The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

8
A Battle Against Time
WHAT WOULD BE AN email sixty years later was, in May 1940, a handwritten
note using a favourite fountain pen. Winston Churchill, the new Prime
Minister, had scribbled such a letter to the former PM, Neville
Chamberlain, soon after returning from the Palace on the evening of 10
May, thanking him sincerely for promising to stand by him ‘at this
extremely grievous and formidable moment’. The two had repeatedly
clashed during the preceding years, particularly over Chamberlain’s
appeasement policies, yet now Churchill was determined to show
considerable magnanimity towards him. ‘The example that you have set of
self-forgetting dignity and public spirit,’ wrote Churchill, ‘will govern the
actions of many and be an inspiration to all.’ As if to underline the sincerity
of his feelings, Churchill even offered to remain at Admiralty House, rather
than make the Chamberlains move out of No. 10.
And Chamberlain, still bruised and humiliated, was flattered. ‘I must
say that Winston has been most handsome in his appreciation of my
willingness to help and my ability to do so,’ he wrote to his sisters. ‘I know
that he relies on Halifax and me and as he put it in a letter, “My fate
depends largely on you.”’
Churchill was no doubt sincere in his attitude towards Chamberlain, but
there was no doubting that he needed two of the biggest names in British
politics on his side, not least because large numbers of the House and
particularly those within the Conservative Party still believed the new
Prime Minister was a dangerous maverick unsuited to the top job at any
time, but especially not in the middle of a national crisis of potentially
catastrophic proportions. Moreover, Churchill was already making a
number of decisions that would give him greater power and control than
any previous Prime Minister – changes that would surely be questioned by
some.
First, he decided to make himself Defence Minister. This had been an
unknown post but it now gave Churchill the freedom to oversee the British
war effort as not only Prime Minister but also specifically as the man in