'Unsinkable': Churchill and the First World War

by Richard Freeman

' Unsinkable ' is the story of a man unjustly Churchill in the First World War. His enemies – the Tory Party – censured him for Antwerp, the Dardanelles and Gallipoli. He could do no right and was regarded as a dangerous maniac. But the true story is quite the opposite. This book tells how, as a brilliant First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill was ousted by his enemies yet clawed his way back to power against all odds. He was the leading critic of senselessly sending men to march towards machine guns, but his calls for 'machines, not men' went unheeded. After a spell in the trenches, he returned to London to clear his name over the Dardanelles. Then he relentlessly fought his way back to power through his brilliant, incisive criticism of the land war. Churchill finally became Munitions Minister in 1917, where he pushed output to unimagined levels. His weapons delivered the victory that had eluded others for the previous three years. Drawing on the private correspondence of Asquith, Churchill, Clementine Churchill and others, and the diaries of Riddell and Hobhouse, author Richard Freeman tells the story of the 'unsinkable politician' and his extraordinary achievements during the Great War.

436 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Rex Brampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book states up front that its intention is to redress the misinformation put about by Churchill's enemies regarding the Dardanelles campaign amongst others, and it does that very comprehensively.
Churchill's role in WWI is overshadowed by the central role he played in the sequel, and this book gives many examples of where Churchill learned many of the principles that he would apply in the latter conflict.
I read this off the back of The Splendid and the Vile (Larson), a book about the Churchill's during the blitz, and the parallels are startling.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Churchill’s career during WWI is examined in this book.

This was quite an interesting book, but it was not very engaging and also there seemed to be some slight discrepancies on dates (for the example the caption for the tank photograph doesn’t tie up dates later in the book).