![CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed ("W."), to Ivor Guest (1873-1939), London, n.d. [ca. 1917] 2½ pages, 8vo, Ministry of Munitions stationery, slight staining, foxed at center crease.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02751_0078_000(churchill_winston_s_autograph_letter_signed_to_ivor_guest_london_nd_ca073958).jpg?w=1)
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed ("W."), to Ivor Guest (1873-1939), London, n.d. [ca. 1917] 2½ pages, 8vo, Ministry of Munitions stationery, slight staining, foxed at center crease.
"RUSSIA'S CAPTURE," AMERICAN REINFORCEMENT, AND A PROLONGED GREAT WAR are on Churchill's mind in this letter to his first cousin, in which he expresses his determination to crush Germany. The recent gathering of the Commonwealth prime ministers had no "other object but the prosecution of the war, which it seems to me will certainly continue on a great scale; for we are reinforced by America & Germany by the capture of Russia. The Germans are in no mood for reason and I should greatly fear any settlement with them unless & until they have been definitely worsted. At present they think they have won..." The stalemate on the Western Front continued throughout 1917. Russia left the war after the Bolshevik Revolution and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. America declared war in April but did not send troops into battle until late that year and early 1918--in time for the great spring offensive which nearly saw a German victory. The Armistice of November 1918 left exactly the kind of embittered peace that Churchill wanted to avoid, and which proved the basis for Hitler's stab-in-the-back legend in the 1920s and 30s.
"RUSSIA'S CAPTURE," AMERICAN REINFORCEMENT, AND A PROLONGED GREAT WAR are on Churchill's mind in this letter to his first cousin, in which he expresses his determination to crush Germany. The recent gathering of the Commonwealth prime ministers had no "other object but the prosecution of the war, which it seems to me will certainly continue on a great scale; for we are reinforced by America & Germany by the capture of Russia. The Germans are in no mood for reason and I should greatly fear any settlement with them unless & until they have been definitely worsted. At present they think they have won..." The stalemate on the Western Front continued throughout 1917. Russia left the war after the Bolshevik Revolution and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. America declared war in April but did not send troops into battle until late that year and early 1918--in time for the great spring offensive which nearly saw a German victory. The Armistice of November 1918 left exactly the kind of embittered peace that Churchill wanted to avoid, and which proved the basis for Hitler's stab-in-the-back legend in the 1920s and 30s.