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Name: The Splendid and the Vile
Rating: 4.7 (106 reviews)
Author: Erik Larson

Erik Larson

A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

4.7 (106 Bewertungen)

35 Min.

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Politische Porträts Kriege Politik Großbritanniens

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What’s in it for me? A rollicking history of Churchill’s first year in power and the Blitz.

Winston Churchill couldn’t have come to power at a more pivotal moment in Britain’s history. Europe had watched with alarm as Hitler’s Germany ascended. The Nazis had built up a superior fighting force. And then they expanded, aggressively. First, they occupied Czechoslovakia and Poland. Then came Norway, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. If your government crossed the Führer, terrifying aerial bombardment was inevitable.

But Brits had one thing to comfort them: Germany was far away. Even the Germans’ new planes couldn’t haul thousand-pound bombs all the way to Britain. Of course, that would change if the Germans occupied France. But France had a powerful army and navy; its fall was unimaginable.

Less than a week into Churchill’s tenure as prime minister, the unimaginable became reality: Germany invaded France. Thus began a crisis that would turn Churchill into one of the twentieth century’s most influential figures.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

the trick Churchill knew from day one would win the war;
how a Nazi official took extreme measures to broker peace with the UK; and
how Churchill gave President Roosevelt one of the wildest strategy meetings of his life.

From day one, Churchill was clear on his goal: getting American help.

By May 1940, the writing was on the wall. The Nazi army had invaded France, Britain’s ally. War was coming to the British people, whether they liked it or not.

Churchill came to power after Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in Neville Chamberlain, who had tried to appease Hitler’s expansionist tendencies. It was a scary time for the UK. Any observer would have said that Britain had no chance against the massive Nazi war machine. But unlike Chamberlain – and essentially everyone else – Churchill was brazenly confident that Britain could win the coming war.

Now all Churchill had to do was convince his country and, just as importantly, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that the UK had a chance. Churchill knew he couldn’t win the war without the Americans.

The key message here is: From day one, Churchill was clear on his goal: getting American help.

For their part, the Americans weren’t at all interested in sending their young men, yet again, to the battlefields of Europe. The US government was also leery of working with Churchill. “Apparently,” said the secretary of the interior, “he is very unreliable under the influence of drink.”

It’s true that Churchill did things differently. For one thing, he favored working during his twice-daily bath. If the phone rang while he was in the bath, he would climb naked and dripping from the tub to retrieve it from his private secretary. At all hours, he would pad through the halls of the official residence in brilliantly flowered dressing gowns, stabbing a dead cigar in the air when he wanted to make a point.

The British people loved him, and he took their trust seriously. His first speech to the House of Commons demonstrated his signature oratory style: a sober appraisal of facts followed by reason for measured optimism. “I have nothing to offer,” he said, “but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”

Despite the grim state of affairs, his government was imbued with energy from day one. Everyone, from the lowest secretary to the highest minister, was pulling in the same direction – stop Germany from invading England, and win the war. Respectable civil servants could actually be seen running through the corridors to their appointments.

The new resolve Churchill brought to his office didn’t come a moment too soon. Things were about to get a lot worse.

A heroic grassroots rescue gave Britain the morale boost it needed for the fight ahead.

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?”

With England bracing for invasion, aerial combat would decide the country’s fate.

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 aerial combat raged overhead, Churchill courted Roosevelt for naval support until he got what he wanted.

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.

An accidental bombing of London started the next phase of the aerial war.

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.

German bombs made living in London a terrifying experience.

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.

The terror of imminent invasion had eased, but the bombardment was worse than ever.

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.

Roosevelt finally began responding to Churchill’s overtures – and not a moment too soon.

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.

As the Americans got more involved, bad news kept coming across the Channel.

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.

The worst bombing of the Blitz coincided with one of its strangest events.

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.

Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa ended the threat of invasion and became a critical turning point in the war.

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.

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Worum geht es in The Splendid and the Vile?

The Splendid and the Vile (2020) is a meticulously researched account of Winston Churchill’s first year of leadership. Beginning in 1940, he led the country through France’s surrender, the miraculous rescue at Dunkirk, and the Nazi air force’s bombing blitz of the UK, which killed over 44,000 Brits. Through it all, he retained his sense of humor and charming eccentricities that ensure him a fond place in our collective memory.

Wer The Splendid and the Vile lesen sollte

World War II nerds
People interested in eccentric histories
Anyone curious about Winston Churchill’s legacy

Über den Autor

Erik Larson is an American journalist and the author of five best sellers, which have collectively sold 9 million copies. His other notable titles include Devil In The White City and Thunderstruck.

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