The Prime Minister recently paid a visit to Edinburgh, where he inspected units of the Civil Defence and afterwards received the freedom and the Burgess Ticket of the City. Photo shows Mr Churchill inspecting women Auxiliary nurses, in Edinburgh, 15 Oct 1942 © E0KP6G Alamy.com
The Prime Minister recently paid a visit to Edinburgh, where he inspected units of the Civil Defence and afterwards received the freedom and the Burgess Ticket of the City. Photo shows Mr Churchill inspecting women Auxiliary nurses, in Edinburgh, 15 Oct 1942 © E0KP6G Alamy.com
Churchill became Prime Minister of a national government on 10 May 1940, the very day that Hitler invaded France and the Low Countries. The first few weeks of his premiership were marked by military disaster, as France surrendered and the British army was evacuated from Dunkirk. The United Kingdom then faced direct attack in the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
Churchill’s famous speeches and broadcasts were carefully constructed to raise British morale while sending a message of defiance to Germany and a call for support to the United States. Churchill’s policy was ‘victory at all costs’ through ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’. Though sixty-five in 1940, he strove to take the offensive to the enemy and worked tirelessly to assemble and maintain the Grand Alliance against fascism. With his bulldog scowl, ever-present cigar and V for Victory salute he came to personify the British war effort. This section will tell you more about his time as
If you want to learn about the Second World War in more detail, look at the Imperial War Museums’ website.
This section will tell you more about his time as leader in the Second World War.
Germany invades Denmark and Norway
Germany invades Luxembourg, Holland and Belgium
Churchill becomes Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
Promises only ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat.’
More on this speechU.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy tells Roosevelt that ‘Britain is finished’
Germans reach Calais on English Channel
Dunkirk evacuation of Allied troops from the French coast
Convinces Cabinet to fight on, Belgium surrenders
Tells Parliament ‘We shall never surrender.’
Churchill gives his famous ‘Finest Hour’ speech
France surrenders
Churchill orders attack on the French fleet at Oran in North Africa
Battle of Britain begins
Tripartite Pact signed forming the Axis Powers
US Lend-Lease Act
German battleship Bismarck sunk
Germany invades Russia in Operation Barbarosa
Drafts the Atlantic Charter communiqué outlining the principles for the post-war world
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse sunk
Germany and Italy declare war on the US
Washington conference
Hong Kong surrenders to Japan
Churchill gives his first speech to a joint session of the US Congress
Wins vote of confidence in the House of Commons, 464 to 1
Singapore falls to the Japanese when British Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival surrenders
Defeats vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, 475 to 25
Flies to Moscow for his first meeting with Marshall Stalin of the Soviet Union
American troops land in North Africa
Allies crack the German Enigma code
Casablanca Conference
Battle of Stalingrad ends when German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrendered to the Soviet forces
Travel to Washington for ‘Trident’ conference
Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, let by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces in North Africa
Mussolini dismissed from office and arrested
First Quebec Conference begins
Allied invasion of southern Italy
Meets Roosevelt and Stalin at Teheran Conference
D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France
Churchill crosses the English Channel and visits Normandy beachheads
First V-1 flying bomb lands in England
Oberst (Colonel) Claus von Stauffenberg’s bomb hidden in a briefcase fails to kill Adolf Hitler in his Wolf’s Lair located in East Prussia near the town of Rastenburg
Liberation of Paris
Makes ‘percentages’ agreement on spheres of influence
Roosevelt elected for a fourth term
Celebrates Armistice Day in Paris
Relief of Bastogne ends Battle of the Bulge
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at Yalta
More on YaltaA victorious Churchill crosses Rhine River in Germany two days after Allied Armies
Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini executed by partisans at Mezzegra
Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker under Reich Chancellery in Berlin
V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, Germany surrenders
Churchill delivers ‘Gestapo’ speech, throwing his campaign into controversy
Polling day in Britain
Churchill meets President Truman and Marshall Stalin at Potsdam, just outside of Berlin, Germany
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister
Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima
V-J (Victory over Japan) Day, Japan surrenders
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