The Second World War, Volume 3: The Grand Alliance [Paperback]

This is the third volume of Churchill's six volume history of the Second World War. The first volume covers the approximate 20 year period between the end of WW I until May, 1940. The second volume covers approximately seven months, commencing with the German attack on France until the end of the year. "The Grand Alliance" covers one year: 1941. Britain, and her Empire had fought the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan alone for almost a year before Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, in June, 1941, led to the USSR joining an alliance with Britain. Six months later, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the third major power into conflict with the Axis.

The fighting was truly global even when Britain fought alone, due to the resources of its Empire. The Blitz, the German air attacks on England continued, as did the countermeasures, but the possibilities that the Germans could pound England into submission had largely passed. Much of the fighting was in southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean. In general, Britain was still in retreat, as the Balkans and Greece fell. (The resistance in Greece may have played a crucial role in delaying Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union by a month, and thus, enabling Russia's "best ally," its winter, to stop the Germans at the gates of Moscow.) Crete also was lost to German airborne units. The action in North Africa see-sawed back and forth, with the British defeating the Italians, but were then pushed back by the Germans, who reached a high-water mark advance, and were routed in 1942. The 240 day siege of Tobruk notably occurred during this period. There were also maneuvers and fighting in Iraq and Syria. Churchill tells well a few of the uplifting British successes in the first half of 1941, including a chapter devoted to the sinking of the German battleship "Bismarck," and a rout of Italian forces in Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and the subsequent return of the Emperor, as well as successes in the Somalilands.

The second half of the book is rather oddly entitled "War Comes to America" but he commences with the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Much later he was famous for saying that the Red Army "tore the guts out of the Wehrmacht," but in 1941 it was nothing but a series of endless disasters and retreats. In the Kiev encirclement alone, the Russians lost 600,000 men. Churchill also devotes considerable effort to documenting the essential diplomatic efforts, and his meeting with Roosevelt, in order to supply the Russians, and keep them in the war. Only towards the very end of the book does he devote a chapter to Pearl Harbor, and America's entry. Churchill lays the groundwork for the British victories in North Africa, as well as the defeats in Malaya and Singapore, in 1942. Also, in 1942, the Battle for Midway signaled the shift to the dominance of air power in naval battles, but for the British, this was foreshadowed by the loss of the HMS Prince of Wales, one of the most modern battleships, and the HMS Repulse, in the South China Sea. The ships, unprotected by their own air power, were sunk by Japanese land-based aircraft.

As mentioned in reviews of earlier volumes, Churchill's work might not be the best place for an overall objective view of the war. It is long, with numerous original documents that may be of interest only to the specialist. What is also lacking is the behind the scenes views of the other allies, as well as the planning and motivation of the Axis powers. Still, Churchill was ideally suited to provide the British perspective, both diplomatically and militarily, and he does he quite well. There are some excellent maps, and numerous appendix with more detailed information on troop and material strengths. 5-stars.

"The Grand Alliance" is the third installment in Winston S. Churchill's six volume history of The Second World War. It is a strong link in that chain. This volume essentially covers 1941, a momentous year of transitions. As the book starts, Britain, the Dominions and its Empire are standing alone against Germany and Italy. The war is at something of a lull. France has fallen, the Battle of Britain has receded, because, unbeknownst at the time, Hitler was turning his attention to the East, leaving only a diminished air war, with active fighting largely confined to North Africa. The United States was maintaining its neutrality while President Roosevelt was working to guide America into a more active support of Britain. This period of diplomacy and relative quiet would soon be swept away.

As is customary in this series, Churchill reports the events in the war from his perspective in London. Through the year the tide of war in North Africa ebbed and flowed, leaving Tobruk at times a base for operations and at other times an enclave encroaching on a German-Italian desert empire. I found the Australian insistence on withdrawal of its troops from Tobruk to be a surprising break in Allied cooperation. The Spring brought the breakout and sinking of "Bismarck" along with war and anxious diplomatic maneuvering in the Balkans and Greece, including a desperate, but unsuccessful, British intervention. Amidst all of this, Rudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland on his own bizarre peace mission.

The first really big story of this book is Operation Barbarossa, the June German invasion of Russia, as Churchill always called the Soviet Union. Providing his own insight, Churchill records the British warning of German troop movements made to Stalin in April.

August was the month of the Atlantic Charter that grew out of the off-shore Newfoundland meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt in Placentia Bay.

December brought the answer to Churchill's prayers, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought America into the war "up to the neck and to the death." That night Churchill "went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful." The Arcadia conference in Washington later that month brought forth the plan for Joint Command that would direct American-British relations for the rest of the war.

That is, in short, the story told in this volume. As is always the case, Churchillian prose is witty and gives the reader the sense of being involved in the conferences and communications that shaped history. I have long viewed Churchill's series as the starting point for a thorough understanding of World War II. "The Grand Alliance" covers its assigned year in splendid fashion.

his acount of WW2. does well in kindle format - maps good too. Good price for such an excellent work