Winston Churchill's Victory In Ww2 Essay

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This paper will explore the reasons behind Great Britain’s decision to turn against its ally France during the early years of World War II. More specifically, this paper will look deeper into why British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided the best option for Great Britain, at the time, was to attack the French fleet located at Mers-el-Kébir on July 3, 1940. It will describe how Churchill’s decision to attack the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir was detrimental to prevent Germany from completely turning the tide of the war in its favor. The attack of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir was truly devastating to France; however, this attack gave Great Britain the leverage it needed to stand its ground and to keep fighting in the war. This paper argues that Churchill ordered the attack …show more content…

Germany had already invaded the lands of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg by May of 1940. France’s forces did everything they could to defend its borders against Germany’s forces. However, France was no match for Germany’s ground forces. Churchill feared that France would follow its neighbors and fall to German forces, and he was not wrong. Germany’s forces pushed through the border, and France fell to the German forces as they marched on to Paris. According to David Dilks in the article titled “The Twilight War and the Fall of France: Chamberlain and Churchill in 1940,” the fall of France was a significant moment, and “it signified the defeat of assumptions with which all British governments of recent times had been identified: namely, that France was at least strong enough to hold Germany on land.” This change resulted in a tremendous shift in the balance of power during the war especially in Great Britain’s eyes. It did not help that France also decided to make peace with Germany and had plans to sign an armistice with Germany despite having an agreement with Great

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