Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode 95,

The Dark Nells, Part 1.

The Great War with its horrible attrition amid the trenches continued.

Episode 2 did Churchill's desire to win it, because it was clear the army on either

side of the conflict did not have the means to overwhelm the other.

To be sure, both sides were inflicting heavy casualties, but there was no overrunning

of one position and then another, with one side pushing its way towards victory.

Besides, all losses were being replenished with an ever-encoming stream of young men,

and that constant need to fill the gaps in the line would cause Kitchener, the Minister

of War, to hold back men from a second front along the Dark Nells, which would in turn

and in time cause the end of Churchill's command of the Admiralty.

Winston believed that as the lines in France had stagnated, Germany was most vulnerable

to their north.

Accordingly, he crafted plans for an attack on the island of Borkham in the North Sea,

just 12 miles from the German coast.

If it could be taken and held, a staging area for an invasion was theirs.

He also wanted to destroy the locks within the Kiel Canal, or at least the vessels it held.

Somewhere along these lines he believed, the German flank could be turned or routed.

So with this view more or less worked out, the first lord paid a visit to his prime

minister.

The media lasted a long time, as Winston, besides explaining his view of a northern front,

waxed poetically about the future fighting in this war, and of course, his part in it.

...