ABSTRACT
1942 saw Churchill’s critics and enemies combined in their most powerful assault on him of the war. There were mixed together military setbacks, old jealousies, frustrations, and the scars of long political feuds. The critics felt the time was at last opportune to topple the man who, in 1940, had seemed impregnable in general estimation; Churchill could be the figurehead, while someone else got on with running the war. Since 1939 the Daily Sketch had been campaigning for closer co-operation between the three Services. The Daily Herald had been prominent in criticism of production and manpower disorganization, inefficiency, waste, and call-up of skilled workers. The importance of the scene was, in fact, to extend far beyond the Second World War: Australia, outraged, and New Zealand, astonished, would look to America for future support; China and Japan could afford to hear the roar of the British lion with a somewhat deaf ear.
