Winston's War_ Churchill, 1940-1945 - Max Hastings [92]
SEVEN
The Battle of America
1. Strictly Cash
THROUGHOUT 1941, even after torrents of blood began to flow across the plains of Russia, Churchill’s foremost priority remained the enlistment of the United States as a fighting ally. As he followed the fortunes of Britain’s desert battles, the pursuit of the Bismarck, the Atlantic convoy struggle, the campaign in Greece and the faltering bomber offensive, his American vision dominated the far horizon. Unless or until the United States joined the war, Britain might avert defeat, but could not aspire to victory. Among Churchill’s priceless contributions to Britain’s salvation was his wooing of the United States, when many of his compatriots were rash enough to indulge rancour towards what they perceived as the fat, complacent nation across the Atlantic. “I wonder if the Americans realise how late320 they are leaving their intervention,” wrote John Kennedy in May 1941, “that if they wait much longer we may be at the last gasp.” In a notable slip of the tongue, a BBC announcer once referred to the threat of “American” rather than “enemy” parachutists descending on Britain.
It would be hard to overstate the bitterness among many British people, high and low, about the United States’ abstention from the struggle. The rhetoric of Roosevelt and Churchill created an enduring myth of U.S. generosity in 1940–41. Cordell Hull, the secretary of state, wrote of “rushing vast quantities of weapons321 to Britain in the summer of 1940.” In truth, however great the symbolic importance of early U.S. consignments, their practical value was small. American-supplied artillery and small arms were obsolete, and made a negligible contribution to Britain’s fighting power. Aircraft deliveries in 1941 were moderate both in quantity and quality. The fifty old destroyers loaned by the United States in exchange for British colonial basing rights were scarcely seaworthy: just nine were operational at the end of 1940, and the rest required long refits. Only from 1942 onwards, when Britain received Grant and Sherman tanks, 105mm self-propelled guns, Liberator bombers and much else, did U.S. war matériel dramatically enhance the capabilities of Churchill’s forces.
Moreover, the guns, tanks and planes shipped across the Atlantic didn’t represent American largesse, because until the end of 1941 these were cash purchases. Under the terms of the Neutrality Act imposed by Congress, no belligerent could be granted credit. For the first two years of the war the United States reaped huge profits from arms sales. “The United States Administration is pursuing322 an almost entirely American policy, rather than one of all possible aid to Britain,” Eden wrote to Churchill on November 30, 1940. Roosevelt anticipated British bankruptcy and adopted the notion of “loaning” supplies, which originated with New York’s Century Association, before Churchill asked him to do so. But the president was furious when Lord Lothian, in October 1940 still British ambassador in Washington, told American journalists: “Well, boys, Britain’s broke. It’s your money we want.” There is doubt whether the ambassador used these exact words, but the thrust of his remarks was undisputed.
Roosevelt told Lothian there could be no suggestion of American subsidy until Britain had exhausted her ability to pay cash, for Congress would never hear of it. He might have added that the British adopted the same attitude to Finland, when that country was fighting the Soviets in 1940. London insisted on cash terms for such scanty war supplies as Britain dispatched. Now, on America’s part, there was a widespread belief in British opulence, quite at odds with reality. Amid the Battle of Britain, the U.S. administration questioned whether Churchill’s government had honestly revealed its remaining assets. Washington insisted upon an audited account, a demand British ministers