Churchill's First World War


Churchill's First World War

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AIR-RAID SIREN AND BOMBING

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On becoming Prime Minister in 1940,

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Winston Churchill said

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that all his past life had been preparation

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for a moment of destiny.

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But no chapter had prepared him more than the First World War.

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In 1914, he had felt the same call of destiny and glory,

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but would experience humiliation and disgrace.

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Gallipoli, this great Napoleonic strategic stroke, when it failed,

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was more than simply, "This is a failed campaign."

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This got to his very soul.

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In early 1916, he was an infantry officer serving in the trenches,

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where his battle to clear his name and regain war command began.

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This is a classic story of hubris and nemesis and then redemption.

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The story of his fall and rise can be told largely in his own words,

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for Churchill confided all to his young wife, Clementine,

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in an intimate correspondence.

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I cannot tell you how much I love and honour you, and how sweet

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and steadfast you have been through all my hesitations and perplexity.

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His "darkest hour" would prove to be Clementine's finest,

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as war transformed the most important relationship of his life.

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This is a woman who's a great political strategist,

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who is his confidante and is the only person who can talk to him

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openly, frankly, honestly.

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Churchill would make thrilling contributions to the war

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on land, sea and air.

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But the hardest battle lay within himself.

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He was a simply astonishing man

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who'd never understood the meaning of stop, finish, over,

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and was just going to press on till the very end.

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This is the story of Churchill and the First World War.

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The cauldron in which a greater warlord would be forged.

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In July 1914, as Europe spiralled suddenly toward war,

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a young British Minister stood apart from his troubled peers.

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The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Spencer Churchill,

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was the political head of the Royal Navy.

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Brilliant, but vain, he believed he had a special gift for war.

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In August 1914, Winston Churchill is best described

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as a bundle of excitement and energy.

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He's a man who's gone a very long way in a short time.

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He's been a leading social reformer in the House of Commons.

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He has been Home Secretary

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and now he's the political head of the Royal Navy.

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And I think all of his virtues are there but also his vices.

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Above all, he's not trusted by many people.

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War was in Churchill's blood.

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A Sandhurst-educated cavalry officer, his dashing accounts

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of imperial adventures

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and a prisoner-of-war escape in the Boer War

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helped spur him to the top of the ruling Liberal government.

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Two things are essential for understanding

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Winston Churchill's character.

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First of all, he thinks of himself as a soldier -

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actually, a warrior might be a better way of putting it -

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but he, fundamentally, sees himself as a military man.

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The second thing is that he is an imperialist.

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He has an unquestioning belief in the British Empire,

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as, indeed, almost everybody did, at that point.

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Churchill was no warmonger.

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But since 1911, he and the Admiralty had responded vigorously

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to the growing naval ambitions of the German Empire.

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He would not flinch from conflict.

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Aged just 39, and at the very peak of his powers,

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he wrote to his wife of heady events and emotions.

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My darling one and beautiful.

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Everything trends towards catastrophe and collapse.

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I am interested, geared up and happy -

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is it not horrible to be built like that?

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The preparations have a hideous fascination for me.

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29 years old and nicknamed "The Cat", Clementine Spencer Churchill

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was on a seaside holiday with their two young children.

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Clementine Churchill was an Edwardian beauty.

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She was highly strung, she was quite emotional.

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In July 1914, there's a great deal of anticipation

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and excitement in the air that's about the war,

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and she's very excited about what Winston is doing.

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She's also expecting their third child

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and she's really thinking about sort of domestic things, what is to come.

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They had no idea then what would come,

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what suffering they would go through.

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They were naive.

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My darling, I much wish I were with you during these anxious,

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thrilling days.

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I know how you are feeling,

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tingling with life to the tips of your fingers.

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Surely every hour of delay must make the forces of peace more powerful.

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It would be a wicked war. Your loving Clemmie.

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During the July crisis and leading up to the outbreak of war,

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Churchill has, very naturally,

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been at the forefront of all political decision-making.

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He controls Britain's only first-class strategic instrument,

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the Royal Navy,

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the thing that is going to have to control the world, if war breaks out,

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and getting it into the right place at the right time, at the outbreak

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of war, is absolutely critical, so the timing is everything.

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On July 28, the First Fleet was concentrated at Portland,

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far from its war station at Scapa Flow

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in the North Sea, where it could blockade Germany.

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A peace-time mobilisation risked provoking Germany,

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yet Churchill gambled, ordering the Fleet to slip back secretly

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through the Dover Straits at night.

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An exultant First Lord had made the Fleet "ready for war".

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Diplomatic ultimatums were set to expire at 11pm on August 4.

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Cat, dear, it is all up.

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Germany has quenched the last hopes of peace.

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The world has gone mad, and we must look after ourselves

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and our friends.

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At the sound of Big Ben, it was Churchill who launched Britain

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into war, with a signal sent to fleets across the globe.

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"Admiralty to all ships - commence hostilities, at once, with Germany."

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The only Cabinet member with experience of war,

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he could not fail to imagine greater glories ahead.

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Churchill left to brief the senior colleagues most aware

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of his mix of genius and egotism.

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Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was still sitting in grave silence,

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together with David Lloyd George,

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when the First Lord crashed noisily in.

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The Chancellor noted with disquiet that Churchill seemed

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"a really happy man".

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In some ways, he is the Churchill of the Second World War

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and even after - he's just a very young,

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rather green version of that Churchill. He's just quite immature,

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politically, and he's going to learn some very interesting lessons.

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The First World War will destroy the world that he grew up in,

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it will destroy the social order that he's familiar with,

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it will destroy the kinds of ambitions that he might have had.

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That August, the Navy successfully ferried

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the British Expeditionary Force, without loss, to war in France.

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But Churchill's mood had changed -

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the Navy's passive blockade strategy seemed almost to bore him.

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The former Hussar was restless, yearning for action.

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Clementine was troubled by his impatient state of mind.

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Frequent trips to Army headquarters in France

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were irritating his colleagues.

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She begins to see in this time, in Winston, a war lust

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and she begins to see that he needs some sort of containing,

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some sort of restraint.

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I think she realises, at this stage, that there's nobody else

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who's going to do that, and so very subtly and quietly in her letters,

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she begins to, kind of, draw attention to it and warn him.

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Yet Churchill was more than a "death or glory" Hussar -

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he was a sophisticated thinker on the science of war.

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Although Churchill had taken part in the last cavalry charge

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of the British Army at Omdurman,

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although he was a Victorian figure,

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he was a very modern military thinker.

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He understood the importance of exploring,

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of exploiting, science, technology.

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He saw that wars were going to be won by a combination of arms,

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manoeuvre on land, sea power and air power.

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This passion for military technology had seen both the Navy -

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and Churchill himself - take to the skies.

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At the turn of the 20th century, the Royal Navy

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is the world's leading technological fighting force.

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It masters all of the new technologies.

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When the aeroplane comes along, the Navy very quickly works out

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this is going to be an asset, it's going to allow you to scout,

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it's going to allow you to fly over the land from the sea.

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Churchill himself is a great enthusiast for aviation,

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but it turns out, a very poor pilot.

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He manages to crash and he's persuaded not to try to learn

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ever again, so other people do the flying.

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But Churchill can see the potential

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and he's prepared to back the junior officers who have these enthusiasms.

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His airmen gave the First Lord a ticket to the land war in France.

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In September, the Navy won responsibility

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for the aerial defence of Britain against Zeppelin airships.

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Churchill's obviously wanting to get more involved in the land battle,

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that's where the action is.

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He's got the excuse of sending over the Royal Naval Air Service,

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and they're actually sent out across to Dunkirk,

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where they have the excuse to be there,

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because the Royal Naval Air Service,

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the planes, can go and bomb the German Zeppelins

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which might bomb our ships. There's a reason for doing it.

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That autumn, Navy pilots launched the first-ever bombing raids

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on Germany, targeting Zeppelin air sheds in Dusseldorf and Cologne.

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The "Dunkirk Circus" also allowed Churchill to deploy

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another mechanised unit, the dashing squadron of Naval Armoured Cars.

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He's getting reports back that, actually, with this war of movement

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that's still going on, we need some armoured cars,

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to protect our air force base.

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And they go on, sort of, almost like buccaneering patrols,

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to try and bump into the enemy

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and to try and shoot up some German columns advancing, etc.

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So they have machine guns fitted -

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he sees the value of a mobile armoured vehicle.

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Yet, as the duelling armies raced westward,

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it was the First Lord himself who now made

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a highly-controversial intervention.

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The Belgian city of Antwerp was under siege.

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A protective chain of forts ringed a port commanding a key position

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on the Allied left flank.

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Yet, German howitzers were smashing these redoubts one by one.

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If Antwerp held, the German advance in the north would stall.

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The Germans would simply not be able to get into northern France,

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and their whole campaign would fail at that point.

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Churchill instinctively puts his finger on the spot

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and he says we must do something about this.

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On October 3, Churchill arrived in "Fortress Antwerp",

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on an urgent fact-finding mission.

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The Belgians were poised to surrender,

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leaving open the road to the Channel ports.

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Alarmed, Churchill called for a defiant last stand.

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And he would stay on to lead their resistance.

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The First Lord would not fight alone.

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He summoned Marines and his "private army",

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the Royal Naval Division.

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He's actually involved in sending troops from Dunkirk up to Antwerp,

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again to help reinforce the Belgians,

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and he uses buses to do this -

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he actually commissions 100 buses from London.

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They're driven down to the coast, taken across,

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and he does this quickly. That's the thing about Churchill -

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he gets things to happen relatively quickly, for the First World War.

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Consisting of fresh-faced volunteers and surplus sailors,

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this brand-new infantry force was neither trained nor equipped.

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But they were rushed to the front line.

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Here, journalists observed Churchill, too,

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smoking large cigars under a rain of shrapnel.

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In this supercharged state, the warrior over-reached himself.

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What happens next, however,

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is that he, rather excitedly, sends a telegram back to London,

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saying that he wants to, in effect,

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give up his government post and take command

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of the British Forces there.

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Oh, and by the way, can he be a general?

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And the very idea of General Churchill carrying out

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this role in Antwerp just provokes laughter among his colleagues,

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and I suspect they're laughing AT him, not laughing WITH him.

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On October 10th, Antwerp finally capitulated.

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Six days had been won.

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But there was a price to pay.

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Over 1,000 of his new soldiers were left stranded.

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Fleeing into neutral Holland,

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they were interned for the rest of the war.

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Some hailed him a hero.

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But a hostile press branded Churchill a reckless adventurer,

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and his Antwerp mission a blunder.

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Churchill's neither a hero nor a buffoon over Antwerp.

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It was a sensible idea

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and actually, it probably did make a bit of a difference,

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but Churchill has a very unfortunate habit

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of making himself look foolish, as a result,

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and he does look foolish in the eyes of his peers.

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Clementine was anxious,

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knowing Churchill's military ardour had powerful unseen roots.

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Both believed he was destined to achieve greatness.

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Yet, Churchill harboured boyish dreams of emulating the epic deeds

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of his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough.

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For Churchill, there's an acute consciousness of destiny.

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There's an acute consciousness of a man

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who really should achieve greatness.

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His ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough had a meteoric

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and highly-successful career, leading to the construction

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of his vast palace,

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far larger than any King of England has ever lived in,

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as a prize for his war-winning efforts.

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And Churchill was born in this house

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and he grew up there acutely conscious of that legacy.

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So he's very much aware that he stands in a family tradition.

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He was acutely conscious of being Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill -

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these were important names.

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Early 1915 would see the warlord seduced by a daring idea

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which inflamed this sense of destiny.

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He told Lloyd George that, if it worked,

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he would be "the biggest man in Europe".

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But he was hurtling toward the greatest disaster of his life.

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Churchill was an egomaniac, there's no doubt about it.

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He possessed enormous faith in himself and self-confidence

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and an almost manic energy.

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He was driven.

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He had endless ideas, a fertile mind,

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but he sometimes found it rather difficult to work out

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what was a good idea and what was a bad idea.

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By Christmas 1914, a scar of trenches ripped across Europe

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from the Alps to the sea, locking armies in a murderous stalemate.

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Churchill applied his prodigious imagination

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to the breaking of the deadlock.

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"My dear Prime Minister,

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"are there not other alternatives

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"than sending our armies to chew barbed wire in Flanders?

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"Further, can not the power of the Navy be brought more directly

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"to bear upon the enemy?

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"Ought we not to engage him on new frontiers?"

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Churchill is still very excited - he loves war.

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You know, he's not a cruel man, but, nonetheless, he finds war

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to be tremendously exciting,

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and the Royal Navy had swept enemy ships from the seas.

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And from that point onwards, it's a slow, grinding campaign

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of starving the Germans into submission, and he longs for action.

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He's throwing out ideas left, right and centre,

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memoranda are flowing out from his office.

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You would have thought he'd had enough to do running the Royal Navy,

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but actually he wants to really run the entire war himself.

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Early 1915 saw strange contraptions called "Winston's Follies"

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emerge from engineering sheds.

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Struck by the success of his armoured cars,

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the Navy head was sponsoring

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the development of a trench-crossing machine or land ship.

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We have been sending men forward,

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trying to break through the barbed wire,

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trying to attack German positions,

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and they are, literally, at times, getting mown down.

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So what are we going to do to save those men's lives?

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Let's investigate. Could we use things like steam engines

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to actually crush down the wire?

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Now, part of those experiments,

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he actually gets a small tracked truck

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on Horse Guards Parade,

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and it's filled through half a tonne of bricks.

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And First Lord of the Admiralty actually is there

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on Horse Guards Parade pushing this thing

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and understanding that tracks are really the way

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that you can get across awkward ground

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and they've fantastic mobility.

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Yet his imagination was fired by a dazzling alternative

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to costly trench war in the west.

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The aim was to knock Germany's eastern ally,

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the Ottoman Turks, out of the war.

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Churchill had a very romantic view of war,

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and the Western Front simply didn't match up to that.

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Gallipoli, this great Napoleonic strategic stroke

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which could win the war,

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I think very much played to Churchill's sense

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of not only what warfare should be like,

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but where his position in warfare lay.

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This was his chance to emulate his great ancestor,

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the 1st Duke of Marlborough,

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by bringing off a war-winning, strategically brilliant stroke.

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The plan envisaged the Fleet running the gauntlet

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of the narrow Dardanelle Straits.

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The Army would occupy the Gallipoli peninsula,

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while the Navy stormed on to the glittering prize of Constantinople.

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This is strategic thinking on a very large scale

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and, in that sense, I think, you know,

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Churchill is showing a great deal of imagination.

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Unfortunately, the planning was, I think,

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far beyond the capability of the British

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to put into practice in 1915.

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Decision-making in Whitehall was muddled.

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Lord Kitchener at the War Office delayed badly

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over the despatch of his Armies.

0:22:110:22:13

But Churchill's zeal and enthusiasm swept doubts aside.

0:22:130:22:17

That's the paradox of Churchill.

0:22:200:22:23

Someone who was brilliant insightful and energetic, but at the same time

0:22:230:22:28

sometimes reckless and quite often blind to the mistakes

0:22:280:22:32

that he was making, until it was too late to do anything about them.

0:22:320:22:36

In early spring, the Admiralty faced a choice -

0:22:370:22:41

to wait for Kitchener's armies, or to strike fast with ships alone.

0:22:410:22:46

Churchill chose to gamble and sent the Fleet in.

0:22:470:22:51

The Naval attack on the Dardanelles

0:22:590:23:01

was a very difficult operation of war.

0:23:010:23:03

It involved steaming up a very narrow passage under direct gunfire

0:23:030:23:07

from heavy and medium-calibre guns

0:23:070:23:09

and through minefields, with a very strong current

0:23:090:23:12

running against the ships trying to get up the Straits.

0:23:120:23:15

Churchill says we must press on, we must push this attack far faster,

0:23:170:23:20

we must really go for a... a high-risk offensive operation,

0:23:200:23:23

directly into the main waterway and to use the whole Fleet.

0:23:230:23:26

And three battleships were sunk - one French, two British -

0:23:260:23:30

running into minefields

0:23:300:23:32

and, from that point on, the Naval offensive stalled.

0:23:320:23:35

The abortive naval assault saw the Turks rush reinforcements

0:23:380:23:42

to the peninsula.

0:23:420:23:43

Kitchener's armies finally arrived,

0:23:460:23:49

but the landings he planned at Anzac Cove, Helles and later at Suvla

0:23:490:23:54

all met with huge loss of life.

0:23:540:23:57

And bloody trench war resumed.

0:23:580:24:01

His brother, Major Jack Churchill, was there,

0:24:030:24:07

and his accounts of heroism and sacrifice

0:24:070:24:10

fuelled Churchill's frustration.

0:24:100:24:12

Churchill could see the disaster unfolding before his eyes.

0:24:150:24:19

The men who'd been appointed to command the Dardanelles operation

0:24:190:24:22

were a series of incompetents, at best, or men who simply lacked

0:24:220:24:27

experience and confidence, and yet he couldn't do anything about that.

0:24:270:24:33

He had to stand by on the sidelines

0:24:330:24:36

and watch this awful mess deteriorate.

0:24:360:24:39

His frustration was enormous, but he had set it in motion and eventually

0:24:390:24:44

he had to pay the political price for the failure at Gallipoli.

0:24:440:24:48

Tragic events in the Mediterranean were not the immediate cause

0:24:560:25:00

of Churchill's downfall.

0:25:000:25:03

The man responsible was a close friend

0:25:030:25:05

and father figure inside the Admiralty...

0:25:050:25:07

..Lord Jacky Fisher.

0:25:080:25:10

This 74-year old Naval legend had been brought back

0:25:120:25:15

from retirement to lead the Navy in October, 1914.

0:25:150:25:19

The two men were kindred spirits.

0:25:220:25:25

But Navy insiders like Admiral Beatty foresaw

0:25:260:25:29

a messy clash of egos.

0:25:290:25:31

One old, wily and of vast experience.

0:25:330:25:37

One young, self-assertive, with a great self-satisfaction,

0:25:370:25:43

but unstable. They cannot work together.

0:25:430:25:47

They cannot both run the show.

0:25:470:25:50

These are two men who are simply at opposite ends of every spectrum.

0:25:510:25:55

Churchill is a young, dynamic politician

0:25:550:25:58

who wants to run the Navy like an Admiral,

0:25:580:26:00

and Fisher is an elderly, astute and very experienced Admiral

0:26:000:26:04

who wants to run the Navy like a politician,

0:26:040:26:06

and both of them actually wanted each other's job.

0:26:060:26:09

By April 1915, Fisher had cold feet about both the Dardanelles operation

0:26:110:26:17

and an interfering, autocratic First Lord.

0:26:170:26:21

Tensions evident in letters held in Churchill College, Cambridge.

0:26:210:26:25

What we have here is a wonderful exchange of letters,

0:26:270:26:33

which I think captures the deteriorating relationship

0:26:330:26:36

between Admiral Fisher and Winston Churchill.

0:26:360:26:40

Here you can see that Fisher has written,

0:26:400:26:43

"Damn the Dardanelles! They'll be our grave!"

0:26:430:26:46

And at the bottom, he signs off,

0:26:460:26:48

"Procrastinations, vacillations, Antwerps."

0:26:480:26:51

How did Churchill respond on receiving letters like this?

0:26:510:26:54

Well, I think you can see his gut reaction here,

0:26:540:26:57

in this handwritten note, which he's addressed at the top

0:26:570:27:00

to the First Sea Lord, 8th April 1915, quoting Napoleon,

0:27:000:27:05

"We are defeated at sea because our admirals have learned -

0:27:050:27:08

"where I know not - that war can be made without running risks."

0:27:080:27:12

On May 15, Lord Fisher went missing from the Admiralty.

0:27:150:27:19

Fisher, ultimately, has had enough and he resigns

0:27:200:27:23

and writes a big resignation letter

0:27:230:27:26

in which he demands that they get rid of Churchill,

0:27:260:27:28

that he be allowed to essentially run the Navy,

0:27:280:27:31

and he sets out a huge, kind of, list of...

0:27:310:27:33

"You must do exactly as I tell you,

0:27:330:27:36

"because I'm the only man who can win the war."

0:27:360:27:38

And they call his bluff.

0:27:380:27:40

Fisher was out.

0:27:420:27:43

But he had badly damaged Asquith's already teetering government.

0:27:430:27:48

The Conservative opposition scented blood

0:27:490:27:52

and pressed for a share in government.

0:27:520:27:55

Churchill was in acute danger.

0:27:560:27:59

For he was the "Blenheim rat", the "renegade" and "class traitor"

0:28:000:28:05

who had deserted the Tories to join the ruling Liberals in 1904.

0:28:050:28:09

That weekend, the Churchill's journeyed

0:28:130:28:16

to Asquith's Thames-side home, to plead for his job.

0:28:160:28:19

But the game was up.

0:28:200:28:22

Within days, Asquith would agree to lead a coalition.

0:28:230:28:27

After the four years they called a "golden age",

0:28:270:28:31

the Churchills would leave Admiralty House.

0:28:310:28:34

He was sacked. Clementine leapt fiercely to her husband's defence.

0:28:350:28:41

"My dear Mr Asquith, if you throw Winston overboard,

0:28:430:28:47

"you will be committing an act of weakness

0:28:470:28:50

"and your coalition government will not be as formidable a war machine.

0:28:500:28:54

"Winston may, in your eyes, have faults,

0:28:540:28:56

"but he has the supreme quality which I venture to say

0:28:560:28:59

"very few of your present, or future cabinet, possess -

0:28:590:29:03

"the power, the imagination and the deadliness to fight Germany."

0:29:030:29:08

That's what she says to the Prime Minister - you are weak.

0:29:110:29:14

She talks about how wonderful Winston is,

0:29:140:29:16

but basically, she's saying, you are a weak man,

0:29:160:29:19

and that is devastating, I think, it's a devastating thing to do.

0:29:190:29:23

It potentially ruptures their relationship,

0:29:230:29:26

but it shows that she's got claws and she will fight for him.

0:29:260:29:28

As it happens, it's Margot who really takes issue with her.

0:29:280:29:33

She calls Clementine "a fish wife".

0:29:330:29:36

She describes her as having "the soul of a servant".

0:29:360:29:39

But no, she does not have the soul of a servant -

0:29:390:29:42

she's fighting for her man.

0:29:420:29:44

Obsessed with the Dardanelles,

0:29:460:29:48

Churchill accepted a lowly government post,

0:29:480:29:51

hoping in vain to influence policy.

0:29:510:29:54

Privately, he expressed shock and despair.

0:29:560:30:00

I am the victim of a political intrigue. I am finished.

0:30:010:30:04

Finished in respect of all I care for - the waging of war,

0:30:040:30:08

the defeat of the Germans.

0:30:080:30:10

The memory of his famous father Randolph's own political downfall

0:30:120:30:16

now weighed heavily.

0:30:160:30:19

Now, that, of course, made the fall that Winston himself suffered

0:30:190:30:23

in the wake of the Dardanelles disaster

0:30:230:30:26

all the more awful and all the more bitter.

0:30:260:30:29

It was very difficult for him to see the way back,

0:30:290:30:32

and he felt that, not only had he failed,

0:30:320:30:34

but he'd confirmed everyone's view of the Churchills,

0:30:340:30:38

that they were bound to fail.

0:30:380:30:41

First Randolph and then Winston - it was like a family curse.

0:30:410:30:45

And Churchill thrashed around in desperation,

0:30:450:30:48

wondering how could he find a way back?

0:30:480:30:51

The Churchills retired to Hoe Farm,

0:30:540:30:56

a weekend retreat, to lick their wounds.

0:30:560:31:00

Clementine recognised that her husband was battling

0:31:000:31:03

with dark inner demons.

0:31:030:31:05

People tend to talk about Churchill's "black dog".

0:31:080:31:14

He's gone from being at the centre

0:31:140:31:16

to being a, sort of, mere observer of events,

0:31:160:31:19

and I think it's that that he finds incredibly difficult.

0:31:190:31:23

I think it does hit him like a hammer blow,

0:31:230:31:26

but another great Churchillian trait is his capacity

0:31:260:31:30

to recover from these seemingly, sort of, knockout blows,

0:31:300:31:33

and it's interesting to look at how he does that

0:31:330:31:37

and the strategies he uses.

0:31:370:31:40

You can see him looking around at ways in which to fill the void

0:31:400:31:44

that has been created in his life,

0:31:440:31:46

and one of the things that he seeks solace in is painting.

0:31:460:31:49

Churchill came across painting as a form of enjoyment,

0:31:510:31:54

relaxation and almost therapy.

0:31:540:31:56

One of his very first paintings is the farm itself, Hoe Farm.

0:31:560:32:01

Churchill often painted himself into his paintings later,

0:32:030:32:06

but there's one right near the beginning of his career,

0:32:060:32:09

that he actually painted during the First World War.

0:32:090:32:11

And it's a very intense, full sort of frontal look at himself

0:32:110:32:16

and it's very dark and very unusual,

0:32:160:32:18

because the rest of his paintings are almost entirely

0:32:180:32:21

colourful, sunshine scenes,

0:32:210:32:23

but this is a real psychological sketch of himself,

0:32:230:32:26

at a time when he was obviously feeling very wretched.

0:32:260:32:29

That summer, contemplating a visit to the warzone,

0:32:330:32:36

Churchill wrote Clementine an intimate letter,

0:32:360:32:40

to be opened in the event of his death.

0:32:400:32:42

"Do not grieve for me too much.

0:32:430:32:46

"I am a spirit confident in my rights.

0:32:460:32:49

"Death is only an incident

0:32:500:32:52

"and not the most important one which happens to us.

0:32:520:32:55

"On the whole - and especially since I met you, my darling one -

0:32:570:33:02

"I have been happy.

0:33:020:33:03

"If there is another place, I shall be on the lookout for you.

0:33:050:33:10

"In the meantime, look forward, feel free,

0:33:120:33:17

"rejoice in life,

0:33:170:33:19

"cherish the children

0:33:190:33:22

"and guard my memory."

0:33:220:33:24

Yet, Churchill's reputation was falling to its nadir.

0:33:260:33:30

A December evacuation from Gallipoli would mark total Allied defeat,

0:33:300:33:35

at a cost of 53,000 dead.

0:33:350:33:38

The campaign's loudest champion

0:33:400:33:42

was publicly denigrated

0:33:420:33:44

as the man solely responsible.

0:33:440:33:46

The disappointment that he felt, when it failed, was more

0:33:490:33:53

than simply, "This is a failed campaign."

0:33:530:33:55

This got to his very soul.

0:33:550:33:57

This was, I think, his chance,

0:33:570:33:59

he thought, to become a great warlord,

0:33:590:34:03

and it hadn't happened.

0:34:030:34:05

And to the end of his days, he resented that,

0:34:050:34:08

and I think he thought that his chance for glory

0:34:080:34:11

in the First World War had passed him by.

0:34:110:34:14

For decades, Churchill would be taunted by the cry,

0:34:150:34:19

"Remember the Dardanelles!".

0:34:190:34:21

Clementine feared that he would die of grief.

0:34:230:34:27

This is a man who's been at the centre of government

0:34:290:34:31

for close on a decade, by this stage,

0:34:310:34:34

and suddenly, to be pushed to the sidelines,

0:34:340:34:37

where he could write as many memoranda as he liked

0:34:370:34:40

but no-one paid any attention to them, was deeply wounding to him.

0:34:400:34:45

In November, he could bear political impotence no more -

0:34:470:34:50

his response was typically audacious.

0:34:500:34:54

He already held a commission with the Oxfordshire Hussars,

0:34:570:35:00

a territorial regiment.

0:35:000:35:02

Major Churchill volunteered for "death or glory" in the trenches.

0:35:040:35:09

"My dear Asquith, I ask you to submit my resignation to the King.

0:35:120:35:17

"I'm an officer and I place myself unreservedly at the disposal

0:35:180:35:22

"of the military authorities,

0:35:220:35:23

"observing that my regiment is in France.

0:35:230:35:26

"I have a clear conscience.

0:35:270:35:29

"Time will vindicate my administration of the Admiralty.

0:35:300:35:34

"With much respect and unaltered personal friendship,

0:35:350:35:38

"I bid you goodbye."

0:35:380:35:40

On November 18th, Churchill joined the troop train to Boulogne.

0:35:450:35:49

Clementine's first letters were raw

0:35:530:35:55

with the anguish felt by every soldier's wife.

0:35:550:35:58

"My darling Winston.

0:36:000:36:02

"I long for news of you.

0:36:020:36:05

"Although it's only a few miles,

0:36:050:36:08

"you seem to me as far away as the stars,

0:36:080:36:11

"lost among a million khaki figures.

0:36:110:36:14

"Write to me, Winston.

0:36:140:36:16

"I want a letter from you badly."

0:36:160:36:18

Both would write, almost daily.

0:36:190:36:23

And their passionate correspondence sustained them

0:36:230:36:26

through his perilous days on the Western Front.

0:36:260:36:29

Within days of his arrival, Churchill had experienced

0:36:400:36:43

the first of numerous close encounters with death.

0:36:430:36:46

"Yesterday, a curious thing happened.

0:36:490:36:51

"A telegram arrived that the corps commander wished to see me.

0:36:510:36:56

"I thought it rather a strong order to bring me

0:36:560:36:58

"out of the trenches by daylight - a three-miles walk.

0:36:580:37:02

"Anyhow, I had no choice.

0:37:020:37:05

"I arrived muddy, wet and sweating at the rendezvous.

0:37:050:37:09

"No motor!

0:37:090:37:12

"You may imagine how I abused to myself the complacency

0:37:120:37:15

"of this general dragging me about in the rain and the mud for nothing.

0:37:150:37:19

"And then I learned that a quarter of an hour after I had left,

0:37:190:37:23

"the dugout in which I was living had been struck

0:37:230:37:26

"by a shell, which burst a few feet from where

0:37:260:37:28

"I would have been sitting, killing the mess orderly who was inside.

0:37:280:37:32

"When I saw the ruin, I was not so angry with the general after all.

0:37:330:37:38

"Now, see from this how vain it is to worry about things.

0:37:380:37:42

"It is all chance or destiny.

0:37:420:37:45

"One must yield oneself simply and naturally to the mood of the game."

0:37:460:37:52

Clementine's anxieties were not assuaged.

0:37:550:37:59

But her husband was upbeat, walking in the footsteps of the Great Duke.

0:37:590:38:04

"My dearest soul" - this is what the Great Duke of Marlborough

0:38:070:38:12

"used to write from the Low Countries to HIS Cat."

0:38:120:38:15

Marlborough's "Cat" was Sarah Churchill,

0:38:150:38:19

a formidable political operator in the 18th-century corridors of power.

0:38:190:38:23

Yet Clementine was a very different wife,

0:38:260:38:29

finding it noble and romantic

0:38:290:38:31

that her husband was serving as a mid-ranking officer.

0:38:310:38:35

The Daily Mail rings me up and asks

0:38:360:38:38

if I have had any news from "Major Churchill".

0:38:380:38:42

"Major Churchill" has a strange sound,

0:38:420:38:45

but I am prouder of this title than of any other.

0:38:450:38:49

Churchill revealed he was being schooled in trench warfare

0:38:500:38:53

by the Grenadier Guards, a regiment the Great Duke himself had led.

0:38:530:38:58

All is very well arranged.

0:39:000:39:03

I saw Lord Cavan, to whom I said,

0:39:030:39:05

"I should regard it as a very great honour

0:39:050:39:07

"to go into the line with the Guards,"

0:39:070:39:09

to which he replied, "We shall be proud to have you."

0:39:090:39:13

The Army is willing to receive me back as the prodigal son.

0:39:130:39:17

I am very happy here.

0:39:170:39:19

But these letters did not tell the whole story.

0:39:200:39:24

I think it would be difficult to imagine a more difficult place

0:39:240:39:27

for Churchill the politician, the outsider,

0:39:270:39:30

the peripatetic adventurer, to embrace the First World War

0:39:300:39:34

than with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards.

0:39:340:39:37

The Guards' reputation is for ruthless discipline,

0:39:370:39:41

professionalism, attention to detail.

0:39:410:39:45

Not only was this a guy, a politician, an outsider,

0:39:450:39:49

coming to a close-knit regiment of professional soldiers,

0:39:490:39:52

but he's also everything

0:39:520:39:54

that, culturally, they would have been suspicious of.

0:39:540:39:56

He's ambitious, he doesn't take well to authority,

0:39:560:40:00

the officers in the Guards battalion,

0:40:000:40:03

one suspects, would have been very, very suspicious and hostile to him.

0:40:030:40:06

Colonel Jeffreys, the battalion commander,

0:40:060:40:08

he's already got a fearsome reputation,

0:40:080:40:10

even for a commander of a Guards battalion,

0:40:100:40:12

and I think he says something wonderfully cold

0:40:120:40:14

on their first meeting, like,

0:40:140:40:16

"Just so you know, we didn't ask to have you sent here."

0:40:160:40:19

Arriving with excess kit, the newcomer was put firmly his place.

0:40:200:40:26

A batman delivered the revised allocation to his dugout -

0:40:270:40:31

a pair of socks and a shaving kit.

0:40:310:40:34

Sir John French, Commander of the British Army, now intervened.

0:40:360:40:41

He was a close personal friend

0:40:410:40:44

and keen that Churchill command a brigade.

0:40:440:40:47

Clementine was unconvinced, fearing he would lose newly won respect

0:40:500:40:56

if he became a "Chateau General" so quickly.

0:40:560:40:58

What she knows and understands,

0:41:000:41:02

in a way that he just doesn't quite appreciate,

0:41:020:41:04

is that at home, that would be seen as just going too far, too quickly.

0:41:040:41:08

He's already got a reputation for being a little bit too ambitious,

0:41:080:41:12

a little bit too egotistical - he is more important than anybody else.

0:41:120:41:16

She knows that if he were to accept that promotion,

0:41:160:41:19

it would be negative.

0:41:190:41:20

That December, Churchill was on tenterhooks -

0:41:220:41:25

awaiting confirmation of his rank

0:41:250:41:28

whilst flitting between the trenches and Allied HQ.

0:41:280:41:31

General Fayolle gave him a blue helmet that he wore with pride.

0:41:330:41:37

Sir John French's offer of a British general's uniform soon followed.

0:41:380:41:43

"My darling, I am to be given command

0:41:460:41:49

"of the 56th Brigade in the 19th Division.

0:41:490:41:53

"Please order another khaki tunic for me as Brigadier General.

0:41:530:41:57

"Let the pockets be less baggy than the other two."

0:41:570:42:01

Yet French was in trouble.

0:42:010:42:04

Failure at the recent Battle of Loos saw him recalled

0:42:040:42:07

by Asquith to London to be dismissed.

0:42:070:42:09

"My darling one, I am back here at GHQ.

0:42:110:42:15

"I don't know what effect this change of command

0:42:150:42:18

"will produce on my local fortunes.

0:42:180:42:21

"In the Grenadiers, the opinion is that I am to have a division."

0:42:210:42:26

Two letters on the same day capture the moments

0:42:280:42:31

when hopes of a General Churchill evaporated.

0:42:310:42:34

"Later.

0:42:370:42:39

"I reopen my letter to say that French has telephoned from London.

0:42:400:42:44

"The PM has written to him that I am not to have a brigade

0:42:440:42:48

"but a battalion.

0:42:480:42:50

"You should cancel the order for the tunic."

0:42:500:42:53

Field Marshal Sir John French, a great friend of Churchill's,

0:42:580:43:01

had been replaced by General, as he was then, Sir Douglas Haig.

0:43:010:43:06

And Haig had a much more realistic view, I think,

0:43:060:43:10

of Churchill's abilities. And he insisted that,

0:43:100:43:13

first of all, he win his spurs, as it was,

0:43:130:43:17

by commanding a battalion.

0:43:170:43:19

His first trench experiences encouraged Churchill

0:43:230:43:26

to pen a memorandum brimming with new tactical ideas...

0:43:260:43:30

..including a vision of a mass attack of his land ships.

0:43:310:43:35

Variants of the offensive. One, attack by armour.

0:43:370:43:42

The cutting of the enemy's wire and the general domination

0:43:420:43:45

of his firing line can be effected by engines of this character.

0:43:450:43:49

None should be used until all can be used at once. Above all, surprise!

0:43:490:43:56

But no-one was listening to a yesterday's man.

0:43:570:44:01

Churchill now faced a searching test of character -

0:44:010:44:05

the command of men in battle.

0:44:050:44:07

On January 4, 1916, Lieutenant Colonel Churchill took command

0:44:170:44:21

of the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers.

0:44:210:44:24

Well, he gets off to a disastrous start

0:44:270:44:29

with 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers. His own sense of importance

0:44:290:44:32

and history, I think, overtakes him. He's a cavalry officer,

0:44:320:44:35

with no experience of infantry drill,

0:44:350:44:37

he gives all the wrong words of commands.

0:44:370:44:39

The private soldiers haven't got a clue what to do, his junior officers

0:44:390:44:42

who are already probably ill-disposed towards his presence

0:44:420:44:44

are having to whisper in his ear. I mean, he makes a fool of himself,

0:44:440:44:47

there is no two ways about it.

0:44:470:44:49

What's so interesting is that, having got off to this awkward start

0:44:490:44:52

he turns it around, and he turns it around very quickly.

0:44:520:44:55

They were stationed by the small Belgian town the Tommies called

0:44:560:44:59

Plug Street, on the southern part of the Ypres Salient.

0:44:590:45:03

This was a time, early 1916,

0:45:050:45:08

on a front, Plug Street, which was not an active one.

0:45:080:45:12

He did not command in a major battle, this was trench holding.

0:45:120:45:15

That was nasty enough, that was dangerous enough,

0:45:150:45:18

but it's a very different thing than leading men over the top.

0:45:180:45:20

As MP for Dundee, Churchill was proud to join a Scottish regiment,

0:45:220:45:26

but he was horrified by what they had experienced at Loos.

0:45:260:45:30

CHURCHILL: It fought with the greatest gallantry in the big battle

0:45:300:45:34

and was torn to pieces.

0:45:340:45:36

More than half the men and three quarters of the officers

0:45:360:45:39

were shot and these terrible gaps have been filled up

0:45:390:45:42

by quite young, inexperienced officers.

0:45:420:45:45

His first pep talk signalled the arrival

0:45:480:45:50

of an unconventional commander.

0:45:500:45:52

Laugh a little and teach your men to laugh.

0:45:540:45:57

Show good humour under fire.

0:45:580:46:01

War is a game played with a smile.

0:46:010:46:05

If you can not smile, grin.

0:46:060:46:08

If you can not grin, then stay out of the way until you can.

0:46:080:46:11

And now, gentlemen, we shall make war on the lice!

0:46:120:46:17

This is an example of Churchill as a, sort of, free-thinker.

0:46:190:46:22

Recognising what's important that other people haven't recognised.

0:46:220:46:26

And lice were misery in the trenches. You think of the shelling

0:46:260:46:30

and the sniping and the danger, but actually, what gets a soldier down,

0:46:300:46:33

on a day-to-day basis, is the mud and the cold and the hunger

0:46:330:46:36

and the discomfort and, in recognising that,

0:46:360:46:39

here was something that could be targeted with a bit of extra work,

0:46:390:46:43

Churchill's actually showing an incredible compassion to his men,

0:46:430:46:46

and they liked it

0:46:460:46:47

and, apparently, for the rest of the war, 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers

0:46:470:46:50

were one of the least lice-plagued battalions in the army.

0:46:500:46:53

Immersing himself enthusiastically in trench life,

0:46:530:46:57

the new Colonel was attentive to the needs of his men.

0:46:570:47:01

He commands a battalion almost as though you'd

0:47:030:47:05

expect him to command a platoon.

0:47:050:47:07

This is probably the first time that Churchill's really

0:47:070:47:11

in a front line of a conflict, in command

0:47:110:47:14

and what is interesting is the Churchill that comes out,

0:47:140:47:17

the Churchill that shines through in those circumstances

0:47:170:47:19

is not so much the ambitious Churchill,

0:47:190:47:23

the Churchill that rubs people up the wrong way,

0:47:230:47:25

it is a much more caring, much more focused,

0:47:250:47:28

much more sensitive Churchill, if you will, and

0:47:280:47:31

that's what makes him a very good commander in the First World War.

0:47:310:47:34

It's almost as though, in the trenches,

0:47:340:47:36

surrounded with the responsibility, and it must be a huge responsibility

0:47:360:47:40

for a battalion of men, the proximity of death,

0:47:400:47:43

the fact that your horizons have really narrowed.

0:47:430:47:46

He's forgotten his political ambitions.

0:47:460:47:49

For once, he doesn't have half an eye on Westminster,

0:47:490:47:51

even if it's only briefly,

0:47:510:47:52

and what comes out is this very impressive Churchill.

0:47:520:47:56

He was a decidedly eccentric commander.

0:47:580:48:01

You know, there are stories of him, for example,

0:48:010:48:03

going out into no-man's land on a patrol,

0:48:030:48:06

making all sorts of noise in doing so,

0:48:060:48:09

lying on his electric torch and thus switching it on and,

0:48:090:48:12

you know, basically giving a real target for the enemy,

0:48:120:48:15

but there's no doubt at all that Churchill, I think, proved to be

0:48:150:48:18

a very effective battalion commander.

0:48:180:48:21

Demands for extra tuck for his mess added to the burdens

0:48:240:48:27

of a busy mother of three.

0:48:270:48:29

"About food, the sorts of things I want you to send me are these -

0:48:310:48:36

"large slabs of corned beef,

0:48:360:48:38

"Stilton cheeses, cream, hams,

0:48:380:48:41

"sardines, dried fruits.

0:48:410:48:44

"You might almost try a big beef steak pie,

0:48:440:48:46

"but not tinned grouse, the simpler the better

0:48:460:48:49

"and substantial, too, for our ration meat is tough and tasteless.

0:48:490:48:54

"Peach brandy seems to be a hopeful feature in the liquor department.

0:48:540:48:58

"I fear you find me very expensive to keep."

0:48:580:49:01

The Western Front offered a diversion

0:49:030:49:05

from ugly political intrigues.

0:49:050:49:07

But Churchill still needed his Sapient Cat

0:49:080:49:11

to be his eyes and ears in Westminster.

0:49:110:49:14

CHURCHILL: Don't neglect these matters,

0:49:160:49:19

I have no-one but you to act for me.

0:49:190:49:22

Keep in touch with the Government.

0:49:230:49:25

Show complete confidence in our fortunes.

0:49:250:49:29

Hold your head very high.

0:49:290:49:31

When you look at the role that Clementine Churchill is playing

0:49:340:49:37

during this period, she really is acting as an anchor.

0:49:370:49:42

She is listening out for how he is being perceived in the newspapers,

0:49:420:49:48

but also amongst her contemporaries and also in high political circles.

0:49:480:49:55

She's guarding his reputation very carefully,

0:49:550:49:59

she's alerting him to potential dangers,

0:49:590:50:01

to things that she thinks that he has missed,

0:50:010:50:06

and she is, of course, also prepared to take up the cudgel

0:50:060:50:11

and absolutely to defend his reputation.

0:50:110:50:14

My darling, today I lunched with Lloyd George.

0:50:150:50:19

Now don't scold your Cat too much for being a hermit.

0:50:190:50:22

Here, in two days I have hobnobbed with Montague, Birrell,

0:50:220:50:27

Lloyd George, and a South African potentate. Please send me home

0:50:270:50:32

the Distinguished Conduct Medal at once and much praise.

0:50:320:50:36

Clementine had volunteered to help the YMCA organise workers canteens

0:50:400:50:45

in some of the new munitions factories

0:50:450:50:47

set up to meet the voracious demand for shells.

0:50:470:50:50

She's involved in, I think, about nine,

0:50:530:50:56

some of which have 500 people to feed.

0:50:560:50:58

She has to open them, she has to visit them. She talks a lot about

0:50:580:51:01

the difficulties in getting there, the trains.

0:51:010:51:03

All this is going on whilst he is asking her

0:51:030:51:06

to, basically, be Winston Churchill at home.

0:51:060:51:08

The Munitions Minister was David Lloyd George,

0:51:100:51:13

the one dynamic star in a lacklustre coalition.

0:51:130:51:17

Clementine was well placed to monitor his steady rise.

0:51:190:51:22

Trench life settled into a pattern of dull routine

0:51:270:51:31

and sudden danger.

0:51:310:51:32

"My darling, I take up my pen to send you my daily note.

0:51:340:51:37

"At six, I went round my trenches

0:51:380:51:40

"and was saluted on my doorstep by a very sulky bullet.

0:51:400:51:44

"All the morning, I laboured in the small business of the battalion

0:51:460:51:49

"and dealt with my company commanders

0:51:490:51:52

"and sent off the numerous reports for which our superiors clamour.

0:51:520:51:56

"I send you some copies of the photo

0:52:000:52:02

"of Archie and I, taken at Armentieres.

0:52:020:52:04

"I never expected to be so completely involved

0:52:060:52:08

"in the military machine."

0:52:080:52:10

As winter turned to spring,

0:52:120:52:14

old political instincts began to reawaken.

0:52:140:52:17

He's genuinely interested,

0:52:190:52:22

but, of course, the challenges you face in commanding a battalion

0:52:220:52:25

on the Western Front are not quite the same as running a Navy or

0:52:250:52:29

running a government department, and again, I think you can gradually see

0:52:290:52:34

over the next five months, politics and Whitehall luring him back in.

0:52:340:52:39

The loss of air superiority in the skies above Plug Street

0:52:410:52:44

further inflamed irritation with weak political leadership.

0:52:440:52:49

-CHURCHILL:

-Air fights have been going on overhead this morning.

0:52:500:52:53

Since I left the Admiralty, the whole naval wing has been let down

0:52:530:52:57

and all previous ascendency has been dissipated.

0:52:570:52:59

War is action, energy, hazard,

0:52:590:53:03

these sheep only want to browse among the daisies.

0:53:030:53:06

Clementine knew a political return would be dangerously premature.

0:53:080:53:13

My own darling, patience is the only grace you need.

0:53:150:53:20

As sure as day follows night, you will come into your own again.

0:53:200:53:25

But a disorientated Churchill did not listen.

0:53:270:53:30

Granted ten days home leave in early March,

0:53:300:53:33

his next political humiliation was to be self-inflicted.

0:53:330:53:38

The former First Lord was expected at the National Liberal Club,

0:53:490:53:53

to unveil a new portrait of himself.

0:53:530:53:56

But he never showed up.

0:53:590:54:01

He'd fallen in with a group of fellow dissidents,

0:54:030:54:06

eager to plot the downfall of Asquith.

0:54:060:54:08

There's no glory to be won on the Western Front,

0:54:090:54:11

it's a miserable, dirty business,

0:54:110:54:13

hiding in a trench with a French tin hat on.

0:54:130:54:15

He can't restore his reputation by fighting,

0:54:150:54:18

and eventually, he comes back to London and there,

0:54:180:54:22

almost miraculously, he rebuilds his relationship with Jacky Fisher.

0:54:220:54:25

Clementine was horrified that her husband was drawn once again

0:54:270:54:31

to the admiral who had destroyed his career.

0:54:310:54:33

Fisher took advantage of Churchill's troubled state of mind,

0:54:390:54:42

with wild talk of "destiny" and Churchill becoming Prime Minister.

0:54:420:54:47

On March 7, Churchill went to Parliament to make a speech

0:54:510:54:54

critical of the Admiralty's performance.

0:54:540:54:57

Its conclusion stunned the House.

0:54:570:55:00

I urge the First Lord of the Admiralty without delay

0:55:010:55:03

to fortify himself.

0:55:030:55:06

To vitalise and animate his board of Admiralty,

0:55:060:55:09

by recalling Lord Fisher to his post as First Sea Lord.

0:55:090:55:14

SHOUTING AND HECKLING

0:55:140:55:17

An astonishing appeal for the return of Fisher

0:55:170:55:20

was met with derision and scorn.

0:55:200:55:23

Margot Asquith's waspish verdict reflected a wider belief

0:55:260:55:30

that Churchill remained impulsive and lacking in statesmanship.

0:55:300:55:34

I hope and believe Winston will never be forgiven

0:55:370:55:40

his yesterday's speeches.

0:55:400:55:42

He is a hound of the lowest sense of political honour,

0:55:420:55:46

a fool of the lowest judgement, and contemptible.

0:55:460:55:50

A contrite Churchill returned to Plug Street.

0:55:540:55:57

He had felt keenly the hostility and mistrust

0:55:570:56:00

his wife had warned of, and acknowledged her loving support.

0:56:000:56:04

"My dearest soul,

0:56:070:56:09

"You have seen me very weak and foolish

0:56:090:56:13

"and mentally infirm this week.

0:56:130:56:16

"Dual obligations, both honourable, both weighty have rent me.

0:56:160:56:20

"I can not tell you how sweet and steadfast you have been

0:56:210:56:24

"through all my hesitations and perplexity."

0:56:240:56:27

Yet bonds of trust were being forged with his Fusiliers.

0:56:330:56:37

His indifference to danger was a constant inspiration.

0:56:380:56:41

Captain Andrew Gibb recalled an invitation

0:56:420:56:45

to the fire-step during a fierce artillery duel.

0:56:450:56:48

We felt the wind and swish of several whizz-bangs

0:56:490:56:52

flying past our heads.

0:56:520:56:54

Then I heard Winston say, in a dreamy, far away voice,

0:56:550:57:00

"Do you like war?"

0:57:000:57:02

There was no such thing as fear in him.

0:57:020:57:05

It is a feature that seems to be common to great military commanders.

0:57:050:57:09

It's not fearlessness as such,

0:57:090:57:12

but it's an ability to be unperturbed by

0:57:120:57:15

the personal danger of the situation they might be in.

0:57:150:57:18

It inspires troops if they see someone who is,

0:57:180:57:21

seems to be impervious to danger.

0:57:210:57:23

It's that great thing of leadership by example.

0:57:230:57:25

Also, soldiers want to be led by someone who has an air

0:57:250:57:28

of invincibility and more than one person observes of Churchill that

0:57:280:57:31

he's just one of those guys that you knew he was going to get through

0:57:310:57:34

and you want to be close to people like that.

0:57:340:57:36

Her advice to stay in the trenches tormented Clementine.

0:57:380:57:42

This is a woman who knows he is under great risk every day.

0:57:440:57:48

People are dying, he could be the next person,

0:57:480:57:51

but she urges him to stay.

0:57:510:57:53

She urges him to stay because she knows, actually,

0:57:530:57:56

his political career is more important to him than his life.

0:57:560:58:00

But her belief in his destiny gave him solace.

0:58:030:58:07

"My darling, own dear Winston, don't be vexed.

0:58:080:58:12

"I know barring all tragic accidents that someday you will have

0:58:120:58:18

"a great and commanding position in this country.

0:58:180:58:22

"You will be held in the people's hearts and in their respect."

0:58:230:58:27

Churchill ventured out around 40 times into no-man's land

0:58:310:58:35

to inspect the wire and forward listening posts.

0:58:350:58:39

But the stress of events now left Clementine feeling exhausted...

0:58:400:58:43

..and lonely.

0:58:450:58:46

My darling, these grave anxieties are very wearing.

0:58:480:58:52

When next I see you, I hope there will be

0:58:530:58:56

a little time for us both alone.

0:58:560:58:58

We are still young, but time flies,

0:58:580:59:02

stealing love away and leaving only friendship,

0:59:020:59:06

which is very peaceful, but not stimulating or warming.

0:59:060:59:11

Clemmie.

0:59:110:59:12

-CHURCHILL:

-Oh, my darling, do not write of friendship to me.

0:59:160:59:19

I love you more each month that passes

0:59:210:59:23

and feel the need of you and all your beauty.

0:59:230:59:26

I, too, feel, sometimes, the longing for rest and peace.

0:59:270:59:31

So much effort, so many years of ceaseless fighting

0:59:320:59:35

makes my older mind turn for the first time, I think,

0:59:350:59:39

to other things than action.

0:59:390:59:41

She is at her low, she's been his rock for a very long time.

0:59:440:59:48

Perhaps because they've been so open with each other,

0:59:480:59:51

she is worried about their more romantic side.

0:59:510:59:54

She's worried that they will just become friends.

0:59:540:59:57

She's worried that time is moving on

0:59:571:00:00

and she wants some sort of reassurance from him.

1:00:001:00:04

In fact, it's probably the only time that she really asks

1:00:041:00:06

for reassurance. Thankfully, he gives it to her immediately.

1:00:061:00:10

No chance of just being friends, girl.

1:00:101:00:13

The toll inflicted by even trench holding troubled Churchill.

1:00:151:00:19

To ward off all his frustrations, he surprised his comrades...

1:00:201:00:23

..by starting to paint.

1:00:251:00:26

"From our farm I watched yesterday afternoon

1:00:301:00:33

"the shelling of the little town whose name I can not mention.

1:00:331:00:36

"Three of our men who were strolling in the town were hit, one fatally.

1:00:371:00:42

"In the last two days of rest, I have lost eight men.

1:00:431:00:46

"I'm now reduced to under 680 men instead of 1,000."

1:00:471:00:51

It was 6th Battalion's numerical weakness,

1:00:521:00:55

which brought the Plug Street days to an end.

1:00:551:00:58

An amalgamation in May allowed him to return home...

1:00:581:01:01

..with honour intact.

1:01:021:01:04

"My darling, the Germans have just fired 30 shells at our farm

1:01:061:01:10

"hitting it four times, but no-one has been hurt.

1:01:101:01:13

"This is, I trust, a parting salute."

1:01:131:01:16

Flanders had schooled Churchill in the realities of trench war.

1:01:191:01:23

Haig and the generals were committed to a war of attrition by men.

1:01:251:01:28

Churchill deemed this killing game futile.

1:01:301:01:33

He believed in attrition by metal and machines.

1:01:341:01:37

Fortified by this sense of purpose,

1:01:381:01:40

he resumed political battles at home.

1:01:401:01:43

Churchill returned to Clementine, shorn of vain dreams of glory.

1:01:541:01:58

He was an outcast still.

1:01:581:02:01

Clementine urged stoic resolve through difficult days.

1:02:021:02:06

War is a terrible searcher of character.

1:02:081:02:11

One must try to plod and persevere and absolutely stamp self out!

1:02:111:02:18

The angry scapegoat had to clear his name over the Dardanelles.

1:02:201:02:24

He pressed Asquith to publish the full facts

1:02:251:02:28

and a Commission of Inquiry was set up.

1:02:281:02:30

But he would be made to wait nearly a year for its verdict.

1:02:301:02:34

Churchill was not used to waiting.

1:02:361:02:38

He must have found this an incredibly, sort of frustrating time

1:02:381:02:43

because he's neither one thing or the other, at this point.

1:02:431:02:48

He is no longer a man of strategy,

1:02:481:02:52

he's no longer a man of action.

1:02:521:02:54

This was the greatest crisis to have beset the British nation

1:02:541:02:58

for hundreds of years. And living at the heart of great events,

1:02:581:03:01

believing that it was his destiny to play a role in those great events

1:03:011:03:06

and not being able to do so

1:03:061:03:08

must have been an enormous challenge for him.

1:03:081:03:10

Parliament saw him establish a reputation as a soldiers' friend

1:03:121:03:16

and leading critic of the generals.

1:03:161:03:19

When Churchill gets back to London, he's at a loose end and

1:03:201:03:24

he's a man of such huge energy that because he doesn't actually have

1:03:241:03:28

a proper job to do, he's a pretty effective and annoying gadfly.

1:03:281:03:34

He begins to criticise British high command

1:03:361:03:39

and, to some extent, the Government.

1:03:391:03:42

I do not see how we are to avoid being thrown back on those dismal

1:03:431:03:46

processes of waste and slaughter which are called attrition.

1:03:461:03:50

-Machines save life!

-Hear! Hear!

1:03:511:03:55

Machine power is a substitute for manpower.

1:03:551:03:58

Brains will save blood.

1:03:591:04:02

Newspaper headlines in autumn 1916

1:04:061:04:08

announced the baptism of his landships

1:04:081:04:10

in the battle of the Somme,

1:04:101:04:12

but there was no mass attack.

1:04:121:04:15

Only 50 tanks were actually used

1:04:171:04:19

and they're not actually that successful.

1:04:191:04:22

Churchill and a number of other people

1:04:221:04:24

that are enthusiasts for the tank think, "What a waste,

1:04:241:04:27

"you've given away the secret,"

1:04:271:04:29

and it was kept as a brilliant secret from the Germans

1:04:291:04:32

"and you've shown your hand," as it were.

1:04:321:04:34

They wanted many more to be used in a massive initial tank attack.

1:04:341:04:39

He yearned for war direction...

1:04:411:04:44

..and all hopes were invested in the "Wizard", Lloyd George,

1:04:451:04:49

who took over at the War Office after the death of Lord Kitchener.

1:04:491:04:53

He thought that, with Lloyd George in the Cabinet, a friend,

1:04:561:05:01

a colleague in arms, someone who had influence,

1:05:011:05:05

that his return was imminent.

1:05:051:05:07

But it was not to be,

1:05:071:05:09

and he expressed his frustrations in a letter to his brother Jack.

1:05:091:05:13

"Is it not damnable that I should be denied all real scope

1:05:151:05:18

"to serve this country?

1:05:181:05:20

"Great instability prevails

1:05:201:05:22

"and at any moment a situation favourable to me might come.

1:05:221:05:26

"Meanwhile Asquith reigns, supine, sodden and supreme.

1:05:261:05:32

"Though my life is full of comfort, pleasure and prosperity,

1:05:341:05:38

"I writhe hourly not to be able to get my teeth effectively

1:05:381:05:42

"into the Bosch. Jack, my dear, I am learning to hate!"

1:05:421:05:47

By winter, the pressure for a change in leadership

1:05:491:05:52

was becoming irresistible.

1:05:521:05:54

Lloyd George's strengths are that he has now got a reputation

1:05:571:06:03

as a figure of great energy and dynamism,

1:06:031:06:06

"a man of push and go",

1:06:061:06:08

to use his own phrase about the kind of people

1:06:081:06:10

that he wanted in Government. Therefore,

1:06:101:06:13

although many Conservatives continued to distrust him,

1:06:131:06:16

they certainly saw him as a better alternative

1:06:161:06:19

than Asquith, who they saw as weak and ineffectual.

1:06:191:06:22

On December 5th, Lloyd George was finally ready to topple Asquith,

1:06:241:06:28

with the backing of the Conservatives.

1:06:281:06:30

Churchill's hopes soared that night when, relaxing at a Turkish bath,

1:06:331:06:38

he was unexpectedly invited to a dinner

1:06:381:06:41

attended by Lloyd George himself.

1:06:411:06:44

But he had badly misread the signals.

1:06:461:06:48

A mutual friend was given the unhappy task

1:06:481:06:51

of deflating his dreams.

1:06:511:06:53

These are the exact words I used.

1:06:551:06:58

"The new Government will be very well disposed towards you,

1:06:581:07:01

"all your friends will be there."

1:07:011:07:03

He suddenly felt he had been duped

1:07:041:07:07

and he blazed into righteous anger.

1:07:071:07:09

With that, Churchill walked out into the street.

1:07:101:07:13

He later described that as the hardest moment of his life.

1:07:161:07:19

The disparity between his high hopes and the crushing of them

1:07:191:07:24

and a sensible calculation might well have told him

1:07:241:07:28

that Lloyd George was not yet politically strong enough

1:07:281:07:32

to take that risk of bringing him back into the Government.

1:07:321:07:36

Yet his own belief in himself

1:07:361:07:39

had overcome his more rational judgement.

1:07:391:07:42

Yet, this latest of so many crushing humiliations since May 1915

1:07:441:07:50

was also the last.

1:07:501:07:51

The spring of 1917 saw the Churchills buy Lullenden Manor.

1:07:551:07:59

Here, they celebrated together the largely positive findings

1:08:011:08:04

of the Dardanelles inquiry.

1:08:041:08:06

Dark developments in the war further loosened the chains of exile.

1:08:101:08:14

The Germans take the decision to defeat the British

1:08:181:08:22

by sinking merchant shipping in the Atlantic,

1:08:221:08:25

cutting the so-called Atlantic lifeline,

1:08:251:08:28

seeking to starve Britain to submission.

1:08:281:08:31

By the spring of 1917, Britain is running out of food

1:08:321:08:35

and actually, we reach the point in which Britain

1:08:351:08:39

appears to be in real danger of losing the war at sea,

1:08:391:08:43

even though they're holding their own at land,

1:08:431:08:47

and it's against that background

1:08:471:08:49

that Lloyd George takes the risk in the summer of 1917

1:08:491:08:54

of re-introducing Churchill into government.

1:08:541:08:57

Lloyd George needed his friend's spirit

1:09:001:09:03

and imagination at a time of national peril.

1:09:031:09:06

Ignoring fierce Tory protests,

1:09:071:09:10

the Prime Minister summoned him back in July.

1:09:101:09:13

Despite being in coalition with the Conservatives

1:09:161:09:18

he gets Churchill back, he makes it a political priority,

1:09:181:09:21

because he knows this is a man with energy, drive, vision.

1:09:211:09:24

He's exactly the kind of man that he's picking out of industry.

1:09:241:09:26

Lloyd George is creating a meritocratic Cabinet

1:09:261:09:30

of go-getters, and Churchill is one of those key figures.

1:09:301:09:33

He was excluded from the War Cabinet and policy-making.

1:09:351:09:38

His job was to man the anvil and forge the weapons of war.

1:09:401:09:44

"My darling, we had a very pleasant fly-over

1:10:001:10:03

"and passed fairly close to Lullenden.

1:10:031:10:06

"I could follow the road through Croydon and Caterham quite easily.

1:10:061:10:11

"We landed here in good time for dinner."

1:10:111:10:13

As the war entered its climatic Hundred Days,

1:10:151:10:18

French villagers grew accustomed to the sight

1:10:181:10:21

of a hyperactive British minister flying in and out.

1:10:211:10:24

The chateau was the forward base of a man in his element.

1:10:261:10:29

From here, he could visit Haig's HQ at Montreuil.

1:10:331:10:37

The two worked closely together,

1:10:371:10:40

knowing victory would be secured as much on the home front as in France.

1:10:401:10:44

He had a very modern view of war.

1:10:471:10:49

It was very much a view of total war,

1:10:491:10:53

of war in which all the resources of a state

1:10:531:10:55

are committed to the overthrow of the enemy,

1:10:551:10:59

those resources of course including industrial and economic resources.

1:10:591:11:03

This huge factory near Hereford was just one cog

1:11:051:11:09

in a vast industrial machine,

1:11:091:11:11

served by 2.5 million munitions workers.

1:11:111:11:15

Clementine had kept her husband closely informed

1:11:211:11:24

about the women workers now in his charge.

1:11:241:11:27

I was very much interested in the girls.

1:11:291:11:33

They are nearly all quite young,

1:11:331:11:35

very fresh and pretty and rather hoydenish.

1:11:351:11:38

Some of them were snowballing with boys outside the canteen.

1:11:381:11:41

The women are full of beans

1:11:431:11:44

and become terribly skilful very quickly.

1:11:441:11:47

Rapid growth had given the ministry

1:11:511:11:53

an inefficient, ramshackle structure.

1:11:531:11:56

Churchill moved quickly to reform it,

1:11:581:12:01

energising Britain's war machine, just in time.

1:12:011:12:04

One of the things that people tend not to appreciate

1:12:081:12:11

about Churchill is that, while he was this great orator,

1:12:111:12:16

this great leader, he was also a man of detail.

1:12:161:12:20

He was capable of absorbing and understanding

1:12:201:12:23

and manipulating huge amounts of information.

1:12:231:12:27

It involves him with complex deals about different materials

1:12:271:12:31

all over the world

1:12:311:12:32

and it's the sort of challenge that he clearly relished.

1:12:321:12:35

Ambitious new targets were set for the production

1:12:391:12:42

of planes, gas and shells.

1:12:421:12:45

A less autocratic Churchill had emerged.

1:12:461:12:49

His appointment is a moment where we see

1:12:511:12:54

a maturing, politically, of Churchill, that up until this point,

1:12:541:12:59

he was now in his 40s of course, he was somebody who had charged around,

1:12:591:13:03

acted impulsively, continually rubbed people up the wrong way,

1:13:031:13:08

interfered in other people's territory, put their backs up.

1:13:081:13:12

Now, almost for the first time, he calms down a bit,

1:13:131:13:17

and does a straightforward job of work,

1:13:171:13:20

acts much more as a team player.

1:13:201:13:23

He actually also shows a little bit of humility.

1:13:231:13:26

"This is a very heavy department,

1:13:291:13:31

"almost as interesting as the Admiralty

1:13:311:13:33

"with the enormous advantage that one has neither got to fight

1:13:331:13:36

"admirals or Huns.

1:13:361:13:38

"It is very pleasant to work with competent people."

1:13:391:13:42

That November,

1:13:451:13:47

the tank became a top priority as it demonstrated war-winning potential.

1:13:471:13:52

In 1917, tanks are used in a mass attack at Cambrai

1:13:541:13:58

and this is done in the manner that the people who'd invented the tank

1:13:581:14:02

and the actual tank crews wanted to see the tank used.

1:14:021:14:05

So we're looking at 400 tanks do a dawn attack

1:14:101:14:13

on ground that hasn't been chewed up by shellfire weeks beforehand.

1:14:131:14:18

There's a pre-arranged barrage, very short one, the tanks go forward

1:14:181:14:23

and a three-mile gap is cut in the German frontline,

1:14:231:14:27

about three miles deep, as well.

1:14:271:14:29

This is a fantastic initial advance. It really is one

1:14:291:14:33

of the great high points of the British Army in 1917,

1:14:331:14:36

and, back at home, the church bells are actually rung

1:14:361:14:38

for such a great victory.

1:14:381:14:41

The bells had pealed too soon.

1:14:441:14:46

There was no victory at Cambrai,

1:14:471:14:50

yet it greatly influenced Churchill's war plan for 1919.

1:14:501:14:54

Churchill is looking at that strategic overview,

1:14:561:14:59

which is, "How and when

1:14:591:15:02

are we significantly going to be able to use the tank?"

1:15:021:15:05

and Cambrai is a, kind of, vindication of his ideas.

1:15:051:15:09

That's a taster.

1:15:091:15:11

And he actually says, "Really, up to now, all we've been doing,

1:15:111:15:14

"is actually experimenting.

1:15:141:15:16

"What we really want to do is build a massive tank fleet."

1:15:161:15:19

His aims were 10,000 tanks built within the following year,

1:15:191:15:24

so that we could do huge tank attacks in 1919.

1:15:241:15:28

Churchill, frankly, did not want to see a repetition

1:15:301:15:33

of the great bloody, attritional battles of 1916

1:15:331:15:37

and 1917. 1916 - the Somme. 1917 - Arras

1:15:371:15:43

and third Ypres, or Passchendaele, as it became known.

1:15:431:15:46

He was very much an advocate of building up resources,

1:15:461:15:51

waiting for the Americans, who'd entered the war in 1917,

1:15:511:15:55

to deploy their vast armies,

1:15:551:15:56

which he knew could not happen until the second half of 1918.

1:15:561:16:00

The problem was, though, that the enemy always has a vote in any plan.

1:16:001:16:04

The German War Plan changed when the Bolsheviks seized power

1:16:071:16:10

and took Russia out of the War.

1:16:101:16:12

A million fresh German troops poured back toward the Western Front.

1:16:171:16:22

Churchill shared his profound anxieties with the Prime Minister.

1:16:321:16:36

"The imminent danger is on the Western Front

1:16:381:16:41

"and the crisis will come before June.

1:16:411:16:43

"A defeat here will be fatal.

1:16:431:16:45

"I do not like the situation now developing.

1:16:451:16:48

"If this went wrong, everything would go wrong.

1:16:501:16:53

"The Germans are a terrible foe

1:16:531:16:55

"and their generals are better than ours."

1:16:551:16:58

By March, 75 German divisions were marshalled opposite just 37 British,

1:17:011:17:07

holding the weakest, southern-most part of the line.

1:17:071:17:10

General Ludendorff aimed to drive a wedge between

1:17:121:17:14

the British and French, and to annihilate Haig's armies.

1:17:141:17:19

Momentous days, foreshadowing the summer of 1940, would now unfold.

1:17:191:17:24

On March 20, 1918, Churchill drove into the eye of the storm,

1:17:331:17:38

with a visit to frontline South African troops at Gauche Wood.

1:17:381:17:42

Through the narrow paths we picked our way gingerly.

1:17:461:17:48

The sun was setting as we took our leave of the South Africans.

1:17:481:17:52

I see them now,

1:17:521:17:55

serene as the Spartans of Leonidas on the eve of Thermopylae.

1:17:551:18:00

He stayed that night just seven miles behind the front,

1:18:051:18:08

and so became an eyewitness to the furious launch

1:18:081:18:12

of Germany's spring offensives.

1:18:121:18:14

Suddenly, the silence was broken

1:18:171:18:19

by six or seven very loud and very heavy explosions.

1:18:191:18:24

And then, exactly as a pianist runs his hand across the keyboard

1:18:251:18:28

from treble to bass, there rose, in less than one minute,

1:18:281:18:33

the most tremendous cannonade I shall ever hear.

1:18:331:18:36

The flame of the bombardment lit like flickering firelight

1:18:361:18:40

my tiny cabin.

1:18:401:18:42

6,000 guns unleashed a firestorm

1:18:441:18:48

as German Stormtroopers pierced the lines.

1:18:481:18:51

A non-stop battle raged for 40 days...

1:18:581:19:01

..and Churchill became a key actor in the emergency.

1:19:041:19:08

Suddenly, the Western Front, in the spring and the summer of 1918,

1:19:131:19:19

turns from a stalemate into a war of movement

1:19:191:19:23

and a war of movement is a war that requires

1:19:231:19:27

tanks, trucks, munitions, logistics.

1:19:271:19:32

Vast numbers of tanks and guns had been lost.

1:19:351:19:38

And enormous amounts of ammunition were being consumed.

1:19:391:19:43

Field Marshal Haig was dependent on Churchill to make up the losses

1:19:461:19:50

and sustain embattled armies with their backs to the wall...

1:19:501:19:54

..and the war machine delivered.

1:19:561:19:59

"I have been able to replace

1:20:011:20:03

"everything in the munitions sphere without difficulty.

1:20:031:20:05

"Guns, tanks, aeroplanes

1:20:071:20:09

"will all be ahead of personnel.

1:20:091:20:11

"It has been touch and go on the front."

1:20:121:20:14

Lloyd George valued Churchill's cool head in a crisis,

1:20:201:20:24

and used him as a personal envoy to the French high command.

1:20:241:20:28

It marks a stage in Churchill's rehabilitation.

1:20:311:20:35

Ostensibly, Churchill's role is to act as personal liaison officer

1:20:351:20:40

between Foch and the British Government.

1:20:401:20:43

In reality, he's there to take the temperature.

1:20:431:20:46

Are the French Army really going to fight?

1:20:461:20:49

And Churchill gives a wonderful description

1:20:491:20:51

of this bravura performance,

1:20:511:20:54

explaining how the battle is going to run down,

1:20:541:20:58

as the Germans run out of impetus

1:20:581:21:01

and his chance to seize the initiative will come.

1:21:011:21:03

Churchill is really inspired by Foch.

1:21:031:21:07

Here is a man who fights, here is a man who can be trusted.

1:21:071:21:12

Ludendorff's offensive had burnt itself out.

1:21:141:21:17

Allied retribution would come in August.

1:21:211:21:24

A mass of tanks and crack Dominion troops

1:21:261:21:28

were to spearhead a surprise counter-offensive at Amiens.

1:21:281:21:32

Churchill flew out specially to a battlefield

1:21:341:21:37

still littered with German dead.

1:21:371:21:39

My darling, the tracks of tanks were everywhere apparent.

1:21:411:21:46

On our way to the battlefield

1:21:461:21:48

we passed nearly 5,000 German prisoners.

1:21:481:21:50

Our cavalry are still out in front

1:21:511:21:53

and in some parts of the line there are, at the moment, no Germans left.

1:21:531:21:58

I am so glad about this great and fine victory of the British Army.

1:21:591:22:03

There is no doubt that they have felt themselves abundantly supplied.

1:22:031:22:09

The British Army puts in some tremendous counter attacks

1:22:121:22:17

and, in August of 1918, at the Battle of Amiens,

1:22:171:22:20

we actually completely defeat the German army

1:22:201:22:23

and the German army starts retreating.

1:22:231:22:26

And tanks, aeroplanes, artillery, combined tactics,

1:22:261:22:29

all-arms tactics, as they're sometimes used, come together

1:22:291:22:34

and, in actual fact, we beat the Germans ahead of the game.

1:22:341:22:38

To his surprise,

1:22:451:22:46

Churchill's plans for a war-winning campaign in 1919 were shelved,

1:22:461:22:51

as Haig's army advanced in an epic Hundred Day victory roll.

1:22:511:22:56

As the weapons maker and godfather of the tank,

1:22:561:22:59

Churchill had a share in their battle honours.

1:22:591:23:02

This, I think, is Winston's hidden secret -

1:23:071:23:11

his single most important contribution

1:23:111:23:14

to Britain winning the war in the First World War,

1:23:141:23:18

and, next to his Prime Ministership in Britain 1940,

1:23:181:23:23

the greatest thing that Churchill ever did

1:23:231:23:26

for the security of the United Kingdom.

1:23:261:23:29

The last wartime letters expressed quiet pride in his fortunes.

1:23:331:23:37

"My darling,

1:23:391:23:42

"coming out here makes me thoroughly contented with my office.

1:23:421:23:46

"I do not chafe at adverse political combinations

1:23:471:23:50

"or at not being able to direct general policy.

1:23:501:23:53

"I am content to be associated

1:23:531:23:56

"with the splendid machines of the British Army."

1:23:561:23:59

Clementine's thoughts could turn at last to peace and Winston's future.

1:24:031:24:09

"My darling, I would like you to be praised

1:24:111:24:15

"as a reconstructive genius, as well as for a mustard gas fiend,

1:24:151:24:19

"tank juggernaut and flying terror.

1:24:191:24:22

"I have got a plan. Can't the men munition workers

1:24:221:24:26

"build lovely garden cities and pull down slums,

1:24:261:24:30

"and can't the women make all the lovely furniture for them?

1:24:301:24:33

"Do come home and arrange all this.

1:24:351:24:38

"Tender love, from Clemmie."

1:24:381:24:40

For Winston and Clementine, looking back in 1918,

1:24:421:24:46

on the previous four years, must have been

1:24:461:24:49

a rollercoaster of emotion, I would think.

1:24:491:24:52

After all, this is a classic story of sort of Hubris and Nemesis

1:24:521:24:56

and then, redemption, but I think, he would also have seen it

1:24:561:24:59

as a period of lost opportunities for him, personally,

1:24:591:25:04

because he would have wanted to remain at the centre of affairs

1:25:041:25:08

and that, politically, he ends the First World War

1:25:081:25:11

in a slightly weaker position than the one in which he started it,

1:25:111:25:14

the first sort of real set back that he'd had,

1:25:141:25:17

but also in terms of lost opportunities, generally,

1:25:171:25:21

in what he might have been able to bring towards this struggle.

1:25:211:25:24

But for all the setbacks in his public life,

1:25:271:25:30

Churchill acknowledged a special private gain -

1:25:301:25:33

an enduring bond, created by the love and faith

1:25:331:25:36

of his Cat, Clementine.

1:25:361:25:40

CHURCHILL: It was a few minutes before the 11th Hour.

1:25:451:25:49

My mind strayed back across the scarring years

1:25:491:25:52

to the night at the Admiralty, when I listened for these same chimes,

1:25:521:25:56

in order to give the signal of war against Germany.

1:25:561:25:59

And now, all was over.

1:26:021:26:05

It was with feelings which do not lend themselves to words

1:26:051:26:09

that I heard the cheers of the brave people who had given all,

1:26:091:26:13

who had never wavered,

1:26:131:26:16

who had never lost faith in their country or its destiny.

1:26:161:26:20

And then, Winston was back in the Cabinet.

1:26:241:26:27

In January, 1919, he was made Secretary of State...

1:26:271:26:31

for War.

1:26:311:26:33

Churchill's experience in the First World War,

1:26:391:26:42

of being at the pinnacle of the war effort,

1:26:421:26:44

then being unceremoniously kicked out of office

1:26:441:26:47

and slowly, but surely, rebuilding his political career,

1:26:471:26:49

convinced him that he was a man of destiny,

1:26:491:26:52

that he could recover from anything.

1:26:521:26:54

A simply astonishing man who'd never understood the meaning

1:26:541:26:58

of stop, finish, over,

1:26:581:26:59

and was just going to press on till the very end.

1:26:591:27:02

Later, he wrote that,

1:27:051:27:07

"All had to suffer,

1:27:071:27:08

"and all had to learn."

1:27:081:27:11

Millions had suffered.

1:27:131:27:14

But no man had learnt more of war command.

1:27:161:27:19

It was a bitter, but complete, apprenticeship.

1:27:201:27:23

In 1922, the Churchills moved to Chartwell,

1:27:331:27:37

a home dotted with wartime relics.

1:27:371:27:40

That decade, he wrote The World Crisis -

1:27:441:27:48

a multi-volume study of the Great War.

1:27:481:27:50

Yet, this work of history concluded on a dark and prophetic note.

1:27:541:27:59

"Is this the end?

1:28:011:28:02

"Will our children bleed and gasp again in devastated lands?"

1:28:041:28:07

First would come more wilderness years...

1:28:121:28:14

But when summoned again,

1:28:161:28:18

a greater warlord, steeled by the Great War,

1:28:181:28:23

was ready and prepared to fulfil his destiny.

1:28:231:28:27

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