CHURCHILL AT WAR

Stratton, Owen S.

Churchill at War THE GRAND ALLIANCE, by Winston S. Churchill. Houghton Mifflin. 903 pp. $6. Reviewed by Owen S. Stratton HISTORIANS are frequently learned men, and an occasional historian is a...

...He must not be too sensitive to the difficulties confronting others and must not fear to urge the impossible upon his subordinates...
...Few readers will abandon the book oncethey begin to read...
...In The Grand Alliance Mr...
...Although it is true that the quotation of replies to his communications would have made some of them more meaningful, there is, as Churchill points out, the question of space to consider as well as his right to reproduce many of them...
...I have only one purpose, the destruction of Hitler, and my life is much simplified thereby...
...Very rarely, one man has both of these qualities and has also had some experience in the affairs of which he writes...
...He concludes by saying: "When silence came at last . . . over 17,000 citizens of Belgrade lay dead in the streets or under the debris...
...Above all, he must not be too logical or too finical about his principles and must be willing to take all things, including allies, as they come...
...The Grand Alliance is perhaps less Churchillian than The Gathering Storm and Their Finest Hour, but there is here and there a rich pocket of characteristic prose...
...II Churchill attempts so much in The Grand Alliance and achieves it so well that it is ungrateful to suggest that he might have done more...
...It is a temptation to quote extensively, but one sample must suffice: Churchill describes the dispositions of the German Army in the Balkans in the early spring of 1941, dispositions that were directed against Russia, although the Russians seemed oblivious to their menace...
...Churchill's private secretary asked whether in such an eventuality the furnishing of British aid would not constitute for Churchill a bowing down in the House of Commons...
...The last point is illustrated in The Grand Alliance by Churchill's words spoken on the night of June 21, 1941, a few hours before the Nazis invaded Soviet Russia...
...He describes the battle of the Atlantic, the chase of the Bismarck, the invasions of Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete, and Russia, the war in the Western Desert, and much else besides...
...and an hour or two with it will change the minds of most of those unfortunate people who think that history is dull...
...He must be alert to minor tyrannies that may damage morale, and must not have any great faith in the infallibility of the military mind...
...He must be able to keep in mind a large number of complex facts ranging from relatively trivial questions asked in the House of Commons to the analysis of intelligence data on German activities in the Balkans and the probable requirements for keeping Japan neutral in the conflict...
...Churchill then describes the outcome, Operation Punishment as the Nazis called it, in which Belgrade was virtually destroyed by Nazi bombers...
...There is much to be learned from these documents about the job of the man at the center of an organization running a modern war...
...In form, The Grand Alliance is a collection of historical documents...
...The probability of the German attack had been mentioned at dinner that evening...
...but he must not antagonize them and must be unstinting in his praise when jobs are well done...
...The only real criticism I have concerns the maps...
...Churchill is unique, however, in being a master of English style, a chief participant in the great events he portrays, and the author of most of the documents upon which his work is based There has never been a history quite like his majestic account of World War II of which The Grand Alliance is the third volume...
...They are largely communications from him to his colleagues and chief subordinates in the Government and the armed forces, with a sprinkling of more general papers prepared on such subjects as the use of field artillery against tanks and the broad strategy to be followed after U. S. entrance into the war...
...The book concludes with an account of Churchill's visit to Washington after the United States entered the war...
...A bear, dazed and uncomprehending, shuffled through the inferno with slow and awkward gait down towards the Danube...
...He must be a tireless gadfly, stinging his coh leagues and subordinates when tasks are left undone or are done inadequately...
...but, in substance it is all of a piece, for the historian quotes himself: most of the documents reproduced were written by Churchill in his capacities as wartime Prime Minister and Minister of Defense...
...While the troop movements were in progress, Yugoslavia revolted against the Axis, forcing Hitler to turn aside from his main purpose in order to subdue that unfortunate country...
...He was not the only bear who did not understand...
...They are too few, and they are not detailed enough to make it easy for the reader to follow the various military actions described...
...Churchill is one of the great dramatists of our time, and he puts his talent to work in The Grand Alliance...
...To this Churchill replied, "Not at all...
...The Grand Alliance is, in the author's phrase, the story of "how the British fought on with hardship their garment until Soviet Russia and the United States were drawn into the Great Conflict...
...and later, while walking in the garden, Mr...
...Reviewed by Owen S. Stratton HISTORIANS are frequently learned men, and an occasional historian is a distinguished writer...
...If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons...
...Out of the nightmare of smoke and fire came the maddened animals released from their shattered cages in the zoological gardens...
...Churchill deals with the principal military and diplomatic events of 1941, beginning with a survey of the January situation in the Balkans and in Africa...
...A stricken stork hobbled past the main hotel, which was a mass of flames...

Vol. 14 • July 1950 • No. 7


 
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