Winston's War_ Churchill, 1940-1945 - Max Hastings [300]
A few grumblers muttered that they would have liked to hear from him some expression of gratitude to the Deity. It is interesting to speculate whether Churchill offered any private expression of indebtedness to a higher power at that afternoon’s Commons Service of Thanksgiving at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. Jock Colville believed that the events of the war, especially the Battle of Britain, moved Churchill a considerable distance from defiant atheism towards faith. The prime minister once remarked to Colville that he could not help wondering whether the government above might be a constitutional monarchy, “in which case there was always a possibility1088 that the Almighty might have occasion to send for him.”
From a balcony in Whitehall that evening, Churchill addressed the vast, cheering crowd: “My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory of a party or of any class. It’s a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny …” The crowd sang “Land of Hope and Glory” and “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” as Churchill returned to the Downing Street Annexe, to spend the rest of the evening with Lord Camrose, proprietor of the Daily Telegraph. In his company, the prime minister cast aside the exuberance of the afternoon, once more rehearsing his dismay about Soviet barbarism in the east. At 1:15 a.m., when Camrose left, Churchill returned to his secretaries and papers.
Pravda asserted triumphantly that “the significance of the link-up of the Red Army1089 and the allied Anglo-American forces is as great politically as militarily. It offers further proof that provocations by Hitler’s people designed to destroy the solidarity and brotherhood-in-arms between ourselves and our allies … have failed.” Yet Churchill spent the first days of European peace plunged in deepest gloom about the fate of Poland. On May 13, he cabled Truman:
Our armed power on the continent is in rapid decline. Meanwhile what is to happen about Russia[?] I have always worked for friendship with Russia but, like you, I feel deep anxiety because of their misinterpretation of the Yalta decisions, their attitude towards Poland, their overwhelming influence in the Balkans excepting Greece, the difficulties they make about Vienna … and above all their power to maintain very large armies in the field for a long time.
What will be the position in a year or two, when the British and American armies have melted … and when Russia may choose to keep two or three hundred [divisions] on active service? An iron curtain is drawn down upon their front … Surely it is vital now to come to an understanding with Russia, or see where we are with her before we weaken our armies mortally, or retire to the zones of occupation. I should be most grateful for your opinion or advice … To sum up, this issue of a settlement with Russia before our strength has gone seems to me to dwarf all others.
Truman answered: “From the present point of view1090, it is impossible to make a conjecture as to what the Soviets may do when Germany is under the small forces of occupation and the great part of such armies as we can maintain are fighting in the Orient against Japan.” The president agreed with Churchill that a tripartite meeting with Stalin had become urgently necessary.
Yet what if talking to Stalin got nowhere, as was highly likely? Within days of Germany’s surrender, Britain’s prime