Churchill's First World War

0:00:02 > 0:00:03AIR-RAID SIREN AND BOMBING

0:00:03 > 0:00:06On becoming Prime Minister in 1940,

0:00:06 > 0:00:08Winston Churchill said

0:00:08 > 0:00:10that all his past life had been preparation

0:00:10 > 0:00:13for a moment of destiny.

0:00:14 > 0:00:18But no chapter had prepared him more than the First World War.

0:00:23 > 0:00:27In 1914, he had felt the same call of destiny and glory,

0:00:27 > 0:00:32but would experience humiliation and disgrace.

0:00:33 > 0:00:38Gallipoli, this great Napoleonic strategic stroke, when it failed,

0:00:38 > 0:00:41was more than simply, "This is a failed campaign."

0:00:41 > 0:00:43This got to his very soul.

0:00:44 > 0:00:49In early 1916, he was an infantry officer serving in the trenches,

0:00:49 > 0:00:53where his battle to clear his name and regain war command began.

0:00:54 > 0:00:59This is a classic story of hubris and nemesis and then redemption.

0:01:01 > 0:01:07The story of his fall and rise can be told largely in his own words,

0:01:07 > 0:01:11for Churchill confided all to his young wife, Clementine,

0:01:11 > 0:01:13in an intimate correspondence.

0:01:14 > 0:01:19I cannot tell you how much I love and honour you, and how sweet

0:01:19 > 0:01:23and steadfast you have been through all my hesitations and perplexity.

0:01:23 > 0:01:27His "darkest hour" would prove to be Clementine's finest,

0:01:27 > 0:01:33as war transformed the most important relationship of his life.

0:01:33 > 0:01:35This is a woman who's a great political strategist,

0:01:35 > 0:01:39who is his confidante and is the only person who can talk to him

0:01:39 > 0:01:41openly, frankly, honestly.

0:01:43 > 0:01:47Churchill would make thrilling contributions to the war

0:01:47 > 0:01:49on land, sea and air.

0:01:50 > 0:01:53But the hardest battle lay within himself.

0:01:54 > 0:01:55He was a simply astonishing man

0:01:55 > 0:01:59who'd never understood the meaning of stop, finish, over,

0:01:59 > 0:02:02and was just going to press on till the very end.

0:02:02 > 0:02:06This is the story of Churchill and the First World War.

0:02:06 > 0:02:10The cauldron in which a greater warlord would be forged.

0:02:24 > 0:02:29In July 1914, as Europe spiralled suddenly toward war,

0:02:29 > 0:02:33a young British Minister stood apart from his troubled peers.

0:02:35 > 0:02:39The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Spencer Churchill,

0:02:39 > 0:02:41was the political head of the Royal Navy.

0:02:43 > 0:02:48Brilliant, but vain, he believed he had a special gift for war.

0:02:50 > 0:02:53In August 1914, Winston Churchill is best described

0:02:53 > 0:02:57as a bundle of excitement and energy.

0:02:57 > 0:03:01He's a man who's gone a very long way in a short time.

0:03:01 > 0:03:05He's been a leading social reformer in the House of Commons.

0:03:05 > 0:03:07He has been Home Secretary

0:03:07 > 0:03:10and now he's the political head of the Royal Navy.

0:03:10 > 0:03:15And I think all of his virtues are there but also his vices.

0:03:15 > 0:03:18Above all, he's not trusted by many people.

0:03:20 > 0:03:23War was in Churchill's blood.

0:03:23 > 0:03:27A Sandhurst-educated cavalry officer, his dashing accounts

0:03:27 > 0:03:29of imperial adventures

0:03:29 > 0:03:32and a prisoner-of-war escape in the Boer War

0:03:32 > 0:03:35helped spur him to the top of the ruling Liberal government.

0:03:37 > 0:03:40Two things are essential for understanding

0:03:40 > 0:03:42Winston Churchill's character.

0:03:42 > 0:03:45First of all, he thinks of himself as a soldier -

0:03:45 > 0:03:47actually, a warrior might be a better way of putting it -

0:03:47 > 0:03:50but he, fundamentally, sees himself as a military man.

0:03:50 > 0:03:53The second thing is that he is an imperialist.

0:03:53 > 0:03:57He has an unquestioning belief in the British Empire,

0:03:57 > 0:03:59as, indeed, almost everybody did, at that point.

0:04:01 > 0:04:04Churchill was no warmonger.

0:04:04 > 0:04:08But since 1911, he and the Admiralty had responded vigorously

0:04:08 > 0:04:12to the growing naval ambitions of the German Empire.

0:04:12 > 0:04:14He would not flinch from conflict.

0:04:18 > 0:04:23Aged just 39, and at the very peak of his powers,

0:04:23 > 0:04:26he wrote to his wife of heady events and emotions.

0:04:30 > 0:04:32My darling one and beautiful.

0:04:33 > 0:04:36Everything trends towards catastrophe and collapse.

0:04:37 > 0:04:41I am interested, geared up and happy -

0:04:41 > 0:04:43is it not horrible to be built like that?

0:04:44 > 0:04:47The preparations have a hideous fascination for me.

0:04:51 > 0:04:5529 years old and nicknamed "The Cat", Clementine Spencer Churchill

0:04:55 > 0:04:58was on a seaside holiday with their two young children.

0:04:59 > 0:05:02Clementine Churchill was an Edwardian beauty.

0:05:02 > 0:05:06She was highly strung, she was quite emotional.

0:05:06 > 0:05:09In July 1914, there's a great deal of anticipation

0:05:09 > 0:05:11and excitement in the air that's about the war,

0:05:11 > 0:05:14and she's very excited about what Winston is doing.

0:05:14 > 0:05:16She's also expecting their third child

0:05:16 > 0:05:19and she's really thinking about sort of domestic things, what is to come.

0:05:19 > 0:05:22They had no idea then what would come,

0:05:22 > 0:05:24what suffering they would go through.

0:05:24 > 0:05:25They were naive.

0:05:27 > 0:05:32My darling, I much wish I were with you during these anxious,

0:05:32 > 0:05:34thrilling days.

0:05:34 > 0:05:36I know how you are feeling,

0:05:36 > 0:05:39tingling with life to the tips of your fingers.

0:05:39 > 0:05:45Surely every hour of delay must make the forces of peace more powerful.

0:05:45 > 0:05:49It would be a wicked war. Your loving Clemmie.

0:05:53 > 0:05:56During the July crisis and leading up to the outbreak of war,

0:05:56 > 0:05:57Churchill has, very naturally,

0:05:57 > 0:06:00been at the forefront of all political decision-making.

0:06:00 > 0:06:04He controls Britain's only first-class strategic instrument,

0:06:04 > 0:06:05the Royal Navy,

0:06:05 > 0:06:09the thing that is going to have to control the world, if war breaks out,

0:06:09 > 0:06:12and getting it into the right place at the right time, at the outbreak

0:06:12 > 0:06:16of war, is absolutely critical, so the timing is everything.

0:06:18 > 0:06:22On July 28, the First Fleet was concentrated at Portland,

0:06:22 > 0:06:25far from its war station at Scapa Flow

0:06:25 > 0:06:28in the North Sea, where it could blockade Germany.

0:06:30 > 0:06:34A peace-time mobilisation risked provoking Germany,

0:06:34 > 0:06:38yet Churchill gambled, ordering the Fleet to slip back secretly

0:06:38 > 0:06:41through the Dover Straits at night.

0:06:44 > 0:06:48An exultant First Lord had made the Fleet "ready for war".

0:06:52 > 0:06:56Diplomatic ultimatums were set to expire at 11pm on August 4.

0:06:58 > 0:07:02Cat, dear, it is all up.

0:07:02 > 0:07:06Germany has quenched the last hopes of peace.

0:07:06 > 0:07:09The world has gone mad, and we must look after ourselves

0:07:09 > 0:07:10and our friends.

0:07:14 > 0:07:18At the sound of Big Ben, it was Churchill who launched Britain

0:07:18 > 0:07:22into war, with a signal sent to fleets across the globe.

0:07:26 > 0:07:32"Admiralty to all ships - commence hostilities, at once, with Germany."

0:07:34 > 0:07:37The only Cabinet member with experience of war,

0:07:37 > 0:07:40he could not fail to imagine greater glories ahead.

0:07:42 > 0:07:46Churchill left to brief the senior colleagues most aware

0:07:46 > 0:07:48of his mix of genius and egotism.

0:07:51 > 0:07:55Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was still sitting in grave silence,

0:07:55 > 0:07:57together with David Lloyd George,

0:07:57 > 0:08:01when the First Lord crashed noisily in.

0:08:01 > 0:08:05The Chancellor noted with disquiet that Churchill seemed

0:08:05 > 0:08:08"a really happy man".

0:08:08 > 0:08:11In some ways, he is the Churchill of the Second World War

0:08:11 > 0:08:13and even after - he's just a very young,

0:08:13 > 0:08:18rather green version of that Churchill. He's just quite immature,

0:08:18 > 0:08:22politically, and he's going to learn some very interesting lessons.

0:08:22 > 0:08:25The First World War will destroy the world that he grew up in,

0:08:25 > 0:08:28it will destroy the social order that he's familiar with,

0:08:28 > 0:08:31it will destroy the kinds of ambitions that he might have had.

0:08:40 > 0:08:43That August, the Navy successfully ferried

0:08:43 > 0:08:48the British Expeditionary Force, without loss, to war in France.

0:08:50 > 0:08:53But Churchill's mood had changed -

0:08:53 > 0:08:58the Navy's passive blockade strategy seemed almost to bore him.

0:08:58 > 0:09:03The former Hussar was restless, yearning for action.

0:09:05 > 0:09:09Clementine was troubled by his impatient state of mind.

0:09:09 > 0:09:12Frequent trips to Army headquarters in France

0:09:12 > 0:09:14were irritating his colleagues.

0:09:16 > 0:09:20She begins to see in this time, in Winston, a war lust

0:09:20 > 0:09:23and she begins to see that he needs some sort of containing,

0:09:23 > 0:09:25some sort of restraint.

0:09:25 > 0:09:27I think she realises, at this stage, that there's nobody else

0:09:27 > 0:09:31who's going to do that, and so very subtly and quietly in her letters,

0:09:31 > 0:09:35she begins to, kind of, draw attention to it and warn him.

0:09:37 > 0:09:41Yet Churchill was more than a "death or glory" Hussar -

0:09:41 > 0:09:45he was a sophisticated thinker on the science of war.

0:09:45 > 0:09:50Although Churchill had taken part in the last cavalry charge

0:09:50 > 0:09:52of the British Army at Omdurman,

0:09:52 > 0:09:55although he was a Victorian figure,

0:09:55 > 0:09:58he was a very modern military thinker.

0:09:58 > 0:10:02He understood the importance of exploring,

0:10:02 > 0:10:05of exploiting, science, technology.

0:10:05 > 0:10:09He saw that wars were going to be won by a combination of arms,

0:10:09 > 0:10:13manoeuvre on land, sea power and air power.

0:10:14 > 0:10:18This passion for military technology had seen both the Navy -

0:10:18 > 0:10:22and Churchill himself - take to the skies.

0:10:25 > 0:10:27At the turn of the 20th century, the Royal Navy

0:10:27 > 0:10:30is the world's leading technological fighting force.

0:10:30 > 0:10:32It masters all of the new technologies.

0:10:32 > 0:10:35When the aeroplane comes along, the Navy very quickly works out

0:10:35 > 0:10:38this is going to be an asset, it's going to allow you to scout,

0:10:38 > 0:10:41it's going to allow you to fly over the land from the sea.

0:10:41 > 0:10:45Churchill himself is a great enthusiast for aviation,

0:10:45 > 0:10:47but it turns out, a very poor pilot.

0:10:47 > 0:10:50He manages to crash and he's persuaded not to try to learn

0:10:50 > 0:10:53ever again, so other people do the flying.

0:10:53 > 0:10:55But Churchill can see the potential

0:10:55 > 0:11:00and he's prepared to back the junior officers who have these enthusiasms.

0:11:01 > 0:11:06His airmen gave the First Lord a ticket to the land war in France.

0:11:08 > 0:11:10In September, the Navy won responsibility

0:11:10 > 0:11:14for the aerial defence of Britain against Zeppelin airships.

0:11:17 > 0:11:20Churchill's obviously wanting to get more involved in the land battle,

0:11:20 > 0:11:22that's where the action is.

0:11:22 > 0:11:26He's got the excuse of sending over the Royal Naval Air Service,

0:11:26 > 0:11:30and they're actually sent out across to Dunkirk,

0:11:30 > 0:11:32where they have the excuse to be there,

0:11:32 > 0:11:34because the Royal Naval Air Service,

0:11:34 > 0:11:38the planes, can go and bomb the German Zeppelins

0:11:38 > 0:11:40which might bomb our ships. There's a reason for doing it.

0:11:43 > 0:11:46That autumn, Navy pilots launched the first-ever bombing raids

0:11:46 > 0:11:51on Germany, targeting Zeppelin air sheds in Dusseldorf and Cologne.

0:11:56 > 0:11:59The "Dunkirk Circus" also allowed Churchill to deploy

0:11:59 > 0:12:04another mechanised unit, the dashing squadron of Naval Armoured Cars.

0:12:08 > 0:12:11He's getting reports back that, actually, with this war of movement

0:12:11 > 0:12:14that's still going on, we need some armoured cars,

0:12:14 > 0:12:16to protect our air force base.

0:12:16 > 0:12:20And they go on, sort of, almost like buccaneering patrols,

0:12:20 > 0:12:21to try and bump into the enemy

0:12:21 > 0:12:25and to try and shoot up some German columns advancing, etc.

0:12:25 > 0:12:26So they have machine guns fitted -

0:12:26 > 0:12:30he sees the value of a mobile armoured vehicle.

0:12:32 > 0:12:35Yet, as the duelling armies raced westward,

0:12:35 > 0:12:38it was the First Lord himself who now made

0:12:38 > 0:12:40a highly-controversial intervention.

0:12:44 > 0:12:47The Belgian city of Antwerp was under siege.

0:12:49 > 0:12:54A protective chain of forts ringed a port commanding a key position

0:12:54 > 0:12:55on the Allied left flank.

0:13:00 > 0:13:05Yet, German howitzers were smashing these redoubts one by one.

0:13:08 > 0:13:12If Antwerp held, the German advance in the north would stall.

0:13:12 > 0:13:14The Germans would simply not be able to get into northern France,

0:13:14 > 0:13:17and their whole campaign would fail at that point.

0:13:17 > 0:13:20Churchill instinctively puts his finger on the spot

0:13:20 > 0:13:22and he says we must do something about this.

0:13:24 > 0:13:29On October 3, Churchill arrived in "Fortress Antwerp",

0:13:29 > 0:13:31on an urgent fact-finding mission.

0:13:33 > 0:13:35The Belgians were poised to surrender,

0:13:35 > 0:13:38leaving open the road to the Channel ports.

0:13:38 > 0:13:43Alarmed, Churchill called for a defiant last stand.

0:13:44 > 0:13:47And he would stay on to lead their resistance.

0:13:52 > 0:13:55The First Lord would not fight alone.

0:13:55 > 0:13:58He summoned Marines and his "private army",

0:13:58 > 0:14:00the Royal Naval Division.

0:14:02 > 0:14:07He's actually involved in sending troops from Dunkirk up to Antwerp,

0:14:07 > 0:14:09again to help reinforce the Belgians,

0:14:09 > 0:14:11and he uses buses to do this -

0:14:11 > 0:14:14he actually commissions 100 buses from London.

0:14:14 > 0:14:16They're driven down to the coast, taken across,

0:14:16 > 0:14:19and he does this quickly. That's the thing about Churchill -

0:14:19 > 0:14:22he gets things to happen relatively quickly, for the First World War.

0:14:26 > 0:14:30Consisting of fresh-faced volunteers and surplus sailors,

0:14:30 > 0:14:34this brand-new infantry force was neither trained nor equipped.

0:14:35 > 0:14:37But they were rushed to the front line.

0:14:40 > 0:14:42Here, journalists observed Churchill, too,

0:14:42 > 0:14:46smoking large cigars under a rain of shrapnel.

0:14:48 > 0:14:52In this supercharged state, the warrior over-reached himself.

0:14:54 > 0:14:56What happens next, however,

0:14:56 > 0:15:01is that he, rather excitedly, sends a telegram back to London,

0:15:01 > 0:15:03saying that he wants to, in effect,

0:15:03 > 0:15:06give up his government post and take command

0:15:06 > 0:15:08of the British Forces there.

0:15:08 > 0:15:10Oh, and by the way, can he be a general?

0:15:11 > 0:15:15And the very idea of General Churchill carrying out

0:15:15 > 0:15:20this role in Antwerp just provokes laughter among his colleagues,

0:15:20 > 0:15:23and I suspect they're laughing AT him, not laughing WITH him.

0:15:25 > 0:15:29On October 10th, Antwerp finally capitulated.

0:15:29 > 0:15:32Six days had been won.

0:15:35 > 0:15:38But there was a price to pay.

0:15:38 > 0:15:41Over 1,000 of his new soldiers were left stranded.

0:15:41 > 0:15:43Fleeing into neutral Holland,

0:15:43 > 0:15:46they were interned for the rest of the war.

0:15:48 > 0:15:50Some hailed him a hero.

0:15:50 > 0:15:54But a hostile press branded Churchill a reckless adventurer,

0:15:54 > 0:15:57and his Antwerp mission a blunder.

0:16:00 > 0:16:04Churchill's neither a hero nor a buffoon over Antwerp.

0:16:04 > 0:16:06It was a sensible idea

0:16:06 > 0:16:09and actually, it probably did make a bit of a difference,

0:16:09 > 0:16:12but Churchill has a very unfortunate habit

0:16:12 > 0:16:15of making himself look foolish, as a result,

0:16:15 > 0:16:17and he does look foolish in the eyes of his peers.

0:16:19 > 0:16:22Clementine was anxious,

0:16:22 > 0:16:27knowing Churchill's military ardour had powerful unseen roots.

0:16:28 > 0:16:33Both believed he was destined to achieve greatness.

0:16:33 > 0:16:37Yet, Churchill harboured boyish dreams of emulating the epic deeds

0:16:37 > 0:16:40of his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough.

0:16:41 > 0:16:44For Churchill, there's an acute consciousness of destiny.

0:16:44 > 0:16:47There's an acute consciousness of a man

0:16:47 > 0:16:49who really should achieve greatness.

0:16:49 > 0:16:52His ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough had a meteoric

0:16:52 > 0:16:55and highly-successful career, leading to the construction

0:16:55 > 0:16:56of his vast palace,

0:16:56 > 0:16:59far larger than any King of England has ever lived in,

0:16:59 > 0:17:02as a prize for his war-winning efforts.

0:17:02 > 0:17:03And Churchill was born in this house

0:17:03 > 0:17:07and he grew up there acutely conscious of that legacy.

0:17:07 > 0:17:11So he's very much aware that he stands in a family tradition.

0:17:11 > 0:17:15He was acutely conscious of being Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill -

0:17:15 > 0:17:17these were important names.

0:17:18 > 0:17:24Early 1915 would see the warlord seduced by a daring idea

0:17:24 > 0:17:27which inflamed this sense of destiny.

0:17:27 > 0:17:29He told Lloyd George that, if it worked,

0:17:29 > 0:17:32he would be "the biggest man in Europe".

0:17:34 > 0:17:38But he was hurtling toward the greatest disaster of his life.

0:17:47 > 0:17:51Churchill was an egomaniac, there's no doubt about it.

0:17:51 > 0:17:55He possessed enormous faith in himself and self-confidence

0:17:55 > 0:17:57and an almost manic energy.

0:17:57 > 0:17:59He was driven.

0:17:59 > 0:18:02He had endless ideas, a fertile mind,

0:18:02 > 0:18:06but he sometimes found it rather difficult to work out

0:18:06 > 0:18:08what was a good idea and what was a bad idea.

0:18:11 > 0:18:16By Christmas 1914, a scar of trenches ripped across Europe

0:18:16 > 0:18:21from the Alps to the sea, locking armies in a murderous stalemate.

0:18:23 > 0:18:26Churchill applied his prodigious imagination

0:18:26 > 0:18:28to the breaking of the deadlock.

0:18:28 > 0:18:30"My dear Prime Minister,

0:18:30 > 0:18:32"are there not other alternatives

0:18:32 > 0:18:36"than sending our armies to chew barbed wire in Flanders?

0:18:38 > 0:18:41"Further, can not the power of the Navy be brought more directly

0:18:41 > 0:18:43"to bear upon the enemy?

0:18:44 > 0:18:47"Ought we not to engage him on new frontiers?"

0:18:49 > 0:18:53Churchill is still very excited - he loves war.

0:18:53 > 0:18:58You know, he's not a cruel man, but, nonetheless, he finds war

0:18:58 > 0:18:59to be tremendously exciting,

0:18:59 > 0:19:04and the Royal Navy had swept enemy ships from the seas.

0:19:04 > 0:19:08And from that point onwards, it's a slow, grinding campaign

0:19:08 > 0:19:13of starving the Germans into submission, and he longs for action.

0:19:13 > 0:19:15He's throwing out ideas left, right and centre,

0:19:15 > 0:19:18memoranda are flowing out from his office.

0:19:18 > 0:19:21You would have thought he'd had enough to do running the Royal Navy,

0:19:21 > 0:19:25but actually he wants to really run the entire war himself.

0:19:28 > 0:19:34Early 1915 saw strange contraptions called "Winston's Follies"

0:19:34 > 0:19:36emerge from engineering sheds.

0:19:38 > 0:19:41Struck by the success of his armoured cars,

0:19:41 > 0:19:43the Navy head was sponsoring

0:19:43 > 0:19:48the development of a trench-crossing machine or land ship.

0:19:49 > 0:19:51We have been sending men forward,

0:19:51 > 0:19:53trying to break through the barbed wire,

0:19:53 > 0:19:55trying to attack German positions,

0:19:55 > 0:19:58and they are, literally, at times, getting mown down.

0:19:58 > 0:20:02So what are we going to do to save those men's lives?

0:20:02 > 0:20:06Let's investigate. Could we use things like steam engines

0:20:06 > 0:20:08to actually crush down the wire?

0:20:08 > 0:20:10Now, part of those experiments,

0:20:10 > 0:20:14he actually gets a small tracked truck

0:20:14 > 0:20:15on Horse Guards Parade,

0:20:15 > 0:20:18and it's filled through half a tonne of bricks.

0:20:18 > 0:20:20And First Lord of the Admiralty actually is there

0:20:20 > 0:20:23on Horse Guards Parade pushing this thing

0:20:23 > 0:20:26and understanding that tracks are really the way

0:20:26 > 0:20:28that you can get across awkward ground

0:20:28 > 0:20:30and they've fantastic mobility.

0:20:33 > 0:20:36Yet his imagination was fired by a dazzling alternative

0:20:36 > 0:20:38to costly trench war in the west.

0:20:42 > 0:20:44The aim was to knock Germany's eastern ally,

0:20:44 > 0:20:47the Ottoman Turks, out of the war.

0:20:50 > 0:20:53Churchill had a very romantic view of war,

0:20:53 > 0:20:56and the Western Front simply didn't match up to that.

0:20:56 > 0:21:00Gallipoli, this great Napoleonic strategic stroke

0:21:00 > 0:21:02which could win the war,

0:21:02 > 0:21:07I think very much played to Churchill's sense

0:21:07 > 0:21:09of not only what warfare should be like,

0:21:09 > 0:21:12but where his position in warfare lay.

0:21:12 > 0:21:16This was his chance to emulate his great ancestor,

0:21:16 > 0:21:18the 1st Duke of Marlborough,

0:21:18 > 0:21:22by bringing off a war-winning, strategically brilliant stroke.

0:21:22 > 0:21:25The plan envisaged the Fleet running the gauntlet

0:21:25 > 0:21:27of the narrow Dardanelle Straits.

0:21:30 > 0:21:34The Army would occupy the Gallipoli peninsula,

0:21:34 > 0:21:39while the Navy stormed on to the glittering prize of Constantinople.

0:21:43 > 0:21:46This is strategic thinking on a very large scale

0:21:46 > 0:21:49and, in that sense, I think, you know,

0:21:49 > 0:21:52Churchill is showing a great deal of imagination.

0:21:52 > 0:21:57Unfortunately, the planning was, I think,

0:21:57 > 0:22:00far beyond the capability of the British

0:22:00 > 0:22:03to put into practice in 1915.

0:22:03 > 0:22:07Decision-making in Whitehall was muddled.

0:22:07 > 0:22:11Lord Kitchener at the War Office delayed badly

0:22:11 > 0:22:13over the despatch of his Armies.

0:22:13 > 0:22:17But Churchill's zeal and enthusiasm swept doubts aside.

0:22:20 > 0:22:23That's the paradox of Churchill.

0:22:23 > 0:22:28Someone who was brilliant insightful and energetic, but at the same time

0:22:28 > 0:22:32sometimes reckless and quite often blind to the mistakes

0:22:32 > 0:22:36that he was making, until it was too late to do anything about them.

0:22:37 > 0:22:41In early spring, the Admiralty faced a choice -

0:22:41 > 0:22:46to wait for Kitchener's armies, or to strike fast with ships alone.

0:22:47 > 0:22:51Churchill chose to gamble and sent the Fleet in.

0:22:59 > 0:23:01The Naval attack on the Dardanelles

0:23:01 > 0:23:03was a very difficult operation of war.

0:23:03 > 0:23:07It involved steaming up a very narrow passage under direct gunfire

0:23:07 > 0:23:09from heavy and medium-calibre guns

0:23:09 > 0:23:12and through minefields, with a very strong current

0:23:12 > 0:23:15running against the ships trying to get up the Straits.

0:23:17 > 0:23:20Churchill says we must press on, we must push this attack far faster,

0:23:20 > 0:23:23we must really go for a... a high-risk offensive operation,

0:23:23 > 0:23:26directly into the main waterway and to use the whole Fleet.

0:23:26 > 0:23:30And three battleships were sunk - one French, two British -

0:23:30 > 0:23:32running into minefields

0:23:32 > 0:23:35and, from that point on, the Naval offensive stalled.

0:23:38 > 0:23:42The abortive naval assault saw the Turks rush reinforcements

0:23:42 > 0:23:43to the peninsula.

0:23:46 > 0:23:49Kitchener's armies finally arrived,

0:23:49 > 0:23:54but the landings he planned at Anzac Cove, Helles and later at Suvla

0:23:54 > 0:23:57all met with huge loss of life.

0:23:58 > 0:24:01And bloody trench war resumed.

0:24:03 > 0:24:07His brother, Major Jack Churchill, was there,

0:24:07 > 0:24:10and his accounts of heroism and sacrifice

0:24:10 > 0:24:12fuelled Churchill's frustration.

0:24:15 > 0:24:19Churchill could see the disaster unfolding before his eyes.

0:24:19 > 0:24:22The men who'd been appointed to command the Dardanelles operation

0:24:22 > 0:24:27were a series of incompetents, at best, or men who simply lacked

0:24:27 > 0:24:33experience and confidence, and yet he couldn't do anything about that.

0:24:33 > 0:24:36He had to stand by on the sidelines

0:24:36 > 0:24:39and watch this awful mess deteriorate.

0:24:39 > 0:24:44His frustration was enormous, but he had set it in motion and eventually

0:24:44 > 0:24:48he had to pay the political price for the failure at Gallipoli.

0:24:56 > 0:25:00Tragic events in the Mediterranean were not the immediate cause

0:25:00 > 0:25:03of Churchill's downfall.

0:25:03 > 0:25:05The man responsible was a close friend

0:25:05 > 0:25:07and father figure inside the Admiralty...

0:25:08 > 0:25:10..Lord Jacky Fisher.

0:25:12 > 0:25:15This 74-year old Naval legend had been brought back

0:25:15 > 0:25:19from retirement to lead the Navy in October, 1914.

0:25:22 > 0:25:25The two men were kindred spirits.

0:25:26 > 0:25:29But Navy insiders like Admiral Beatty foresaw

0:25:29 > 0:25:31a messy clash of egos.

0:25:33 > 0:25:37One old, wily and of vast experience.

0:25:37 > 0:25:43One young, self-assertive, with a great self-satisfaction,

0:25:43 > 0:25:47but unstable. They cannot work together.

0:25:47 > 0:25:50They cannot both run the show.

0:25:51 > 0:25:55These are two men who are simply at opposite ends of every spectrum.

0:25:55 > 0:25:58Churchill is a young, dynamic politician

0:25:58 > 0:26:00who wants to run the Navy like an Admiral,

0:26:00 > 0:26:04and Fisher is an elderly, astute and very experienced Admiral

0:26:04 > 0:26:06who wants to run the Navy like a politician,

0:26:06 > 0:26:09and both of them actually wanted each other's job.

0:26:11 > 0:26:17By April 1915, Fisher had cold feet about both the Dardanelles operation

0:26:17 > 0:26:21and an interfering, autocratic First Lord.

0:26:21 > 0:26:25Tensions evident in letters held in Churchill College, Cambridge.

0:26:27 > 0:26:33What we have here is a wonderful exchange of letters,

0:26:33 > 0:26:36which I think captures the deteriorating relationship

0:26:36 > 0:26:40between Admiral Fisher and Winston Churchill.

0:26:40 > 0:26:43Here you can see that Fisher has written,

0:26:43 > 0:26:46"Damn the Dardanelles! They'll be our grave!"

0:26:46 > 0:26:48And at the bottom, he signs off,

0:26:48 > 0:26:51"Procrastinations, vacillations, Antwerps."

0:26:51 > 0:26:54How did Churchill respond on receiving letters like this?

0:26:54 > 0:26:57Well, I think you can see his gut reaction here,

0:26:57 > 0:27:00in this handwritten note, which he's addressed at the top

0:27:00 > 0:27:05to the First Sea Lord, 8th April 1915, quoting Napoleon,

0:27:05 > 0:27:08"We are defeated at sea because our admirals have learned -

0:27:08 > 0:27:12"where I know not - that war can be made without running risks."

0:27:15 > 0:27:19On May 15, Lord Fisher went missing from the Admiralty.

0:27:20 > 0:27:23Fisher, ultimately, has had enough and he resigns

0:27:23 > 0:27:26and writes a big resignation letter

0:27:26 > 0:27:28in which he demands that they get rid of Churchill,

0:27:28 > 0:27:31that he be allowed to essentially run the Navy,

0:27:31 > 0:27:33and he sets out a huge, kind of, list of...

0:27:33 > 0:27:36"You must do exactly as I tell you,

0:27:36 > 0:27:38"because I'm the only man who can win the war."

0:27:38 > 0:27:40And they call his bluff.

0:27:42 > 0:27:43Fisher was out.

0:27:43 > 0:27:48But he had badly damaged Asquith's already teetering government.

0:27:49 > 0:27:52The Conservative opposition scented blood

0:27:52 > 0:27:55and pressed for a share in government.

0:27:56 > 0:27:59Churchill was in acute danger.

0:28:00 > 0:28:05For he was the "Blenheim rat", the "renegade" and "class traitor"

0:28:05 > 0:28:09who had deserted the Tories to join the ruling Liberals in 1904.

0:28:13 > 0:28:16That weekend, the Churchill's journeyed

0:28:16 > 0:28:19to Asquith's Thames-side home, to plead for his job.

0:28:20 > 0:28:22But the game was up.

0:28:23 > 0:28:27Within days, Asquith would agree to lead a coalition.

0:28:27 > 0:28:31After the four years they called a "golden age",

0:28:31 > 0:28:34the Churchills would leave Admiralty House.

0:28:35 > 0:28:41He was sacked. Clementine leapt fiercely to her husband's defence.

0:28:43 > 0:28:47"My dear Mr Asquith, if you throw Winston overboard,

0:28:47 > 0:28:50"you will be committing an act of weakness

0:28:50 > 0:28:54"and your coalition government will not be as formidable a war machine.

0:28:54 > 0:28:56"Winston may, in your eyes, have faults,

0:28:56 > 0:28:59"but he has the supreme quality which I venture to say

0:28:59 > 0:29:03"very few of your present, or future cabinet, possess -

0:29:03 > 0:29:08"the power, the imagination and the deadliness to fight Germany."

0:29:11 > 0:29:14That's what she says to the Prime Minister - you are weak.

0:29:14 > 0:29:16She talks about how wonderful Winston is,

0:29:16 > 0:29:19but basically, she's saying, you are a weak man,

0:29:19 > 0:29:23and that is devastating, I think, it's a devastating thing to do.

0:29:23 > 0:29:26It potentially ruptures their relationship,

0:29:26 > 0:29:28but it shows that she's got claws and she will fight for him.

0:29:28 > 0:29:33As it happens, it's Margot who really takes issue with her.

0:29:33 > 0:29:36She calls Clementine "a fish wife".

0:29:36 > 0:29:39She describes her as having "the soul of a servant".

0:29:39 > 0:29:42But no, she does not have the soul of a servant -

0:29:42 > 0:29:44she's fighting for her man.

0:29:46 > 0:29:48Obsessed with the Dardanelles,

0:29:48 > 0:29:51Churchill accepted a lowly government post,

0:29:51 > 0:29:54hoping in vain to influence policy.

0:29:56 > 0:30:00Privately, he expressed shock and despair.

0:30:01 > 0:30:04I am the victim of a political intrigue. I am finished.

0:30:04 > 0:30:08Finished in respect of all I care for - the waging of war,

0:30:08 > 0:30:10the defeat of the Germans.

0:30:12 > 0:30:16The memory of his famous father Randolph's own political downfall

0:30:16 > 0:30:19now weighed heavily.

0:30:19 > 0:30:23Now, that, of course, made the fall that Winston himself suffered

0:30:23 > 0:30:26in the wake of the Dardanelles disaster

0:30:26 > 0:30:29all the more awful and all the more bitter.

0:30:29 > 0:30:32It was very difficult for him to see the way back,

0:30:32 > 0:30:34and he felt that, not only had he failed,

0:30:34 > 0:30:38but he'd confirmed everyone's view of the Churchills,

0:30:38 > 0:30:41that they were bound to fail.

0:30:41 > 0:30:45First Randolph and then Winston - it was like a family curse.

0:30:45 > 0:30:48And Churchill thrashed around in desperation,

0:30:48 > 0:30:51wondering how could he find a way back?

0:30:54 > 0:30:56The Churchills retired to Hoe Farm,

0:30:56 > 0:31:00a weekend retreat, to lick their wounds.

0:31:00 > 0:31:03Clementine recognised that her husband was battling

0:31:03 > 0:31:05with dark inner demons.

0:31:08 > 0:31:14People tend to talk about Churchill's "black dog".

0:31:14 > 0:31:16He's gone from being at the centre

0:31:16 > 0:31:19to being a, sort of, mere observer of events,

0:31:19 > 0:31:23and I think it's that that he finds incredibly difficult.

0:31:23 > 0:31:26I think it does hit him like a hammer blow,

0:31:26 > 0:31:30but another great Churchillian trait is his capacity

0:31:30 > 0:31:33to recover from these seemingly, sort of, knockout blows,

0:31:33 > 0:31:37and it's interesting to look at how he does that

0:31:37 > 0:31:40and the strategies he uses.

0:31:40 > 0:31:44You can see him looking around at ways in which to fill the void

0:31:44 > 0:31:46that has been created in his life,

0:31:46 > 0:31:49and one of the things that he seeks solace in is painting.

0:31:51 > 0:31:54Churchill came across painting as a form of enjoyment,

0:31:54 > 0:31:56relaxation and almost therapy.

0:31:56 > 0:32:01One of his very first paintings is the farm itself, Hoe Farm.

0:32:03 > 0:32:06Churchill often painted himself into his paintings later,

0:32:06 > 0:32:09but there's one right near the beginning of his career,

0:32:09 > 0:32:11that he actually painted during the First World War.

0:32:11 > 0:32:16And it's a very intense, full sort of frontal look at himself

0:32:16 > 0:32:18and it's very dark and very unusual,

0:32:18 > 0:32:21because the rest of his paintings are almost entirely

0:32:21 > 0:32:23colourful, sunshine scenes,

0:32:23 > 0:32:26but this is a real psychological sketch of himself,

0:32:26 > 0:32:29at a time when he was obviously feeling very wretched.

0:32:33 > 0:32:36That summer, contemplating a visit to the warzone,

0:32:36 > 0:32:40Churchill wrote Clementine an intimate letter,

0:32:40 > 0:32:42to be opened in the event of his death.

0:32:43 > 0:32:46"Do not grieve for me too much.

0:32:46 > 0:32:49"I am a spirit confident in my rights.

0:32:50 > 0:32:52"Death is only an incident

0:32:52 > 0:32:55"and not the most important one which happens to us.

0:32:57 > 0:33:02"On the whole - and especially since I met you, my darling one -

0:33:02 > 0:33:03"I have been happy.

0:33:05 > 0:33:10"If there is another place, I shall be on the lookout for you.

0:33:12 > 0:33:17"In the meantime, look forward, feel free,

0:33:17 > 0:33:19"rejoice in life,

0:33:19 > 0:33:22"cherish the children

0:33:22 > 0:33:24"and guard my memory."

0:33:26 > 0:33:30Yet, Churchill's reputation was falling to its nadir.

0:33:30 > 0:33:35A December evacuation from Gallipoli would mark total Allied defeat,

0:33:35 > 0:33:38at a cost of 53,000 dead.

0:33:40 > 0:33:42The campaign's loudest champion

0:33:42 > 0:33:44was publicly denigrated

0:33:44 > 0:33:46as the man solely responsible.

0:33:49 > 0:33:53The disappointment that he felt, when it failed, was more

0:33:53 > 0:33:55than simply, "This is a failed campaign."

0:33:55 > 0:33:57This got to his very soul.

0:33:57 > 0:33:59This was, I think, his chance,

0:33:59 > 0:34:03he thought, to become a great warlord,

0:34:03 > 0:34:05and it hadn't happened.

0:34:05 > 0:34:08And to the end of his days, he resented that,

0:34:08 > 0:34:11and I think he thought that his chance for glory

0:34:11 > 0:34:14in the First World War had passed him by.

0:34:15 > 0:34:19For decades, Churchill would be taunted by the cry,

0:34:19 > 0:34:21"Remember the Dardanelles!".

0:34:23 > 0:34:27Clementine feared that he would die of grief.

0:34:29 > 0:34:31This is a man who's been at the centre of government

0:34:31 > 0:34:34for close on a decade, by this stage,

0:34:34 > 0:34:37and suddenly, to be pushed to the sidelines,

0:34:37 > 0:34:40where he could write as many memoranda as he liked

0:34:40 > 0:34:45but no-one paid any attention to them, was deeply wounding to him.

0:34:47 > 0:34:50In November, he could bear political impotence no more -

0:34:50 > 0:34:54his response was typically audacious.

0:34:57 > 0:35:00He already held a commission with the Oxfordshire Hussars,

0:35:00 > 0:35:02a territorial regiment.

0:35:04 > 0:35:09Major Churchill volunteered for "death or glory" in the trenches.

0:35:12 > 0:35:17"My dear Asquith, I ask you to submit my resignation to the King.

0:35:18 > 0:35:22"I'm an officer and I place myself unreservedly at the disposal

0:35:22 > 0:35:23"of the military authorities,

0:35:23 > 0:35:26"observing that my regiment is in France.

0:35:27 > 0:35:29"I have a clear conscience.

0:35:30 > 0:35:34"Time will vindicate my administration of the Admiralty.

0:35:35 > 0:35:38"With much respect and unaltered personal friendship,

0:35:38 > 0:35:40"I bid you goodbye."

0:35:45 > 0:35:49On November 18th, Churchill joined the troop train to Boulogne.

0:35:53 > 0:35:55Clementine's first letters were raw

0:35:55 > 0:35:58with the anguish felt by every soldier's wife.

0:36:00 > 0:36:02"My darling Winston.

0:36:02 > 0:36:05"I long for news of you.

0:36:05 > 0:36:08"Although it's only a few miles,

0:36:08 > 0:36:11"you seem to me as far away as the stars,

0:36:11 > 0:36:14"lost among a million khaki figures.

0:36:14 > 0:36:16"Write to me, Winston.

0:36:16 > 0:36:18"I want a letter from you badly."

0:36:19 > 0:36:23Both would write, almost daily.

0:36:23 > 0:36:26And their passionate correspondence sustained them

0:36:26 > 0:36:29through his perilous days on the Western Front.

0:36:40 > 0:36:43Within days of his arrival, Churchill had experienced

0:36:43 > 0:36:46the first of numerous close encounters with death.

0:36:49 > 0:36:51"Yesterday, a curious thing happened.

0:36:51 > 0:36:56"A telegram arrived that the corps commander wished to see me.

0:36:56 > 0:36:58"I thought it rather a strong order to bring me

0:36:58 > 0:37:02"out of the trenches by daylight - a three-miles walk.

0:37:02 > 0:37:05"Anyhow, I had no choice.

0:37:05 > 0:37:09"I arrived muddy, wet and sweating at the rendezvous.

0:37:09 > 0:37:12"No motor!

0:37:12 > 0:37:15"You may imagine how I abused to myself the complacency

0:37:15 > 0:37:19"of this general dragging me about in the rain and the mud for nothing.

0:37:19 > 0:37:23"And then I learned that a quarter of an hour after I had left,

0:37:23 > 0:37:26"the dugout in which I was living had been struck

0:37:26 > 0:37:28"by a shell, which burst a few feet from where

0:37:28 > 0:37:32"I would have been sitting, killing the mess orderly who was inside.

0:37:33 > 0:37:38"When I saw the ruin, I was not so angry with the general after all.

0:37:38 > 0:37:42"Now, see from this how vain it is to worry about things.

0:37:42 > 0:37:45"It is all chance or destiny.

0:37:46 > 0:37:52"One must yield oneself simply and naturally to the mood of the game."

0:37:55 > 0:37:59Clementine's anxieties were not assuaged.

0:37:59 > 0:38:04But her husband was upbeat, walking in the footsteps of the Great Duke.

0:38:07 > 0:38:12"My dearest soul" - this is what the Great Duke of Marlborough

0:38:12 > 0:38:15"used to write from the Low Countries to HIS Cat."

0:38:15 > 0:38:19Marlborough's "Cat" was Sarah Churchill,

0:38:19 > 0:38:23a formidable political operator in the 18th-century corridors of power.

0:38:26 > 0:38:29Yet Clementine was a very different wife,

0:38:29 > 0:38:31finding it noble and romantic

0:38:31 > 0:38:35that her husband was serving as a mid-ranking officer.

0:38:36 > 0:38:38The Daily Mail rings me up and asks

0:38:38 > 0:38:42if I have had any news from "Major Churchill".

0:38:42 > 0:38:45"Major Churchill" has a strange sound,

0:38:45 > 0:38:49but I am prouder of this title than of any other.

0:38:50 > 0:38:53Churchill revealed he was being schooled in trench warfare

0:38:53 > 0:38:58by the Grenadier Guards, a regiment the Great Duke himself had led.

0:39:00 > 0:39:03All is very well arranged.

0:39:03 > 0:39:05I saw Lord Cavan, to whom I said,

0:39:05 > 0:39:07"I should regard it as a very great honour

0:39:07 > 0:39:09"to go into the line with the Guards,"

0:39:09 > 0:39:13to which he replied, "We shall be proud to have you."

0:39:13 > 0:39:17The Army is willing to receive me back as the prodigal son.

0:39:17 > 0:39:19I am very happy here.

0:39:20 > 0:39:24But these letters did not tell the whole story.

0:39:24 > 0:39:27I think it would be difficult to imagine a more difficult place

0:39:27 > 0:39:30for Churchill the politician, the outsider,

0:39:30 > 0:39:34the peripatetic adventurer, to embrace the First World War

0:39:34 > 0:39:37than with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards.

0:39:37 > 0:39:41The Guards' reputation is for ruthless discipline,

0:39:41 > 0:39:45professionalism, attention to detail.

0:39:45 > 0:39:49Not only was this a guy, a politician, an outsider,

0:39:49 > 0:39:52coming to a close-knit regiment of professional soldiers,

0:39:52 > 0:39:54but he's also everything

0:39:54 > 0:39:56that, culturally, they would have been suspicious of.

0:39:56 > 0:40:00He's ambitious, he doesn't take well to authority,

0:40:00 > 0:40:03the officers in the Guards battalion,

0:40:03 > 0:40:06one suspects, would have been very, very suspicious and hostile to him.

0:40:06 > 0:40:08Colonel Jeffreys, the battalion commander,

0:40:08 > 0:40:10he's already got a fearsome reputation,

0:40:10 > 0:40:12even for a commander of a Guards battalion,

0:40:12 > 0:40:14and I think he says something wonderfully cold

0:40:14 > 0:40:16on their first meeting, like,

0:40:16 > 0:40:19"Just so you know, we didn't ask to have you sent here."

0:40:20 > 0:40:26Arriving with excess kit, the newcomer was put firmly his place.

0:40:27 > 0:40:31A batman delivered the revised allocation to his dugout -

0:40:31 > 0:40:34a pair of socks and a shaving kit.

0:40:36 > 0:40:41Sir John French, Commander of the British Army, now intervened.

0:40:41 > 0:40:44He was a close personal friend

0:40:44 > 0:40:47and keen that Churchill command a brigade.

0:40:50 > 0:40:56Clementine was unconvinced, fearing he would lose newly won respect

0:40:56 > 0:40:58if he became a "Chateau General" so quickly.

0:41:00 > 0:41:02What she knows and understands,

0:41:02 > 0:41:04in a way that he just doesn't quite appreciate,

0:41:04 > 0:41:08is that at home, that would be seen as just going too far, too quickly.

0:41:08 > 0:41:12He's already got a reputation for being a little bit too ambitious,

0:41:12 > 0:41:16a little bit too egotistical - he is more important than anybody else.

0:41:16 > 0:41:19She knows that if he were to accept that promotion,

0:41:19 > 0:41:20it would be negative.

0:41:22 > 0:41:25That December, Churchill was on tenterhooks -

0:41:25 > 0:41:28awaiting confirmation of his rank

0:41:28 > 0:41:31whilst flitting between the trenches and Allied HQ.

0:41:33 > 0:41:37General Fayolle gave him a blue helmet that he wore with pride.

0:41:38 > 0:41:43Sir John French's offer of a British general's uniform soon followed.

0:41:46 > 0:41:49"My darling, I am to be given command

0:41:49 > 0:41:53"of the 56th Brigade in the 19th Division.

0:41:53 > 0:41:57"Please order another khaki tunic for me as Brigadier General.

0:41:57 > 0:42:01"Let the pockets be less baggy than the other two."

0:42:01 > 0:42:04Yet French was in trouble.

0:42:04 > 0:42:07Failure at the recent Battle of Loos saw him recalled

0:42:07 > 0:42:09by Asquith to London to be dismissed.

0:42:11 > 0:42:15"My darling one, I am back here at GHQ.

0:42:15 > 0:42:18"I don't know what effect this change of command

0:42:18 > 0:42:21"will produce on my local fortunes.

0:42:21 > 0:42:26"In the Grenadiers, the opinion is that I am to have a division."

0:42:28 > 0:42:31Two letters on the same day capture the moments

0:42:31 > 0:42:34when hopes of a General Churchill evaporated.

0:42:37 > 0:42:39"Later.

0:42:40 > 0:42:44"I reopen my letter to say that French has telephoned from London.

0:42:44 > 0:42:48"The PM has written to him that I am not to have a brigade

0:42:48 > 0:42:50"but a battalion.

0:42:50 > 0:42:53"You should cancel the order for the tunic."

0:42:58 > 0:43:01Field Marshal Sir John French, a great friend of Churchill's,

0:43:01 > 0:43:06had been replaced by General, as he was then, Sir Douglas Haig.

0:43:06 > 0:43:10And Haig had a much more realistic view, I think,

0:43:10 > 0:43:13of Churchill's abilities. And he insisted that,

0:43:13 > 0:43:17first of all, he win his spurs, as it was,

0:43:17 > 0:43:19by commanding a battalion.

0:43:23 > 0:43:26His first trench experiences encouraged Churchill

0:43:26 > 0:43:30to pen a memorandum brimming with new tactical ideas...

0:43:31 > 0:43:35..including a vision of a mass attack of his land ships.

0:43:37 > 0:43:42Variants of the offensive. One, attack by armour.

0:43:42 > 0:43:45The cutting of the enemy's wire and the general domination

0:43:45 > 0:43:49of his firing line can be effected by engines of this character.

0:43:49 > 0:43:56None should be used until all can be used at once. Above all, surprise!

0:43:57 > 0:44:01But no-one was listening to a yesterday's man.

0:44:01 > 0:44:05Churchill now faced a searching test of character -

0:44:05 > 0:44:07the command of men in battle.

0:44:17 > 0:44:21On January 4, 1916, Lieutenant Colonel Churchill took command

0:44:21 > 0:44:24of the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers.

0:44:27 > 0:44:29Well, he gets off to a disastrous start

0:44:29 > 0:44:32with 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers. His own sense of importance

0:44:32 > 0:44:35and history, I think, overtakes him. He's a cavalry officer,

0:44:35 > 0:44:37with no experience of infantry drill,

0:44:37 > 0:44:39he gives all the wrong words of commands.

0:44:39 > 0:44:42The private soldiers haven't got a clue what to do, his junior officers

0:44:42 > 0:44:44who are already probably ill-disposed towards his presence

0:44:44 > 0:44:47are having to whisper in his ear. I mean, he makes a fool of himself,

0:44:47 > 0:44:49there is no two ways about it.

0:44:49 > 0:44:52What's so interesting is that, having got off to this awkward start

0:44:52 > 0:44:55he turns it around, and he turns it around very quickly.

0:44:56 > 0:44:59They were stationed by the small Belgian town the Tommies called

0:44:59 > 0:45:03Plug Street, on the southern part of the Ypres Salient.

0:45:05 > 0:45:08This was a time, early 1916,

0:45:08 > 0:45:12on a front, Plug Street, which was not an active one.

0:45:12 > 0:45:15He did not command in a major battle, this was trench holding.

0:45:15 > 0:45:18That was nasty enough, that was dangerous enough,

0:45:18 > 0:45:20but it's a very different thing than leading men over the top.

0:45:22 > 0:45:26As MP for Dundee, Churchill was proud to join a Scottish regiment,

0:45:26 > 0:45:30but he was horrified by what they had experienced at Loos.

0:45:30 > 0:45:34CHURCHILL: It fought with the greatest gallantry in the big battle

0:45:34 > 0:45:36and was torn to pieces.

0:45:36 > 0:45:39More than half the men and three quarters of the officers

0:45:39 > 0:45:42were shot and these terrible gaps have been filled up

0:45:42 > 0:45:45by quite young, inexperienced officers.

0:45:48 > 0:45:50His first pep talk signalled the arrival

0:45:50 > 0:45:52of an unconventional commander.

0:45:54 > 0:45:57Laugh a little and teach your men to laugh.

0:45:58 > 0:46:01Show good humour under fire.

0:46:01 > 0:46:05War is a game played with a smile.

0:46:06 > 0:46:08If you can not smile, grin.

0:46:08 > 0:46:11If you can not grin, then stay out of the way until you can.

0:46:12 > 0:46:17And now, gentlemen, we shall make war on the lice!

0:46:19 > 0:46:22This is an example of Churchill as a, sort of, free-thinker.

0:46:22 > 0:46:26Recognising what's important that other people haven't recognised.

0:46:26 > 0:46:30And lice were misery in the trenches. You think of the shelling

0:46:30 > 0:46:33and the sniping and the danger, but actually, what gets a soldier down,

0:46:33 > 0:46:36on a day-to-day basis, is the mud and the cold and the hunger

0:46:36 > 0:46:39and the discomfort and, in recognising that,

0:46:39 > 0:46:43here was something that could be targeted with a bit of extra work,

0:46:43 > 0:46:46Churchill's actually showing an incredible compassion to his men,

0:46:46 > 0:46:47and they liked it

0:46:47 > 0:46:50and, apparently, for the rest of the war, 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers

0:46:50 > 0:46:53were one of the least lice-plagued battalions in the army.

0:46:53 > 0:46:57Immersing himself enthusiastically in trench life,

0:46:57 > 0:47:01the new Colonel was attentive to the needs of his men.

0:47:03 > 0:47:05He commands a battalion almost as though you'd

0:47:05 > 0:47:07expect him to command a platoon.

0:47:07 > 0:47:11This is probably the first time that Churchill's really

0:47:11 > 0:47:14in a front line of a conflict, in command

0:47:14 > 0:47:17and what is interesting is the Churchill that comes out,

0:47:17 > 0:47:19the Churchill that shines through in those circumstances

0:47:19 > 0:47:23is not so much the ambitious Churchill,

0:47:23 > 0:47:25the Churchill that rubs people up the wrong way,

0:47:25 > 0:47:28it is a much more caring, much more focused,

0:47:28 > 0:47:31much more sensitive Churchill, if you will, and

0:47:31 > 0:47:34that's what makes him a very good commander in the First World War.

0:47:34 > 0:47:36It's almost as though, in the trenches,

0:47:36 > 0:47:40surrounded with the responsibility, and it must be a huge responsibility

0:47:40 > 0:47:43for a battalion of men, the proximity of death,

0:47:43 > 0:47:46the fact that your horizons have really narrowed.

0:47:46 > 0:47:49He's forgotten his political ambitions.

0:47:49 > 0:47:51For once, he doesn't have half an eye on Westminster,

0:47:51 > 0:47:52even if it's only briefly,

0:47:52 > 0:47:56and what comes out is this very impressive Churchill.

0:47:58 > 0:48:01He was a decidedly eccentric commander.

0:48:01 > 0:48:03You know, there are stories of him, for example,

0:48:03 > 0:48:06going out into no-man's land on a patrol,

0:48:06 > 0:48:09making all sorts of noise in doing so,

0:48:09 > 0:48:12lying on his electric torch and thus switching it on and,

0:48:12 > 0:48:15you know, basically giving a real target for the enemy,

0:48:15 > 0:48:18but there's no doubt at all that Churchill, I think, proved to be

0:48:18 > 0:48:21a very effective battalion commander.

0:48:24 > 0:48:27Demands for extra tuck for his mess added to the burdens

0:48:27 > 0:48:29of a busy mother of three.

0:48:31 > 0:48:36"About food, the sorts of things I want you to send me are these -

0:48:36 > 0:48:38"large slabs of corned beef,

0:48:38 > 0:48:41"Stilton cheeses, cream, hams,

0:48:41 > 0:48:44"sardines, dried fruits.

0:48:44 > 0:48:46"You might almost try a big beef steak pie,

0:48:46 > 0:48:49"but not tinned grouse, the simpler the better

0:48:49 > 0:48:54"and substantial, too, for our ration meat is tough and tasteless.

0:48:54 > 0:48:58"Peach brandy seems to be a hopeful feature in the liquor department.

0:48:58 > 0:49:01"I fear you find me very expensive to keep."

0:49:03 > 0:49:05The Western Front offered a diversion

0:49:05 > 0:49:07from ugly political intrigues.

0:49:08 > 0:49:11But Churchill still needed his Sapient Cat

0:49:11 > 0:49:14to be his eyes and ears in Westminster.

0:49:16 > 0:49:19CHURCHILL: Don't neglect these matters,

0:49:19 > 0:49:22I have no-one but you to act for me.

0:49:23 > 0:49:25Keep in touch with the Government.

0:49:25 > 0:49:29Show complete confidence in our fortunes.

0:49:29 > 0:49:31Hold your head very high.

0:49:34 > 0:49:37When you look at the role that Clementine Churchill is playing

0:49:37 > 0:49:42during this period, she really is acting as an anchor.

0:49:42 > 0:49:48She is listening out for how he is being perceived in the newspapers,

0:49:48 > 0:49:55but also amongst her contemporaries and also in high political circles.

0:49:55 > 0:49:59She's guarding his reputation very carefully,

0:49:59 > 0:50:01she's alerting him to potential dangers,

0:50:01 > 0:50:06to things that she thinks that he has missed,

0:50:06 > 0:50:11and she is, of course, also prepared to take up the cudgel

0:50:11 > 0:50:14and absolutely to defend his reputation.

0:50:15 > 0:50:19My darling, today I lunched with Lloyd George.

0:50:19 > 0:50:22Now don't scold your Cat too much for being a hermit.

0:50:22 > 0:50:27Here, in two days I have hobnobbed with Montague, Birrell,

0:50:27 > 0:50:32Lloyd George, and a South African potentate. Please send me home

0:50:32 > 0:50:36the Distinguished Conduct Medal at once and much praise.

0:50:40 > 0:50:45Clementine had volunteered to help the YMCA organise workers canteens

0:50:45 > 0:50:47in some of the new munitions factories

0:50:47 > 0:50:50set up to meet the voracious demand for shells.

0:50:53 > 0:50:56She's involved in, I think, about nine,

0:50:56 > 0:50:58some of which have 500 people to feed.

0:50:58 > 0:51:01She has to open them, she has to visit them. She talks a lot about

0:51:01 > 0:51:03the difficulties in getting there, the trains.

0:51:03 > 0:51:06All this is going on whilst he is asking her

0:51:06 > 0:51:08to, basically, be Winston Churchill at home.

0:51:10 > 0:51:13The Munitions Minister was David Lloyd George,

0:51:13 > 0:51:17the one dynamic star in a lacklustre coalition.

0:51:19 > 0:51:22Clementine was well placed to monitor his steady rise.

0:51:27 > 0:51:31Trench life settled into a pattern of dull routine

0:51:31 > 0:51:32and sudden danger.

0:51:34 > 0:51:37"My darling, I take up my pen to send you my daily note.

0:51:38 > 0:51:40"At six, I went round my trenches

0:51:40 > 0:51:44"and was saluted on my doorstep by a very sulky bullet.

0:51:46 > 0:51:49"All the morning, I laboured in the small business of the battalion

0:51:49 > 0:51:52"and dealt with my company commanders

0:51:52 > 0:51:56"and sent off the numerous reports for which our superiors clamour.

0:52:00 > 0:52:02"I send you some copies of the photo

0:52:02 > 0:52:04"of Archie and I, taken at Armentieres.

0:52:06 > 0:52:08"I never expected to be so completely involved

0:52:08 > 0:52:10"in the military machine."

0:52:12 > 0:52:14As winter turned to spring,

0:52:14 > 0:52:17old political instincts began to reawaken.

0:52:19 > 0:52:22He's genuinely interested,

0:52:22 > 0:52:25but, of course, the challenges you face in commanding a battalion

0:52:25 > 0:52:29on the Western Front are not quite the same as running a Navy or

0:52:29 > 0:52:34running a government department, and again, I think you can gradually see

0:52:34 > 0:52:39over the next five months, politics and Whitehall luring him back in.

0:52:41 > 0:52:44The loss of air superiority in the skies above Plug Street

0:52:44 > 0:52:49further inflamed irritation with weak political leadership.

0:52:50 > 0:52:53- CHURCHILL:- Air fights have been going on overhead this morning.

0:52:53 > 0:52:57Since I left the Admiralty, the whole naval wing has been let down

0:52:57 > 0:52:59and all previous ascendency has been dissipated.

0:52:59 > 0:53:03War is action, energy, hazard,

0:53:03 > 0:53:06these sheep only want to browse among the daisies.

0:53:08 > 0:53:13Clementine knew a political return would be dangerously premature.

0:53:15 > 0:53:20My own darling, patience is the only grace you need.

0:53:20 > 0:53:25As sure as day follows night, you will come into your own again.

0:53:27 > 0:53:30But a disorientated Churchill did not listen.

0:53:30 > 0:53:33Granted ten days home leave in early March,

0:53:33 > 0:53:38his next political humiliation was to be self-inflicted.

0:53:49 > 0:53:53The former First Lord was expected at the National Liberal Club,

0:53:53 > 0:53:56to unveil a new portrait of himself.

0:53:59 > 0:54:01But he never showed up.

0:54:03 > 0:54:06He'd fallen in with a group of fellow dissidents,

0:54:06 > 0:54:08eager to plot the downfall of Asquith.

0:54:09 > 0:54:11There's no glory to be won on the Western Front,

0:54:11 > 0:54:13it's a miserable, dirty business,

0:54:13 > 0:54:15hiding in a trench with a French tin hat on.

0:54:15 > 0:54:18He can't restore his reputation by fighting,

0:54:18 > 0:54:22and eventually, he comes back to London and there,

0:54:22 > 0:54:25almost miraculously, he rebuilds his relationship with Jacky Fisher.

0:54:27 > 0:54:31Clementine was horrified that her husband was drawn once again

0:54:31 > 0:54:33to the admiral who had destroyed his career.

0:54:39 > 0:54:42Fisher took advantage of Churchill's troubled state of mind,

0:54:42 > 0:54:47with wild talk of "destiny" and Churchill becoming Prime Minister.

0:54:51 > 0:54:54On March 7, Churchill went to Parliament to make a speech

0:54:54 > 0:54:57critical of the Admiralty's performance.

0:54:57 > 0:55:00Its conclusion stunned the House.

0:55:01 > 0:55:03I urge the First Lord of the Admiralty without delay

0:55:03 > 0:55:06to fortify himself.

0:55:06 > 0:55:09To vitalise and animate his board of Admiralty,

0:55:09 > 0:55:14by recalling Lord Fisher to his post as First Sea Lord.

0:55:14 > 0:55:17SHOUTING AND HECKLING

0:55:17 > 0:55:20An astonishing appeal for the return of Fisher

0:55:20 > 0:55:23was met with derision and scorn.

0:55:26 > 0:55:30Margot Asquith's waspish verdict reflected a wider belief

0:55:30 > 0:55:34that Churchill remained impulsive and lacking in statesmanship.

0:55:37 > 0:55:40I hope and believe Winston will never be forgiven

0:55:40 > 0:55:42his yesterday's speeches.

0:55:42 > 0:55:46He is a hound of the lowest sense of political honour,

0:55:46 > 0:55:50a fool of the lowest judgement, and contemptible.

0:55:54 > 0:55:57A contrite Churchill returned to Plug Street.

0:55:57 > 0:56:00He had felt keenly the hostility and mistrust

0:56:00 > 0:56:04his wife had warned of, and acknowledged her loving support.

0:56:07 > 0:56:09"My dearest soul,

0:56:09 > 0:56:13"You have seen me very weak and foolish

0:56:13 > 0:56:16"and mentally infirm this week.

0:56:16 > 0:56:20"Dual obligations, both honourable, both weighty have rent me.

0:56:21 > 0:56:24"I can not tell you how sweet and steadfast you have been

0:56:24 > 0:56:27"through all my hesitations and perplexity."

0:56:33 > 0:56:37Yet bonds of trust were being forged with his Fusiliers.

0:56:38 > 0:56:41His indifference to danger was a constant inspiration.

0:56:42 > 0:56:45Captain Andrew Gibb recalled an invitation

0:56:45 > 0:56:48to the fire-step during a fierce artillery duel.

0:56:49 > 0:56:52We felt the wind and swish of several whizz-bangs

0:56:52 > 0:56:54flying past our heads.

0:56:55 > 0:57:00Then I heard Winston say, in a dreamy, far away voice,

0:57:00 > 0:57:02"Do you like war?"

0:57:02 > 0:57:05There was no such thing as fear in him.

0:57:05 > 0:57:09It is a feature that seems to be common to great military commanders.

0:57:09 > 0:57:12It's not fearlessness as such,

0:57:12 > 0:57:15but it's an ability to be unperturbed by

0:57:15 > 0:57:18the personal danger of the situation they might be in.

0:57:18 > 0:57:21It inspires troops if they see someone who is,

0:57:21 > 0:57:23seems to be impervious to danger.

0:57:23 > 0:57:25It's that great thing of leadership by example.

0:57:25 > 0:57:28Also, soldiers want to be led by someone who has an air

0:57:28 > 0:57:31of invincibility and more than one person observes of Churchill that

0:57:31 > 0:57:34he's just one of those guys that you knew he was going to get through

0:57:34 > 0:57:36and you want to be close to people like that.

0:57:38 > 0:57:42Her advice to stay in the trenches tormented Clementine.

0:57:44 > 0:57:48This is a woman who knows he is under great risk every day.

0:57:48 > 0:57:51People are dying, he could be the next person,

0:57:51 > 0:57:53but she urges him to stay.

0:57:53 > 0:57:56She urges him to stay because she knows, actually,

0:57:56 > 0:58:00his political career is more important to him than his life.

0:58:03 > 0:58:07But her belief in his destiny gave him solace.

0:58:08 > 0:58:12"My darling, own dear Winston, don't be vexed.

0:58:12 > 0:58:18"I know barring all tragic accidents that someday you will have

0:58:18 > 0:58:22"a great and commanding position in this country.

0:58:23 > 0:58:27"You will be held in the people's hearts and in their respect."

0:58:31 > 0:58:35Churchill ventured out around 40 times into no-man's land

0:58:35 > 0:58:39to inspect the wire and forward listening posts.

0:58:40 > 0:58:43But the stress of events now left Clementine feeling exhausted...

0:58:45 > 0:58:46..and lonely.

0:58:48 > 0:58:52My darling, these grave anxieties are very wearing.

0:58:53 > 0:58:56When next I see you, I hope there will be

0:58:56 > 0:58:58a little time for us both alone.

0:58:58 > 0:59:02We are still young, but time flies,

0:59:02 > 0:59:06stealing love away and leaving only friendship,

0:59:06 > 0:59:11which is very peaceful, but not stimulating or warming.

0:59:11 > 0:59:12Clemmie.

0:59:16 > 0:59:19- CHURCHILL:- Oh, my darling, do not write of friendship to me.

0:59:21 > 0:59:23I love you more each month that passes

0:59:23 > 0:59:26and feel the need of you and all your beauty.

0:59:27 > 0:59:31I, too, feel, sometimes, the longing for rest and peace.

0:59:32 > 0:59:35So much effort, so many years of ceaseless fighting

0:59:35 > 0:59:39makes my older mind turn for the first time, I think,

0:59:39 > 0:59:41to other things than action.

0:59:44 > 0:59:48She is at her low, she's been his rock for a very long time.

0:59:48 > 0:59:51Perhaps because they've been so open with each other,

0:59:51 > 0:59:54she is worried about their more romantic side.

0:59:54 > 0:59:57She's worried that they will just become friends.

0:59:57 > 1:00:00She's worried that time is moving on

1:00:00 > 1:00:04and she wants some sort of reassurance from him.

1:00:04 > 1:00:06In fact, it's probably the only time that she really asks

1:00:06 > 1:00:10for reassurance. Thankfully, he gives it to her immediately.

1:00:10 > 1:00:13No chance of just being friends, girl.

1:00:15 > 1:00:19The toll inflicted by even trench holding troubled Churchill.

1:00:20 > 1:00:23To ward off all his frustrations, he surprised his comrades...

1:00:25 > 1:00:26..by starting to paint.

1:00:30 > 1:00:33"From our farm I watched yesterday afternoon

1:00:33 > 1:00:36"the shelling of the little town whose name I can not mention.

1:00:37 > 1:00:42"Three of our men who were strolling in the town were hit, one fatally.

1:00:43 > 1:00:46"In the last two days of rest, I have lost eight men.

1:00:47 > 1:00:51"I'm now reduced to under 680 men instead of 1,000."

1:00:52 > 1:00:55It was 6th Battalion's numerical weakness,

1:00:55 > 1:00:58which brought the Plug Street days to an end.

1:00:58 > 1:01:01An amalgamation in May allowed him to return home...

1:01:02 > 1:01:04..with honour intact.

1:01:06 > 1:01:10"My darling, the Germans have just fired 30 shells at our farm

1:01:10 > 1:01:13"hitting it four times, but no-one has been hurt.

1:01:13 > 1:01:16"This is, I trust, a parting salute."

1:01:19 > 1:01:23Flanders had schooled Churchill in the realities of trench war.

1:01:25 > 1:01:28Haig and the generals were committed to a war of attrition by men.

1:01:30 > 1:01:33Churchill deemed this killing game futile.

1:01:34 > 1:01:37He believed in attrition by metal and machines.

1:01:38 > 1:01:40Fortified by this sense of purpose,

1:01:40 > 1:01:43he resumed political battles at home.

1:01:54 > 1:01:58Churchill returned to Clementine, shorn of vain dreams of glory.

1:01:58 > 1:02:01He was an outcast still.

1:02:02 > 1:02:06Clementine urged stoic resolve through difficult days.

1:02:08 > 1:02:11War is a terrible searcher of character.

1:02:11 > 1:02:18One must try to plod and persevere and absolutely stamp self out!

1:02:20 > 1:02:24The angry scapegoat had to clear his name over the Dardanelles.

1:02:25 > 1:02:28He pressed Asquith to publish the full facts

1:02:28 > 1:02:30and a Commission of Inquiry was set up.

1:02:30 > 1:02:34But he would be made to wait nearly a year for its verdict.

1:02:36 > 1:02:38Churchill was not used to waiting.

1:02:38 > 1:02:43He must have found this an incredibly, sort of frustrating time

1:02:43 > 1:02:48because he's neither one thing or the other, at this point.

1:02:48 > 1:02:52He is no longer a man of strategy,

1:02:52 > 1:02:54he's no longer a man of action.

1:02:54 > 1:02:58This was the greatest crisis to have beset the British nation

1:02:58 > 1:03:01for hundreds of years. And living at the heart of great events,

1:03:01 > 1:03:06believing that it was his destiny to play a role in those great events

1:03:06 > 1:03:08and not being able to do so

1:03:08 > 1:03:10must have been an enormous challenge for him.

1:03:12 > 1:03:16Parliament saw him establish a reputation as a soldiers' friend

1:03:16 > 1:03:19and leading critic of the generals.

1:03:20 > 1:03:24When Churchill gets back to London, he's at a loose end and

1:03:24 > 1:03:28he's a man of such huge energy that because he doesn't actually have

1:03:28 > 1:03:34a proper job to do, he's a pretty effective and annoying gadfly.

1:03:36 > 1:03:39He begins to criticise British high command

1:03:39 > 1:03:42and, to some extent, the Government.

1:03:43 > 1:03:46I do not see how we are to avoid being thrown back on those dismal

1:03:46 > 1:03:50processes of waste and slaughter which are called attrition.

1:03:51 > 1:03:55- Machines save life!- Hear! Hear!

1:03:55 > 1:03:58Machine power is a substitute for manpower.

1:03:59 > 1:04:02Brains will save blood.

1:04:06 > 1:04:08Newspaper headlines in autumn 1916

1:04:08 > 1:04:10announced the baptism of his landships

1:04:10 > 1:04:12in the battle of the Somme,

1:04:12 > 1:04:15but there was no mass attack.

1:04:17 > 1:04:19Only 50 tanks were actually used

1:04:19 > 1:04:22and they're not actually that successful.

1:04:22 > 1:04:24Churchill and a number of other people

1:04:24 > 1:04:27that are enthusiasts for the tank think, "What a waste,

1:04:27 > 1:04:29"you've given away the secret,"

1:04:29 > 1:04:32and it was kept as a brilliant secret from the Germans

1:04:32 > 1:04:34"and you've shown your hand," as it were.

1:04:34 > 1:04:39They wanted many more to be used in a massive initial tank attack.

1:04:41 > 1:04:44He yearned for war direction...

1:04:45 > 1:04:49..and all hopes were invested in the "Wizard", Lloyd George,

1:04:49 > 1:04:53who took over at the War Office after the death of Lord Kitchener.

1:04:56 > 1:05:01He thought that, with Lloyd George in the Cabinet, a friend,

1:05:01 > 1:05:05a colleague in arms, someone who had influence,

1:05:05 > 1:05:07that his return was imminent.

1:05:07 > 1:05:09But it was not to be,

1:05:09 > 1:05:13and he expressed his frustrations in a letter to his brother Jack.

1:05:15 > 1:05:18"Is it not damnable that I should be denied all real scope

1:05:18 > 1:05:20"to serve this country?

1:05:20 > 1:05:22"Great instability prevails

1:05:22 > 1:05:26"and at any moment a situation favourable to me might come.

1:05:26 > 1:05:32"Meanwhile Asquith reigns, supine, sodden and supreme.

1:05:34 > 1:05:38"Though my life is full of comfort, pleasure and prosperity,

1:05:38 > 1:05:42"I writhe hourly not to be able to get my teeth effectively

1:05:42 > 1:05:47"into the Bosch. Jack, my dear, I am learning to hate!"

1:05:49 > 1:05:52By winter, the pressure for a change in leadership

1:05:52 > 1:05:54was becoming irresistible.

1:05:57 > 1:06:03Lloyd George's strengths are that he has now got a reputation

1:06:03 > 1:06:06as a figure of great energy and dynamism,

1:06:06 > 1:06:08"a man of push and go",

1:06:08 > 1:06:10to use his own phrase about the kind of people

1:06:10 > 1:06:13that he wanted in Government. Therefore,

1:06:13 > 1:06:16although many Conservatives continued to distrust him,

1:06:16 > 1:06:19they certainly saw him as a better alternative

1:06:19 > 1:06:22than Asquith, who they saw as weak and ineffectual.

1:06:24 > 1:06:28On December 5th, Lloyd George was finally ready to topple Asquith,

1:06:28 > 1:06:30with the backing of the Conservatives.

1:06:33 > 1:06:38Churchill's hopes soared that night when, relaxing at a Turkish bath,

1:06:38 > 1:06:41he was unexpectedly invited to a dinner

1:06:41 > 1:06:44attended by Lloyd George himself.

1:06:46 > 1:06:48But he had badly misread the signals.

1:06:48 > 1:06:51A mutual friend was given the unhappy task

1:06:51 > 1:06:53of deflating his dreams.

1:06:55 > 1:06:58These are the exact words I used.

1:06:58 > 1:07:01"The new Government will be very well disposed towards you,

1:07:01 > 1:07:03"all your friends will be there."

1:07:04 > 1:07:07He suddenly felt he had been duped

1:07:07 > 1:07:09and he blazed into righteous anger.

1:07:10 > 1:07:13With that, Churchill walked out into the street.

1:07:16 > 1:07:19He later described that as the hardest moment of his life.

1:07:19 > 1:07:24The disparity between his high hopes and the crushing of them

1:07:24 > 1:07:28and a sensible calculation might well have told him

1:07:28 > 1:07:32that Lloyd George was not yet politically strong enough

1:07:32 > 1:07:36to take that risk of bringing him back into the Government.

1:07:36 > 1:07:39Yet his own belief in himself

1:07:39 > 1:07:42had overcome his more rational judgement.

1:07:44 > 1:07:50Yet, this latest of so many crushing humiliations since May 1915

1:07:50 > 1:07:51was also the last.

1:07:55 > 1:07:59The spring of 1917 saw the Churchills buy Lullenden Manor.

1:08:01 > 1:08:04Here, they celebrated together the largely positive findings

1:08:04 > 1:08:06of the Dardanelles inquiry.

1:08:10 > 1:08:14Dark developments in the war further loosened the chains of exile.

1:08:18 > 1:08:22The Germans take the decision to defeat the British

1:08:22 > 1:08:25by sinking merchant shipping in the Atlantic,

1:08:25 > 1:08:28cutting the so-called Atlantic lifeline,

1:08:28 > 1:08:31seeking to starve Britain to submission.

1:08:32 > 1:08:35By the spring of 1917, Britain is running out of food

1:08:35 > 1:08:39and actually, we reach the point in which Britain

1:08:39 > 1:08:43appears to be in real danger of losing the war at sea,

1:08:43 > 1:08:47even though they're holding their own at land,

1:08:47 > 1:08:49and it's against that background

1:08:49 > 1:08:54that Lloyd George takes the risk in the summer of 1917

1:08:54 > 1:08:57of re-introducing Churchill into government.

1:09:00 > 1:09:03Lloyd George needed his friend's spirit

1:09:03 > 1:09:06and imagination at a time of national peril.

1:09:07 > 1:09:10Ignoring fierce Tory protests,

1:09:10 > 1:09:13the Prime Minister summoned him back in July.

1:09:16 > 1:09:18Despite being in coalition with the Conservatives

1:09:18 > 1:09:21he gets Churchill back, he makes it a political priority,

1:09:21 > 1:09:24because he knows this is a man with energy, drive, vision.

1:09:24 > 1:09:26He's exactly the kind of man that he's picking out of industry.

1:09:26 > 1:09:30Lloyd George is creating a meritocratic Cabinet

1:09:30 > 1:09:33of go-getters, and Churchill is one of those key figures.

1:09:35 > 1:09:38He was excluded from the War Cabinet and policy-making.

1:09:40 > 1:09:44His job was to man the anvil and forge the weapons of war.

1:10:00 > 1:10:03"My darling, we had a very pleasant fly-over

1:10:03 > 1:10:06"and passed fairly close to Lullenden.

1:10:06 > 1:10:11"I could follow the road through Croydon and Caterham quite easily.

1:10:11 > 1:10:13"We landed here in good time for dinner."

1:10:15 > 1:10:18As the war entered its climatic Hundred Days,

1:10:18 > 1:10:21French villagers grew accustomed to the sight

1:10:21 > 1:10:24of a hyperactive British minister flying in and out.

1:10:26 > 1:10:29The chateau was the forward base of a man in his element.

1:10:33 > 1:10:37From here, he could visit Haig's HQ at Montreuil.

1:10:37 > 1:10:40The two worked closely together,

1:10:40 > 1:10:44knowing victory would be secured as much on the home front as in France.

1:10:47 > 1:10:49He had a very modern view of war.

1:10:49 > 1:10:53It was very much a view of total war,

1:10:53 > 1:10:55of war in which all the resources of a state

1:10:55 > 1:10:59are committed to the overthrow of the enemy,

1:10:59 > 1:11:03those resources of course including industrial and economic resources.

1:11:05 > 1:11:09This huge factory near Hereford was just one cog

1:11:09 > 1:11:11in a vast industrial machine,

1:11:11 > 1:11:15served by 2.5 million munitions workers.

1:11:21 > 1:11:24Clementine had kept her husband closely informed

1:11:24 > 1:11:27about the women workers now in his charge.

1:11:29 > 1:11:33I was very much interested in the girls.

1:11:33 > 1:11:35They are nearly all quite young,

1:11:35 > 1:11:38very fresh and pretty and rather hoydenish.

1:11:38 > 1:11:41Some of them were snowballing with boys outside the canteen.

1:11:43 > 1:11:44The women are full of beans

1:11:44 > 1:11:47and become terribly skilful very quickly.

1:11:51 > 1:11:53Rapid growth had given the ministry

1:11:53 > 1:11:56an inefficient, ramshackle structure.

1:11:58 > 1:12:01Churchill moved quickly to reform it,

1:12:01 > 1:12:04energising Britain's war machine, just in time.

1:12:08 > 1:12:11One of the things that people tend not to appreciate

1:12:11 > 1:12:16about Churchill is that, while he was this great orator,

1:12:16 > 1:12:20this great leader, he was also a man of detail.

1:12:20 > 1:12:23He was capable of absorbing and understanding

1:12:23 > 1:12:27and manipulating huge amounts of information.

1:12:27 > 1:12:31It involves him with complex deals about different materials

1:12:31 > 1:12:32all over the world

1:12:32 > 1:12:35and it's the sort of challenge that he clearly relished.

1:12:39 > 1:12:42Ambitious new targets were set for the production

1:12:42 > 1:12:45of planes, gas and shells.

1:12:46 > 1:12:49A less autocratic Churchill had emerged.

1:12:51 > 1:12:54His appointment is a moment where we see

1:12:54 > 1:12:59a maturing, politically, of Churchill, that up until this point,

1:12:59 > 1:13:03he was now in his 40s of course, he was somebody who had charged around,

1:13:03 > 1:13:08acted impulsively, continually rubbed people up the wrong way,

1:13:08 > 1:13:12interfered in other people's territory, put their backs up.

1:13:13 > 1:13:17Now, almost for the first time, he calms down a bit,

1:13:17 > 1:13:20and does a straightforward job of work,

1:13:20 > 1:13:23acts much more as a team player.

1:13:23 > 1:13:26He actually also shows a little bit of humility.

1:13:29 > 1:13:31"This is a very heavy department,

1:13:31 > 1:13:33"almost as interesting as the Admiralty

1:13:33 > 1:13:36"with the enormous advantage that one has neither got to fight

1:13:36 > 1:13:38"admirals or Huns.

1:13:39 > 1:13:42"It is very pleasant to work with competent people."

1:13:45 > 1:13:47That November,

1:13:47 > 1:13:52the tank became a top priority as it demonstrated war-winning potential.

1:13:54 > 1:13:58In 1917, tanks are used in a mass attack at Cambrai

1:13:58 > 1:14:02and this is done in the manner that the people who'd invented the tank

1:14:02 > 1:14:05and the actual tank crews wanted to see the tank used.

1:14:10 > 1:14:13So we're looking at 400 tanks do a dawn attack

1:14:13 > 1:14:18on ground that hasn't been chewed up by shellfire weeks beforehand.

1:14:18 > 1:14:23There's a pre-arranged barrage, very short one, the tanks go forward

1:14:23 > 1:14:27and a three-mile gap is cut in the German frontline,

1:14:27 > 1:14:29about three miles deep, as well.

1:14:29 > 1:14:33This is a fantastic initial advance. It really is one

1:14:33 > 1:14:36of the great high points of the British Army in 1917,

1:14:36 > 1:14:38and, back at home, the church bells are actually rung

1:14:38 > 1:14:41for such a great victory.

1:14:44 > 1:14:46The bells had pealed too soon.

1:14:47 > 1:14:50There was no victory at Cambrai,

1:14:50 > 1:14:54yet it greatly influenced Churchill's war plan for 1919.

1:14:56 > 1:14:59Churchill is looking at that strategic overview,

1:14:59 > 1:15:02which is, "How and when

1:15:02 > 1:15:05are we significantly going to be able to use the tank?"

1:15:05 > 1:15:09and Cambrai is a, kind of, vindication of his ideas.

1:15:09 > 1:15:11That's a taster.

1:15:11 > 1:15:14And he actually says, "Really, up to now, all we've been doing,

1:15:14 > 1:15:16"is actually experimenting.

1:15:16 > 1:15:19"What we really want to do is build a massive tank fleet."

1:15:19 > 1:15:24His aims were 10,000 tanks built within the following year,

1:15:24 > 1:15:28so that we could do huge tank attacks in 1919.

1:15:30 > 1:15:33Churchill, frankly, did not want to see a repetition

1:15:33 > 1:15:37of the great bloody, attritional battles of 1916

1:15:37 > 1:15:43and 1917. 1916 - the Somme. 1917 - Arras

1:15:43 > 1:15:46and third Ypres, or Passchendaele, as it became known.

1:15:46 > 1:15:51He was very much an advocate of building up resources,

1:15:51 > 1:15:55waiting for the Americans, who'd entered the war in 1917,

1:15:55 > 1:15:56to deploy their vast armies,

1:15:56 > 1:16:00which he knew could not happen until the second half of 1918.

1:16:00 > 1:16:04The problem was, though, that the enemy always has a vote in any plan.

1:16:07 > 1:16:10The German War Plan changed when the Bolsheviks seized power

1:16:10 > 1:16:12and took Russia out of the War.

1:16:17 > 1:16:22A million fresh German troops poured back toward the Western Front.

1:16:32 > 1:16:36Churchill shared his profound anxieties with the Prime Minister.

1:16:38 > 1:16:41"The imminent danger is on the Western Front

1:16:41 > 1:16:43"and the crisis will come before June.

1:16:43 > 1:16:45"A defeat here will be fatal.

1:16:45 > 1:16:48"I do not like the situation now developing.

1:16:50 > 1:16:53"If this went wrong, everything would go wrong.

1:16:53 > 1:16:55"The Germans are a terrible foe

1:16:55 > 1:16:58"and their generals are better than ours."

1:17:01 > 1:17:07By March, 75 German divisions were marshalled opposite just 37 British,

1:17:07 > 1:17:10holding the weakest, southern-most part of the line.

1:17:12 > 1:17:14General Ludendorff aimed to drive a wedge between

1:17:14 > 1:17:19the British and French, and to annihilate Haig's armies.

1:17:19 > 1:17:24Momentous days, foreshadowing the summer of 1940, would now unfold.

1:17:33 > 1:17:38On March 20, 1918, Churchill drove into the eye of the storm,

1:17:38 > 1:17:42with a visit to frontline South African troops at Gauche Wood.

1:17:46 > 1:17:48Through the narrow paths we picked our way gingerly.

1:17:48 > 1:17:52The sun was setting as we took our leave of the South Africans.

1:17:52 > 1:17:55I see them now,

1:17:55 > 1:18:00serene as the Spartans of Leonidas on the eve of Thermopylae.

1:18:05 > 1:18:08He stayed that night just seven miles behind the front,

1:18:08 > 1:18:12and so became an eyewitness to the furious launch

1:18:12 > 1:18:14of Germany's spring offensives.

1:18:17 > 1:18:19Suddenly, the silence was broken

1:18:19 > 1:18:24by six or seven very loud and very heavy explosions.

1:18:25 > 1:18:28And then, exactly as a pianist runs his hand across the keyboard

1:18:28 > 1:18:33from treble to bass, there rose, in less than one minute,

1:18:33 > 1:18:36the most tremendous cannonade I shall ever hear.

1:18:36 > 1:18:40The flame of the bombardment lit like flickering firelight

1:18:40 > 1:18:42my tiny cabin.

1:18:44 > 1:18:486,000 guns unleashed a firestorm

1:18:48 > 1:18:51as German Stormtroopers pierced the lines.

1:18:58 > 1:19:01A non-stop battle raged for 40 days...

1:19:04 > 1:19:08..and Churchill became a key actor in the emergency.

1:19:13 > 1:19:19Suddenly, the Western Front, in the spring and the summer of 1918,

1:19:19 > 1:19:23turns from a stalemate into a war of movement

1:19:23 > 1:19:27and a war of movement is a war that requires

1:19:27 > 1:19:32tanks, trucks, munitions, logistics.

1:19:35 > 1:19:38Vast numbers of tanks and guns had been lost.

1:19:39 > 1:19:43And enormous amounts of ammunition were being consumed.

1:19:46 > 1:19:50Field Marshal Haig was dependent on Churchill to make up the losses

1:19:50 > 1:19:54and sustain embattled armies with their backs to the wall...

1:19:56 > 1:19:59..and the war machine delivered.

1:20:01 > 1:20:03"I have been able to replace

1:20:03 > 1:20:05"everything in the munitions sphere without difficulty.

1:20:07 > 1:20:09"Guns, tanks, aeroplanes

1:20:09 > 1:20:11"will all be ahead of personnel.

1:20:12 > 1:20:14"It has been touch and go on the front."

1:20:20 > 1:20:24Lloyd George valued Churchill's cool head in a crisis,

1:20:24 > 1:20:28and used him as a personal envoy to the French high command.

1:20:31 > 1:20:35It marks a stage in Churchill's rehabilitation.

1:20:35 > 1:20:40Ostensibly, Churchill's role is to act as personal liaison officer

1:20:40 > 1:20:43between Foch and the British Government.

1:20:43 > 1:20:46In reality, he's there to take the temperature.

1:20:46 > 1:20:49Are the French Army really going to fight?

1:20:49 > 1:20:51And Churchill gives a wonderful description

1:20:51 > 1:20:54of this bravura performance,

1:20:54 > 1:20:58explaining how the battle is going to run down,

1:20:58 > 1:21:01as the Germans run out of impetus

1:21:01 > 1:21:03and his chance to seize the initiative will come.

1:21:03 > 1:21:07Churchill is really inspired by Foch.

1:21:07 > 1:21:12Here is a man who fights, here is a man who can be trusted.

1:21:14 > 1:21:17Ludendorff's offensive had burnt itself out.

1:21:21 > 1:21:24Allied retribution would come in August.

1:21:26 > 1:21:28A mass of tanks and crack Dominion troops

1:21:28 > 1:21:32were to spearhead a surprise counter-offensive at Amiens.

1:21:34 > 1:21:37Churchill flew out specially to a battlefield

1:21:37 > 1:21:39still littered with German dead.

1:21:41 > 1:21:46My darling, the tracks of tanks were everywhere apparent.

1:21:46 > 1:21:48On our way to the battlefield

1:21:48 > 1:21:50we passed nearly 5,000 German prisoners.

1:21:51 > 1:21:53Our cavalry are still out in front

1:21:53 > 1:21:58and in some parts of the line there are, at the moment, no Germans left.

1:21:59 > 1:22:03I am so glad about this great and fine victory of the British Army.

1:22:03 > 1:22:09There is no doubt that they have felt themselves abundantly supplied.

1:22:12 > 1:22:17The British Army puts in some tremendous counter attacks

1:22:17 > 1:22:20and, in August of 1918, at the Battle of Amiens,

1:22:20 > 1:22:23we actually completely defeat the German army

1:22:23 > 1:22:26and the German army starts retreating.

1:22:26 > 1:22:29And tanks, aeroplanes, artillery, combined tactics,

1:22:29 > 1:22:34all-arms tactics, as they're sometimes used, come together

1:22:34 > 1:22:38and, in actual fact, we beat the Germans ahead of the game.

1:22:45 > 1:22:46To his surprise,

1:22:46 > 1:22:51Churchill's plans for a war-winning campaign in 1919 were shelved,

1:22:51 > 1:22:56as Haig's army advanced in an epic Hundred Day victory roll.

1:22:56 > 1:22:59As the weapons maker and godfather of the tank,

1:22:59 > 1:23:02Churchill had a share in their battle honours.

1:23:07 > 1:23:11This, I think, is Winston's hidden secret -

1:23:11 > 1:23:14his single most important contribution

1:23:14 > 1:23:18to Britain winning the war in the First World War,

1:23:18 > 1:23:23and, next to his Prime Ministership in Britain 1940,

1:23:23 > 1:23:26the greatest thing that Churchill ever did

1:23:26 > 1:23:29for the security of the United Kingdom.

1:23:33 > 1:23:37The last wartime letters expressed quiet pride in his fortunes.

1:23:39 > 1:23:42"My darling,

1:23:42 > 1:23:46"coming out here makes me thoroughly contented with my office.

1:23:47 > 1:23:50"I do not chafe at adverse political combinations

1:23:50 > 1:23:53"or at not being able to direct general policy.

1:23:53 > 1:23:56"I am content to be associated

1:23:56 > 1:23:59"with the splendid machines of the British Army."

1:24:03 > 1:24:09Clementine's thoughts could turn at last to peace and Winston's future.

1:24:11 > 1:24:15"My darling, I would like you to be praised

1:24:15 > 1:24:19"as a reconstructive genius, as well as for a mustard gas fiend,

1:24:19 > 1:24:22"tank juggernaut and flying terror.

1:24:22 > 1:24:26"I have got a plan. Can't the men munition workers

1:24:26 > 1:24:30"build lovely garden cities and pull down slums,

1:24:30 > 1:24:33"and can't the women make all the lovely furniture for them?

1:24:35 > 1:24:38"Do come home and arrange all this.

1:24:38 > 1:24:40"Tender love, from Clemmie."

1:24:42 > 1:24:46For Winston and Clementine, looking back in 1918,

1:24:46 > 1:24:49on the previous four years, must have been

1:24:49 > 1:24:52a rollercoaster of emotion, I would think.

1:24:52 > 1:24:56After all, this is a classic story of sort of Hubris and Nemesis

1:24:56 > 1:24:59and then, redemption, but I think, he would also have seen it

1:24:59 > 1:25:04as a period of lost opportunities for him, personally,

1:25:04 > 1:25:08because he would have wanted to remain at the centre of affairs

1:25:08 > 1:25:11and that, politically, he ends the First World War

1:25:11 > 1:25:14in a slightly weaker position than the one in which he started it,

1:25:14 > 1:25:17the first sort of real set back that he'd had,

1:25:17 > 1:25:21but also in terms of lost opportunities, generally,

1:25:21 > 1:25:24in what he might have been able to bring towards this struggle.

1:25:27 > 1:25:30But for all the setbacks in his public life,

1:25:30 > 1:25:33Churchill acknowledged a special private gain -

1:25:33 > 1:25:36an enduring bond, created by the love and faith

1:25:36 > 1:25:40of his Cat, Clementine.

1:25:45 > 1:25:49CHURCHILL: It was a few minutes before the 11th Hour.

1:25:49 > 1:25:52My mind strayed back across the scarring years

1:25:52 > 1:25:56to the night at the Admiralty, when I listened for these same chimes,

1:25:56 > 1:25:59in order to give the signal of war against Germany.

1:26:02 > 1:26:05And now, all was over.

1:26:05 > 1:26:09It was with feelings which do not lend themselves to words

1:26:09 > 1:26:13that I heard the cheers of the brave people who had given all,

1:26:13 > 1:26:16who had never wavered,

1:26:16 > 1:26:20who had never lost faith in their country or its destiny.

1:26:24 > 1:26:27And then, Winston was back in the Cabinet.

1:26:27 > 1:26:31In January, 1919, he was made Secretary of State...

1:26:31 > 1:26:33for War.

1:26:39 > 1:26:42Churchill's experience in the First World War,

1:26:42 > 1:26:44of being at the pinnacle of the war effort,

1:26:44 > 1:26:47then being unceremoniously kicked out of office

1:26:47 > 1:26:49and slowly, but surely, rebuilding his political career,

1:26:49 > 1:26:52convinced him that he was a man of destiny,

1:26:52 > 1:26:54that he could recover from anything.

1:26:54 > 1:26:58A simply astonishing man who'd never understood the meaning

1:26:58 > 1:26:59of stop, finish, over,

1:26:59 > 1:27:02and was just going to press on till the very end.

1:27:05 > 1:27:07Later, he wrote that,

1:27:07 > 1:27:08"All had to suffer,

1:27:08 > 1:27:11"and all had to learn."

1:27:13 > 1:27:14Millions had suffered.

1:27:16 > 1:27:19But no man had learnt more of war command.

1:27:20 > 1:27:23It was a bitter, but complete, apprenticeship.

1:27:33 > 1:27:37In 1922, the Churchills moved to Chartwell,

1:27:37 > 1:27:40a home dotted with wartime relics.

1:27:44 > 1:27:48That decade, he wrote The World Crisis -

1:27:48 > 1:27:50a multi-volume study of the Great War.

1:27:54 > 1:27:59Yet, this work of history concluded on a dark and prophetic note.

1:28:01 > 1:28:02"Is this the end?

1:28:04 > 1:28:07"Will our children bleed and gasp again in devastated lands?"

1:28:12 > 1:28:14First would come more wilderness years...

1:28:16 > 1:28:18But when summoned again,

1:28:18 > 1:28:23a greater warlord, steeled by the Great War,

1:28:23 > 1:28:27was ready and prepared to fulfil his destiny.

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