I'm breaking my self-imposed 'What If?' embargo by commenting here, but what Ron Goldstein has said exactly matches what my parents have told me, and also my late grandparents.

Granted, Attlee was a proficient Prime Minister but the without inspired personal leadership and great force of character, the Country would have been in dire straits indeed ( can one imaging Attlee forcing Whitehall mandarins to seriously consider 'choking to death on their own blood' ? ).

I really cannot think of anyone else on the political scene at that time with sufficient dynamism.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson