The Western Allies had taken the offensive after the appointment of incoming French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, on a limited scale, at least. Because neutral nations had been appalled that Poland had been left to its fate. Deciding against sending an Expeditionary Force to Finland, and risk a declaration of war from the Soviet Union, the Western Allies had settled on Norway as the place to make a stand. Because vital supplies of Nazi iron passed through the port of Narvik, a decision was made to use their superior naval forces to launch a pre-emptive strike that would hurt the German War Effort and also score a miliary victory for the West.

"Churchill has allowed himself to be converted into an air-raid shelter to keep the splinters from hitting his colleagues" ~ David Lloyd GeorgeThe attack in February was a resounding success, achieving both an irreversible occupation of Norway, and also a damaging blow to German supplies. In contrast, the Baltic Sea offensive by the Royal Navy was a catastrophe of the highest magnitude. A substantial naval squadron had been lost, comprising three Revenge class battleships, an aircraft carrier, five cruisers, two destroyer flotillas, submarines and supporting auxiliaries. Worse, the battleships had required significant modification to resist air and submarine attack. Two 15-inch gun turrets had to be removed, and an additional two thousand tons of armour added that had to be stolen from other pressing military applications.

"Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" ~ Leo Amory The architect of "Project Catherine" was of course the hot-headed warmonger, Winston S. Churchill (pictured, below) who foolishly anticipated that a show of force would encourage the Scandinavian nations to join the war against Germany. The impact of air power had been under-estimated in the plan, and in fact this flaw had been identified by the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Dudley Pound during the planning phase. And yet Churchill had ignored those concerns. Acting over-boldly as a result of the successful capture of Narvik, Churchill had even failed to realised that Project Catherine had become largely redundant because the iron ore shipments had already been stopped.

That Churchill could be capable of such a blunder was of little surprise to many. Throughout his long-career, he had held many of the high offices of state, leaving all of those positions in a frightful mess. As Home Secretary, he had personally taken charge of the Siege of Sidney Street, a notorious gunfight in London's East End in 1911. During his first spell as First Lord of the Admiralty, he had orchestrated the disasterous Gallipoli Campaign which had forced his exit from the Government (he spent the next few months seeing action on the Western Front). And later, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had placed Britain back on the Gold Standard in a misguided attempt to set the clock back to 1914.

Terminal illness would soon end the Premiership of Chamberlain. His successor Lord Halifax would be roundly criticised by Churchill from the backbenchers for concluding an armistice with Germany in 1941. In retrospect, it was an insightful decision, because not only did Britain stand undefeated with many of its war aims achieved, but such a settlement allowed the Nazis to focus on the extermination of Communism, an outcome which Churchill himself had advocated during the Russian Civil War.