Free Winston Churchill's War Leadership by Sir Martin Gilbert Page B

Campbell, then the senior British diplomat in Belgrade, in April 1941, while Campbell was working to drive a wedge between Yugoslavia’s pro-German Regent, Prince Paul, and those Ministers in the Yugoslav government known to be hostile to Germany, Churchill telegraphed Campbell approvingly: “Continue to pester, nag and bite. Demand audiences. Don’t take NO for an answer.” This advice was very much Churchill’s own prescription for himself, and he was pleased to see it reflected in the actions of another. Nor did he neglect to praise Campbell for what he regarded as a remarkable mission. “Greatly admire all you have done so far,” he wrote. “Keep it up by every means that occur to you.”
    “Continue to pester, nag and bite” summed up Churchill’s own method of war leadership. To one of his commanders-in-chief he had a further exortation: “Improvise and dare.”
    One of the more contentious of Churchill’s wartime appointments was that of Lord Beaverbrook, a wealthy Canadian businessman who had arrived in Britain before the First World War, created a newspaper empire, and become a newspaper Baron in the process. Beaverbrook was regarded by many in public life as an opportunist and a schemer. Churchill knew him well and recognized great virtues among great faults. When Churchill first wanted to bring Beaverbrook into the government in April 1940, Neville Chamberlain had said no. But Churchill, aware of the terrible shortage of aircraft, and of fighter aircraft in particular, judged that the ruthlessness that marked Beaverbrook out in the newspaper world, and even in his personal relationships, could be used to vital effect in accelerating the manufacture of aircraft when Britain’s need was dire and Germany’s destructive powers were at their height. “Now that the war is coming so close,” Churchill wrote to Beaverbrook on 24 May 1940, “the object must be to prepare the largest number of aircraft”—and this Beaverbrook did, as Minister of Aircraft Production. Other government departments found Beaverbrook’s methods dictatorial and rapacious, but they served the need of the hour, and Churchill supported him. “Your work during the crisis at MAP [the Ministry of Aircraft Production] in 1940,” Churchill wrote to him later in the war, “played a decisive part in our salvation.”
    Beaverbrook also provided Churchill with the moral support of his presence and energy at several moments of crisis. Twenty-five years earlier, when Churchill had left Britain and the turmoil of politics to seek active military duty on the Western Front, Beaverbrook, who was then Chief Canadian Press Representative at the Front, had shown Churchill the hand of friendship and encouraged him not to despair of a return to political life and influence on war policy. In the days immediately before Churchill became Prime Minister, when the British naval initiative in Norway was foiled by the Germans, and Churchill was much criticized, Beaverbrook had again been supportive. Twice in the early months of Churchill’s war premiership, first at the fall of France, and then at the moment of the terrible decision to bombard the French fleet at Oran to prevent it from falling into German hands, Beaverbrook had been at Churchill’s side. On one occasion, when Churchill could not see how the situation in France might be redeemed, he spent the night at Beaverbrook’s house in London, talking through the crisis and gaining strength from his friend’s determination. The choice of senior colleagues was often a two-way exchange of this sort: Churchill could inspire them to great efforts and achievements, and they could give Churchill support and confidence when he had his moments of doubt.
    Among his choice of officials to do the essential work he depended on was his long-time friend Professor Frederick Lindemann (whom Churchill created Baron Cherwell during the war). From the earliest days of Churchill’s war premiership, he gave