Gallery moment · 1940-05-28
Simulation, labeled as simulation. Nothing a figure says here is a quote.
Five days in May: fight on, or ask Mussolini for terms
The third afternoon of the argument. The Army is being lifted off the beaches at Dunkirk and nobody yet knows how many will come home. Belgium surrendered this morning. Halifax wants to learn, through Mussolini, what terms Hitler would offer, and has said he may resign if the door is closed. Chamberlain has not said which way he will go. Churchill has been Prime Minister for eighteen days, and Chamberlain, not he, still leads the Conservative Party. Later today Churchill will speak to the twenty-five ministers of the outer cabinet.
Seats
- Prime Minister: Winston Churchill
- Foreign Secretary: Lord Halifax
- Lord President of the Council: Neville Chamberlain
- Lord Privy Seal: Clement Attlee
- Minister without Portfolio: Arthur Greenwood
Endings
- What happened: Churchill tells the outer cabinet there will be no negotiation while Britain can still fight, returns to the War Cabinet with their backing, and the Mussolini approach is dropped. Halifax stays. On July 22, 1940 he broadcasts Britain's rejection of Hitler's peace offer. · Route
- The fork: Britain opens the Mussolini channel and by Aug 31, 1940 obtains peace terms that leave the fleet, the empire and an independent British government intact. · No route
Sources
- (c) crown copyright Catalogue Reference:CAB/65/13/24 Image Reference:0001
- The War Cabinet crisis (28 May 1940) · TheSecondWar.pl
- The May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis: Churchill’s Darkest Hour? | HistoryExtra
- Churchill and the approach to Mussolini and Hitler in May 1940: a note | Review of International Studies | Cambridge Core
- Those Who Helped Shape The Future Of Britain | Imperial War Museums
- Cabinet Government in the War Crisis of May 1940
- Great Contemporaries: Archibald Sinclair, the Last War Casualty