"My God! This, this is living History."
(Churchill to Margot Asquith, January, 1915)
In July 1914, Churchill carried out a test mobilisation of the fleet. When the test was over, he ordered the fleet to remain in readiness. That decision meant that Britain was prepared to act quckliy, when the war broke out. On July 28, after Austria declared war on Serbia, the fleet continued to its war station at Scapa Flow, Britain´s principal naval base, located in the Orkney Islands in Northern Scotland. Within these days, Britain joined the growing international conflict. Throughout the war, the navy´s presence in the North Sea dominated and stopped the German fleet.
In September 1914, Churchill hurried to Belgium to help saving the port city of Antwerp because the Belgian weren´t able to resist the German invasion.
Winston Churchill was unable to save the city, but his ideas showed the German Belgian´s resolve and the Allied lines became stronger.
This reduced the threat to Britain and saved some territories from coming under German control.
During this time Churchill realised that machine guns were not adequate tools to break the western front and he worked on armoured fighting vehicles to end the massacre.
As the lines got harder on the western front, Churchill concentrated on a campaign to open the "Dardanelles Strait". So he want to give the Allies a direct route to Russia through the Black Sea. Such a move would bring needed supplies to the Russian armies.
Early in 1915 the naval attack failed and Curchill agreed to the War Office plan suggested by Kitchener. However, this plan failed too, and the Allies suffered great losses. And Churchill´s cabinet colleagues let Churchill take all the blame. More or less as "scapegoat".
Because of the failed Dardanelles campaign, Churchill was overthrew in May 1915. He resigned his cabinet post and went to an infrantry battalion in France as a Commander.
It was a very bad time for Winston and he don´t want to be only a Commander he want to lead the war.
So he resigned his Commander post in France and began to draw. And his pictures were very good. He painted landscapes and flowers rather than portraits.
The next spring he returned to his seat in the House of Commons.
In May 1917, David Lloyd George the new prime minister recalled Churchill to the cabinet as minister of munitions, and for the rest of the war Churchill organised the national economy for the efficient production of war materials.
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