1. Winston Churchill’s
THE GATHERING STORM

2. 1919-1929
 “The War to End All Wars” was over
 The Treaty of Versailles
 German reparations
 Territory ceded by Germany
 American loans to Germany
 American isolationism
 Germany “disarmed”
 100,000
 The Rise of Corporal Hitler

3. 1922-1931
 The Conservative/Socialist movement and
the resignation of Lloyd George
 Appendix and a job lost in 1 day
 Stanley Baldwin hires a Liberal
 62 years of Debt
 Robbing Peter to pay Paul Revere
 Hindenburg ( not the dirigible)
 The “Crash” in the US

4. Lurking Dangers
 Churchill’s 1925 prophesy
 General von Seeckt and the rebuilding of the
General Staff and the Army, Navy and
especially the Air Force
 Finding the WMD’s of the 20’s
 Great Britain’s 10-year rule of war
 1934 , in hindsight, the last chance

5. Adolf Hitler
 1918….the blinding of a house-painter
 1920….his first speech
 1923….the collapse of the marc
 1924….prison and Mein Kampf
 1928….the taking of the Reichstag
 1930….the “Wooden Titan” wavers
strengthening Hitler’s stance
 1932….the fall of Bruening

6. 1931-1935
 MacDonald leaves the Socialist Party
 Pacifists envelop the government
 Papen becomes Chancellor
 Hitler meets Hindenberg
 Schleicher becomes Chancellor
 Papen pressures Hindenberg
 Hitler becomes Chancellor
 Communists begin to gain in Germany
 Ground Hog Day, Nazi style
 The burning of the Reichstag, 1933
 Hitler wins a majority

7. 1931-1935 con’t
 Churchill’s 2nd prophecy of 1932…..rock, knife,
gun, tank, etc.
 The threat of Germany and France on even
ground
 The British air estimates of 1933
 The so-called National Government and German
rearmament
 Germany’s scrap metal drive
 The British fail to face the facts, 1935
 Churchill accuses…”Devoid of guile, but not
devoid of guilt”

8. The Darkening Scene
 First , Dollfuss and Austria
 Shorten your weapons and lengthen your
frontiers
 Hitler meets Mussolini (“I don’t like the looks of
him”)
 Hitler’s first Blitzkrieg
 Dollfuss murdered
 The Saar is reassigned
 Hitler drives to expand German forces
 Germany withdraws from the League of Nations

9. Air Parity Lost
 Back to Seeckt and 1923
 Hitler’s short cut to armament
 The 1934 air estimates
 Churchill warns that 5th place is unacceptable
 Churchill confronts Baldwin
 Churchill urges rearmament
 Churchill holds the British Government responsible for
failing to arm
 Churchill calls on Baldwin again
 Baldwin confesses miscalculations
 Labour and Liberal stall the vote
 Fast forward to 1939

10. 1935
 Conscription for Germany
 The League of Nations slaps Hitler’s wrist
 The Anglo-German Pact
 First the Air, then the Sea
 Yes to U-boats
 The 100% provision
 Greater displacements
 Churchill condemns the pact
 As Germany increases, France loses

11. 1935-1939
 Too little, too late?
 Radar installed on the coast
 Germany sends the Graf Zeppelin over the
east coast of Great Britain
 Churchill tours the coast
 35,000 gets you 14….45,000 wins wars
 The Bismark

12. Hitler Strikes
 The Rhineland
 Hitler’s promise to reoccupy
 Baldwin continues isolation policy
 “England is not in a state to go to war”
 “After all, the Germans are only going back to
their own country”
 Fortification means expansion
 Churchill is passed over by Baldwin

13. Germany Armed
 The effect of a 2-year lag
 Baldwin passes the torch to Chamberlain
 Churchill notices deficiencies in the face of
“rearmament” (Drilling with flags?)
 Churchill compares French data on German
armaments
 1938…1 year out and Germany is ready

14. Invitations and Visitations
 Churchill gets 2 invitations to meet Hitler
 Roosevelt calls a meeting (but first asks
permission)
 Italy occupies Abyssinia complicating the matter
 Roosevelt risks national criticism
 Chamberlain rejects the offer
 France and Great Britain try to regroup
 Churchill ends the chapter with….”I watched the
daylight slowly creep in through the windows,
and saw before me in the mental gaze the vision
of Death”

15. The Rape of Austria
 Hitler needs more “living space” for his
armies
 The door to Czechoslovakia is opened as well
as Southeastern Europe
 Operation “Otto” begins
 Mussolini backs off supporting Austria
 Hitler professes undying loyalty to Duce
 Vienna falls

16. Czechoslovakia
 France vows support in light of Goering’s “no
evil intentions” speech
 Hitler knows the Allies will back off
 Diplomats try to run interference
 Pacts, Pacts and more Pacts
 Italy’s Mediterranean push is accepted
 Churchill attempts to move the Navy
 Hitler’s Nuremberg crisis speech
 Czechoslovakia falls

17. The Tragedy of Munich
 Chamberlain in charge
 Berchtesgarden
 The French back off
 The treaty of 1925 is not honored
 Churchill expresses his disdain….”Such a
collapse will bring peace or security to neither
England or France”
 Chamberlain visits again
 “Peace in our time”

18. Guarantees, Broken Promises
 The Polish Non-Aggression Pact
 The Anglo-German Naval Agreement
 The Soviet 3 Power Alliance
 The Anglo-Turkish Alliance
 The Soviet German Contract
 Conscription in England
 The “Pact of Steel”

19. On the Verge
 Chamberlain commits to Poland
 The Atomic problem (or bluff)
 Mussolini threatens England
 Hitler knows what attacking Poland does to
English forces
 A final Soviet meeting….Poland refuses help
 Poland says…“With the Germans we risk
losing our liberty, with the Russians our soul”

20. D-Day
 August 25th is the original day
 Treaty with Poland finalized
 Hitler postpones D-Day
 Hitler continues to negotiate with Poland
 Hitler prolongs talks to allow England to save
face
 August 30…Churchill calls an old friend
 September 1st, 1939