19. Churchill’s Plan to Attack the Soviets At the End of WWII
As the war in Europe drew to a close in the spring of 1945, Winston Churchill was growing increasingly exasperated by Soviet intransigence regarding Eastern Europe, which Stalin clearly aimed to turn into a Soviet empire. Britain had gone to war in order to defend Polish independence, but at war’s end Stalin was riding roughshod over the Poles.
The Soviet dictator insisted on keeping the third of Poland he had annexed in 1939 in cooperation with the Germans, reducing the Poles to Soviet clients, and extinguishing their freedom and independence. Churchill saw it as a matter touching British honor, so he ordered his generals to draw up plans to attack the Soviets as soon as Germany surrendered. The Prime Minister had nebulous aims of pushing the Red Army back to the USSR’s borders, or at least force Stalin to treat Poland fairly.