Chamberlain was incapacitated in the summer
of 1940. Inoperable cancer was diagnosed. It was
Chamberlain’s terminal illness and resignation
from the government in October 1940 that trans-
formed Churchill’s position. He now became
leader of the party and in November 1940, when
Chamberlain died, he paid tribute to Chamber-
lain’s loyalty. During those critical first weeks of his
administration he had owed much to him. Britain
had survived. The chiefs of staff in a grave report
in May 1940 had not rated Britain’s chances very
highly, concluding that ‘Germany has most of the
cards; but the real test is whether the morale of our
fighting personnel and civil populations will coun-
terbalance the numerical and material advantages
which Germany enjoys. We believe it will.’
That Britain had fought back was due to a
unified people, to the Royal Air Force, the Royal
Navy and the army, whose morale remained
intact. This unity would have been severely tested
if Churchill’s leadership had been repudiated at
the heart of government. But the doubts and divi-
sions within the War Cabinet remained a well-
kept secret until long after the war was over. In
December 1940, Churchill reconstructed the War
Cabinet and sent Halifax to Washington as
ambassador, bringing Eden into the Cabinet as
foreign secretary. But we must now retrace our
steps to the course the war took during the last
days of May and the summer of 1940.
On 28 May Leopold, king of the Belgians, capit-
ulated, ignoring the contrary advice of his minis-
ters. The evacuation of the BEF had begun the
previous day. Every possible boat, including
paddle pleasure steamers, was pressed into service.
The Royal Navy conducted the evacuation, and
some air cover could be provided by the air force.
Göring’s Luftwaffe strafed the boats and the men
waiting on the beaches. But the calm seas
favoured the Allies. The evacuation went on day
after day until 3 June. A total of 338,226 Allied
troops were snatched from certain capture,
including 139,097 Frenchmen, but all the equip-
ment was lost. To the south the war went on in
France, and Britain even sent reinforcements to
encourage the French. But Weygand viewed the
situation as nearly hopeless. The French were
given a few days’ grace while the German divi-
sions redeployed.
On 10 June 1940 Mussolini – having con-
temptuously rejected Roosevelt’s earlier offer of
good offices – declared war on an already beaten
France. Even so the French forces along the
Italian frontier repulsed the Italian attacks. But
the Germans could not be held. On 14 June they
entered Paris. The government had fled to
Bordeaux and was seeking release from the British
alliance so that it could negotiate separately with
Germany. Churchill at first replied that Britain
would be willing to grant this wish provided the
powerful French fleet were sent to British ports.
Hard on the heels of this response, General de
Gaulle, who had come to Britain to call on the
French to continue the fight from a base still free
from the enemy, telephoned from London an
extraordinary proposal. Britain, as evidence of
solidarity, was now offering to the French an
‘indissoluble union’ of the United Kingdom and
the ‘French Republic’. Churchill had been scep-
tical from the first about whether this dramatic
gesture would have much effect in Bordeaux and
so keep France in the war. Reynaud favoured
acceptance but the French Cabinet never consid-
ered the idea seriously. The final agonies ended
with Pétain replacing Reynaud as prime minister.
He immediately began armistice negotiations. On
22 June the French accepted the German terms
and later signed them in the same railway carriage
in which Marshal Foch had accepted the German
capitulation at the end of the First World War.
France was divided into occupied and unoccu-
pied areas. The whole Atlantic coast came under
German control. South and south-eastern France
was governed by Pétain from a new capital estab-
lished in Vichy. The colonial empire remained
under the control of Vichy. The French sought
to ensure that their fleet would not be used by
Germany against Britain. The armistice provided
that it would be disarmed under German super-
vision. Not unreasonably the British Cabinet
remained unsure whether or not the Germans
would in the end seize the fleet. For Britain the
war had become a fight for survival. In one of
the most controversial military actions of the
war, the British navy attacked units of the French