phylo_roadking Does anyone happen to possess a copy of this particular volume of Gilbert's Biography of Winston??? No, but happy to do a look-up in Gilbert's "Churchill- A Life" Ron
Ron, I'm not sure if it'll go into the same detail, but would you see what it says about his decision to use mustard gas in the event of Sealion, made on ether the 29th or 30th of June 1940? Specifically, Gilbert apparently gives a lot more detail in "Finest Hour" than most places, incorporating information from John Colville's "Fringes of Power"... Specifically I'm trying to get confirmation that Churchill went to Cabinet for agreement to change the first-use protocol on gas in the event of invasion...and did he do so before or after memo'ing Ismay???
Phylo Pages 782 & 783 relate to June '44. Couldn't find any mention of the use of Mustard Gas in 1940 Hope this meets your requirements Ron
Ron, thanks for that - it's actually a different occasion from what I'm looking for...but at this time Churchill asked Ismay AGAIN to investigate the use of gas, this time offensively - and IIRC Ismay vacillated and avoided doing much about it until it was unnecessary
To set the scene better... On the last weekend of June 1940, Churchill entertained a number of people to various lunches/dinners at Chequers, including on Anthony Eden's recommendation Gen. Andrew Thorne of II Corps; from Thorne (whose command Eden had toured the day before) Churchill heard the TRUE state of Britain's defences in the south-east - AND that Thorne was about to loose his only fully equiped division, due to be transferred away. Churchill had also IIRC toured the invasion defences of the Canadian 1st Division that day. John Colville records apparently in Fringes of Power that this was the weekend - on EITHER the 29th or 20th, it's not fully clear - Winston decided to memo Ismay regarding the use of gas defensively...AND apparently Churchill decided to put the question of changing the first-use rule on gas that Britain had stated I.E. we wouldn't use it UNTIL it had been used against us. Apparently Martin Gilbert spends two pages on this two-day period in Finest Hour - and specifically he says that Churchill not only memo'd Ismay - he DID consult "Cabinet" and after some initial reservations got approval to change the first-use protocols. At present I can only read two sentences from these two pages on the Internet and I'm trying to find out 1/ if Churchill consulted Cabinet before or after he memo'd Ismay; 2/ did he think of consulting Cabinet himself, or did someone convince him of the need? 3/ which Cabinet - the full Cabinet or his smaller "kitchen" War Cabinet? and finally, if it records this - 4/ WHO objected initially?
