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Churchill: The Agile PM (Part 7)
Most people are very familiar with Winston Churchill but may not be familiar with his “agile” approach to project management, and his management skills as a PM. Part 6 looked at the rapidly deteriorating situation in France in May 1940 and the last gasp effort by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to counter attack. This article looks at how Churchill, faced with the destruction of the BEF, is left with no option but to evacuate straining the Allied relationship to breaking point.
On May 24, Belgium was on the point of giving up as too much territory was lost and the Allied Northern armies were retreating back to the channel ports of Calais and Dunkirk, as Boulogne was now captured. Churchill knew from an Enigma decode that the Axis army commanders wanted to encircle and destroy these armies.
In today’s world, a PM needs to keep a big picture view at all times. Churchill hesitated in evacuating the BEF because of its impact on the military campaign in the West swaying the balance toward the Axis forces, and a catastrophic effect on the already wavering relationship with his Allies. Worse still, it would be a logistical nightmare, with not enough ships and time to complete such a large evacuation; civilian watercraft would be required in large numbers. The port would become a murderous cauldron of hell with huge losses of troops on the unprotected beaches, and …
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