The Churchill Series – Nov. 29, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

This is the second of a three part series in recognition of Churchill birthday, November 30. In each post I’m try to provide a “snapshot” of Churchill at some moment in his life. I mean the “snapshots” to honor the man but I also mean them to provide something different from the typical and well deserved Churchill birthday tributes.

Today’s post focuses on a extremely important contribution Churchill made to the Allied victory in WW II. But it’s not the brilliant, resolute leadership he provided as Prime Minister when “England stood alone” we’ll be talking about. Instead we’ll go back to 1919 and examine something Churchill did then that subsequently proved vital to Britain’s victory in WWII.

In January 1919 the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, appointed Churchill Secretary of State for War and Air. The most immediate and important problem Churchill faced was arranging for the demobilizing of the millions of men from the Army. But another problem had to do with the Royal Air Force.

At the outbreak of WW I the Army and Navy each had their air services which both used primarily for reconnaissance tasks. As the war progressed the size of the air services grew; and along with that grew all the problems of building, maintaining, and providing trained personnel to fly and service the planes. Both the Army and Navy struggled to support their air services. When it was suggested that a separate air service be created to manage the various demands of the growing air services the Army and Navy quickly agreed to pass over the tasks to a newly formed Royal Air Force.

But with the Armistice and peace came the Army and Navy’s demand that the Royal Air Force be deactivated and its functions returned to them. RAF officers objected and made the case for a separate service.

Initially, it seemed the older services would carry the argument; and the RAF would cease to function as a separate service. But Churchill weighed in on the RAF’s side. If was a struggle of many months but eventually the government adopted Churchill’s view and the RAF was preserved as a separate service.

Fast forward now to the summer of 1940 and the Battle of Britain. For many weeks it was uncertain the RAF would win the battle. In the end, the RAF’s victory was, as Wellington said of his victory at Waterloo, a “close run thing.”

The RAF in 1940 was just strong enough to win. If it hadn’t been a separate service for the previous 20 years it would not have been as strong as it was. So we can fairly say one of those made victory possible in the Battle of Britain was the man who was Secretary of State for War and Air in 1919.
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Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life. ( use the index to locate the issues discussed here)