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Winston S. Churchill: The History of the Second World War, Volume 1 - The Gathering Storm
In the Second World War, every bond between man and man was to perish. Crimes were committed by the Hitler regime that find no equal in scale and wickedness with any that have darkened the human record.
It was a simple policy to keep Germany disarmed after the struggle of the First World War and the Victors adequately armed in vigilance. But errors were soon made. The tragedy of America’s failure to enter the League of Nations; the weakness and lack of resolution of the democracies to confront the growing strength, reach, and ambition of the fascist dictators in Germany, Italy, and Japan; the economic turmoil that allowed these events to spark and build.
In this first volume it is all too easy to see and understand how this immense tragedy could have been avoided, how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. We shall hear how the counsels of prudence and restraint became the prime agents of mortal danger in this Gathering Storm. The overview is read by Winston S Churchill, MP, and the volume narrated by Michael Jayston.
It was a simple policy to keep Germany disarmed after the struggle of the First World War and the Victors adequately armed in vigilance. But errors were soon made. The tragedy of America’s failure to enter the League of Nations; the weakness and lack of resolution of the democracies to confront the growing strength, reach, and ambition of the fascist dictators in Germany, Italy, and Japan; the economic turmoil that allowed these events to spark and build.
In this first volume it is all too easy to see and understand how this immense tragedy could have been avoided, how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. We shall hear how the counsels of prudence and restraint became the prime agents of mortal danger in this Gathering Storm. The overview is read by Winston S Churchill, MP, and the volume narrated by Michael Jayston.
- GenresHistory
Audible Audio
Published September 12, 2011
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About the author
Winston S. Churchill
1,401 books2,496 followersSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, politician and writer, as prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955 led Great Britain, published several works, including
The Second World War
from 1948 to 1953, and then won the Nobel Prize for literature.
William Maxwell Aitken, first baron Beaverbrook, held many cabinet positions during the 1940s as a confidant of Churchill.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can), served the United Kingdom again. A noted statesman, orator and strategist, Churchill also served as an officer in the Army. This prolific author "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
Out of respect for Winston_Churchill, the well-known American author, Winston S. Churchill offered to use his middle initial as an author.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston...
William Maxwell Aitken, first baron Beaverbrook, held many cabinet positions during the 1940s as a confidant of Churchill.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can), served the United Kingdom again. A noted statesman, orator and strategist, Churchill also served as an officer in the Army. This prolific author "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
Out of respect for Winston_Churchill, the well-known American author, Winston S. Churchill offered to use his middle initial as an author.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 21, 2025
Ah, sanity. My old friend.
I have come to appreciate strong, factual and analytical presentations of historical information.
Part 1 of 6, this is a primary resource documenting the rise of fascism from the perspective of the Western powers, particularly Britain.
Churchill explains his thoughts on the evolving social conditions, war strategies and international political dynamics that followed WW1 into the rise of Hitler and of fascism within the global political sphere.
Covers roughly 1913 - 1939.
I have come to appreciate strong, factual and analytical presentations of historical information.
Part 1 of 6, this is a primary resource documenting the rise of fascism from the perspective of the Western powers, particularly Britain.
Churchill explains his thoughts on the evolving social conditions, war strategies and international political dynamics that followed WW1 into the rise of Hitler and of fascism within the global political sphere.
Covers roughly 1913 - 1939.
December 30, 2024
For having all the pieces I usually love and a fascinating subject matter, I never got into this.
July 8, 2024
THE FIRST VOLUME (OF SIX) OF CHURCHILL’S FASCINATING HISTORY OF THE WAR
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, and then again from 1951 to 1955. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his historical works. In 1963, he was made an honorary citizen of the United States (one of only eight people so honored). [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 713-page paperback edition.]
He wrote in the Preface to this 1948 book, “Whereas … in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate posts, I was for more than five years in this second struggle with Germany the Head of His Majesty’s Government. I write, therefore, from a different standpoint and with more authority than was possible in my earlier books… These thirty years of action and advocacy comprise and express my life-effort, and I am content to be judged upon them. I have adhered to my rule of never criticizing any measure of war or policy after the event unless I had before expressed publicly or formally my opinion o warning about it… One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once ‘The Unnecessary War.’ There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle. The human tragedy reaches its climax in the fact that after all the exertions and sacrifices of hundreds of millions of people and of the victories… we still have not found Peace or Security, and that we lie in the grip of ever worse perils than those we have surmounted.”
He observes that after WWI, “Germany … was only able to pay, the indemnities later extorted because the United States was profusely lending money to Europe, and especially to her… the United States was receiving back … about one-fifth of the money which she was lending to Germany with no chance of repayment. However, everybody seemed pleased and appeared to think this might go on forever. History will characterize all these transactions as insane. They helped to breed both the martial curse and the ‘economic blizzard’… All this is a sad story of complicated idiocy in the making of which much toil and virtue was consumed.” (Bk. 1, Ch. 1, pg. 7-9)
He notes, “the strict enforcement at any time till 1934 of the disarmament clauses of the Peace Treaty would have guarded indefinitely, without violence or bloodshed, the peace and safety of mankind. But this was neglected while the infringements remained petty, and shunned as they assumed serious proportions. Thus the final safeguard of a long peace was cast away. The crimes of the vanquished find… their explanation… in the follies of the victors. Without these follies crime would have found neither temptation nor opportunity.” (Ch. 1, pg. 15) Later, he adds, “Up till 1934 at least, German rearmament could have been prevented without the loss of a single life. It was not time that was lacking.” (Ch. 3, pg. 46)
He recounts that after Hitler was released from the hospital after WWI, “what scenes met his newly unscaled eyes?... everything suddenly became clear. Germany had been stabbed in the back and clawed down by the Jews, by the profiteers and intriguers behind the front, by the accursed Bolsheviks in their international conspiracy of Jewish intellectuals. Shining before him he saw his duty, to save Germany from these plagues, to avenge her wrongs, and lead the master race to their long-decreed destiny.” (Ch. 4, pg. 48) After the 1933 elections in Germany, “Adolf Hitler had at last arrived… He had called from the depths of defeat the dark and savage furies latent in this most numerous, most serviceable, ruthless, contradictory, and ill-starred race in Europe. He had conjured up the fearful idol of an all-devouring Moloch of which he was the priest and incarnation.” (Ch. 5, pg. 64)
He recalls how in 1932, he met an intimate of Hitler’s [“Herr Hanfstaengl”] who “said I ought to meet him [Hitler], and that nothing would be easier to arrange… I had no national prejudices against Hitler at the time… I admire men who stand up for their country in defeat… He had a perfect right to be a patriotic German if he chose. I always wanted England, Germany, and France to be friends… However, in the course of conversation, I happened to say, ‘Why is your chief so violent about the Jews?...’ He must have repeated this to Hitler, because … the next day the appointment he had made with me to meet Hitler could not take place… Thus Hitler lost his only chance of meeting me. Later on, when he was all-powerful, I was to receive several invitations from him. But by that time a lot had happened, and I excused myself.” (Ch. 5, pg. 75-76)
Of not holding any position while Stanley Baldwin was Prime Minister, he comments, “Mr. Baldwin knew no more than I how great was the service he was doing me in preventing me from becoming involved in all the Cabinet compromises and shortcomings of the next three years, and from having, if I had remained a Minister, to enter upon a war bearing direct responsibility for conditions of national defense bound to prove fearfully inadequate. This was not the first time… that I have received a blessing in what was at the time a very effective disguise.” (Ch. 11, pg. 181)
Then in 1936, “The seizure of the Rhineland… was the greatest gamble of all [for Hitler]. It had succeeded brilliantly. His opponents was too irresolute to call his bluff. When next he moved in 1938, his bluff was bluff no more. Aggression was backed by force, and it might well be by superior force. When the governments of France and Britain realized the terrible transformation which had taken place, it was too late.” (Ch. 12, pg. 190) Later, he adds, “It was no longer in our power to forestall Hitler or to regain air parity. Nothing could now prevent the German Army and the German air force from becoming the strongest in Europe. By extraordinary and disturbing exertions we could improve our position. We could not cure it.” (Ch. 13, pg. 207)
In 1938, after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain rebuffed an overture from President Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill noted, “Mr. Roosevelt was indeed running great risks in his own domestic politics by deliberately involving the United State in the darkening European scene. All the forces of isolationism would have been aroused if any part of these interchanges had transpired… To Britain it was a matter almost of life and death… We must regard its rejection… as the loss of the last frail chance to save the world from tyranny other than by war. That Mr. Chamberlain, with his limited outlook and inexperience… should have possessed the self-sufficiency to wave away the proffered hand stretched out across the Atlantic, leaves one, even at this date, breathless with amazement… One cannot today even reconstruct the state of mind which would render such gestures possible.” (Ch. 14, pg. 229)
He summarizes the situation in 1939, “In this sad tale of wrong judgments formed by well-meaning and capable people, we now reach our climax…. And now, when every one of these aids and advantages had been squandered and thrown away, Great Britain advances, leading France by the hand, to guarantee the integrity of Poland… [History] may be scoured and ransacked to find a parallel to this sudden and complete reversal of five or six years’ policy of easy-going placatory appeasement, and its transformation almost overnight into a readiness to accept an obviously imminent war on far worse conditions and on the greatest scale… Here was decision at last, taken at the worst possible moment and on the last satisfactory ground, which must surely lead to the slaughter of tens of millions of people… Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed… you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival… You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.” (Ch. 19, pg. 309-311)
When war broke out, in the War Cabinet, “I was almost the only antediluvian. This might well have been a matter of reproach in a time of crisis, when it was natural and popular to demand the force of young men and new ideas. I saw, therefore, that I should have to strive my utmost to keep pace with the generation now in power and with fresh young giants who might at any time appear. In this I relied upon knowledge as well as upon all possible zeal and mental energy.” (Bk. 2, Ch. 1, pg. 375)
He summarizes, “And what of the supreme measureless ordeal in which we were again irrevocably plunged? Poland in its agony; France but a pale reflection of her former warlike ardor; the Russian Colossus no longer an ally… Italy no friend. Japan no ally. Would America ever come in again? The British Empire remained intact and gloriously united, but ill-prepared, unready…. We were woefully outmatched in numbers in this new mortal weapon of the air. Somehow the light faded out of the landscape.” (Ch. 2, pg. 386)
In an October 1, 1939 broadcast, he said, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest. It cannot be in accordance with the interest or the safety of Russian that Germany should plant herself upon the shores of the Black Sea… That would be contrary to the historic life-interests of Russia.” (Ch. 3, pg. 399)
Of Germany’s attack on France, he observes, “There can be no doubt that the quality of the French Army was allowed to deteriorate during the winter, and that they would have fought better in the autumn than in the spring. Soon they were to be stunned by the swiftness and violence of the German assault. It was not until the last phases of that brief campaign that the true fighting qualities of the French soldier rose uppermost in defense of his country against the age-long enemy. But then it was too late.” (Ch. 10, pg. 499)
He laments, “Now Hitler was ready, and ready with a far more powerful and well-prepared plan. One can hardly find a more perfect example of the impotence and fatuity of waging war by committee or rather by groups of committees It fell to my lot in the weeks which followed to bear much of the burden and some of the odium… Had I been allowed to act with freedom and design when I first demanded permission, a far more agreeable conclusion might have been reached… But now all was to be disaster.” (Ch. 11, pg. 517-518)
Finally, in 1940, “I remember being told that Mr. Chamberlain had gone… to see the King, and this was naturally to be expected. Presently a message arrived summoning me to the Palace… I was taken immediately to see the King. His Majesty received me most graciously and bade me sit down. He looked at me searchingly and quizzically for some moments, and then said: ‘I suppose you don’t know why I have sent for you?’ Adopting his mood, I replied, ‘Sir, I simply couldn’t imagine why.’ He laughed and said: “I want you to form a government.’ I said I would certainly do so.” (Ch. 17, pg. 594)
He explains, “I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial…. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now to terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.” (Ch. 17, pg. 596)
Whether one reads it as history, or literature, this series will be absolute “must reading” for anyone even marginally interested in the Second World War. (At the very least, one should read an abridgement, such as Memoirs of the Second World War.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, and then again from 1951 to 1955. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his historical works. In 1963, he was made an honorary citizen of the United States (one of only eight people so honored). [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 713-page paperback edition.]
He wrote in the Preface to this 1948 book, “Whereas … in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate posts, I was for more than five years in this second struggle with Germany the Head of His Majesty’s Government. I write, therefore, from a different standpoint and with more authority than was possible in my earlier books… These thirty years of action and advocacy comprise and express my life-effort, and I am content to be judged upon them. I have adhered to my rule of never criticizing any measure of war or policy after the event unless I had before expressed publicly or formally my opinion o warning about it… One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once ‘The Unnecessary War.’ There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle. The human tragedy reaches its climax in the fact that after all the exertions and sacrifices of hundreds of millions of people and of the victories… we still have not found Peace or Security, and that we lie in the grip of ever worse perils than those we have surmounted.”
He observes that after WWI, “Germany … was only able to pay, the indemnities later extorted because the United States was profusely lending money to Europe, and especially to her… the United States was receiving back … about one-fifth of the money which she was lending to Germany with no chance of repayment. However, everybody seemed pleased and appeared to think this might go on forever. History will characterize all these transactions as insane. They helped to breed both the martial curse and the ‘economic blizzard’… All this is a sad story of complicated idiocy in the making of which much toil and virtue was consumed.” (Bk. 1, Ch. 1, pg. 7-9)
He notes, “the strict enforcement at any time till 1934 of the disarmament clauses of the Peace Treaty would have guarded indefinitely, without violence or bloodshed, the peace and safety of mankind. But this was neglected while the infringements remained petty, and shunned as they assumed serious proportions. Thus the final safeguard of a long peace was cast away. The crimes of the vanquished find… their explanation… in the follies of the victors. Without these follies crime would have found neither temptation nor opportunity.” (Ch. 1, pg. 15) Later, he adds, “Up till 1934 at least, German rearmament could have been prevented without the loss of a single life. It was not time that was lacking.” (Ch. 3, pg. 46)
He recounts that after Hitler was released from the hospital after WWI, “what scenes met his newly unscaled eyes?... everything suddenly became clear. Germany had been stabbed in the back and clawed down by the Jews, by the profiteers and intriguers behind the front, by the accursed Bolsheviks in their international conspiracy of Jewish intellectuals. Shining before him he saw his duty, to save Germany from these plagues, to avenge her wrongs, and lead the master race to their long-decreed destiny.” (Ch. 4, pg. 48) After the 1933 elections in Germany, “Adolf Hitler had at last arrived… He had called from the depths of defeat the dark and savage furies latent in this most numerous, most serviceable, ruthless, contradictory, and ill-starred race in Europe. He had conjured up the fearful idol of an all-devouring Moloch of which he was the priest and incarnation.” (Ch. 5, pg. 64)
He recalls how in 1932, he met an intimate of Hitler’s [“Herr Hanfstaengl”] who “said I ought to meet him [Hitler], and that nothing would be easier to arrange… I had no national prejudices against Hitler at the time… I admire men who stand up for their country in defeat… He had a perfect right to be a patriotic German if he chose. I always wanted England, Germany, and France to be friends… However, in the course of conversation, I happened to say, ‘Why is your chief so violent about the Jews?...’ He must have repeated this to Hitler, because … the next day the appointment he had made with me to meet Hitler could not take place… Thus Hitler lost his only chance of meeting me. Later on, when he was all-powerful, I was to receive several invitations from him. But by that time a lot had happened, and I excused myself.” (Ch. 5, pg. 75-76)
Of not holding any position while Stanley Baldwin was Prime Minister, he comments, “Mr. Baldwin knew no more than I how great was the service he was doing me in preventing me from becoming involved in all the Cabinet compromises and shortcomings of the next three years, and from having, if I had remained a Minister, to enter upon a war bearing direct responsibility for conditions of national defense bound to prove fearfully inadequate. This was not the first time… that I have received a blessing in what was at the time a very effective disguise.” (Ch. 11, pg. 181)
Then in 1936, “The seizure of the Rhineland… was the greatest gamble of all [for Hitler]. It had succeeded brilliantly. His opponents was too irresolute to call his bluff. When next he moved in 1938, his bluff was bluff no more. Aggression was backed by force, and it might well be by superior force. When the governments of France and Britain realized the terrible transformation which had taken place, it was too late.” (Ch. 12, pg. 190) Later, he adds, “It was no longer in our power to forestall Hitler or to regain air parity. Nothing could now prevent the German Army and the German air force from becoming the strongest in Europe. By extraordinary and disturbing exertions we could improve our position. We could not cure it.” (Ch. 13, pg. 207)
In 1938, after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain rebuffed an overture from President Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill noted, “Mr. Roosevelt was indeed running great risks in his own domestic politics by deliberately involving the United State in the darkening European scene. All the forces of isolationism would have been aroused if any part of these interchanges had transpired… To Britain it was a matter almost of life and death… We must regard its rejection… as the loss of the last frail chance to save the world from tyranny other than by war. That Mr. Chamberlain, with his limited outlook and inexperience… should have possessed the self-sufficiency to wave away the proffered hand stretched out across the Atlantic, leaves one, even at this date, breathless with amazement… One cannot today even reconstruct the state of mind which would render such gestures possible.” (Ch. 14, pg. 229)
He summarizes the situation in 1939, “In this sad tale of wrong judgments formed by well-meaning and capable people, we now reach our climax…. And now, when every one of these aids and advantages had been squandered and thrown away, Great Britain advances, leading France by the hand, to guarantee the integrity of Poland… [History] may be scoured and ransacked to find a parallel to this sudden and complete reversal of five or six years’ policy of easy-going placatory appeasement, and its transformation almost overnight into a readiness to accept an obviously imminent war on far worse conditions and on the greatest scale… Here was decision at last, taken at the worst possible moment and on the last satisfactory ground, which must surely lead to the slaughter of tens of millions of people… Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed… you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival… You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.” (Ch. 19, pg. 309-311)
When war broke out, in the War Cabinet, “I was almost the only antediluvian. This might well have been a matter of reproach in a time of crisis, when it was natural and popular to demand the force of young men and new ideas. I saw, therefore, that I should have to strive my utmost to keep pace with the generation now in power and with fresh young giants who might at any time appear. In this I relied upon knowledge as well as upon all possible zeal and mental energy.” (Bk. 2, Ch. 1, pg. 375)
He summarizes, “And what of the supreme measureless ordeal in which we were again irrevocably plunged? Poland in its agony; France but a pale reflection of her former warlike ardor; the Russian Colossus no longer an ally… Italy no friend. Japan no ally. Would America ever come in again? The British Empire remained intact and gloriously united, but ill-prepared, unready…. We were woefully outmatched in numbers in this new mortal weapon of the air. Somehow the light faded out of the landscape.” (Ch. 2, pg. 386)
In an October 1, 1939 broadcast, he said, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest. It cannot be in accordance with the interest or the safety of Russian that Germany should plant herself upon the shores of the Black Sea… That would be contrary to the historic life-interests of Russia.” (Ch. 3, pg. 399)
Of Germany’s attack on France, he observes, “There can be no doubt that the quality of the French Army was allowed to deteriorate during the winter, and that they would have fought better in the autumn than in the spring. Soon they were to be stunned by the swiftness and violence of the German assault. It was not until the last phases of that brief campaign that the true fighting qualities of the French soldier rose uppermost in defense of his country against the age-long enemy. But then it was too late.” (Ch. 10, pg. 499)
He laments, “Now Hitler was ready, and ready with a far more powerful and well-prepared plan. One can hardly find a more perfect example of the impotence and fatuity of waging war by committee or rather by groups of committees It fell to my lot in the weeks which followed to bear much of the burden and some of the odium… Had I been allowed to act with freedom and design when I first demanded permission, a far more agreeable conclusion might have been reached… But now all was to be disaster.” (Ch. 11, pg. 517-518)
Finally, in 1940, “I remember being told that Mr. Chamberlain had gone… to see the King, and this was naturally to be expected. Presently a message arrived summoning me to the Palace… I was taken immediately to see the King. His Majesty received me most graciously and bade me sit down. He looked at me searchingly and quizzically for some moments, and then said: ‘I suppose you don’t know why I have sent for you?’ Adopting his mood, I replied, ‘Sir, I simply couldn’t imagine why.’ He laughed and said: “I want you to form a government.’ I said I would certainly do so.” (Ch. 17, pg. 594)
He explains, “I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial…. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now to terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.” (Ch. 17, pg. 596)
Whether one reads it as history, or literature, this series will be absolute “must reading” for anyone even marginally interested in the Second World War. (At the very least, one should read an abridgement, such as Memoirs of the Second World War.
August 14, 2024
Winston Churchill writes about what was happening in the world as the war looms on the horizon. Very interesting. He is a great author and I would buy his books. I don't think this is as long as his actual book but is not labled abridged. The narrator did a fine job of narrating. I would continue with this series available on Libby.
July 2, 2024
Poor sound quality!
August 11, 2024
Audiobook - Good coverage of the start of WW2 and the politics behind the conflict
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews