Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was prime minister of Great Britain during most of World War II. Before the war, Churchill opposed Britain's policy of appeasement toward Germany, and was a tireless advocate of British military rearmament. Churchill became prime minister in 1940, after the defeat of France and numerous British military losses. His dynamic personality lifted British morale in the war's darkest days. Churchill was instrumental in forging the wartime alliance of Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Toward the end of the war, Churchill helped draft the Atlantic Charter, which divided Germany into Allied occupation zones and laid the foundations of the United Nations. Ironically, he was defeated in his first bid for re-election in the postwar period.
