WINSTON CHURCHILL began to write the first of what were to be the six volumes of The Second World War in 1946. It was a work he had expected to postpone to a later stage of his life, since he had looked forward in 1945 to extending his wartime leadership into the peace. The rejection of his party by the electorate was a heavy blow, which might have dulled his urge to write. But resilience was perhaps the most pronounced of his traits of character, and he had already written the history of another great war in which he had been a principal actor. Once committed to the task, he attacked it with an energy, enthusiasm and power of organisation which would have been remarkable in a professional historian of half his age.

Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm that swept the world remains the definitive history of the Second World War. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring, compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Grand Alliance recounts the momentous events of 1941 surrounding America's entry into the War and Hitler's march on Russia: the continuing onslaught on British civilians during the Blitz, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the alliance between Britain and America that shaped the outcome of the War.

In his introduction, John Keegan discusses Churchill's historical methods and the extraordinary achievement of The Second World War. This volume also includes appendices, an index, maps and diagrams.

BOOK I

GERMANY DRIVES EAST

THE DESERT AND THE BALKANS

THE WIDENING WAR

BLITZ AND ANTI-BLITZ. HESS

THE MEDITERRANEAN WAR

CONQUEST OF THE ITALIAN EMPIRE

DECISION TO AID GREECE

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: THE WESTERN

  APPROACHES

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: AMERICAN INTER-

  VENTION

YUGOSLAVIA

THE JAPANESE ENVOY

THE DESERT FLANK. ROMMEL. TOBRUK

THE GREEK CAMPAIGN

TRIPOLI AND "TIGER"

THE REVOLT IN IRAQ

CRETE: THE ADVENT

CRETE: THE BATTLE

THE FATE OF THE "BISMARCK"

SYRIA

GENERAL WAVELL'S FINAL EFFORT: "BATILEAXE".

THE Sorer NEMESIS

BOOK II

WAR COMES TO AMERICA

Chapter

OUR SOVIET ALLY

AN AFPaCAN PAUSE. DEFENCE OF TOBRUK

MY MEETING WITH ROOSEVELT

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

AID To RUSSIA

PERSIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

THE MOUNTING STRENGTH OF BRITAIN

CLOSER CONTACTS WITH RUSSIA

THE PATH ABEAD

OPERATION "CRUSADER": ASHORE, ALOFT, AND AFLOAT

JAPAN

PEARL HARBOUR!

A VOYAGE AMID WORLD WAR

PROPOSED PLAN AND SEQUENCE OF THE WAR

WASHINGTON AND OTTAWA

ANGLO-AMERICAN ACCORDS

RETURN TO STORM

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