Chamberlain & Churchill
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
— Winston Churchill, The Second World War
Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. He is perhaps best known for his failed policy of appeasing Hitler and signing the Munich Agreement. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Chamberlain declared war with Germany.
Even though Chamberlain attempted to divert war with Germany, he began cautiously rearming Great Britain as tensions escalated between Germany and Britain. After Germany annexed the Sudetenland, Chamberlain's critics recognized his weakness as a leader, with his Conservative Party starting to draw away from the appeasement policy. Soon, Hitler invaded the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. Chamberlain began to speak more aggressively about Nazi Germany, finally realizing that appeasement was effectively a condonement policy. He resigned for health reasons in 1940, and Winston Churchill was his successor.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was the British Conservative Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945, and once again from 1951 to 1955.
Under his leadership, Britain became one of the leading opponents of Hitler's regime. He created the position of Minister of Defence, giving him much more control over the war effort, making him the most powerful prime minister in wartime Britain had ever seen. Churchill revitalized the British people with inspirational speeches: "We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
Churchill tried advancing the "soft underbelly" plan, wherein the Allies would first invade through Italy, in order to prevent the Soviets from occupying Eastern Europe, as they did after World War II, and to protect Britain's colonies in Africa and the Middle East. The plan was rejected.
Churchill is responsible for much of the Allied victories against Hitler in Western Europe. His participation in the D-Day landings, the bombing of Dresden, and other military moves that weakened Germany, were ultimately what freed France and the Low Countries from Nazi domination.