Ninety-six hours before the World War II invasion of Normandy, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill struggles with his severe reservations with Operation Overlord and his increasingly marginalized role in the war effort.
June 1944. Allied Forces stand on the brink: a massive army is secretly assembled on the south coast of Britain, poised to re-take Nazi-occupied Europe. One man stands in their way: Winston Churchill. Behind the iconic figure and rousing speeches: a man who has faced political ridicule, military failure and a speech impediment. An impulsive, sometimes bullying personality - fearful, obsessive and hurting. Fearful of repeating, on his disastrous command, the mass slaughter of 1915, when hundreds of thousands of young men were cut down on the beaches of Gallipoli. Obsessed with fulfilling historical greatness: his destiny. Exhausted by years of war and plagued by depression, Churchill is a shadow of the hero who has resisted Hitler's Blitzkrieg. Should the D-Day landings fail, he is terrified he'll be remembered as an architect of carnage. Political opponents sharpen their knives. General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery are increasingly frustrated by Churchill's attempts to stop the invasion. King George VI must intervene. Only the support of Churchill's brilliant, yet exasperated wife Clementine can halt the Prime Minister's physical and mental collapse. The untold story of Britain's most celebrated leader, uncovering the true nature of Churchill's herculean war-time status and his vital relationship with "Clemmie" - his backbone and total confidant...the love that inspired him to greatness.
June 1944. The Allied invasion of German-occupied France is due to take place within the next few days. All the plans are set and the operation is ready to go. However, Prime Minister Winston Churchill has grave misgivings for the invasion, fearing that it will be a monumental disaster. He tries to have it stopped, but runs into resistance from the Allied military top brass.—grantss
June 1944. Allied Forces stand on the brink: a massive army is secretly assembled on the south coast of Britain, poised to re-take Nazi-occupied Europe. One man stands in their way: Winston Churchill (Brian Cox). To drive the Nazi out of Europe, an invasion is needed by the Allied forces, with a planned landing in France.
Behind the iconic figure and rousing speeches: a man who has faced political ridicule, military failure and a speech impediment. An impulsive, sometimes bullying personality - fearful, obsessive and hurting. Fearful of repeating, on his disastrous command, the mass slaughter of 1915, when hundreds of thousands of young men were cut down on the beaches of Gallipoli. Churchill was lambasted for the loss of life at Gallipoli and was considered a failed leader of the Admiralty. He did not want to repeat the same mistake.
Helen Garrett (Ella Purnell) is Churchill's secretary. Jan Smuts (Richard Durden) worked with Churchill from preventing Italy and Germany from capturing North Africa. Helen is a big supporter of Churchill and believes that he is the man who will see Britain through the war.
Obsessed with fulfilling historical greatness: his destiny. Exhausted by years of war and plagued by depression, Churchill is a shadow of the hero who has resisted Hitler's Blitzkrieg. Should the D-Day landings fail, he is terrified he'll be remembered as an architect of carnage. Political opponents sharpen their knives. General Eisenhower (John Slattery) and Field Marshal Montgomery (Julian Wadham) are increasingly frustrated by Churchill's attempts to stop the invasion.
Churchill argues that allied forces will have to commit 250,000 men, 7000 ships and swarms of planes to secure the beaches of France with an estimated civilian casualty loss of 160,000 French people. Not to mention that the failure of invasion would expose Britain to invasion from Germany.Churchill calls the invasion plans foolhardy and says that the risks associated with it are just too great. He argues that if the invasion fails, in one strike Britain will lose almost all of its war material, along with thousands of their own men. Churchill wants to split the attack to spread the risk.
Churchill pleads that he has seen beach landings go bad in the first world war, and the risk of failure is just too great. He says that the broken plan must be fixed before it ends in tragedy. Eisenhower accuses Churchill of not believing in the plan from the very beginning.Churchill mobilizes his team to set up distractions in the Aegean Sea, in Italy and in Norway. Churchill tells Smut that sending so many men on a well defended coastline is only slaughter and not warfare.
Alan Brooke (Danny Webb) is the chief of staff for the British forces. He arranges for a meeting between Churchill and Eisenhower. Churchill says that even if Eisenhower wins D-Day, the army will face trench warfare in Europe.
They trade insults where Eisenhower basically says that Churchill's plans and tactics are not in line with modern warfare. Even Brooke decides to not follow Churchill's orders on alternate invasion plans. Brooke says that the UK does not have the capability to carry out the alternate plans.Churchill yells that the invasion of France must be stopped as it is a deadly gamble, and Eisenhower says that Churchill is trying to win the last war and not the current one. Brooke tells Churchill to take care of politics and leave the war to the professionals. Churchill is furious at being sidelined.
King George VI (James Purefoy) must intervene. Only the support of Churchill's brilliant, yet exasperated wife Clementine (Miranda Richardson) can halt the Prime Minister's physical and mental collapse.Clementine tells Churchill to listen to Eisenhower and adds that he is not the only one who can make decisions in war time. Churchill says that he wants respect as he ran the war for 2 years before the Americans even showed up.
The untold story of Britain's most celebrated leader, uncovering the true nature of Churchill's herculean war-time status and his vital relationship with "Clemmie" - his backbone and total confidant. The love that inspired him to greatness.
96 hours before the World War II invasion of Normandy, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill struggles with his severe reservations with Operation Overlord and his increasingly marginalized role in the war effort.His protests to Eisenhower and Alan have fallen on deaf ears. He takes his frustrations out on his staff and his wife.
Churchill visits the troops of General Montgomery (Julian Wadham) and again remarks that the plans for D Day do not meet his expectations. The planning involves too low number of infantries, and the front of attack is only 50 miles wide. Montgomery has even refused to let his men carry gas masks which exasperates Churchill. Churchill is increasingly out of sync with the war planning by Alan & Eisenhower. Montogomery refuses to let Churchill speak to the men quoting the way he spoke negatively about the plan in front of the King and Eisenhower.
As a final gambit Churchill tells Eisenhower that he and the King will accompany the troops on HMS Belfast to the French beaches on D Day. Eisenhower is angry at the suggestion. A few hours later King George himself calls upon Churchill and asks him to withdraw himself & the King from HMS Belfast and the landing party.
D Day - 48 hours, there is a meeting of the strategic command on a go, no-go decision on D Day itself. The weather is forecast to be bad. The Navy wants to launch, but the air-force is dithering due to rough weather conditions. Eisenhower decides to hold the invasion for 24 hours, when there is a forecast break in weather.
Clemmie is the only one keeping Churchill away from doing more damage to himself and destroying his sterling legacy. Churchill prays that night for the weather to remain worse. The next morning the forecast is good, and Eisenhower decides to launch D Day landings. The group photographs for posterity does not include Churchill and that bites him.
Churchill is increasingly bitter about the callousness with which Eisenhower seems to be sending thousands of men to their deaths, until Helen protests to Churchill that at this stage she does not want to hear about the possible death of her fiance who is participating in D Day, especially not from Churchill. This seems to have a strong effect on Churchill and changes his outlook.
The next day Churchill delivers one of his finest speeches celebrating the valor of allied troops and the war effort & his determination to lead England in the middle of new threats of V8 rockets from Germany. He and Clemmie make up later and spend the rest of their lives together.
