last brought all their weight to bear and overwhelmed the Finnish defenses.
34:51The day the British steeled themselves to force a landing in Norway, Finland surrendered.
35:03So Britain was saved from war against Russia and Germany at the same time.
35:10The armistice terms gave Russia most of what she wanted.
35:17Hundreds of thousands of Finns had to evacuate their home.
35:23The French Prime Minister Daladier had staked everything on helping Finland.
35:37He was replaced by Paul Reynaud.
35:40Reiner went on pressing for Churchill's operation to cut off the German iron ore.
35:46An Allied meeting in London decided to mine Norwegian waters.
35:50Churchill had got his way.
35:53British and French troops stood ready to invade Norway.
36:00The mines were laid on April the 8th.
36:06A few days earlier, no thought of Norway in his mind.
36:21Chamberlain had proclaimed that Hitler had missed the bus.
36:25And General Ironside dared the Germans to do their worst.
36:30Hitler's invasion force sailed on April the 6th.
37:00The Luftwaffe took over most of the Norwegian airfields.
37:18The Luftwaffe took over most of the Norwegian airfields.
37:21The German march into Oslo was led by a band.
37:43Norway had no standing army, only half-trained militia.
37:47The Norwegians were anti-militarist by tradition.
37:50And they had seen German newsreels of a blitzkrieg on Poland.
37:55No one wanted Oslo to go the way of Warsaw.
37:58There was little resistance.
38:00The Allied operation in Norway was a muddle from the start.
38:19Troops were embarked, disembarked, embarked again, without vital equipment.
38:28A contingent of French troops sailed with the British, plentifully equipped.
38:34Unlike the British, they were trained for winter conditions, but they hadn't got straps for their skis.
38:51Even the expedition's objectives were confused.
39:03Trondheim in central Norway was to be captured by a pincer attack from Andelsnes and Namsos.
39:09So some troops were diverted south.
39:12But Churchill's mind was still fixed on Narvik.
39:15And it was there the first battle took place.
39:18That is for sure.
39:30That's it...
39:35the navy bombarded navik and german destroyers already there took a battering but the advantage
39:54was lost the british army commander didn't make a direct assault on the town
40:05british territorials did land at namsos and andresnes
40:10they had no skis no proper maps of norway and no heavy guns
40:19there was little they could do when they ran into the well-equipped germans
40:24captain martin lindsay was with the british force at namsos there really was no hope at
40:34all for this operation because it was entirely improvised at short notice in a great hurry and
40:42the force had no aircraft supporting it no artillery but even more important all the ground was covered
40:49with snow and the only way to operate was with ski troops and we hadn't we hadn't got ski troops and
40:57therefore the troops were confined to the road and whenever the germans got onto the hills on
41:02the flank they had no alternative but but to retire
41:10the british had come to protect the norwegians but they couldn't stop the luftwaffe from blitzing the
41:15little norwegian towns german control of the norwegian airfields was the key to the battle
41:29the germans advanced capturing hundreds of british prisoners
41:47some of these were flown to berlin and paraded before hitler
41:49others were put in front of german newsreel cameras seem to be in a pretty good mood here
41:59obviously you don't find germs as bad as you expected them no no certainly no no
42:05i was captured at farburg by the germans from there i came to little harmer and uh we had a supper
42:14consisted of uh brown bread gorgonzola uh wine which the germans gave to us cigarettes
42:22and uh hot meal each day and uh getting on fairly decent and i hope the war will soon be over and
42:31we'll all be going back home most of them did go home ingloriously abandoning andlesness and numsos still
42:40burning
42:53chased by the luftwaffe the norwegian campaign rammed home the lesson that sea power without air power
43:00could no longer win battles
43:13so
43:30their only battle honor the part they played in bringing down a government
43:33for now the machinery of democracy began to work
43:41as the troops disembarked an angry parliament was assembling to debate the disaster
43:47feeling cut across party lines captain lindsay a tory went to the leader of the labor opposition
43:53well i was the first person from this force to reach london and i went straight to see mr
44:01atley on the morning the first day of the debate and i gave him a memorandum
44:06about the appalling improvisation and deficiencies in norway because i was quite convinced that we
44:12should lose the war if we went on like that uh which he gave to herbert morrison to help him open for
44:19the opposition that afternoon the norway debate was the only decisive debate i'd ever attended during
44:26my 34 years as a member of the house of commons because it was the only division which definitely
44:33brought about the fall of a government for nearly a year before that debate there had been a piling up
44:38of bitterness and anguish and the breasts of people who wanted britain to go all out and win the war
44:45against hitler and so you can imagine that the debate was um a very fierce one not only the um
44:54labor opposition but also conservatives they felt that the whole conduct of the war could not be
45:03carried on under a man whom they had already assailed at the time of munich and whom they realized
45:11he was not really by nature a war leader gradually the temperature began to rise and when herbert morrison
45:18for the labor party announced that they were going to divide at the end of the debate against the government
45:25there was an action group of which clement davis was chairman the liberal leader and i was secretary
45:34which was an all-party committee committed to pressing for more decisive action during the war
45:42and a more vigorous posture and more vigorous prosecution of the war and we decided to hold a
45:48meeting after morrison's announcement and we asked leo amory to preside over it and it was an enormously
45:55attended meeting there were a great many conservative members of parliament there and i felt something
46:00was happening and there was a great many members of parliament who had never been hitherto members
46:07of our action group who fetched up at the meeting and the feeling at the meeting was passionate and i
46:13felt at that time that a great many of conservative members were not only prepared to abstain in the
46:20division but even to vote against the government and i came down from that meeting with feelings of great
46:27tension meanwhile churchill had been putting up a great defense of the government and it was ironical
46:36again there because the debate was about norway and norway had been a series of disasters for which
46:43although he might not be blamed because they may have been unavoidable and i think were unavoidable
46:48he was directly responsible as first lord of the admiralty and amory made a most formidable speech
46:57in which he quoted cromwell's words you have been here long enough for any good you have done
47:03in the name of god go and then lloyd george came down and made the most devastating speech i've ever heard
47:10even him make in which he concluded by saying to chamberlain you have asked the nation for sacrifices
47:16but there is one sacrifice that is more necessary than any other and that is the sacrifice of your
47:22own office and when the result of the division was announced and the conservative majority fell to
47:28about 80 and that meant the fall of the government in the circumstances i could see chamberlain i can see
47:35him now blanche he had asked he had asked for friendship from those who were his friends and he hadn't got it
47:46and he walked out of the chamber with a solitary figure and i felt very sorry for him at that
47:51moment because i knew that he knew that he was done and i remember chamberlain going to his room
47:57afterwards and saying he wondered whether this could go on but it wasn't until the next day that he really
48:04realized that his pay number was up on that particular day the whips i think tried to explain to him that
48:10might have been worse and that sort of thing but those of us who were with him could see the writing
48:16on the wall by that time during those two days of the 9th and 10th of may there was great doubt as to
48:23who would succeed chamberlain and the labor party made it clear that if there was to be a coalition
48:30government which by now everybody thought necessary they would not serve under chamberlain the choice
48:36therefore was between churchill and halifax lord halifax was the obvious successor chamberlain's trusted
48:44colleague but no peer had been prime minister for nearly 40 years as for his rival
48:53churchill was viewed with grave misgiving by the establishment as it would now be called
49:00everybody at 10 dining street and whitehall generally the cabinet offices and in very large
49:07sectors of the conservative party were frightened of churchill they thought he was an adventurer
49:13they remembered gallipoli they thought that they did not want to see the fortunes of this country
49:19at a most critical moment in its whole history handed over to somebody who might do the most
49:26extraordinary things and undertake the most astonishing adventures and they all after all
49:32realized that norway this fiasco from which we were just hoping to recover or had just been saved in
49:38the nick of time was largely the inspiration of churchill it was a very fine idea but it didn't work
49:45just like gallipoli and therefore it was with a certain amount of
49:54fear of churchill that i think the minds of most people in the center of government and in the center
50:01of whitehall turned towards halifax halifax was safe he was clever he was a fellow of all souls
50:09he was a man of indisputable charm and absolute integrity and it was hoped that he would perhaps
50:18be sent for by the king the labor party approached me hugh dalton and herbert morrison and they both
50:27talked in favor of halifax and they thought that uh halifax ought to take over and i think their idea
50:35always was that churchill would run the war under halifax an idea which didn't appeal to halifax
50:44i remember churchill telling me that the critical moment came when chamberlain asked halifax and him
50:53to join him in the cabinet room and um uh the three of them were there
51:00halifax halifax was uh sitting beside chamberlain who suddenly turned to churchill and say tell me
51:09winston do you see any reason why in the 20th century a prime minister should not be in the house of lords
51:18and churchill thought that this was a trap because if he said
51:25no i see no reason at all he thought chamberlain would turn to halifax and say in that case
51:31if the king were to ask my advice i could perhaps suggest you on the other hand it would be very
51:38difficult for him to say yes i do because then there could be no alternative but himself and so
51:43he turned round and stood staring over the horse guards parade and did not reply to the question
51:49the decision i think was largely taken by halifax who told me he had a pain in his stomach the uh
51:57an hour or two before the meeting and did not really want to be prime minister whereas the man
52:03who really did want to be prime minister but he was quite determined on it was churchill
52:08at dawn that morning the germans swept into holland belgium and luxembourg
52:13the war was at last coming very close home to britain
52:19as the allied armies braced themselves for battle chamberlain went to the palace to resign and advised
52:26the king to send for churchill
52:30churchill would be a gamble and perhaps when you're in at a very serious
52:36moment of your lives a gamble is not the thing to undertake and so it was with great despair that
52:43we all heard on the evening of the 10th of may that the king had sent for churchill
52:58so
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