[an0n]

On 15 June [1942], Churchill suggested that British bombers wipe out three German villages for every one Czech settlement destroyed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4571448.stm

[Mefustae]

He was f**king right to do so! Hell, if the US and Soviets weren't so uppity over having a "fair" trial of the Nazi higher-ups, Albert Speer would've hung with the rest of 'em, that would have made my old high school modern-history teacher a lot happier...

[Charismatic]

Yay kill them all! (Way to go churchill)

[Singh]

Executing wartime villians/evil dudes = Good.

Collateral damage on German villages = somewhere between not so good, and bad.

His response to Ghandi's hunger strike = unable to give unbiased opinion

[NGTM-1R]

Ah, more of the Bomber Command insanity.

Aside from any squadrons seconded to Coastal and the dambuster squadron, I'm not convinced anything Bomber Command did was worth the while.

[Rictor]

Badass he was.

I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.

And nothing like a bit of the ol' anti-Semetism.

"[From]...The days of Spartacus Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky,  BelaKuhn, Rosa Luxembourg and Emma Goldman, this worldwide [Jewish] conspiracy...has  been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definitely recognizable role in the tragedy of the  French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld  of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their
heads, and have become practically the undisputed masters ofthat enormous empire."

[vyper]

[q]I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.[/q]

You have to remember Churchill had served as a journalist with the British forces that clashed with such tribes when he was a young man. His memories would've been vivid images of savage attacks with British forces being gutted alive, et al. That's bound to leave an impression.

[an0n]

And nothing like a bit of the ol' anti-Semetism.

"[From]...The days of Spartacus Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky, BelaKuhn, Rosa Luxembourg and Emma Goldman, this worldwide [Jewish] conspiracy...has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definitely recognizable role in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their
heads, and have become practically the undisputed masters ofthat enormous empire."

That's not anti-semitism. It's anti-communism.


And Bomber Command were ****ing awesome. Their operational procedure revolved around the general concepts of "kill 'em all" and "death from above". They didn't even bother to pretend they were about anything other than showing how much damage their bombs could do.

[aldo_14]

I always get the impression Churchill was the sort of bloke you'd want as a wartime leader, and want rid of as a peacetime one.

[Rictor]

Which is what you more or less did, yeah?

[aldo_14]

Which is what you more or less did, yeah?

He lost the election post war, but was elected 1951-55.

[IceFire]

I think Churchill is definately one of the great wartime leaders of the last century and of all of history.  He knew what he wanted to do, he knew what was at stake, and he was willing to do it.  And quite unlike modern leaders Churchill really didn't beat around the bush very much.  While the collateral damage of WWII carpet bombing campaigns was extremely questionable...it was the predominant military thinking at the time from all areas including military academia...and it was the tool that Churchill was willing to weild and knew very well what the consequences were.

That doesn't make it right...but I think its safe to say they weren't all that self deluded either.

[Ford Prefect]

I think he was just an asshole.

[TrashMan]

I think anyone who doesn't take UTMOST care not to harm any civilians in a war is an idiot.

[an0n]

And that's why you're not a world leader.

The only goal in any war should be to win at any cost, short of the downfall of your own civilization.

If the population is supporting the war effort, eliminate the population.

[karajorma]

Churchill did a great job in the war of that they can be no doubt. With a twat like Chamberlain in charge Britain would have surrendered or signed another non-agression pact. Churchill was also the first MP to notice the danger than Hitler was to the UK.

That said he did make some amazingly poor choices. For instance he supported using mustard gas and chlorine against Germany during the war believing that there was no difference between the use of chemical weapons and bombs. Had he not been talked out of it by the military the Germans would have responded with Zyklon B as it was only fear of reprisals that prevented them from using it in the first place. Even if you discount the fact that he had no way of knowing how superior the German chemical weapons were I don't think we need imagine how much more horrific the Blitz would have been had the Germans used even Mustard Gas and Chlorine weapons.

[an0n]

If the Germans had done any meaningful damage to London during the Blitz, after the tide of the war turned, Bomber Command would've gone to ****ing town on the Germans.

The US woulda been conscripted to start mass-producing chemical weapons for Britain, the Russians woulda followed suit and every living thing inside German borders would've been completely wiped from the face of the Earth.

[karajorma]

I doubt the UK would have gotten that far. Churchill pretty much kept the UK from surrendering on force of personality alone. With cyanide raining down from the skies I very much doubt that it would have been enough.

[an0n]

I prefer to think that if people had been being gassed en masse, they'd've simply thrown everything they had at the Germans in a completely indescriminate manner. And if that failed to stop them, then they'd've surrendered.

[aldo_14]

I think anyone who doesn't take UTMOST care not to harm any civilians in a war is an idiot.

An idiot would be someone who sacrificed their country and people in an all-out war for the sake of saving a few enemy villages.  Especially when that enemy was a lunatic dictator fixated on exterminating all non-Aryan races.