After acknowledging Winston Churchill as the greatest war
leader Britain ever had, Max Hastings emphasises that
“beyond that bald assertion there are infinite nuances in
considering the conduct of Britain’s war between 1940 and
1945,” the examination of which provides the theme of his
latest volume of military history Finest Years. In 1940 the
nation rallied behind Churchill in an extraordinary fashion, but
thereafter there was a deep divide between what he wanted
from the British people and their army, and what they were
capable of delivering.
In 1942, amid an unbroken succession
of battlefield defeats, some of his closest colleagues wanted operational control of
the war machine to be removed from his hands, and some other figure appointed
to his role as Minister of Defence. Sir Max’s researches provide many fascinating
new perspectives on Churchill’s relations with the British people, and also with his
foreign counterparts in the USA and USSR, painting a vivid image of the Prime
Minister in both triumph and tragedy.
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