Editing Winston Churchill (section)

===Pearl Harbor to D-Day: December 1941 to June 1944===
====Pearl Harbor and United States entry into the war====
In December 1941, the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] was followed by their [[invasion of Malaya]] and, on the 8th, Churchill declared war on Japan. With the hope of using Irish ports for counter-submarine operations, Churchill sent a telegram to Irish Prime Minister [[Éamon de Valera]] in which he obliquely offers Irish unity: "Now is your chance. Now or never! A nation once again! I will meet you wherever you wish." No meeting took place and there is no record of a response.<ref>Bromage, pg 162</ref> Churchill went to Washington to meet Roosevelt for the [[Arcadia Conference]]. This was important for "[[Europe first]]", the decision to prioritise victory in Europe over victory in the Pacific, taken by Roosevelt while Churchill was still in the mid-Atlantic. The Americans agreed with Churchill that Hitler was the main enemy and defeat of Germany was key to Allied success.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=670}} It was also agreed that the first joint Anglo-American strike would be [[Operation Torch]], the invasion of [[French North Africa]]. Originally planned for the spring 1942, it was launched in November 1942 when the crucial Second Battle of El Alamein was underway.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=677–678}}

On 26 December, Churchill addressed a joint meeting of the [[United States Congress]]. Later that night, he suffered a heart attack, which was diagnosed by his physician, [[Charles Wilson, 1st Baron Moran|Sir Charles Wilson]], as a [[Coronary circulation|coronary deficiency]], requiring several weeks' bed rest. Churchill insisted he did not need bed rest and journeyed to [[Ottawa]] by train, where he gave a speech to the [[Canadian Parliament]] that included the "some chicken, some neck" line in which he recalled French predictions in 1940 that "Britain alone would have her neck wrung like a chicken".{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=674}} He arrived home mid-January, having flown from Bermuda to [[Plymouth]] in the first transatlantic air crossing by a head of government, to find there was a crisis of confidence in his government and him;{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=679}} he decided to face a vote of confidence in the Commons, which he won easily.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=682}}

While he was away, the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|Eighth Army]], having relieved the [[Siege of Tobruk]], had pursued [[Operation Crusader]] against Rommel's forces in Libya, successfully driving them back to a defensive position at [[El Agheila]] in [[Cyrenaica]]. On 21 January 1942, however, Rommel launched a surprise counter-attack which drove the Allies back to [[Gazala]]. Elsewhere, British success in the [[Battle of the Atlantic]] was compromised by the [[Kriegsmarine]]'s introduction of its [[Cryptanalysis of the Enigma#M4 (German Navy 4-rotor Enigma)|M4 4-rotor Enigma]], whose signals could not be deciphered by Bletchley Park for nearly a year.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=680}} At a press conference in Washington, Churchill had to play down his increasing doubts about the security of Singapore, given Japanese advances.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=675, 678}}

====Fall of Singapore and loss of Burma====
Churchill already had grave concerns about the quality of British troops after the defeats in Norway, France, [[Battle of Greece|Greece]] and [[Battle of Crete|Crete]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=681}} Following the [[fall of Singapore]] to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, he felt his misgivings were confirmed and said: "(this is) the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British military history".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-169/churchill-and-the-fall-of-singapore/ |last=Glueckstein |first=Fred |title=Churchill and the Fall of Singapore |work=International Churchill Society (ICS) |date=10 November 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing plc |location=London |access-date=22 May 2020 |archive-date=4 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604054846/https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-169/churchill-and-the-fall-of-singapore/ |url-status=live}}</ref> On 11 February the Kriegsmarine pulled off its audacious "[[Channel Dash]]", a massive blow to British naval prestige. The combined effect of these events was to sink Churchill's morale to its lowest point of the war.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=681}}

==== The Bengal Famine ====
Meanwhile, the [[Japanese invasion of Burma|Japanese had occupied most of Burma]] by the end of April 1942. Counter-offensives were hampered by the [[Monsoon of South Asia|monsoon season]] and disordered conditions in [[Bengal]] and [[Bihar]], as well as a [[1940s North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons#October 1942 Bengal cyclone|severe cyclone]] which devastated the region in October 1942. A combination of factors, including the curtailment of essential rice imports from Burma, poor administration, wartime inflation and large-scale natural disasters such as flooding and crop disease led to the [[Bengal famine of 1943]],{{sfn|Bayly|Harper|2005|pp=251–253}} in which an estimated 2.1–3.8 million people died.<ref name="TET">{{cite news |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bengal-famine-of-1943-caused-by-british-policy-failure-not-drought-study/articleshow/68495710.cms |title=Bengal famine of 1943 caused by British policy failure, not drought: Study |work=The Economic Times |date=20 March 2019 |publisher=Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd |location=New Delhi |access-date=4 December 2020 |archive-date=4 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204044724/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bengal-famine-of-1943-caused-by-british-policy-failure-not-drought-study/articleshow/68495710.cms?from=mdr |url-status=live}}</ref>

From December 1942, food shortages had prompted senior officials to ask London for grain imports, although the colonial authorities failed to recognise the seriousness of the famine and responded ineptly.{{sfn|Sen|1977|pp=52–55}} Churchill's government was criticised for refusing to approve more imports, a policy it ascribed to an acute shortage of shipping.{{sfn|Sen|1977|p=52}} When the British realised the full extent of the famine in September 1943, Churchill ordered the transportation of 130,000 tons of grain and the cabinet agreed to send 200,000 tons by the end of the year.<ref name="CRC">{{cite web |url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/cambridge-racial-consequences/ |last1=Roberts |first1=Andrew |author-link1=Andrew Roberts (historian) |last2=Gebreyohanes |first2=Zewditu |title=Cambridge: "The Racial Consequences of Mr Churchill", A Review |work=The Churchill Project |publisher=Hillsdale College |location=Hillsdale, Missouri |date=14 March 2021 |access-date=5 May 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505090720/https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/cambridge-racial-consequences/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ALH">{{cite web |url=https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/without-churchill-indias-famine-would-have-been-worse/ |last=Herman |first=Arthur L. |author-link=Arthur L. Herman |title=Without Churchill, India's Famine Would Have Been Worse |work=International Churchill Society (ICS) |date=13 September 2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing plc |location=London |access-date=5 May 2021 |archive-date=19 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019024202/https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/without-churchill-indias-famine-would-have-been-worse/ |url-status=live}}</ref> During the last quarter of 1943, 100,000 tons of rice and 176,000 tons of wheat were imported, compared to averages of 55,000 and 54,000 tons respectively earlier in the year.{{sfn|Sen|1977|p=40}}

In October, Churchill wrote to the Viceroy of India, [[Lord Wavell]], charging him with the responsibility of ending the famine.<ref name="CRC" /> In February 1944, as preparation for [[Operation Overlord]] placed greater demands on Allied shipping, Churchill cabled Wavell saying: "I will certainly help you all I can, but you must not ask the impossible".<ref name="ALH" /> Grain shipment requests continued to be turned down by the government throughout 1944, and Wavell complained to Churchill in October that "the vital problems of India are being treated by His Majesty's Government with neglect, even sometimes with hostility and contempt".{{sfn|Sen|1977|p=52}}{{sfn|Khan|2015|p=213}} The impact of British policies on the famine death toll [[Bengal famine of 1943#Historiography|remains controversial]].<ref>{{cite tech report |last=Devereux |first=Stephen |title=Famine in the twentieth century |volume=IDS Working Paper 105 |pages=21–23 |publisher=Institute of Development Studies |location=Brighton |year=2000 |url=http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC7538.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516151220/http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC7538.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 May 2017}}</ref>

====International conferences in 1942====
[[File:StateLibQld 2 108020 Guests seated on stage in front of a backdrop of giant posters at the Aid to Soviet Congress, Brisbane City Hall, October 1941.jpg|thumb|Huge portraits of Churchill and Stalin, [[Brisbane]], Australia, 31 October 1941]]

On 20 May 1942, the Soviet Foreign minister, [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], arrived in London to sign a treaty of friendship. Molotov wanted it done on the basis of territorial concessions regarding Poland and the Baltic countries. Churchill and Eden worked for a compromise and a twenty-year treaty was formalised, with the question of frontiers placed on hold. Molotov also sought a Second Front in Europe; Churchill confirmed preparations were in progress and made no promises on a date.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=688–690}}

Churchill felt pleased with these negotiations.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=690}} However, Rommel had launched his counter-offensive, ''Operation Venice'', to begin the [[Battle of Gazala]] on 26 May.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=690}} The Allies were driven out of Libya and suffered a defeat in the [[fall of Tobruk]] on 21 June. Churchill was with Roosevelt when the news reached him, and was shocked by the surrender of 35,000 troops which was, apart from Singapore, "the heaviest blow" he received in the war.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=692}} The Axis advance was halted at the [[First Battle of El Alamein]] in July and the [[Battle of Alam el Halfa]] in September. Both sides were exhausted and in need of reinforcements and supplies.{{Sfn|Cooper|1978|pp=376–377}}

Churchill [[Washington Conference (1942)|returned to Washington]] on 17 June. He and Roosevelt agreed on the implementation of ''Operation Torch'' as the necessary precursor to an invasion of Europe. Roosevelt had appointed General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] as commanding officer of the [[European Theater of Operations, United States Army]] (ETOUSA). Having received the news from North Africa, Churchill obtained shipment from America to the Eighth Army of 300 Sherman tanks and 100 howitzers. He returned to Britain on 25 June and had to face another motion of no confidence, this time in his direction of the war, but again he won easily.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=692–698}}

In August, despite health concerns, Churchill visited British forces in North Africa, raising morale, en route to Moscow for [[Moscow Conference (1942)|his first meeting with Stalin]]. He was accompanied by Roosevelt's special envoy [[Averell Harriman]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=698}} He was in Moscow 12–16 August and had lengthy meetings with Stalin. Though they got along well personally, there was little chance of real progress given the state of the war. Stalin was desperate for the Allies to open the Second Front in Europe, as Churchill had discussed with Molotov in May, and the answer was the same.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=699–701}}

====El Alamein and Stalingrad====
While he was in Cairo in August, Churchill appointed [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Field Marshal Alexander]] as [[Field Marshal Auchinleck]]'s successor as Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East Theatre. Command of the Eighth Army was given to General [[William Gott]] but he was shot down and killed while flying to Cairo, and [[General Montgomery]] succeeded him.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=702}}

[[File:Farouk_and_Churchill.jpg|thumb|Churchill meeting [[Farouk of Egypt|King Farouk]] in Cairo in December 1942]]

As 1942 drew to a close, the tide of war began to turn with Allied victories in [[Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein]] and [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]]. Until November, the Allies had been on the defensive, but afterwards, the Germans were. Churchill ordered church bells to be rung throughout Great Britain for the first time since 1940.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=702}} On 10 November, knowing El Alamein was a victory, he delivered one of his most memorable speeches at [[Mansion House, London|Mansion House]] in London: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning".{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=702}}

====International conferences in 1943====
[[File:Teheran conference-1943.jpg|thumb|Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the [[Tehran Conference]] in 1943]]

In January 1943, Churchill met Roosevelt at the [[Casablanca Conference]]. It was attended by General [[Charles de Gaulle]] from the [[Free French Forces]]. Stalin had hoped to attend but declined because of Stalingrad. Although Churchill expressed doubts on the matter, the so-called Casablanca Declaration committed the Allies to securing "[[unconditional surrender]]".{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=705–706}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Middleton |first=Drew |title=Roosevelt, Churchill Map 1943 War Strategy At Ten-Day Conference Held In Casablanca; Giraud And De Gaulle, Present, Agree On Aims |newspaper=The New York Times |date=24 January 1943 |location=Manhattan}}</ref> From Morocco, Churchill went to Cairo, [[Adana]], [[Cyprus]], Cairo again and [[Algiers]]. He arrived home on 7 February having been out of the country for a month. He addressed the Commons on the 11th and became seriously ill with [[pneumonia]] the following day, necessitating more than a month of convalescence: he moved to [[Chequers]]. He returned to work in London on 15 March.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=705–707}}

Churchill made two transatlantic crossings during the year, meeting Roosevelt at the [[third Washington Conference]] in May and the [[first Quebec Conference]] in August.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=707–711}} In November, Churchill and Roosevelt met Chinese Generalissimo [[Chiang Kai-shek]] at the [[Cairo Conference]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=719–720}} The most important conference of the year was 28 November to 1 December at [[Tehran Conference|Tehran]], where Churchill and Roosevelt met Stalin in the first of the "Big Three" meetings, preceding those at [[Yalta Conference|Yalta]] and [[Potsdam Conference|Potsdam]]. Roosevelt and Stalin co-operated in persuading Churchill to commit to opening of second front in western Europe and it was agreed Germany would be divided after the war, but no decisions were made about how.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Geoffrey |title=Stalin at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |publisher=MIT Press |date=Fall 2007 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=6–40|doi=10.1162/jcws.2007.9.4.6 |s2cid=57564917 | issn=1520-3972}}</ref> On their way back, Churchill and Roosevelt held a [[Second Cairo Conference]] with Turkish president [[İsmet İnönü]], but were unable to gain commitment from Turkey to join the Allies.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=725}}

Churchill went to [[Tunis]], arriving on 10 December, initially as Eisenhower's guest (soon afterwards, Eisenhower took over as Supreme Allied Commander of the new [[SHAEF]]). Churchill became seriously ill with [[atrial fibrillation]] and was forced to remain in Tunis, until after Christmas while specialists were drafted in to ensure recovery. Clementine and Colville arrived to keep him company; Colville had just returned to Downing Street after two years in the RAF. On 27 December, the party went on to [[Marrakesh]] for convalescence. Feeling much better, Churchill flew to [[Gibraltar]] on 14 January 1944 and sailed home on the {{HMS|King George V|41|2}}. He was back in London on 18 January and surprised MPs by attending [[Prime Minister's Questions]] in the Commons. Since 12 January 1943, when he set off for Casablanca, Churchill had been abroad or seriously ill for 203 of the 371 days.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=726–728}}

====Invasions of Sicily and Italy====
[[File:Winston Churchill au théâtre de Carthage, 1943.jpg|thumb|Churchill in the Carthage theatre, near the ancient Carthage Amphitheatre, to address 3,000 British and American troops, June 1943]]
In the autumn of 1942, after Churchill's meeting with Stalin, he was approached by Eisenhower, commanding the [[North African Theater of Operations]], US Army (NATOUSA), and his aides on the subject of where the Western Allies should launch their first strike in Europe. According to General [[Mark W. Clark]], the Americans admitted a cross-Channel operation in the near future was "utterly impossible". As an alternative, Churchill recommended "slit(ting) the soft belly of the Mediterranean" and persuaded them to invade Sicily and then mainland Italy, after they had defeated the Afrika Korps. After the war, Clark still agreed Churchill's analysis was correct, but added that, when the Allies [[Allied invasion of Italy#Salerno landings|landed at Salerno]], they found Italy was "a tough old gut".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/soft-underbelly-fortress-europe/ |title=Were "Soft Underbelly" and "Fortress Europe" Churchill Phrases? |work=The Churchill Project |publisher=Hillsdale College |date=1 April 2016 |access-date=21 May 2020 |archive-date=9 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609191114/https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/soft-underbelly-fortress-europe/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The invasion of Sicily began on 9 July and was completed by 17 August. Churchill was not keen on ''Overlord'' as he feared an Anglo-American army in France might not be a match for the fighting efficiency of the Wehrmacht. He preferred peripheral operations, including a plan called [[Operation Jupiter (Norway)|Operation Jupiter]] for an invasion of Norway.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=713–714}} Events in Sicily had an unexpected impact in Italy. [[Victor Emmanuel III|King Victor Emmanuel]] sacked Mussolini on 25 July and appointed [[Pietro Badoglio|Marshal Badoglio]] as prime minister. Badoglio opened negotiations with the Allies which resulted in the [[Armistice of Cassibile]] on 3 September. In response, the Germans activated [[Operation Achse]] and took control of most of Italy.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=713}}

Although he still preferred Italy to Normandy as the Allies' main route into the Third Reich, Churchill was concerned about the strong German resistance at Salerno and, after the Allies successfully gained their bridgehead at [[Battle of Anzio|Anzio]] but still failed to break the stalemate, he caustically said that instead of "hurling a wildcat onto the shore", the Allied force had become a "stranded whale".<ref>{{Cite journal| issn = 0032-325X| volume = 50| issue = 3| pages = 509–528| last = Tompkins| first = Peter| title = What Really Happened at Anzio| journal = Il Politico| date = 1985| url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/43099608| jstor = 43099608| access-date = 22 November 2021| archive-date = 22 November 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211122221803/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43099608| url-status = live}}</ref>{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=720, 729}} The big obstacle was [[Battle of Monte Cassino|Monte Cassino]] and it was not until May 1944 when it was finally overcome, enabling the Allies to advance on Rome, which was taken on 4 June.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=730}}

====Preparations for D-Day====
[[File:Winston Churchill at a conference in Quebec - NARA - 197118.jpg|thumb|Churchill is greeted by a crowd in [[Québec City]], Canada, 1943]]

The difficulties in Italy caused Churchill to change heart about strategy; when the Anzio stalemate developed after his return to England from North Africa, he threw himself into the planning of ''Overlord'' and set up meetings with SHAEF and the British Chiefs of Staff. These were attended by Eisenhower or his chief of staff General [[Walter Bedell Smith]]. Churchill was especially taken by the [[Mulberry harbour]]s, but was keen to make the most of Allied airpower which by 1944, had become overwhelming.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=730}} Churchill never lost his apprehension about the invasion, and underwent mood fluctuation as D-Day approached. Jenkins says he faced potential victory with much less buoyancy than when he defiantly faced the prospect of defeat four years earlier.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=737}}

====Need for post-war reform====
Churchill could not ignore the need for post-war reforms. The [[Beveridge Report]] with its five "Giant Evils" was published in November 1942 and assumed great importance amid popular acclaim.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Abel-Smith |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Abel-Smith |title=The Beveridge report: Its origins and outcomes |journal=International Social Security Review |date=January 1992 |volume=45 |issue=1–2 |pages=5–16 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Hoboken |doi=10.1111/j.1468-246X.1992.tb00900.x}}</ref> Even so, Churchill spent most of his focus on the war, and saw reform in terms of tidying up. His attitude was demonstrated in a radio broadcast on 26 March 1944. He was obliged to devote most of it to reform and showed a distinct lack of interest. Colville said Churchill had broadcast "indifferently" and [[Harold Nicolson]] said that, to many people, Churchill came across the air as "a worn and petulant old man".{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=733}} In the end, however, it was demand for reform that decided the 1945 general election. Labour was perceived as the party that would deliver Beveridge. Attlee, Bevin and Labour's other coalition ministers, were seen as working towards reform and earned the trust of the electorate.{{Sfn|Lynch|2008|pp=1–4}}{{Sfn|Marr|2009|pp=5–6}}