Foreign enemies can unite political foes.  One such instance is chronicled in All Behind You Winston: Churchill’s Great Coalition 1940-45.  This volume documents the consensus and disputes, initiatives advanced and those deferred, and the leaders of each party who kept their own ranks in harness.  Unique for this war is the national union coalition that ruled Britain for most of World War II.  Though desirable from a morale standpoint, the Conservative party, if united, had the seats to rule alone. Some of the dramatis personae are the stuff of legend, others are familiar only to the most devoted students of British history.  Winston Churchill is known by all, Labour leader Clement Atlee by some and Anthony Eden, Lord Halifax and Ernest Bevin being the most famous of the rest.  Author Roger Hermiston leads War History Network members through the formation of the coalition, the issues with which it dealt, those war related, domestic and with a view to the post-war world.  

Though a minority partner, Labour held a heavy hand as it refused to join a coalition under then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.  As reports of German advances in The Low Countries and bombings in England were received, power was transferred to Churchill.  Drawing on experience from the First World War, in which internal squabbles hindered government efficiency, and driven by a sense of duty, this “Ministry Of All Talents”, reminiscent perhaps of Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals”, was swiftly assembled as Atlee and Liberal leader Sir Arthur Sinclair cooperated with Churchill in avoiding personalities that would draw opposition.  The service ministries were divided with Sinclair having Air, Labour’s A. V. Alexander the Navy and Conservative Anthony Eden War. 

War History Network members will be most interested in the cabinet processes driving the military decisions emanating from the coalition.  The decision to attack the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in French Algeria is shown as motivated, not merely to prevent the fleet from falling into German hands, but to demonstrate British resolve to a watching President Roosevelt.  Even among the War Cabinet, secrecy was tight, with Air Minister Sinclair signing off on air support for the Dieppe Raid despite not being aware of the details until shortly before their execution.  Churchill’s mission to Moscow to convince Stalin that Operation Torch was an adequate substitute for a landing in Western Europe and his inspection of the Eighth Army were crucial for their influence on relations with Russia and the decision to replace Gen. Auchinleck in Command of the Eighth Army, first with Gen. William Gott and, after his death, with General Bernard Montgomery.  Turning points are examined from the British viewpoint.  Repulsion of U-boat attacks in the Battle of the Atlantic and success at El Alamein are shown as critical both in the military spheres and in the continuation of the Churchill ministry.  Churchill was not the only cabinet minister to visit troops assembled for the D-Day landings.  Labour Minister Ernest Bevin was moved to tears when a member of his union, who recognized him, asked him to take care of the misses and the kids. 

A chapter is devoted to the “Tube Alloys”, the British project, to develop an atomic bomb.  A secret confined to a few War Cabinet ministers and others with a need to know was the subject of a controversy over the extent to share it with the Americans and, potentially, with the Russians.  The ultimate commitment to proceed with Britain’s nuclear weapons program would be made by Atlee’s Labour government in 1947. 

Churchill’s fluctuating relationship with Charles de Gaulle was subordinated to Cabinet opinion with respect to the influence of the FCNL (French Committee of National Liberation) and. De Gaulle in liberated France.  Weighing the propoganda values of acknowledgement of V-2 attacks in 1944 was the responsibility of War Cabinet members left in London the Quebec conference. 

As one suspicious of revisionist historians critiquing the morality of wartime policies after the danger has passed, I was intrigued by the accounts of Parliamentary debates over Bomber Command’s massive bombings of population centers, such as the Dresden attack in which estimates of fatalities ranged from 30,000 to 100,000.  Though Sinclair was delighted to receive support for “slaying in the name of the Lord”, Churchill was inconsistent in his policy, generally supportive, but at times querying “Are we Beasts?” and “It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing terror…should be reviewed.” 

All good things must end.  With Germany vanquished, agreement between Churchill and Atlee was insufficient to persuade Labour’s National Executive Committee to continue the Coalition until the defeat of Japan.  In an extraordinary gesture, Churchill, then presiding over a caretaker government, invited Atlee to accompany him to the Potsdam conference which, after the British elections, would end with two of the Big Three, Atlee and Truman, attending their first summit. 

All Behind You, Winston will be of interest to War History members who seek to pull back the curtains to discover the backstage workers and methods which directed the onstage action of World War II.

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