CP Note: This is the first post in a three-part series by Jean Sasson. The second article is: “70 Years Ago: December 7, 1941.“ The third post is: “70 Years Ago: December 8-14, 1941.”
Date: November 30, 1941
Place: London, England
With: Winston Churchill, Prime Minister
Family members and a few close friends were enjoying a brief and quiet birthday celebration with Winston Churchill, who turned sixty-seven years old on November 30, 1941. Churchill was generally attentive and pleasant during private events, but on this day his thoughts were elsewhere. Normally occupied with all things Hitler, Churchill’s mind was in the Pacific, and specifically with the Japanese, and what the latest military intelligence information meant for the British.
Churchill was privy to U.S. military intelligence, and recent decrypted intercepts warned of Japan’s true objectives, which were contradictory to Japan’s ongoing diplomatic language. Their own words made it clear that the fanatical Japanese military government was planning “extreme measures.” The annoying truth was that neither the Americans or the British had knowledge of what those extreme measures might be. Concerns were that Japan was most likely planning a surprise attack on Thailand, the Dutch East Indies, orMalaya.
Churchill knew that Franklin Roosevelt would soon be reading his latest communication, a letter proposing the possibility of a declaration issued by the United States, or jointly by both nations, warning Japan against any further acts of aggression. Although Hitler’s Nazi regime dominated the news, Japan had been fighting longer than Germany, and the Japanese army was currently occupying even more territory than the German army.
Churchill had carefully penned his message, fully aware that Roosevelt was battling reluctant politicians and American citizens, neither willing to send yet another generation of American sons “over there” to die in a European conflict. For this reason, Churchill knew that his pleas for military help were not always favorably received.
He had written, “I realize your constitutional difficulties but it would be tragic if Japan drifted into war by encroachment without having before her fairly and squarely the dire character of a further aggressive step. I beg you to consider whether, at this moment, which you judge right which may be very near, you should not say that ‘any further Japanese aggression would compel you to place the gravest issues before Congress’ or words to that effect. We would, of course, make a similar declaration or share in a joint declaration, and in case arrangements are being made to synchronize our action with yours. Forgive me, my dear friend, for presuming to press such a course upon you, but I am convinced that it might make all the difference and prevent a melancholy extension of the war.”
Now all Churchill could do was to wait for Roosevelt’s reply.
By November 30, 1941, most of Europe had fallen to Hitler. The British, fronted by their incomparable Prime Minister Winston Churchill, soldiered on. Sensitive to every vibration of the war, Churchill was at the pinnacle of his life. His thoughts and decisions were meant to obstruct and defeat the military objectives of Adolf Hitler, a man who Churchill had long warned would bring ruin upon all.
Following the defeat of the French, and after fighting alone for a year, the British Empire’s circumstances were dire. By mid-1941, German bombs had killed some 40,000 British civilians and destroyed over one million homes. Still, the Luftwaffe German bombers continued the Blitz on London and other major English cities. The Eighth Army was fighting in Libya, facing one of Hitler’s most formidable generals, Erwin Rommel. Greece and Yugoslavia had been invaded by the Germans. The British Expeditionary Force sent to assist the Greeks quickly had to fight for their lives and had been forced to evacuate.
But while Nazi dictator Hitler and the Germans did their worst, as Churchill had predicted, the British did their best, as Churchill had promised. There was a sprinkling of optimism when Tobruk was captured. Then the Italian fleet was routed by the Royal Navy at Cape Matapan. Imperial forces also restored Emperor Haile Salassie to his throne inEthiopia.
Two events occurred in 1941 that Churchill named as intense turning points in the war. The Lend/Lease bill approved by the American Congress was signed into law by President Roosevelt, ensuring that essential war materials would flow to the besieged British. Another climactic event occurred on June 22, 1941, when Hitler broke the 1939 non-aggressive pact between Germany and Russia. Intoxicated by easy victories, Hitler disregarded counsel from his own generals regarding the gravity of a two-front war. He brusquely ordered them to invade the Soviet Union, boldly forecasting that Russian would be defeated before winter.
The Soviet’s despair proved a temporary respite for the British. By diverting Nazi resources away from the battle of Britain and to the broad expanse of the Russia motherland, the British had a country-saving reprieve from the full attention of Herr Hitler, bringing a glimmer of hope to English hearts.
Despite Stalin’s previous treachery in signing the 1939 pact with Hitler, Churchill promised all available support for the Russian leader and his people, even diverting long awaited military treasures from the United States to the Russian army.
Churchill’s resolve to defeat Britain’s Nazi foe was uncompromising. In a broadcast made the day after the German attack onRussia, Churchill roared, “We have but one aim, and one single, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us—nothing. We will never parley, we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, and we shall fight him in the air, until, with God’s help, we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe . . . That is our policy and that is our declaration.”
Germany’s early successes against the surprised Russians were many. But summer cooled into fall, and the snows came early that year, beginning on October 6th and still falling on October 12th. November 3rd brought the thermometer below the freezing point. Soon the bitter winter would encircle and defeat the best of Germany’s soldiers. But even with these favorable turning points, what the British most needed was for theUnited States to declare war onGermany and join the fight for the survival of civilization.
American President Franklin Roosevelt and Churchill had been in active correspondence since the fall of France, but an early and tentative correspondence was initiated by Franklin Roosevelt years before, on September 11, 1939, when he wrote Churchill to acknowledge Churchill’s return to the British Admiralty.
Their common enemy, Hitler, bonded the two men closer. Roosevelt and Churchill kept up a steady correspondence, with the two men ultimately exchanging 1,161 written messages and telegrams over a period of five and a half years. Their friendship would prove to be one of the most fruitful collaborations in history.
Churchill’s desire for the United States to enter the war appeared more promising now, as danger mounted against the Americans from the East.
Date: November 30, 1941
Place: Washington, D.C.
With: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
After reading Prime Minister Churchill’s latest communication, President Roosevelt watched thoughtfully from distant shores, knowing that America would eventually enter the war against Nazism. But strong opposition to war meant that he would be forced to wait for war to come toAmerica. He could not completely shun the anti-war maelstrom that had taken root in America. But with the latest intelligence, there was strong reason to believe that America’s war would come from the East.
Place: Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean
With: The Japanese fleet
At the same time Roosevelt was reading Churchill’s letter, the Japanese fleet consisting of thirty-three warships and auxiliary craft, and six aircraft carriers was on the open seas. They had been sailing for four days. Only they knew their destination: Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.
Place: Tokyo, Japan
With: Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and his generals
With only seven days to go until December 7, 1941, only the Japanese military government knew for certain that the countdown to a total global war had begun.
Date: November 30, 1941
Place: London,England
With: Winston Churchill
All signs now pointed to yet another intense turning point in the war. Churchill knew that once America was in, the British situation would instantly improve. The Nazi scourge would be crushed.
All he had to do was wait.
I love this site and read everything posted here. Few of my readers know that I am an avid military history reader and have read nearly everything written by, and about, Sir Winston Churchill. When a teenager, and when reading all about him, I thought I might meet him one day. (smile) But, he died when I was still in high school, so I never had the chance (not that I would have, but I would have tried!) It’s such a pleasure to write about Churchill and I look forward to the 2nd and 3rd part of this series about Churchill and Pearl Harbor — what tension-filled days those were!
This is a very engaging article about the legendary Sir Winston Churchill. Through her writing, Ms. Sasson painted a very clear and very precise picture of this important time in history. Seventy years ago feels like an eternity in a way, yet this article made the events seem like they happened only yesterday because the article was so captivating. I cannot wait to read the other articles in the series as Ms. Sasson’s writing is both fascinating and educational.
Very informative article. As always Ms. Sasson’s writing is so easy to read and you feel as if you know her subjects personnally by the time you finish the story. Keep it up Ms. Sasson.
This is a very thorough and yet concise article on this very important era in history. Ms. Sasson managed to recount key events leading up to December 7th, 1941 in the same clear and engaging style that has made her one of the most influential and important writers of our generation.
I greatly look forward to the second and third articles.
Ms. Sasson, thank you for enlightening me not only about the Middle East, but also about this very important time in history.
I’m English — an old retired doctor who was 6 at the outbreak of WWII — naturally Churchill is my greatest hero. Jean Sasson’s account of events which led up to “that day of infamy” is very well presented but may I add my tuppenceworth to clarify one point. One of the reasons that Hitler turned his eyes east was that he had suffered such a resounding defeat at the hands of the gallant pilots of British Royal Air Force in The Battle of Britain…never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few etc… His story parallels that of that other great enemy of Britain, Napoleon, who after Nelson’s stunning victory at Trafalgar abandoned his ideas of an invasion across the narrow waters of the English Channel and regained his reputation as a brilliant military strategist by his victory, equally stunning as Nelson’s, at Austerlitz, he then turned his eyes, like Hitler, to the East. It was, I think, Prime Minister MacMillan who when asked what he thought was the greatest lesson taught by history replied, “Never invade Russia”.
I was also interested to read the post on her life and career — my word Jean Sasson has had an interesting life and career; sufficient for any two persons, methinks.
It’s always lovely to know someone who shares my great affection and admiration for Churchill. And, thanks for mention of those brave air warriors of the British Royal Air Force. Boy oh boy, did they teach Goering’s boys a thing or two! Goering had promised Hitler that the German Air Force could defeat the British and make a sea invasion a piece of cake. WRONG! Against overwhelming odds, the pilots of the Royal Air Force literally saved the British. The death rate for the Royal Air Force pilots was horrific, but they never faltered. May those young men never be forgotten.
Thanks for reminding us that great peril requires great leadership.
My dad told me about watching a column of Canadian pilots boarding the Queen Mary in Halifax Harbor. It took four days to load that ship with thousands of pilots, many of whom would die hours after they took to the skys over southern England. His Lend-Lease destroyer, HMS Caldwell was part of a squadron tasked with keeping the U-Boats submerged and unable to torpedo that great ship. “The minesweepers cleared a path through the mines that the Germans had laid the night before. The Queen Mary was fast and we roared out of that harbor with our boilers glowing red hot. When she got out to the open sea she left us behind. She was faster than a German torpedo and was on her own until the Hunt-class destroyers got her past the wolfpacks off of Iceland. Then it was a run past more wolfpacks in the Irish Sea.” He was still shaken by the horror of what could have gone wrong. I remember him running down the halls of our house in the night screaming that we had been hit. Churchill was a great leader who had the best of the best to lead. That war cost us some of the finest people who have ever lived. If they had lost we would be impoverished in every way.
Stefan, thank you for sharing this heartfelt story. While most know that many Canadians were lost, the death rate of the pilots fighting to protect Britain was unimaginable. What a time that was! And, you are right, the world lost some of its finest. What many people don’t realize is that had Hitler not made so many stupid blunders, (attacking Russia, for one) and had left the military decisions to his generals, Germany might well have won WWII. Or, if he had gotten the atomic bomb first. Then what! The world would have been a very dark place for God only knows how many years. Hopefully not the thousand year Nazi reign Hitler promised the Germans, but still – Hitler had plans to either murder or enslave most of the people of the world. He had a good start after overrunning most of Europe, and it took years and enormous sacrifice to bring down that evil regime.
I’m a big history buff and very much enjoyed Jean Sasson’s artical on Winston Churchill. It was very well written and now I’m looking forward to the next one.
We need to be reminded of this terrible time in our history to hopefully keep it from happening again. Thank you Jean.