He was concerned about German naval activity in the Baltic Sea and initially wanted to send a naval force there but this was soon changed to a plan, codenamed Operation Wilfred, to mine Norwegian waters and stop iron ore shipments from Narvik to Germany. These actions, supplemented by his speeches, considerably enhanced Churchill's reputation. On 16 February 1940, Churchill personally ordered Captain Philip Vian of the destroyer HMS Cossack to board the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian waters and liberate some 300 British prisoners who had been captured by the Admiral Graf Spee. Churchill was ebullient after the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December 1939 and afterwards welcomed home the crews, congratulating them on "a brilliant sea fight" and saying that their actions in a cold, dark winter had "warmed the cockles of the British heart". Īs First Lord, Churchill proved to be one of the highest-profile ministers during the so-called " Phoney War", when the only significant action by British forces was at sea. Although this story was repeated by Lord Mountbatten in a speech at Edmonton in 1966, Richard Langworth notes that neither he nor Churchill's official biographer Martin Gilbert have found contemporary evidence to confirm it, suggesting that it may well be a later invention. Churchill later claimed that, on learning of his appointment, the Board of Admiralty sent a signal to the Fleet: "Winston is back".
As such he was a member of Chamberlain's war cabinet. On 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany following the outbreak of the Second World War, Chamberlain appointed Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, the same position he had held at the beginning of the First World War. First Lord of the Admiralty: September 1939 to May 1940 The Phoney War and the Norwegian Campaign Churchill with US ambassador Joseph Kennedy in 1939.
He was the most important of the Allied leaders during the first half of the Second World War. Churchill is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism, though some wartime events like the 1945 bombing of Dresden have generated controversy. As prime minister, he oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers. Out of office during the 1930s, Churchill had taken the lead in calling for British re-armament to counter the growing threat of militarism in Nazi Germany. He succeeded Neville Chamberlain as prime minister on and held the post until 26 July 1945. Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty on 3 September 1939, the day that the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany. The Roaring Lion, a portrait by Yousuf Karsh at the Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941.
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