Chamberlain was now, contrary to the traditional historical narrative, invested in war and preparations began in earnest. He had bought Britain vital time, as the country was by no means ready for war in 1938.
Evidence from the time seems to show Chamberlain knew exactly what he was doing. As he had said in January 1938, “in the absence of any powerful ally, and until our armaments are completed, we must adjust our foreign policy to our circumstances, and even bear with patience and good humour actions which we should like to treat in a very different fashion.” Munich was part of that holding position.
These words were backed by action. For example, at the time of the Munich agreement, the Royal Air Force (RAF) only had twenty-five squadrons made up of obsolete fighter planes. Yet, between Munich and the Battle of Britain in August 1940, Chamberlain had ensured that not only was aircraft production increased, but that the primary focus was switched from the building of bombers to fighters. Thus, on the eve of the Battle of Britain, there were fifty-eight squadrons at the disposal of Fighter Command, all equipped with the new Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires.
However, to a large extent, it was too little, too late. Britain and France had shown themselves to be weak and outplayed at Munich, thus when, belatedly, they reached out to the Soviets for an alliance to curtail German expansionism, Moscow was understandably reluctant. As one Soviet diplomat said at the time, “We nearly put our foot on the rotten plank. Now we are going elsewhere.” That “elsewhere” was into the arms of Hitler and, in August 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, which in effect sealed the fate of Poland, regardless of Chamberlain’s guarantee.
When Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Chamberlain was compelled to declare war 48 hours later. Although he had prepared for such an eventuality, Chamberlain was shattered. He admitted to the House of Commons that “everything I have worked for, everything that I have hoped for, everything that I have believed in during my public life, has crashed into ruins.” He had worked for peace, which was noble in itself, but instead he got war.
Nevertheless, on the day war was declared, Britain announced the conscription of all able men between 18 and 41. Compare this to the fact that, although Britain had gone to war in 1914, conscription had not been introduced until 1916. This was a newfound sense of urgency in wartime under Chamberlain.
FILE PHOTO. Neville Chamberlain at Heston Airport on his return from Munich after meeting with Hitler, making his ‘peace in our time’ address. © Getty Images / Central PressMoreover, one of the first things Chamberlain did was to reconstruct his ministry, with a move which saw the return of Winston Churchill as the First Lord of Admiralty. At a stroke, Chamberlain had resurrected Churchill’s ailing career and brought him in from the wilderness. Indeed, without Chamberlain, a future Churchill premiership would have been, at best, unlikely.
Chamberlain proved a competent leader during the eight months of relative inaction, christened the “Phoney War,” as it suited his administrative abilities. He proved, however, a failure when the conflict came. Churchill was pushing behind the scenes for a proactive campaign in Scandinavia. When he got his wish, it was a complete fiasco, and Chamberlain was the fall-guy.
In early April 1940, Chamberlain claimed that Hitler had “missed the bus,” yet nine days later, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. The Churchill-inspired counter-offensive was a fiasco, and Allied forces conducted an embarrassing evacuation, leaving Norway to the mercy of the invading German divisions. As a result, Chamberlain’s unwise statement was thrown back in his face.
Never before, or since, has a Prime Minister been run out of office in such spectacular style. Indeed, the showdown in the House of Commons – known as the Norway Debate – which led to Chamberlain’s fall, was probably the most significant in that chamber’s thousand-year history. The debate regarding the Norway debacle took place between May 7 and 9 of 1940, and Chamberlain was a lamb to the slaughter.
He was castigated for the failure by all sides. He was told by one of his own MPs, Leopold Amery (whose son was hanged after the war for being a Nazi collaborator), “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” On May 10, Chamberlain resigned, which was the same day that the Wehrmacht marched into the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
In some ways, Chamberlain fell from power because he followed Churchill’s adventurism. Norway was Churchill’s plan, not Chamberlain’s, although, as the Prime Minister, the buck stopped with him. It is one of history’s quirks that, whereas Churchill was sacked for his folly in Gallipoli in 1915, he was promoted to Prime Minister for his ill-advised exuberance in Norway in 1940.
Churchill brought renewed vigour to the war effort through his many iconic speeches. Who hasn’t heard the “blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech, or the barnstorming “we shall fight on the beaches”? And when hearing them, whose hairs do not stand on end?
Those speeches, and the hope they invoked, were a welcome change from the dour seriousness of Chamberlain. But being dour and serious does not necessarily mean Chamberlain deserves to be condemned. Indeed, it could be argued that Chamberlain was the leader Britain needed in the years before the war, even if he was not the leader the country required in wartime.
Once Churchill was in power, Chamberlain continued to work with him in the Cabinet. It was agreed that Churchill would oversee the war effort and Chamberlain would work on domestic issues. The two men got along cordially, and Chamberlain enjoyed Churchill’s company. There was not a hint that Churchill would later go out of his way to destroy Chamberlain’s reputation once the war was over.
Unfortunately, Chamberlain did not see the full result of his labours, as he died of bowel cancer in November 1940. He did, however, live long enough to witness British Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes outperform the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 and win the Battle of Britain. Thanks, in large part, to policies he had pursued in 1939 and 1940.
Had the Battle of Britain been lost, it would have led to the initiation of Operation Sealion – the planned German invasion. If the Wehrmacht’s Panzers had made it to Britain’s shores, many agree that peace movements would have gathered pace and Churchill would have been removed as Prime Minister. The result would have been Britain leaving the war (or worse) and the Soviet Union would have been left to face Nazi Germany alone.
With Nazi Germany not fighting a war on two fronts, it could have put all its vast military resources into Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. Although around three million Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, there were another million men occupying the West, the Balkans, and fighting in Africa at the time.
Thankfully, this did not happen, and Britain remained in the war, keeping the Axis powers preoccupied in the West and in North Africa. It also allowed Britain to provide the Soviet Union with a substantial amount of military materiel through the Arctic convoys and Iran.
This is by no means to suggest the Soviets may not have defeated Germany eventually, but the task would have been all the more difficult with Britain out of the war in 1941; and, in part, they were able to hold out thanks to Chamberlain.
However, writers and historians have traduced Chamberlain’s reputation for the best part of eighty years. Before he was even in the grave, in July 1940, Cato’s ‘Guilty Men’ was published and became a best-seller, naming Chamberlan as the principal guilty man for appeasing Nazi Germany.
FILE PHOTO. Neville Chamberlain. © Getty Images / George RinhartChamberlain’s reputation was also dragged through the mud by the man who replaced him. Churchill, a wordsmith par excellence, wrote what is widely considered the official history of the war and is supposed to have said, “Poor Neville will come badly out of history. I know, I will write that history.” His six-volume ‘Second World War’ portrays Chamberlain as a well-meaning man, but easily fooled and hopelessly out of his depth when dealing with Hitler.
Chamberlain has not fared much better in recent times. Hollywood films, such as 2017’s ‘Darkest Hour’, have depicted him as weak and self-serving, willing, even in 1940, to capitulate to Hitler, ignoring the fact that Chamberlain had in fact encouraged a reluctant King George to appoint Churchill as his successor.
Neville Chamberlain clearly had his faults. He was fussy, inflexible, abrupt, and difficult to work with. He was also a prime minister suited for peacetime and in no way a war leader. Chamberlain was more comfortable working on domestic issues such as health and housing than having to deal with unscrupulous dictators and pushy generals.
But how many men really would be up to facing down Hitler? One of Britain’s greatest peacetime prime ministers, H.H. Asquith, was found lacking as a war leader in 1916. He was then undermined and replaced by Churchill’s mentor, David Lloyd George. History does have a habit of repeating itself.
READ MORE: German police find Nazi altar in drunk man’s apartmentPerhaps, Neville Chamberlain’s reputation deserves rehabilitation? Yes, in the immediate years following the war there had to be scapegoats and Chamberlain, who was not around to defend himself, fitted the bill perfectly. However, now that enough time has elapsed, maybe his career can be viewed in a less harsh light?
Though the likes of Professor Ian Kershaw, who wrote a seminal two-volume biography of Hitler, believe that Chamberlain’s “reputation cannot be rescued,” perhaps they are wrong? Netflix’s ‘Munich: The Edge of War’ goes some way to salvaging his legacy. Jeremy Irons portrays Chamberlain as a decent and honourable man, who was willing to do everything within his power to prevent another generation of young men being slaughtered on the battlefield.
Perhaps this sympathetic performance will initiate a debate about the legacy of Neville Chamberlain; and one which goes far beyond the lazy historical interpretations that were posited in the immediate aftermath of the war?
Paul Nuttall
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