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Britain and the International Committee of the Red Cross, 1939–1945 pp 104–130Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Civilians and Ships, 1940–3

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Abstract

Having resolved upon a policy of ‘no surrender’ in the months after the fall of France, the British Government was faced with the problem of how to continue the fight against Germany until, as the architect of the ‘no surrender’ policy intoned, ‘the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old’.1 The loss of the British Expeditionary Force removed the capacity for terrestrial military engagement in Europe, and the North African theatre, though strategically important, was at the time viewed as too peripheral to carry the full weight of Churchill’s favoured policy of striking at the heart of the enemy. Though embraced by some in Whitehall as a war-winning strategy, aerial bombing on a scale required to deliver the fabled ‘knockout blow’ to Germany was a relatively untested means of engagement and it did not take long for the Royal Air Force’s limitations to become apparent. Another means of continuing the fight was to harness one of Britain’s clear strengths in 1940 — the Royal Navy — to tighten the blockade that had first been imposed on Germany in September 1939 further. Unlike bombing, there was precedent enough for a blockade to be implemented at the outset of the conflict with a clear conscience and an expectation, albeit slender, of success.2

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Notes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Murdoch University, Australia

    James Crossland (Lecturer in History)

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© 2014 James Crossland

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Crossland, J. (2014). Civilians and Ships, 1940–3. In: Britain and the International Committee of the Red Cross, 1939–1945. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137399571_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137399571_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48580-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39957-1

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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