Ah ha! What if there was no Churchill?

[dannyevilcat]

So, okay, maybe this thread has a stupid title, but there are just so many damn hypothetical questions being posed in this thread, I thought I'd add more...

What if there was no Winston Churchill? Say he died in a random accident before the war. Would Britain have had the will to stand up to Hitler, or would it have sued for peace along with the French? Who do you think would have assumed his role instead? What are your opinions?

 

[stalin006]

acctually that could had happened, churchill was in a hospital afetr a car accident, so is not too far from reality.........and yes, those "damn hypothetical questions" are mostly mine ill stop putting those, sorry, ill shall go into the shadows..........

 

[Hitro]

But first add transparency to your avatar, stalin

What if there hasn't been a Churchill? Not much difference, no military commander would just give up a not-invaded island.

What if Hitler's head was made of cheese? He'd most likely be Switzerland's national saint today.
EDIT: That only made sense with danny's original thread title

 

[dannyevilcat]

No, no, no! Don't let me stop you from contributing, stalin006! But you didn't give me your opinion.

In fact, I like you much more than stalin005 What a bore that guy was...

 

[stalin006]

stalin005???
ther was such person? werid, well if hitlers head was made out of chesse...........mmmh...........u mean it wsnt? he was really stupid in military matters........(well maybe in most, battle of the bulge was kind of smart usin the fog to prevent air attcks.)but yeah, well he may had been replaced in history by someone else, and if there wasnt a churchill.......england surrenders by late 1941, adn france, well they were dead anyways........mmmh....lets wait till the french finsih our autobhan so our tanks can roll there......(no offence to french people)

 

[dannyevilcat]

Hey, I just learned I can change thread titles myself. I never knew that! And here I was wondering why it was taking so long.

 

[Toasty]

I'd rather wonder if there was no Chamberlain...then the Nazi's would have been kicked out of the Rhine in '36, like the French wanted...

 

[magic-monkey]

wasn't Baldwin Prime Minister in 1936? I'd guess if there was no Churchill then Lord Halifax would have become Prime Minister, and he would have attempted to sue for peace. However, leading the government from the Lords would have proved problematic and Eden may well have toppled him before too long. Probably too late for Europe by that time, but the Pacific War might have gone better for the allies (if it happened at all).

there are so many factors involved in these ah things that it's impossible to predict anything accurately. But i suppose that's the fun, right?

 

[Hamlet]

Originally posted by magic-monkey
wasn't Baldwin Prime Minister in 1936? I'd guess if there was no Churchill then Lord Halifax would have become Prime Minister,

On what do you base that? Quite frankly, I don't think it's plausible, and it's more likely that Eden or some other non-conformist would have become PM.

I'm pretty sceptical that history would have been changed to any great degree.

 

[magic-monkey]

iirc it was a direct choice between Halifax and Churchill for the office, this being before the days of party leadership elections. The King sent for Mr Churchill on the recomendation of Chamberlain. Eden had resigned from the government in 1938 over the appeasement policy, where as on the outbreak of the war Churchill had returned to the Cabinet at the admiralty. Therefore, Eden wasn't in any real position to challenge for the leadership at the time of Chamberlain's resignation, even if he was leading the non-comformist faction.

 

[Hamlet]

Originally posted by magic-monkey
iirc it was a direct choice between Halifax and Churchill for the office, this being before the days of party leadership elections.

I challenge the premise of your argument here, which equals 'No Churchill means Halifax wins by default', which is grossly flawed in my opinion.

 

[magic-monkey]

Forgive me, I've oversimplified in my post. I didn't simply mean that Halifax would become Prime Minister as there was no one to oppose him. I just don't believe that anyone had the unique combination of qualities possessed by Churchill which were necessary to beat him to the job. I'm going to bed now, I think, however when by brain is a little less clouded i'll attempt to post a less "grossly flawed" argument.