Just watched the Paxman report on the Churchill funeral and his life etc... What are your thoughts on Churchill is he the greatest Briton!
The greatest wartime leader, the British public aren't stupid and gave him the boot at the first opportunity after the war...
read somewhere that Britain has been at war with someone pretty constantly since 45 only 1 year off in all that time that would make him britains greatest prime minister at least
The last time we discussed Churchill, some of the guys on here were very hostile towards him concerning certain decisions made during the war that affected Allied troops etc. I would imagine that this thread may go the same way! Those decisions made during war are very difficult to judge after the event imo. For me, he was the right man in the right place at the right time. A brilliantly inspirational figure who helped to hold a Nation together as the Nazis seemed destined to overrun us. I remember my Mum and Dad describing those dark days of the early 1940s and Churchill certainly was a huge factor in this Country getting through those times. Not the "greatest" Briton imo, but certainly one of them.
My family always tought me that he was a pretender who just got lucky Still I think he will always be remembered as a great man in history. I am not comfortable in what he stood for as I am very much against this type of class rule Wars are usually won by unsung heroes imo
Churchill showed his true colours when the men of Bomber Command did everything he asked for ( bombing Dresden and alike ) ...... and then he dis-owned them. He proved himself as a true politician by doing what suited him, rather than acknowledge the efforts of the men, who saved Great Briton. Footnote - No only did Churchill disown them, at wars end, they stripped these magnificent men of their rank, just so they could save a few dollars. Other countries like Australia, New Zealand & Canada, promoted their returning aircrew to a minimum rank of Flying Officer. Churchill was the right leader to have at the time but as a person, he lacked any form of decency.
Im very intrested about war time (WW 1&WW 2) history. I've seen countless documents of those wars and read hundreds of books about both wars and the peoples in war time too. In Finland we had a bit similar powerfigure like Churchill in Marshal Mannerheim. He was the person whom peoples in war time Finland were countin on (despite the social classes) during the war against Russia. He was the upper class leader as was Churchill but they both succeded to get their nation as united. As time goes by their war time decisions began to criticize more and more. That is not unusual in history as historians are inclined to look for all possible options or errors of great men after their time. Im not British but in my opinion Churchill is maybe the greatest war time leader in Great Briton as is Marshal Mannerheim in Finland.
Big character some great achievements, especially 1940-41, some great failures - Norway, Gallipoli, Genral Strike etc. I suspect all our lives would have been very different without him. He wouldn't survive the modern media scrutiny, which gives us the bland identikit politcians we are lumbered with now. I think Elizabeth I wins the greatest Briton competition.
Took the words right out of my mouth The Beeb did a series a few years ago and Churchill won it but it had Princess Diana third. She was a great lady but ahead of Elizabeth the First?!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons Michael Crawford came 17th ffs! Darwin, Newton, Turing for me.
