Götterdämmerung Averted: Winston Churchill, Flensburg and the Unthinkable

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the anti-Soviet undertakings of Winston Churchill and the Flensburg Reich government during the spring of 1945. It contends that British and German strategic goals closely aligned as the Second World War in Europe ended. These objectives were to halt Soviet expansion westwards and to prepare for a potential new military confrontation with the USSR. It links British contingency planning to attack the Soviet Union (Operation Unthinkable) directly to Churchill’s attempts to prolong the existence of the Flensburg government after V-E Day. The article argues that Churchill sought to use the remnants of the Nazi leadership as an anti-communist tool against the Soviet Union. It also presents the case that Reich President Karl Doenitz pursued a similar arrangement. Finally, the article asserts if Churchill had been able to secure American support, then an armed conflict between the western allies, backed by the Nazi government, and the Soviet Union was plausible.