From The Times: October 30, 1923
The World Crisis, 1915. By the Right Hon Winston Churchill, Vol 2 (Thornton Butterworth 30s net). Readers of The Times have already had the opportunity to see the more striking passages in Mr Churchill’s second volume. But there is a great deal more in it than we have quoted.
There is, for instance, not a little touching the alternative to the flank attack by the Dardanelles — that is to say, the plans contemplated for an entry into the Baltic. The advantages of a vigorous offensive on that side are fully stated — and so are the reasons why it was never undertaken. Mr Churchill may have abstained from giving a full account of all that was proposed and designed but he does make clear that while the wish to do the thing was strong there was no understanding as to how the feat was to be achieved — at least among his colleagues.
In another important passage he goes at length into the use of artillery during the naval operations in the Dardanelles. It was a standing charge against the Admiralty at the time that the wrong weapons were used. There is much on the supply of ammunition, on the troubles of Government Departments in face of the unprecedented demands made on them by the armies.
Mr Churchill does not stop when his tenure of the Admiralty came to an end. His references to the fear of an invasion, which he says haunted the War Office, and particularly Lord Kitchener, are instructive. The Admiralty, he says never did believe in the reality of that peril, nor would allow that invasion in any serious sense of the word was possible. It failed to convince the War Office, which, so Mr Churchill insists, grew more nervous as the war went on.
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He does not speak of the general course of the war with the same authority as when he deals with naval matters. But he takes pains to help the lay reader to understand why in his opinion the policy of front attacks and of “killing Germans in France” was likely to be less effective than his plan of turning the flank.
The question of principles and of the consequences of decisions taken may be matters of opinion. The point here is that Mr Churchill is copious in his statements of facts, and goes at length into all the results of the failure in the Dardanelles expedition.
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