Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940–45

Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940–45
Sir Max Hastings

Pre-eminent military historian Max Hastings presents Winston Churchill as he has never been seen before.Winston Churchill was the greatest war leader Britain ever had. In 1940, the nation rallied behind him in an extraordinary fashion. But thereafter, argues Max Hastings, there was a deep divide between what Churchill wanted from the British people and their army, and what they were capable of delivering. Himself a hero, he expected others to show themselves heroes also, and was often disappointed. It is little understood how low his popularity fell in 1942, amid an unbroken succession of battlefield defeats. Some of his closest colleagues joined a clamour for him to abandon his role directing the war machine. Hastings paints a wonderfully vivid image of the Prime Minister in triumph and tragedy. He describes the 'second Dunkirk' in 1940, when Churchill's impulsiveness threatened to lose Britain almost as many troops in north-west France as had been saved from the beaches; his wooing of the Americans, and struggles with the Russians. British wartime unity was increasingly tarnished by workers' unrest, with many strikes in mines and key industries.By looking at Churchill from the outside in, through the eyes of British soldiers, civilians and newspapers, and also those of Russians and Americans, Hastings provides new perspectives on the greatest Englishman. He condemns as folly Churchill's attempt to promote mass uprisings in occupied Europe, and details 'Unthinkable', his amazing 1945 plan for an Allied offensive against the Russians to liberate Poland. Here is an intimate and affectionate portrait of Churchill as Britain's saviour, but also an unsparing examination of the wartime nation which he led and the performance of its armed forces.

Finest Years

MAX HASTINGS

Churchill as Warlord 1940-45

Copyright (#ulink_1ef0a34d-0711-5035-a38d-16982dc89fec)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.com (http://www.harpercollins.com/)

Published by HarperPress in 2009

Copyright © Max Hastings 2009

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007263684

Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2009 ISBN: 9780007344116

Version: 2017-07-26

In memory of Roy Jenkins, and our Indian summer friendship

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u3cc787e5-ac93-5d54-bf6c-6574e6eff73d)

Title Page (#u831e7f8a-7484-58c2-b0a2-dcfa1ded010e)

Copyright (#u826d8d57-b85d-56eb-8ca2-8ab28d2d4aac)

Dedication (#u8a66e0c2-f03c-5d1f-9f80-5504301589f9)

Epigraph (#ue33e2058-2213-5435-a0e9-9b87ec8c739a)

Introduction (#u68ab5c37-94cc-58c8-99d2-fcd79c2530f6)

One: The Battle of France (#ua448c09f-1e67-5050-87d6-1e66e37e461c)

Two: The Two Dunkirks (#u8b3584bb-d053-5451-a94f-9eba65babacb)

Three: Invasion Fever (#u16f8d4b1-ebd9-578c-80bc-1b73c7f9b930)

Four: The Battle of Britain (#u15b83499-17fe-58cc-befa-b124169972dd)

Five: Greek Fire (#uaf30cce2-e5a6-5b69-846e-910946f423c9)

Six: Comrades (#ubdbae3c1-ab6f-57a0-908c-5d90a88d8496)

Seven: The Battle of America (#ucc7ed2c0-7bba-595b-a89c-0096f0d73d86)

Eight: A Glimpse of Arcadia (#u311d3bcb-f254-5844-9ee2-eddecf4bad16)

Nine: ‘The Valley of Humiliation’ (#ubeaeaa96-4881-5117-b666-98cf0ff0bf5d)

Ten: Soldiers, Bosses and ‘Slackers’ (#uc990c3d9-eaa5-5959-a219-ff8d5e76386f)

Eleven: ‘Second Front Now!’ (#ud1fc7f51-2d34-51e9-9227-ec78686b3926)

Twelve: Camels and the Bear (#u2b9797a8-afd1-5b8c-9453-d8c03152198a)

Thirteen: The Turn of Fortune (#u02bbb8fd-6795-5d5a-bef2-6152f9ff0d45)

Fourteen: Out of the Desert (#u415add15-4ebd-5b44-ba2c-c62df6a9b3cc)

Fifteen: Sunk in the Aegean (#ucb39fd42-6feb-5405-8934-51baaec018bc)

Sixteen: Tehran (#u72fadeea-2e5c-5633-9ef3-c04cb8146024)

Seventeen: Setting Europe Ablaze (#u60b8d87c-c14d-59ec-bd69-200a25f050c0)

Eighteen: Overlord (#u14f89b22-2144-5ace-9e8a-854c7d2f8b3c)

Nineteen: Bargaining with an Empty Wallet (#u639ed409-ba27-5f92-9efe-0c0e4b204eef)

Twenty: Athens: ‘Wounded in the House of Our Friends’ (#uc283947d-8b3d-5da4-a5bc-c4c8e4bc541b)

Twenty-One: Yalta (#u6bb6ff0d-c1f7-58c0-aa5b-64a4d165ceef)

Twenty-Two: The Final Act (#uf3448506-c536-53cc-b2f8-f2158f3238d2)

Keep Reading (#u8bbd57c3-9727-546d-86ff-9727610ee83f)

Notes and Sources (#u928fc9b4-a65f-5670-baf8-9f6023fa50cd)

Select Bibliography (#ud408545a-671d-5131-a65e-c33813f59366)

Index (#u8dd283ff-c0b5-506d-a79a-094a78ecaec7)

Acknowledgements (#u529f63ef-7354-5d4e-b298-86c6f574cdba)

About the Author (#u613ce9ed-c7b5-5f99-a0d1-d1901ea6b1fb)

By the Same Author (#ue5e4e96e-95a0-5e72-adc5-8d482ca36d14)

About the Publisher (#u4df3f8d3-685a-5596-9d00-c3fd0aaf28d1)

It may well be that the most glorious chapters of our history have yet to be written. Indeed, the very problems and dangers that encompass us and our country ought to make English men and women of this generation glad to be here at such a time. We ought to rejoice at the responsibilities with which destiny has honoured us, and be proud that we are guardians of our country in an age when her life is at stake.

WSC, April 1933

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.

WSC, November 1940

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_a49fe190-1086-5e5c-ae79-cee5c8e06423)