Instead, he leveled with his audience: “we have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. However, as the Nazis relentlessly advanced, such claims would have destroyed his credibility.
Understanding that only a united Britain could triumph over the Nazis, he first aimed to rally his dispirited and divided nation.Ĭhurchill could have minimized the Allied defeats or rashly promised an immediate turnaround. Churchill knew that such capitulation would mean the end of Britain. They reasoned if France was defeated, Britain’s only hope was to beg for Hitler’s mercy. A growing number of politicians were demanding peace with Germany.
When Churchill took over, he faced both a military crisis and a domestic crisis in confidence.
