January 1, 1970

Introduced by Richard M. Langworth

Often misunderstood or unappreciated, Churchill’s constant auditing of his military commanders was a vital contribution to Second World War victory. Churchill held their calculations and assertions up to the standard of a massive common sense, informed by wide reading and his own war experience. In questioning the feasibility of an exercise that presumed a successful German invasion of the Norfolk coast, Churchill wrote: ‘I should be very glad if the same officers would work out a scheme for our landing an exactly similar force on the French coast at the same extreme range of our Fighter protection and assuming that the Germans have naval superiority in the Channel.’

This is not to say that Churchill’s military judgment was invariably or even frequently superior to that of his subordinates, although on occasion it clearly was. But when his commanders could not come up with plausible answers to his inconvenient questions, they usually revised their views; when they could, Churchill revised his. In both cases, British strategy benefited.

Read the full article here: ‘Churchill and His Generals: The Tasks of Supreme Command’, by Eliot Cohen, in Finest Hour Online.