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Just askin' ... 
Let's face it, when you look at Churchill's speech to the House of Commons on 4 June 1940, his "We will fight them on the beaches" speech - and here's the last bit of that speech:
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. 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, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
... and a fortnight later, on announcing to the British Parliament that France had fallen to the Germans and that Britain would be next in the firing line, his game plan becomes obvious, and that was to hold out for an American entry into the war:
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
It was a correct strategy and based on the time-honoured British strategy, probably going back to the Armada, of keeping an enemy confined to continental Europe and denying him the island of Britain. In the case of WW2 it was "hang in there until the US Cavalry arrives". The US "cavalry" did begin to arrive 18 months later and the rest is history, but those 18 months were a close run thing and the entry of the US into the War was not guaranteed.
Which is why Pearl Harbor is so interesting. If you apply the "cui bono?" (= who benefits?) test to Pearl Harbor you'd have to conclude that the greatest beneficiaries of Pearl Harbor were the British since it pushed the Americans into the War and that changed ... well ... everything!
I'm not suggesting that it was all a British plot. Nothing so crass. But Bletchley Park was a fine British institution which had successfully broken all Axis codes by 1940 - including the Japanese. One of them was one of our guys - Capt Eric Nave RAN (Royal Australian Navy). By Pearl Harbor the British had long been in a position, with listening posts throughout the Pacific from Singapore to Hong Kong, to eavesdrop on all Japanese radio chatter and to decode encrypted messages.
They would have known something was up. What didn't they tell the Americans? I'd be surprised if Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entry of the US into the war didn't cause the odd champagne glass to be raised in London.
Let's face it, when you look at Churchill's speech to the House of Commons on 4 June 1940, his "We will fight them on the beaches" speech - and here's the last bit of that speech:
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. 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, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
... and a fortnight later, on announcing to the British Parliament that France had fallen to the Germans and that Britain would be next in the firing line, his game plan becomes obvious, and that was to hold out for an American entry into the war:
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
It was a correct strategy and based on the time-honoured British strategy, probably going back to the Armada, of keeping an enemy confined to continental Europe and denying him the island of Britain. In the case of WW2 it was "hang in there until the US Cavalry arrives". The US "cavalry" did begin to arrive 18 months later and the rest is history, but those 18 months were a close run thing and the entry of the US into the War was not guaranteed.
Which is why Pearl Harbor is so interesting. If you apply the "cui bono?" (= who benefits?) test to Pearl Harbor you'd have to conclude that the greatest beneficiaries of Pearl Harbor were the British since it pushed the Americans into the War and that changed ... well ... everything!
I'm not suggesting that it was all a British plot. Nothing so crass. But Bletchley Park was a fine British institution which had successfully broken all Axis codes by 1940 - including the Japanese. One of them was one of our guys - Capt Eric Nave RAN (Royal Australian Navy). By Pearl Harbor the British had long been in a position, with listening posts throughout the Pacific from Singapore to Hong Kong, to eavesdrop on all Japanese radio chatter and to decode encrypted messages.
They would have known something was up. What didn't they tell the Americans? I'd be surprised if Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entry of the US into the war didn't cause the odd champagne glass to be raised in London.
