The Splendid and the Vile summary

The picture was already gloomy enough with the Nazis battling the French on their home turf. But their forces seemed well matched. The French had a powerful military. And they had the Maginot Line, a physical barrier of fortifications that was said to be impenetrable. 

But then the unimaginable happened. The Germans broke through the French line. Nazi forces poured into France, and Allied troops went into chaotic, scrambling retreat. The French president called Churchill. “We have been defeated,” he said. After a stunned silence, Churchill replied: “Surely it can’t have happened so soon?”

In May 1940, it was widely accepted that Germany had the ability to bomb England to the point of surrender. Hitler’s brutal, ambitious, and energetic deputy Hermann Gӧring had built up the Luftwaffe from nothing. He had made it the most powerful air force in the world.

For one thing, it had four times the number of fighter planes as England. What’s more, its planes and bombs were just plain better. The Stuka plane looked like a giant, terrifying flying insect; it carried 4,000-pound explosives, nicknamed Satan bombs, that could destroy a city block. 

As France surrendered, Churchill sent one of the most important messages of his life – to Roosevelt. More was at stake, Churchill wrote, than France or Britain. A United States of Europe under Nazi rule was very much a possibility. He asked Roosevelt for destroyer ships, calling it a matter of life or death. 

But Churchill had to walk a very fine line with Roosevelt. He had to communicate the gravity of the situation, but not make Britain’s fight seem like a lost cause.

Luftwaffe commander Hermann Gӧring was getting some bad intel. Intelligence lead Beppo Schmid had convinced him that the RAF was already badly mauled. This contradicted reports from German pilots, who saw a different picture in combat. But the reports convinced Hitler to send the Luftwaffe on a major strike against the RAF. They called the operation Adlertag – Eagle Day. 

It didn’t go well for the Nazis. The weather was so bad on the first day that Gӧring had to call off the operation almost right away. The planes that did make it over found a belligerent RAF defense – not at all what they had expected. The RAF had discovered that German Stuka planes were weakest when making dives, and they exploited this to great advantage. The RAF consistently shot down twice as many planes as it lost.

In retaliation for the attacks on Berlin, Hitler ordered the first intentional hit on London. Gӧring was delighted at the opportunity to punish Britain for humiliating the Luftwaffe. He came up with a plan called “the Destruction of London.” Goebbels predicted it would be the greatest catastrophe in human history. 

Not everyone in Nazi command was happy about the clash between Britain and Germany. Take Hitler’s former first deputy, Rudolf Hess. He saw the Brits and Germans as racial allies. So he began trying to arrange a peace deal with Britain, via a backchannel.

As the weather cooled, a German invasion became a bit less likely. Referring to Hitler, Churchill wrote: “The gent has taken off his clothes and put on his bathing suit, but the water is getting colder and there is an autumn nip in the air.”

Sure enough, Hitler had further postponed Operation Sea Lion; the RAF was too much of a threat. He was eager for a project he felt he could win, so he turned east. He’d long dreamed of defeating Russian Bolshevism. Hitler thought it would be easy, especially compared to a cross-Channel invasion of Britain. He cast aside his misgivings about a two-front war. He called his new plan Operation Barbarossa. 

Meanwhile, Churchill continued courting the Americans. Roosevelt received Churchill’s latest missive while on a fishing holiday in the Caribbean. He took several days to think about it, then made up his mind: he would act, in earnest. 

In his Christmastime address to Americans – one of his famous “Fireside Chats” – Roosevelt demonstrated his commitment to the British cause. He used the word “Nazi” for the first time. If Britain were defeated, he said, America would be living at the point of a gun.

Hopkins called Churchill at the Prime Ministerial country house on March 11, 1941. Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease Plan had passed in the US Congress. It gave Britain access to American destroyers and provided crucial symbolic support. 

This put Churchill in a celebratory mood. He put on his favorite outfit, a baby blue one-piece romper of his own design, and played military marches on the gramophone. Brandishing a big-game rifle, he executed a series of rifle drills and bayonet maneuvers. He looked like a fierce, pale blue Easter egg gone to war. Onlookers wondered what Hitler would have made of this demonstration of skill at arms. 

While hundreds of aircraft massed over the channel, Rudolf Hess, the third-ranking Nazi official, was still convinced he could broker a peace deal with the UK. It took him four attempts to fly to Scotland. After memorizing maps, consulting his horoscope, and carefully packing his extensive collection of medical paraphernalia, he set off in a German plane. He gave his deputy letters to be delivered to his wife and Hitler. 

Five hours later, Hess was almost out of fuel and lost over Scotland. He bailed out of his plane into a farmer’s field. Then, he waited patiently to be taken into police custody. He declined the farmer’s offer of tea, but accepted a glass of water. 

The bombing deeply affected London, but the city endured. Between September 7, 1940 and May 11, 1941, nearly 29,000 Londoners were killed and over 28,000 seriously injured. Throughout the UK, the death toll was over 44,000, including 5,000 children. 

But no bombers came the night after May 11, or the night after that. The raids began to die down. In May, throughout the UK, German raids killed over 5,600 people. By December, the monthly death toll was down to 37. Churchill and the British people had convinced Hitler they weren’t going to give up easily.