How Churchill Waged War

How Churchill Waged War PDF Author: Allen Packwood
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1473893917
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
An analytical investigation into Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision-making process during every stage of World War II. When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success or failure of Britain’s war effort. It also meant that he would be faced with many monumental challenges and utterly crucial decisions upon which the fate of Britain and the free world rested. With the limited resources available to the UK, Churchill had to pinpoint where his country’s priorities lay. He had to respond to the collapse of France, decide if Britain should adopt a defensive or offensive strategy, choose if Egypt and the war in North Africa should take precedence over Singapore and the UK’s empire in the East, determine how much support to give the Soviet Union, and how much power to give the United States in controlling the direction of the war. In this insightful investigation into Churchill’s conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood, BA, MPhil (Cantab), FRHistS, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war. How Churchill responded to each challenge is analyzed in great detail and the conclusions Packwood draws are as uncompromising as those made by Britain’s wartime leader as he negotiated his country through its darkest days.

How Churchill Waged War

How Churchill Waged War PDF Author: Allen Packwood
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1473893917
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book

Book Description
An analytical investigation into Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision-making process during every stage of World War II. When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success or failure of Britain’s war effort. It also meant that he would be faced with many monumental challenges and utterly crucial decisions upon which the fate of Britain and the free world rested. With the limited resources available to the UK, Churchill had to pinpoint where his country’s priorities lay. He had to respond to the collapse of France, decide if Britain should adopt a defensive or offensive strategy, choose if Egypt and the war in North Africa should take precedence over Singapore and the UK’s empire in the East, determine how much support to give the Soviet Union, and how much power to give the United States in controlling the direction of the war. In this insightful investigation into Churchill’s conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood, BA, MPhil (Cantab), FRHistS, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war. How Churchill responded to each challenge is analyzed in great detail and the conclusions Packwood draws are as uncompromising as those made by Britain’s wartime leader as he negotiated his country through its darkest days.

Churchill's Admiral in Two World Wars

Churchill's Admiral in Two World Wars PDF Author: Jim Crossley
Publisher: Pen and Sword Maritime
ISBN: 1526748428
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Roger Keyes was the archetype of 19th to 20th century Royal Navy officers. A superb seaman, inspiring leader and fearless fighter he immediately caught the eye of senior figures in the naval establishment as well as the up and coming politician, Winston Churchill. The relationship between these two brave men survived disappointment, disagreement and eventually disillusion. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Keyes was unable to make the transition from sailor to politician and was inclined to embarrass his friends and allies by his intemperate language and total lack of political acumen. Always eager to lead from the front and hurl himself at the enemy his mind set tended to be that of a junior officer trying to prove himself, not that of a senior Admiral. Trained in some of the last of Britain's sailing warships, Keyes served in submarines in the North Sea, destroyers in China and as a senior staff officer in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. As commander of the Dover Patrol he planned and led the highly controversial Zeebrugge Raid and successfully combated U-boats passing along the English Channel. In World War II he begged to be given a combat command but, in spite of their close personal friendship, Churchill realized that he was too old to be suitable for a front line role and his undisguised contempt for many senior Naval and Airforce officers made him extremely unpopular in official circles. To his credit, Churchill did not let his personal friendship and admiration of Keyes blind him to his temperamental and intellectual limitations. Both men were big enough not to let professional conflict destroy mutual personal admiration and friendship.

Churchill and the Dardanelles

Churchill and the Dardanelles PDF Author: Christopher M. Bell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019870254X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
The failure of the Allied fleet to force a passage through the Straits of the Dardanelles in 1915 drove Winston Churchill from office (First Lord of the Admiralty) in disgrace and nearly destroyed his political career. For over a century, Churchill has been both praised and condemned for his role in launching this highly controversial campaign. For some, the Dardanelles offensive was a brilliant concept that might have dramatically shortened the First World War. To many others, however, Churchill was a reckless amateur who drove his unwilling and misinformed colleagues into a venture that was doomed to fail. This book, based on exhaustive archival research, provides a detailed and authoritative account of the Gallipoli campaign's origins and execution, stripping away the layers of myth that have long surrounded these dramatic events, and showing that no simple verdict is either possible or fair. Naval historian Christopher M. Bell untangles Churchill's complicated relationship with the dynamic First Sea Lord, Admiral Jacky Fisher, and reveals for the first time the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to Churchill's removal from office, including Fisher's covert campaign to undermine support for the Dardanelles operation, and the leaks by figures in high places that fuelled a bitter press campaign to drive Churchill from power. Equal attention is also given to the perhaps even more important story of Churchill and the Dardanelles after 1915. As Bell shows, Churchill spent a good deal of time and effort in the following two decades trying to refute his critics and convince the wider public that the campaign had in fact nearly succeeded. These efforts were so successful that the legacy of the Dardanelles did not stand in the way of Churchill becoming Prime Minister in May 1940--Provided by publisher.

Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War"

Churchill, Hitler, and Author: Patrick J. Buchanan
Publisher: Forum Books
ISBN: 0307405168
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
Were World Wars I and II inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen– Winston Churchill first among them–the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations. Among the British and Churchillian errors were: • The secret decision of a tiny cabal in the inner Cabinet in 1906 to take Britain straight to war against Germany, should she invade France • The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that mutilated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler • Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo-Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan, pushing her onto the path of militarism and conquest • The greatest mistake in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939, ensuring the Second World War Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “the Unnecessary War” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.

The Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic PDF Author: Jonathan Dimbleby
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495871
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril," wrote Winston Churchill in his monumental history of World War Two. Churchill's fears were well-placed-the casualty rate in the Atlantic was higher than in any other theater of the entire war. The enemy was always and constantly there and waiting, lying just over the horizon or lurking beneath the waves. In many ways, the Atlantic shipping lanes, where U-boats preyed on American ships, were the true front of the war. England's very survival depended on assistance from the United States, much of which was transported across the ocean by boat. The shipping lanes thus became the main target of German naval operations between 1940 and 1945. The Battle of the Atlantic and the men who fought it were therefore crucial to both sides. Had Germany succeeded in cutting off the supply of American ships, England might not have held out. Yet had Churchill siphoned reinforcements to the naval effort earlier, thousands of lives might have been preserved. The battle consisted of not one but hundreds of battles, ranging from hours to days in duration, and forcing both sides into constant innovation and nightmarish second-guessing, trying desperately to gain the advantage of every encounter. Any changes to the events of this series of battles, and the outcome of the war-as well as the future of Europe and the world-would have been dramatically different. Jonathan Dimbleby's The Battle of the Atlantic offers a detailed and immersive account of this campaign, placing it within the context of the war as a whole. Dimbleby delves into the politics on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the role of Bletchley Park and the complex and dynamic relationship between America and England. He uses contemporary diaries and letters from leaders and sailors to chilling effect, evoking the lives and experiences of those who fought the longest battle of World War Two. This is the definitive account of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Betrayal at Pearl Harbor

Betrayal at Pearl Harbor PDF Author: James Rusbridger
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN:
Category : Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Examines events and Japanese naval code transmissions preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor to raise new questions concerning Winston Churchill's advance knowledge of the attack.

Churchill and Fisher

Churchill and Fisher PDF Author: Barry Gough
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
ISBN: 1459411366
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
A vivid study of the politics and stress of high command, this book describes the decisive roles of young Winston Churchill as political head of the Admiralty during the First World War. Churchill was locked together in a perilous destiny with the ageing British Admiral 'Jacky' Fisher, the professional master of the British Navy and the creator of the enormous battleships known as Dreadnoughts. Upon these 'Titans at the Admiralty' rested British command of the sea at the moment of its supreme test — the challenge presented by the Kaiser's navy under the dangerous Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Churchill and Fisher had vision, genius, and energy, but the war unfolded in unexpected ways. There were no Trafalgars, no Nelsons. Press and Parliament became battlegrounds for a public expecting decisive victory at sea. An ill-fated Dardanelles adventure, 'by ships alone' as Churchill determined, on top of the Zeppelin raids on Britain brought about Fisher's departure from the Admiralty, in turn bringing down Churchill. They spent the balance of the war in the virtual wilderness. This dual biography, based on fresh and thorough appraisal of the Churchill and Fisher papers, is a story for any military history buff. It is about Churchill's and Fisher's war — how each fought it, how they waged it together, and how they fought against each other, face to face or behind the scenes. It reveals a strange and unique pairing of sea lords who found themselves facing Armageddon and seeking to maintain the primacy of the Royal Navy, the guardian of trade, the succour of the British peoples, and the shield of Empire.

Churchill's Anchor

Churchill's Anchor PDF Author: Robin Brodhurst
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473813174
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Dudley Pound served for longer on the Chiefs of Staff Committee in wartime than any other serviceman in either of the two World Wars. He was the professional head of the Royal Navy from July 1939 until his resignation, shortly before his death, in August 1943. He had to cope with the problems of Hitler by day and Churchill by night, of trying to make the old ships of the Royal Navy face the challenge of the modern navies of Germany, Italy and Japan.Pound had to run the operational HQ of the Admiralty while also chairing the Chiefs of Staff Committee. As such he was involved in some of the most controversial decisions in the Naval War in Norway 1940, the sinking of the French Fleet, the despatch of The Prince of Wales and Repulse to Singapore, the scattering of convoy PQ17 while, all the while, courageously fighting failing health and enduring huge strain.However by the time of his death the Battle of the Atlantic had been won and the Mediterranean cleared. Churchill's Anchor aims to put Dudley Pound's achievements into context.He held a succession of key commands from a battleship at Jutland to the Mediterranean fleet for four years, alternating with key appointments at the Admiralty. He was at the centre of naval affairs from 1914 until his death in 1943.

Triumph and Tragedy

Triumph and Tragedy PDF Author: Winston Churchill
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780395410608
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 782

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Book Description
From the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 the Second World War had only fourteen months to run. This final volume of the account covers events right up to the unconditional surrender of Japan.Churchill's six-volume history of World War II - the definitive work, remarkable both for its sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, universally acknowledged as a magnificent historical reconstruction and an enduring work of literature.

Churchill's Secret War With Lenin

Churchill's Secret War With Lenin PDF Author: Damien Wright
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1913118118
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
An account of the little-known involvement of Royal Marines as they engaged the new Bolsheviks immediately after the Russian Revolution. After three years of great loss and suffering on the Eastern Front, Imperial Russia was in crisis and on the verge of revolution. In November 1917, Lenin’s Bolsheviks (later known as “Soviets”) seized power, signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers and brutally murdered Tsar Nicholas (British King George’s first cousin) and his children so there could be no return to the old order. As Russia fractured into loyalist “White” and revolutionary “Red” factions, the British government became increasingly drawn into the escalating Russian Civil War after hundreds of thousands of German troops transferred from the Eastern Front to France were used in the 1918 “Spring Offensive” which threatened Paris. What began with the landing of a small number of Royal Marines at Murmansk in March 1918 to protect Allied-donated war stores quickly escalated with the British government actively pursuing an undeclared war against the Bolsheviks on several fronts in support of British trained and equipped “White Russian” Allies. At the height of British military intervention in mid-1919, British troops were fighting the Soviets far into the Russian interior in the Baltic, North Russia, Siberia, Caspian and Crimea simultaneously. The full range of weapons in the British arsenal were deployed including the most modern aircraft, tanks and even poison gas. British forces were also drawn into peripheral conflicts against “White” Finnish troops in North Russia and the German “Iron Division” in the Baltic. It remains a little-known fact that the last British troops killed by the German Army in the First World War were killed in the Baltic in late 1919, nor that the last Canadian and Australian soldiers to die in the First World War suffered their fate in North Russia in 1919 many months after the Armistice. Despite the award of five Victoria Crosses (including one posthumous) and the loss of hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen, most of whom remain buried in Russia, the campaign remains virtually unknown in Britain today. After withdrawal of all British forces in mid-1920, the British government attempted to cover up its military involvement in Russia by classifying all official documents. By the time files relating to the campaign were quietly released decades later there was little public interest. Few people in Britain today know that their nation ever fought a war against the Soviet Union. The culmination of more than 15 years of painstaking and exhaustive research with access to many previously classified official documents, unpublished diaries, manuscripts and personal accounts, author Damien Wright has written the first comprehensive campaign history of British and Commonwealth military intervention in the Russian Civil War 1918-20. “Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War remains forgotten. Wright’s book addresses that oversight, interspersing the broader story with personal accounts of participants.” —Military History Magazine