Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II podcast, episode

428, Churchill's Shell Game.

Last time, after Operation Rutter was canceled or delayed or whatever, people like Admiral

Bertram Ramsey, a hero of the Dunkirk evacuation, spoke up against renewing it.

His arguments were direct and poignant.

Yes, we learn as we conduct these raids, but so too does the enemy.

We exploit a weaknesses in the enemy's line for a limited objective, but he has just

learned where he needs to shore things up, not a fair exchange.

But the Admiral's words, wise though they were, were drowned out by all the noise around

the Prime Minister.

Churchill was politically weak at home and abroad.

After all, on July 8th, he had gambled much as he talked to the American President, specifically

to say, we will be unable to keep our word.

The Prime Minister told the President that London was unable to move forward on Operation

Sledgehammer, certainly in its current form.

But if Washington wanted British action that year, that was still possible, but only in

North Africa.

And Churchill put it any way, as to suggest, it was partly FDR's idea.

In part, the Prime Minister wrote, this has all along been in harmony with your ideas.

In fact, it is your commanding idea.

Here is the true second front of 1942.

Here is the safest and most fruitful stroke that can be delivered this autumn.

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