THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL “Hiding behind History”: Winston S. Churchill’s Portrayal of the Second World War East of Suez Being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD in the University of Hull by Catherine Anne Virginie Wilson B.A. (Hons) Philosophy with History (University of Wolverhampton) M.A. Historical Research (University of Hull) May 2012 IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER, JOHN HENRY WILSON (1939-2008) * THE MONDOULET SCHOLARSHIP FUND * FOR MY MOTHER, BROTHER, SISTER-IN-LAW ALEX AND OLIVIA * THANK YOU ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to Dr. David E. Omissi for his knowledgeable and inspiring supervision of this thesis, and for his seemingly endless patience. I would like to thank Professor Richard Toye (Exeter University) for agreeing to read and discuss the preliminary draft of the chapter on Churchill’s imperialism. Your kind comments and enthusiasm are much appreciated. Research is always a pleasure, but even more so when it is carried out at the following archives. Firstly, I would like to thank Allen Packwood, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and all the staff for creating a friendly and welcoming place of research. My thanks also to the staff at: the Basil Liddell Hart Military Archive, King’s College, London; the University of East Anglia Archive; Hull History Centre; Exeter University Special Collections; John Rylands University Library, Manchester University; the National Archives, Kew; and the Imperial War Museum Archives, London. Accepting Professor Bill Philpot’s invitation to present my research at the IHR (Military History seminar) proved to be an exhilarating and rewarding experience—the fruit of which hopefully shows within the thesis itself. The History Department in Hull is much valued by its students as the support from staff, both academic and administrative, is constant and unerring. As are the staff within the Graduate School and the Brynmor Jones Library. Finally, I have trespassed upon the good nature of James Goodchild, a fellow PhD candidate, far too much. But I am eternally grateful. Despite all of the above assistance, any omissions or errors of fact that remain are my own. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements i Table of Contents ii Abstract iii List of Illustrations iv Abbreviations v Epigraph vi Introduction 1 Chapter I: Between Memoir and History 19 Chapter II: Churchill’s British Empire 40 Chapter III: Churchill’s Portrayal of the Advent of War with Japan 82 Chapter IV: Churchill’s Portrayal of the ‘Losses’ of Hong Kong, Malaya, and Singapore 123 Chapter V: Churchill’s Portrayal of India, 1942 to 1943 155 Chapter VI: Churchill’s Portrayal of the Indian Army, and the Reconquest of Burma 202 Epilogue 240 Bibliography 247 Appendix 291 ii Abstract “HIDING BEHIND HISTORY”: WINSTON S. CHURCHILL’S PORTRAYAL OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR EAST OF SUEZ. This thesis is an examination of Winston S. Churchill’s portrayal of the war in the Far East, as set out in his six-volume memoir The Second World War.1 The research interrogates Churchill’s portrayal of the war against Japan through an analysis of the memoirs themselves, and against the backdrop of the post-war world. The thesis focuses on Churchill’s depiction of the advent of war with Japan; his narrative of the British Empire’s wartime losses of Hong Kong, Malaya, and Singapore; his account of the events and crises which occurred in India from 1942 to 1943; and his representation of the Indian Army and its role in the re-conquest of Burma. Close scrutiny of the memoirs—especially the way in which they were written, the draft chapters, the revisions, the proofs and galleys, reveal how he performed his historical sleight of hand—but not why. Churchill claimed that history would be kind to him, especially as he intended to write it, but by studying the historian before studying the history the chasm between the Churchillian myth and the reality is revealed. Churchill’s self-made, interwar caricature as a die-hard Victorian imperialist backfired when it came to narrating the history of the war. His image as the British Empire’s dogged defender from the 1930s had caused significant friction during the war with the new empire he needed to court—the United States of America. If the British Empire were to continue to hold on to any semblance of power and prestige after the war, Churchill had to bend to American demands during the war. Yet when he came to write his memoirs, Churchill manipulated history so that the ‘special relationship’ would not be seen in its true light. He mythologized the ties that bound the English-speaking peoples so that the wartime ‘special relationship’ would not be revealed as temporary, transient, volatile and fragile. How he portrayed the war against Japan and why his glances eastwards were so infrequent are the subject of this thesis: how and why did Churchill hide behind the history of the war, east of Suez? 1 Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volumes I-VI (London: Cassell, 1948–54). iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE I ‘Hats that helped me’ 18 I.i ‘Two Churchills’ 39 II ‘So, our poor empire is alone’ 81 III ‘The First American Casualty’ 122 IV ‘Fun While It Lasts’ 154 V Japanese anti-Churchill propaganda 201 VI ‘I repeat sir, the Japs are no sportsmen’ 239 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PERIODICALS EconHR Economic History Review JCH Journal of Contemporary History JICH Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History JSS Journal of Strategic Studies MAS Modern Asian Studies ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography RUSIJ Royal United Services Institute Journal CHURCHILL ARCHIVE CENTRE, CHURCHILL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (CCAC) AMEL: Leopold Amery BEVN: Ernest Bevin CHAR: Chartwell papers CHUR: Churchill papers DEAK: William Deakin DEKE: Dennis Kelly EADE: Charles Eade HNKY: Maurice Hankey HRPO: Henry Pownall MRBS: Michael Roberts RCHL: Lord Randolph Churchill SLIM: William Slim LIDDELL HART CENTRE, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON ISMAY: Hastings Ismay ‘*’ denotes a person of interest (see Appendix) v HIDING BEHIND HISTORY There was no one at hand to tell me that this historian [Thomas Babington Macaulay] with his captivating style and devastating self-confidence was the prince of literary rogues, who always preferred the tale to the truth, and smirched or glorified great men and garbled documents according as they affected his drama. Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life: A Roving Commission (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1930). Historians, when they have time, will select their documents to tell their stories. We have to think of the future and not of the past. Churchill, House of Commons, 18 June 1940. It will be found much better by all Parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself. Churchill, House of Commons, 23 January 1948. vi Introduction Introduction On 1 October 1900, Winston Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) was elected as the Conservative and Unionist MP for Oldham. Barely three months later, he undertook a lucrative lecture tour of America.1 Shortly before one lecture he was introduced to the legendary American author Mark Twain, who presented Churchill to the audience.2 Twain commented that Churchill was more than ‘competent’ to talk to the audience about the Boer War, as he had ‘fought through it and wrote through it’.3 Because of his fledgling literary career as a war correspondent and journalist, Churchill was already being acknowledged internationally as a man who could write about a fight he had experienced at first hand. The precedent had been set: fighting and then writing about his role in that fight was to become Churchill’s literary modus operandi.4 This thesis focuses upon what was arguably Churchill’s most successful fight and his most successful writing—his six-volume memoir The Second World War.5 This thesis asks the fundamental question: why did Churchill’s memoirs pay such little attention to the war the British Empire had fought against Japan? What did Churchill’s narrative ignore or gloss over in the war east of Suez, and 1 Churchill received 12,931 votes (a majority of 222) when he was elected as Oldham’s second MP. The first MP was Mr. Emmott (a local mill owner), who stood as a Radical and received 12,947 votes. 2 The lecture took place at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York on 14 Dec. 1900. See Randolph S. Churchill (ed.), Winston S. Churchill: Companion Volume I: Part 2, 1896–1900 (London: Heinemann, 1967), p. 1221–3. 3 Todd Ronnei, ‘Churchill in Minnesota’, Minnesota History, 57/7 (2001), p. 349, citing Robert H. Pilpel, Churchill in America, 1895–1961: An Affectionate Portrait (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), p. 39. 4 Any research which examines Churchill’s Second World War memoirs owes a debt to David Reynolds. See In Command of History: Winston Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (London: Allen Lane, 2004). 5 Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volumes I–VI (London: Cassell, 1948–54). 1 Introduction to what extent did his portrayal of events in the Far East influence subsequent histories? Almost five decades after his death, academic and public interest in Churchill continues unabated. In fact, there appears to be little disenchantment with the man who was named in a 2002 BBC poll as the greatest Briton of all time.6 This thesis will not enter into the debates surrounding the numerous hats he wore throughout his lifetime: brick-layer, artist, family man, one-time novelist and script-writer, or even race-horse owner, to name but a few.7 Instead, the thesis will primarily be concerned with his literary career, as it was his writer’s hat alongside his political career which steered him towards ‘history’ and his portrayal of world events.