18. Churchill’s War End Brain Fart
In the spring of 1945, as the war in Europe drew to a close, Winston Churchill was exasperated by Soviet intransigence regarding Eastern Europe, which Stalin clearly aimed to turn into a Soviet empire. Britain had gone to war in order to defend Polish independence. At war’s end, however, Stalin rode roughshod over the Poles. He kept the third of their country he had annexed in 1939 in cooperation with the Germans, reduced them to a Soviet client state, and extinguished their freedom and independence. Churchill saw the protection of Polish rights as a matter that touched upon British honor. So he ordered his generals to draw up plans for an attack on the Soviets soon as Germany surrendered. The goal was to push them back to the USSR’s borders, or at least force them to treat Poland fairly.
Churchill’s generals presented him with Operation Unthinkable, whose title indicates what they thought of the prime minister’s idea. Two versions were offered, an offensive and defensive one. The offensive envisaged a surprise attack on the soviets in July, 1945, intended to force Stalin to give Poland a “fair deal”. The defensive envisaged a British defense of Western Europe after America withdrew from the continent. The Soviets had 10 million men available in the summer of 1945. They outnumbered the British and Americans in Europe 4:1 in men, and 2:1 in tanks – and superior tanks at that. The Allies had an advantage in the air, but even that was subject to challenge, as the Red Air Force by 1945 had formidable fighter and ground attack arms.
