08 - Churchill and Britain's Decision To Fight in 1940
The WW2 Podcast
Angus Wallace
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2015
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
By the end of 1940 Britain defiantly stood alone against Nazi tyranny. Appeasement of the late 1930s was a reaction against the slaughter of the First World War, even after the fall of France some in power advocated a peace with Germany.
In this episode of the podcast I talk to John Kelly. We discuss why Britain chose to fight with the odds stacked against her following the fiasco in Norway, the fall of Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. We examine how the public mood changed and Churchill's rise to Prime Minister.
John is the author of "Never Surrender'.
Transcript
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| 0:35.0 | Hello and welcome to another World War II podcast. |
| 0:39.0 | I'm Angus Wallace. |
| 0:40.0 | In this episode we'll be looking at Churchill's Rise to Power and Britain's decision to stand and fight in 1940. |
| 0:47.0 | I'm joined by John Kelly. |
| 0:49.0 | John's new book, Never Surrender, takes us through the crisis of the late 1930s looking at the political |
| 0:56.1 | machinations in Britain set to the background of those events unfolding in Europe and ultimately |
| 1:01.6 | the collapse of France ending with Britain standing alone to |
| 1:06.2 | face the Battle of Britain. If you're looking for a good book for the holiday season |
| 1:10.6 | I can highly recommend it you'll find a link on the website. |
| 1:13.7 | Neville Chamberlain became British Prime Minister in 1937 |
| 1:17.4 | when Stanley Baldwin stood down. Rather than calling an election |
| 1:21.8 | with three and a half years remaining of the current Parliament, |
| 1:24.8 | he decided to wait. |
| 1:26.9 | He was age 68 and had spent the previous six years as Chancellor of the Exchequer, where the Labour leader at the time Arthur Greenwood had attacked |
... |
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