Churchill: History in an Hour. Andrew Mulholland

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      Naval power: with John ‘Jacky’ Fisher, Churchill had helped prepare the Royal Navy for the First World War. HMS Queen Elizabeth, 1915.

      Back in Britain, Clementine gave birth to Sarah, their third child, while Winston was still in Belgium. Her confinement had not prevented her from issuing stern warnings to her husband about interference. She told him that a hands-on approach would mean he shouldered the blame for every naval setback. The navy had implemented a long-range blockade of Germany from the first day of the war, a strategy for which Churchill had pressed. This would eventually become a crippling economic stranglehold – but it was the battles that made the headlines. As far as the public was concerned, the naval picture was bleak. Churchill had bragged about beating up the German fleet the very day before it sortied to deliver a sharp defeat to Britain, at the first Battle of Dogger Bank. There had been a similar reverse at the Battle of the Coronel, offset only by a minor British success off the Falklands. Scarborough was shelled by German warships. While the navy was quietly throttling Germany, Churchill was taking the blame for what was seen as a failing strategy.

       Gallipoli

      He was itching for more decisive action. The idea for the Gallipoli (Dardanelles) campaign, for which he was to bear so much criticism, was not actually his. In addition, the notion that the British and French navies could storm the strait alone was one he had opposed from the outset. It was Kitchener, the Minister for War, who had championed the scheme, and the admirals who had told him that the navy could go it alone. The idea was to seize the narrow channel separating Europe from Asia, capture Constantinople (Istanbul) and knock Turkey out of the war. While the Allied navies failed to secure the strait, the Turks had ample time to fortify the Gallipoli peninsula. The subsequent land invasion of this area became ‘Plan B’ in April 1915. This, too, was a disaster.