Quarterly Review

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Victory at All Costs
Five Days in London, May 1940

by John Lukacs (Yale University Press, 1999, $11.95)
Reviewed by Allan A. Kerin

This is a brief and extremely interesting book about decisions made by the leaders of the British government during five crucial days of the Second World War. The author's contention is that these five days, May 24 to May 28, 1940, comprised the most crucial period of the war, when the fate of the world hung most desperately in the balance. The crisis was brought on by continuing Allied military defeat, the fall of Holland and Belgium, the imminent fall of France, and the siege of the British Army at Dunkirk. The resolution of the crisis was not Allied military success, which would only begin to occur months later, but the decision by the five member British War Cabinet, led by Winston Churchill, to continue to fight on alone in spite of crushing military defeat.

Churchill had been appointed prime minister on May 10. He led a national unity government dominated by his own party, the Conservatives. However, at this stage the Conservatives were not united behind him. The Labour and Liberal Parties supported him more consistently than many important Conservatives. The War Cabinet consisted of three Conservatives (Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, and Lord Halifax) and two Labour members (Clement Atlee and Arthur Greenwood). Halifax was the proponent of seeking negotiations with Germany, and Churchill of fighting on. Churchill's skill as a leader prevailed throughout the five days of debate and political maneuvers. Churchill never wrote of the debate within the War Cabinet. He always presented himself as the leader of a thoroughly united government and nation. Letters, diaries, and declassified documents that became available decades after the end of the war are primary sources for this book.

The book presents an hour-by-hour report of the military situation, communications with the French government and with neutrals such as the United States and Italy, as well as British press reports and reports of British public opinion during the five days. The relative calm and optimism of the British people during this period provided the most important support for Churchill's decision. This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in history, even without a background or prior interest in the British political environment of the late 1930's and early 1940's. It is also an important book about a crucial moment in world history.

The War Cabinet's decision—not to proceed down the "slippery slope" (Churchill's phrase) of negotiation with Hitler but to continue to fight—preserved Britain's independence. It also made the defeat of Hitler possible and saved the world from an unprecedented dark age.

Churchill was a brilliant, subtle person and a professional politician whose spiritual home was the House of Commons, where negotiation and compromise are correctly the norm. But he knew there are times when negotiation is not morally or practically the right path. As he said in his first speech to the House of Commons as prime minister on May 13, "You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

At this time, we face an enemy as ruthless and brutal, although thankfully not as powerful, as the Nazis. Our national existence is not threatened, but our individual lives are as we go about our daily tasks. In the world we live in now, this well-written and sharply focused book is especially relevant. I highly recommend it.