Reviews

Their Finest Hour by Winston Churchill

cjbaird's review against another edition

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informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

trudyd's review

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3.0

It took months for me to finish this book. It was packed with lots of information but it was dry and overwhelming.

radbear76's review against another edition

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5.0

Awesome book. I now have a better understanding of why the British so revere Winston Churchill. His ability to motivate an entire nation against the Nazis was amazing. His speeches gave me chills 70 years after he originally made them.

bedeker's review

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4.0

the second installment of Churchill's Second World War history. Covers 1940 and start of 1941, which includes the Battle of Britain, the threatened German invasion of Great Britain, the Battle of Egypt against Italy, and the start of the Battle of the Atlantic.

kirja's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

thomouser's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative slow-paced

4.25

irurian's review

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4.0

Churchill certainly has a way with words. Every politician must, of course, but it's rare to find one that can make the written word so engaging. I also felt that this was an easier read than the previous volume.

The reference materials used in the text are excellent. For those alone, this is a must read for any history enthusiast. Although, I do suggest that a physical book (opposed to an e-text) would be better to fully appreciate these materials.

Overall, it's an excellent insight into WW2. Being one of the key players in the war, Churchill is able to bring something new to an overwhelmingly flooded topic.

fictionfan's review

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5.0

All the winds that blew...

The second volume in Churchill’s massive, Nobel Prize-winning, six-volume history of the Second World War, this one covers two distinct stages – the fall of France and the Battle of Britain. Churchill gives each volume a theme, and this one seems particularly pointed towards our so-called allies who sat on their hands while Britain stood alone against the mighty German war machine:

HOW THE BRITISH PEOPLE
HELD THE FORT
ALONE
TILL THOSE WHO HITHERTO HAD
BEEN HALF BLIND WERE
HALF READY

Just as in the first volume, this is a wonderful mix of military detail, including many tables showing troop and equipment statistics, and political manoeuvring, as Churchill continued his patient and immensely frustrating attempts to get the US to stand by its supposed allies with something a bit more useful than warm words. Meantime, the rush was on in Britain to intensify munitions manufacture so that the armed forces and especially the air forces would be able to defend against the expected German invasion. We hear much about the many people who were encouraged to use their inventive technical skills to give us any possible military or intelligence edge, and about the support given by the Dominions and Colonies throughout the Empire..

But what makes Churchill such an outstanding Titan in history is that, despite us being forced to stand alone with France fallen and the US procrastinating, despite the massed armies of Hitler gathering on the French shore looking our way, despite the bombs falling devastatingly on our cities night after night, Churchill never considered that we might be defeated. He worked on the assumption that we would win the coming Battle of Britain despite all odds, and so simultaneously made plans for how, our defensive work still ongoing, Britain should move into the offensive stage that would drive Germany and its major ally Italy back, liberating the countries they had invaded and destroying their military might. While all eyes were on the skies above Britain, his gaze was also directed towards Egypt and N. Africa. While all efforts were made to increase production of planes and train pilots to fight the ongoing Battle of Britain, Churchill was also demanding tanks – “Tanks for Africa!”

The prize was worthy of the hazard. The arrival of our vanguard on the sea at Buq Buq or thereabouts would cut the communications of three-quarters of Marshal Graziani's army. Attacked by surprise from the rear, they might well be forced as a result of vigorous fighting into mass surrenders. In this case the Italian front would be irretrievably broken. With all their best troops captured or destroyed, no force would be left capable of withstanding a further onslaught, nor could any organised retreat be made to Tripoli along hundreds of miles of coastal road.

Here, then, was the deadly secret which the generals had talked over with their Secretary of State. This was what they had not wished to telegraph. We were all delighted. I purred like six cats. Here was something worth doing. It was decided there and then, subject to the agreement of the Chiefs of Staff and the War Cabinet, to give immediate sanction and all possible support to this splendid enterprise, and that it should take first place in all our thoughts and have, amid so many other competing needs, first claim upon our strained resources.

It is as thrilling as any adventure story, but so much more than that – his foresight and that of the military men and politicians who worked with him in an attitude of mutual determination didn’t simply save Britain from invasion, but kept hope alive that the spirit of democracy and freedom from tyranny would one day rise again across Europe.

By the end of this volume the Battle of Britain has been won, the threat of invasion is over, the Axis advance in North Africa has been halted, and America has finally signed up to lend-lease which, if it will still not put American skin in the game, will at least provide (for a fee that Britain will still be paying back sixty years later) equipment and the necessities of life to those who are doing the fighting. And here, at the end of 1940, the writing is already on the wall for the eventual defeat of the Axis powers, though it would be many years and see many millions of deaths before that defeat was final.

And now this Britain, and its far-spread association of states and dependencies, which had seemed on the verge of ruin, whose very heart was about to be pierced, had been for fifteen months concentrated upon the war problem, training its men and devoting all its infinitely-varied vitalities to the struggle. With a gasp of astonishment and relief the smaller neutrals and the subjugated states saw that the stars still shone in the sky. Hope, and within it passion, burned anew in the hearts of hundreds of millions of men. The good cause would triumph. Right would not be trampled down. The flag of Freedom, which in this fateful hour was the Union Jack, would still fly in all the winds that blew.

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jrboyne's review against another edition

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5.0

Churchill's second volume of his massive World War II chronicles is just as good as the first! This volume covers from the end of the Phony War in the Spring of 1940 to the end of the year after the Battle of Britain was won and war was beginning to get fierce in the north African coast. Churchill's mastery of narrative and his constant addition of letters, memos and other correspondence ad depth of the historical narrative to help the readers get into his mind as well as the minds of the people around him. Undaunting perseverance can easily describe Churchill as well as the English people during this time period. After the fall of France in June of 1940, England was left alone to continue the war again Nazi Germany with a constant threat of invasion and the what seemed to be never ending bombardment of its cities and factories. Yet the nation fought on and survived into 1941 where the war would expand across the globe. A great read for all history buffs along with each volume. We all need to have a proper understanding of what took place during these world changing years and Churchill provides an in-depth study of the events as well as the characters that shaped these critical years.

grantf's review

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5.0

This volume describes key events and battles from May to December 1940 when Britain stood alone against the might of the Nazis (and subsequently the Italians). Winston Churchill describes the theme of the volume as "How the British people held the fort alone till those who hitherto had been half blind were half ready" which sums it up exactly. This narrative of Churchill's involvement shows just how much he contributed to the direction that the war took including suggestions for the design of such things as aerial mines and amphibious vehicles for landing tanks, countless telegrams to President Roosevelt to ask for help, his subtle and diplomatic handling of the Vichy Government and his understanding of battle strategy and tactics.

Here we have a first-hand account of the fall of France, Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk, the Blitz, the thwarted German Operation Sea Lion, the Battle of Britain and also the important role played by the British scientific community (the so-called "Wizard War"). The volume includes maps and diagrams to help understand the troop movements during the battles as well as Churchill's personal minutes and telegrams and various tables of facts and figures which soberly present the massive losses incurred. Also included are snippets from some of Churchill's famous addresses to the British and French nations which helped to rally the spirits of ordinary folk in horrendously difficult times. Similarly, despite the obviously grim subject matter, Churchill manages to inject his account with some dry humour to help lift the reader's spirits. For example, directly after a telegram to the Minister of Supply showing how concerned Churchill was about the lack of a particular kind of small arms ammunition we get this nugget:

"The reader must pardon this next minute.

Prime Minister to First Lord 18.IX.40
Surely you can run to a new Admiralty flag. It grieves me to see the present dingy object every morning."

And about General de Gaulle of whom Churchill had the utmost respect:

"He also felt it to be essential to his position before the French people that he should maintain a haughty demeanour towards 'perfidious Albion', although an exile, dependent upon our protection and dwelling in our midst. He had to be rude to the British to prove to French eyes that he was not a British puppet. He certainly carried out this policy with perseverance."

This was a book that I just couldn't put down and I devoured it in a couple of days only to be left wishing that I also had all the other volumes to hand (as well as wishing that I'd started with Volume I, obviously!). Churchill thoroughly deserved his Nobel Prize for this remarkable contribution to literature.