A number of years back a small paperback book was printed regarding the leaders of the major powers in World War II in the role of "War Lord". It showed that, four of the models (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and Hitler) fit the role best, but all had flaws.
This 1979 television docudrama dealt with what was "Winnie's" great flaw as leader of Britain and it's Commonwealth in 1939 - 1945. In some respects Churchill (Timothy West, who has played the role several times) had done his greatest work in warning Britain and the world of Hitler's intentions in the 1930s (Hitler took the time to swat at Churchill in turn, which he rarely did with foreign rivals at that date), and in handling the leadership of Britain in the crisis period of 1940 - December 1941 when it was basically facing - with some American aid - Hitler alone and being attacked by the air. However, for all the tremendous energy and determination this grand old man brought to saving western civilization - whatever glory he brought to our ears through his well-cadenced, trumpet like speeches - he had an overblown belief in his abilities as a military thinker that he did not deserve.
This series basically shows this, and the hard lessons Churchill needed before he followed the more hands off approach that FDR followed (as mentioned in another of the reviews here) with his military advisers and staff. FDR (Arthur Hill here) had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Josephus Daniels in Wilson's Administration in World War I. Unable to leave his post to enlist, he never served in the armed forces. He always maintained an interest in naval matters, but he always relied on the advisers. Churchill had been to Sandhurst military school. He had been in the army in India and during the Boer War (the subject of the movie YOUNG WINSTON), and even had adventures as an escaped P.O.W. But his ideas of armies were based on these events from before 1902. He had been First Lord of the Admiralty under Herbert Asquith during the years up to World War I, and up to 1915. His record as a peacetime First Lord is very fine - he was innovative and clever. But his record for 1914 to 1915 (including several pointless naval disasters he could have prevented) and culminating in his fling at a fast strategy to short circuit the war ended in his being dumped for the only time in his career. Ironically, when returned to the cabinet in 1939, he resumed as First Lord (the sailors of the fleet got the word by the message "Winnie's Back!"), so he held the post, during a similar early series of naval disasters he didn't avoid. Only this time he ended up replacing the even more inept Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain.
It is that fling at strategy in 1915 that really shows his problem. Churchill always thought of the continent of Europe as an opponent who you struck through his "soft underbelly". Europe is not a dueling opponent - it is a continent. the lands of the Mediterranean through the Dardenelles into the Black Sea are not pushovers, but full of mountains and rocky coasts. Any knowledge of this was available from sailors and travelers in those regions.
Churchill's "Gallipoli" Campaign of 1915 remains hailed as a brave attempt to connect the Allies to the Tsar's forces by forcing contact through the Dardenelles. I should say it is so hailed by his fans. Most people think it a mess that only did one good thing (allow the Turkish Army to assume a deserved pride under Kemal Attaturk so as to rebuild their nation into modern Turkey after the war) while it cost Britains tens of thousands of lives due to inept on the spot leadership and Churchill idiotic plan to begin with.
In this program the "bad" Churchill finally gets his due. Although well set with General Alan Brook (Eric Porter) as his closest thing to a brake, Churchill kept getting deeper and deeper into planning strategies to confront the Nazi General Staff. That the damage was not worse is only because his opposite number Adolf was similarly deeply involved in planning and overruling generals. The best example is his mishandling of the North Africa business. Initially Archibald Wavell Patrick Magee) had been victorious in demolishing Musollini's troops under Marshall Graziani (the first really big Allied victories of the war) in Libya. Unfortunately Hitler decided to send Erwin Rommel to Africa with his men, and Wavell could not find a way to stop Rommel. Public opinion made Churchill kick Wavell upstairs (he was made Viceroy to India) and replace him with Sir Claude Auchinleck. The unsung hero of the North Africa Campaign, Auchinleck (Patrick Allen) is like the Civil War General George Thomas who never attacked until properly ready, but then attacked well. But it was too slow for Churchill and the British public. Sir Claude bloodied Rommel's nose at the first battle of El Alemein, and was prepared for his follow-up when sacked. Replaced by the mercurial Bernard Montgomery (Ian Richardson), Auchinleck's plans for Second El Alemein defeated Rommel's push to Suez, but was credited to Montgomery's unjustly.
It went on like this until Churchill began that soft underbelly idea again, and ended only when he was told the harsh reality of the casualty losses in Crete, Greece, and then Italy. By 1944 he began relaxing his hold on strategy (after all Eisenhower was now in Europe controlling planning). At the end of the war Churchill was more like his friend Roosevelt, but it had been a very costly lesson.
The acting was done well - my only complaint was that when things are running smoothly they were rushed by characters like General Harold Alexander (Terence Alexander) narrating what was going on. For telling a peculiar problem of Churchill's leadership it deserves a "10".
This 1979 television docudrama dealt with what was "Winnie's" great flaw as leader of Britain and it's Commonwealth in 1939 - 1945. In some respects Churchill (Timothy West, who has played the role several times) had done his greatest work in warning Britain and the world of Hitler's intentions in the 1930s (Hitler took the time to swat at Churchill in turn, which he rarely did with foreign rivals at that date), and in handling the leadership of Britain in the crisis period of 1940 - December 1941 when it was basically facing - with some American aid - Hitler alone and being attacked by the air. However, for all the tremendous energy and determination this grand old man brought to saving western civilization - whatever glory he brought to our ears through his well-cadenced, trumpet like speeches - he had an overblown belief in his abilities as a military thinker that he did not deserve.
This series basically shows this, and the hard lessons Churchill needed before he followed the more hands off approach that FDR followed (as mentioned in another of the reviews here) with his military advisers and staff. FDR (Arthur Hill here) had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Josephus Daniels in Wilson's Administration in World War I. Unable to leave his post to enlist, he never served in the armed forces. He always maintained an interest in naval matters, but he always relied on the advisers. Churchill had been to Sandhurst military school. He had been in the army in India and during the Boer War (the subject of the movie YOUNG WINSTON), and even had adventures as an escaped P.O.W. But his ideas of armies were based on these events from before 1902. He had been First Lord of the Admiralty under Herbert Asquith during the years up to World War I, and up to 1915. His record as a peacetime First Lord is very fine - he was innovative and clever. But his record for 1914 to 1915 (including several pointless naval disasters he could have prevented) and culminating in his fling at a fast strategy to short circuit the war ended in his being dumped for the only time in his career. Ironically, when returned to the cabinet in 1939, he resumed as First Lord (the sailors of the fleet got the word by the message "Winnie's Back!"), so he held the post, during a similar early series of naval disasters he didn't avoid. Only this time he ended up replacing the even more inept Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain.
It is that fling at strategy in 1915 that really shows his problem. Churchill always thought of the continent of Europe as an opponent who you struck through his "soft underbelly". Europe is not a dueling opponent - it is a continent. the lands of the Mediterranean through the Dardenelles into the Black Sea are not pushovers, but full of mountains and rocky coasts. Any knowledge of this was available from sailors and travelers in those regions.
Churchill's "Gallipoli" Campaign of 1915 remains hailed as a brave attempt to connect the Allies to the Tsar's forces by forcing contact through the Dardenelles. I should say it is so hailed by his fans. Most people think it a mess that only did one good thing (allow the Turkish Army to assume a deserved pride under Kemal Attaturk so as to rebuild their nation into modern Turkey after the war) while it cost Britains tens of thousands of lives due to inept on the spot leadership and Churchill idiotic plan to begin with.
In this program the "bad" Churchill finally gets his due. Although well set with General Alan Brook (Eric Porter) as his closest thing to a brake, Churchill kept getting deeper and deeper into planning strategies to confront the Nazi General Staff. That the damage was not worse is only because his opposite number Adolf was similarly deeply involved in planning and overruling generals. The best example is his mishandling of the North Africa business. Initially Archibald Wavell Patrick Magee) had been victorious in demolishing Musollini's troops under Marshall Graziani (the first really big Allied victories of the war) in Libya. Unfortunately Hitler decided to send Erwin Rommel to Africa with his men, and Wavell could not find a way to stop Rommel. Public opinion made Churchill kick Wavell upstairs (he was made Viceroy to India) and replace him with Sir Claude Auchinleck. The unsung hero of the North Africa Campaign, Auchinleck (Patrick Allen) is like the Civil War General George Thomas who never attacked until properly ready, but then attacked well. But it was too slow for Churchill and the British public. Sir Claude bloodied Rommel's nose at the first battle of El Alemein, and was prepared for his follow-up when sacked. Replaced by the mercurial Bernard Montgomery (Ian Richardson), Auchinleck's plans for Second El Alemein defeated Rommel's push to Suez, but was credited to Montgomery's unjustly.
It went on like this until Churchill began that soft underbelly idea again, and ended only when he was told the harsh reality of the casualty losses in Crete, Greece, and then Italy. By 1944 he began relaxing his hold on strategy (after all Eisenhower was now in Europe controlling planning). At the end of the war Churchill was more like his friend Roosevelt, but it had been a very costly lesson.
The acting was done well - my only complaint was that when things are running smoothly they were rushed by characters like General Harold Alexander (Terence Alexander) narrating what was going on. For telling a peculiar problem of Churchill's leadership it deserves a "10".