Winston's War_ Churchill, 1940-1945 - Max Hastings [234]
During Churchill’s time in North Africa, he spent many hours with Macmillan and de Gaulle and other prominent Frenchmen, seeking to sustain a veneer of unity. His efforts were sabotaged by de Gaulle’s unilateralism. At one moment, the general ordered the arrest of three prominent Vichyites in Algiers, which provoked an explosion of Churchillian exasperation. British politicians and diplomats exhausted themselves pleading before the prime minister the case for de Gaulle, a habitual offender facing a judge minded to don the black cap. After one exchange, Macmillan wrote: “Much as I love Winston861, I cannot stand much more.” Yet two days later, like almost every other close associate of the prime minister’s, he relented: “He is really a remarkable man. Although he can be so tiresome and pig-headed, there is no one like him. His devotion to work and duty is quite extraordinary.”
Churchill’s commitment to restoring France to its rightful position as a great nation never wavered. For this, and for fighting the Americans so staunchly in support of its interests, the British government merited, though never received, its Gallic neighbour’s enduring gratitude. In Quebec the previous year, Eden argued fiercely with Cordell Hull about the virtues of French resurrection: “We both got quite heated at one time862 when I told him we had to live twenty miles from France and I wanted to rebuild her as far as I could.” Macmillan observed that while Roosevelt hated de Gaulle, Churchill’s sentiments were more complex: “He feels about De Gaulle863 like a man who has quarrelled with his son. He will cut him off with a shilling. But (in his heart) he would kill the fatted calf if only the prodigal would confess his faults and take his orders obediently in future.” Since this would never happen, however, there were many moments in 1943–44 when, but for Eden’s loyalty to de Gaulle, Churchill would have cut the Frenchman adrift.
Even now, with two million men training and arming in Britain for the invasion, Churchill chose to sustain the dangerous fiction—dangerous because of the mistrust of himself which it fed among Americans—that Overlord still represented an option rather than an absolute commitment. In February he invited the Chiefs of Staff to review plans for Jupiter—an assault on northern Norway—if the French landings failed. He convened a committee to report to him weekly on the progress of D-Day preparations, and wrote to Marshall on February 15: “I am hardening very much on this operation as the time approaches in the sense of wishing to strike if humanly possible, even if the limiting conditions we laid down at Tehran are not exactly fulfilled.” The conditional was still there, as it was in a message to Roosevelt which he drafted on March 25: “What is the latest date on which a decision can be taken as to whether ‘Overlord’ is or is not to be launched on the prescribed date? … If…20 or 25 mobile German divisions are already in France on the date in question, what are we going to do?” This cable, which would have roused the most acute American dismay, was withheld after prudent second thoughts. But it reflected Churchill’s continuing uncertainty, ten weeks before D-Day.
In the Mediterranean, Harold Macmillan wrote: “I am much distressed to see864 a worsening of Anglo-American relations generally since Eisenhower left and I am also not very hopeful of getting any new idea into the PM’s mind at present.” There was much debate and many changes of heart about Anvil, a prospective landing in the south of France originally scheduled to coincide with the descent on Normandy. The British, having favoured the scheme, now turned sour because of its inevitable impact on Allied strength in Italy. On March 21 Maitland Wilson signalled, recommending Anvil’s cancellation. After protracted exchanges with Washington, most about landing craft, it was agreed to postpone the operation. Churchill became increasingly sceptical, and finally absolutely hostile. He