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The Man Nobody Wanted: Churchill's First Days as Prime Minister
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
On May 10, 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister not in triumph but in desperation — and within days faced a War Cabinet pushing him toward peace with Hitler. This is the story of how he held the line.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
On the morning of May tenth, nineteen forty, two things happened at the same time. Germany launched the most devastating military offensive Western Europe had ever seen.
To understand May tenth, you have to go back a few weeks. Neville Chamberlain was still Prime Minister.
Here's the key thing about Churchill's appointment. He wasn't elevated in triumph.
It's worth being clear about the situation Churchill walked into. It was not merely difficult.
The War Cabinet meetings of May twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh, nineteen forty are among the most important in British history. They have been reconstructed in detail from the minutes that survived.
Churchill understood something about morale that many leaders miss. He understood that people don't only need facts.
Churchill was sixty-five when he took office. He was not a young man swept up by events.
None of this means Churchill was without doubt. The private record is clear on that point.
May tenth, nineteen forty is one of those dates in history that feels like a hinge. Before it, one kind of world.
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