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WINNER OF THE TEMPLER MEDAL BOOK PRIZE 2020 A SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL
TIMES AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'A stunning
achievement' Max Hastings, Sunday Times Part Two of Daniel Todman's
epic history of the Second World War opens with one of the greatest
disasters in British military history - the fall of Singapore in
February 1942. Unlike the aftermath of Dunkirk, there was no
redeeming narrative available here - Britain had been defeated by a
far smaller Japanese force in her grandly proclaimed, invincible
Asian 'fortress'. The unique skill of Daniel Todman's history lies
in its never losing sight of the inter-connectedness of the British
experience. The agony of Singapore, for example, is seen through
the eyes of its inhabitants, of its defenders, of Churchill's
Cabinet and of ordinary people at home. Each stage of the war, from
the nadir of early 1942 to the great series of victories in 1944-5
and on to Indian independence, is described both as it was
understood at the time and in the light of the very latest
historical research. Britain's War is a triumph of narrative,
empathy and research, as gripping in its handling of individual
witnesses to the war - those doomed to struggle with bombing,
rationing, exhausting work and above all the absence of millions of
family members - as of the gigantic military, social, technological
and economic forces that swept the conflict along. It is the
definitive account of a drama which reshaped our country. 'I cannot
recommend this history highly enough' Keith Lowe, Literary Review
For most of the Second World War, General Sir Alan Brooke
(1883-1963), later Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, was Britain's
Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) and Winston Churchill's
principal military adviser, and antagonist, in the inner councils
of war. He is commonly considered the greatest CIGS in the history
of the British Army. His diaries--published here for the first time
in complete and unexpurgated form--are one of the most important
and the most controversial military diaries of the modern era. The
last great chronicle of the Second World War, they provide a
riveting blow-by-blow account of how the war was waged and
eventually won--including the controversies over the Second Front
and the desperate search for a strategy, the Allied bomber
offensive, the Italian campaign, the D-day landings, the race for
Berlin, the divisions of Yalta, and the postwar settlement.
Beginning in September 1939, the diaries were written up each night
in the strictest secrecy and against all regulations. Alanbrooke's
mask of command was legendary but these diaries tell us what he
really saw and felt: moments of triumph and exhilaration, but also
frustration, depression, betrayal, and doubt. They expose the gulf
between the military and the politicians of the War Cabinet, and
how often military strategy was misguided and nearly derailed by
political prejudices. They also reveal the incredible strain on
Alanbrooke of the Allied conferences in Washington, Moscow,
Casablanca, Quebec, and Tehran, as he tried after intense and
exhausting argument (not least with Churchill) to match Allied
strategy with the reality of British military power and the
fragility of the British Empire. These diaries demonstrate the true
depth of Alanbrooke's rage and despair at Churchill's failure to
grasp overall strategy. This was particularly acute in the winter
of 1943-44 when Churchill, fueled by medicine and alcohol, no
longer seemed master of himself.
'An energetic, ambitious, provocative work by a young historian of
notable gifts, which deserves a wide readership' Max Hastings, The
Sunday Times 'Bold and breathtaking... I have never read a more
daringly panoramic survey of the period' Jonathan Wright, Herald
Scotland The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the
Second World War required an unprecedented national effort. An
exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found
itself much diminished amongst the victors. Yet the outcome of the
war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system
that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for
a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared
most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe. Britain's
War is a narrative of these epic events, an analysis of the myriad
factors that shaped military success and failure, and an
explanation of what the war tells us about the history of modern
Britain. As compelling on the major military events as he is on the
experience of ordinary people living through exceptional times,
Todman suffuses his extraordinary book with a vivid sense of a
struggle which left nobody unchanged - and explores why, despite
terror, separation and deprivation, Britons were overwhelmingly
willing to pay the price of victory. This volume begins with the
coronation of George VI and ends with the disasters in the Far East
in December 1941. A second volume will tell the story from 1942 to
Indian independence in 1947.
Great Britain's refusal to yield to Nazi Germany in the Second
World War remains one of the greatest survival stories of modern
times. Commemorated, evoked, and mythologized as it has
been-chiseled and engraved onto countless monuments, the subject of
an endless stream of books and films-its triumphant outcome was by
no means predetermined. In December 1940, months after war was
declared, the director of plans at the War Office in London was
asked to draft a paper on how to win the war. He replied that he
could only plan "for not losing." Britain's War: Into Battle,
1937-1941 is the first of two volumes in which Daniel Todman offers
a brilliantly fresh retelling, an epic history to fit an epic
story. "Opening with his discovery of some war medals sitting in a
hearing-aid box that likely belonged to his grandfather, Todman
realizes that despite it all a new generation seems unaware of what
was truly at stake when Churchill invoked Britain's "finest hour."
The war was far greater than any single heroic hour. For six years,
Britain was at the dark heart of history, finding its way forward
hour by hour, day by day, year by year. This volume spans the
beginning and the end of the beginning, from the massive changes
required to get the country onto a war footing, through the failure
of appeasement, the invasion of Poland, the "phony war," the fall
of France, the "miracle" of Dunkirk, the Battles of Britain, and
the Blitz, ending with America's course-changing entrance into the
conflict in late 1941. Todman's colossal project seamlessly merges
economic, strategic, social, cultural, and military history in one
compelling narrative. Rapid industrialization, social disruption,
food rationing, Westminster politics, class snobbery, and the
mobilization of a global empire are woven together with the major
opening battles. Here, also, are key individuals-the politicians,
industrialists, pub owners, housewives, the pilots of the RAF, and
the sailors at Dunkirk-caught in the maelstrom that threatened to
engulf not just a small island nation but the world itself.
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