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Winston S. Churchill #6
Winston S. Churchill, Volume VI: Finest Hour, 1939-1941
In this the most important volume of the great biographical enterprise in which he has been involved for twenty years, Martin Gilbert probes beneath the surface of each of the crucial decisions in which Churchill was involved from the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941. In a powerfully documented account he reveals not only how each decision was reached, but precisely what influences lay behind it, whether of individuals, or of information reaching Churchill from the most secret source of British Intelligence.
Drawing on a remarkable diversity of material, including the War Cabinet and other Government records, as well as Churchill's own vast archive of private letters, and piecing together the documents Churchill received and sent with the diaries and letters of his private secretariat and the recollections of those who worked with him at the moments of greatest crisis, Martin Gilbert reveals for the first time the full extent of Churchill's personal contribution to every aspect of the struggle…
It was one of Churchill's inner circle who said to the author: 'We who worked with Churchill every day of the war still saw at most a quarter of his daily task and worries.' Martin Gilbert has pieced together the whole, setting in their context many thousand documents, as well as diary comments and other hitherto scattered and secret evidence, in order to give the fullest, most intimate and most fascinating historical account yet published of the architect of Britain's 'finest hour'. (from the original dust jacket)
Drawing on a remarkable diversity of material, including the War Cabinet and other Government records, as well as Churchill's own vast archive of private letters, and piecing together the documents Churchill received and sent with the diaries and letters of his private secretariat and the recollections of those who worked with him at the moments of greatest crisis, Martin Gilbert reveals for the first time the full extent of Churchill's personal contribution to every aspect of the struggle…
It was one of Churchill's inner circle who said to the author: 'We who worked with Churchill every day of the war still saw at most a quarter of his daily task and worries.' Martin Gilbert has pieced together the whole, setting in their context many thousand documents, as well as diary comments and other hitherto scattered and secret evidence, in order to give the fullest, most intimate and most fascinating historical account yet published of the architect of Britain's 'finest hour'. (from the original dust jacket)
1308 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
197 people are currently reading
696 people want to read
About the author
Martin Gilbert
249 books417 followersThe official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
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Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
https://twitter.com/sirmartin36
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 4, 2025
On the afternoon of 3 September 1939, the newly appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, walked into Admiralty House, the official residence for the minister located opposite Whitehall in London. Met by a naval officer, he was escorted to the same room from which he had directed the Royal Navy’s operations against German naval forces during the First World War. After requesting the octagonal table he had used in the last conflict, he had the naval officer retrieve the chart box from behind the sofa where it was stored and remove the charts therein. Finding to his satisfaction that they were the very ones he had used a quarter century earlier, Churchill resumed his work fighting against Germany, this time in a new war.
Eight months later, Churchill would trade his job for an even more important office, that of prime minister of the United Kingdom. In the five years that followed, Churchill went on to lead the nation and the empire to victory over Nazi Germany, an achievement that cemented his reputation in not just British, but world history. Such was the momentousness of the events in these years that Martin Gilbert spends nearly 1,300 pages of the sixth volume of Churchill’s official biography covering just the first two-and-a-quarter years of his life during the war, addressing in considerable detail a period of Churchill’s life which saw him reach the iconic heights of his life while dealing with some of the greatest crises in his nation’s history.
What is perhaps most surprising is that roughly three-quarters of these pages are devoted just to Churchill’s activities during the first fifteen months of the conflict. Britain’s fortunes fluctuated wildly during this period, from its alliance with France against the German threat at its start, to its isolation from a continent dominated by the Axis powers less than a year later. As he was at the heart of policymaking during this period Churchill’s story was very much intertwined with these developments, offering a window on events from his perspective. At the start of the war, however, this perspective was very much naval-centric, given Churchill’s role as First Lord. Though a member of Neville Chamberlain’s wartime cabinet and someone never hesitant to offer his views on any matter before it, his focus was on the Royal Navy’s contribution to the conflict.
Part of the problem for Churchill was that this contribution was primarily defensive, with the bulk of naval activity at the start of the war focused on protecting British trade from German raiders. Unlike his colleagues in the cabinet and their counterparts in the French government, who preferred to wage a long defensive war that would defeat Germany using economic means, Churchill longed to go on the attack. With his proposal to mine the Rhine River thwarted by French fears of retaliation, Churchill focused on disrupting Germany’s supply of iron ore from Sweden. Gilbert charts his persistent pursuit of this goal throughout his time as First Lord, with schemes to bomb Swedish mines or to disrupt ore shipments by occupying the Norwegian port of Narvik ultimately reduced to a plan – Operation Wilfred – to mine Norwegian territorial waters. On 5 April, a force of ships left the British naval base at Scapa Flow to turn Churchill’s dreams into reality.
As the first mines were being laid, however, German forces began their invasion of Norway. Though the Royal Navy failed to prevent the Kriegsmarine from successfully landing German troops, it was Chamberlain rather than Churchill who suffered politically for this. Seen as insufficiently aggressive and out of touch, the loss of support in the debate in the House of Commons over the British defeat in Norway and the Labour Party’s unwillingness to serve in a government of national unity with him as the prime minister left Chamberlain with little choice but to resign. Gilbert emphasizes Churchill’s loyalty to his premier throughout this process, even as he became the beneficiary of Chamberlain’s resignation as the preferred choice as his successor.
Churchill took the reins just as the Allied war effort in western Europe began to collapse. Gilbert chronicles in detail Churchill’s efforts to keep the alliance alive even as France fell, which proved a hopeless cause in the face of the collective despair and defeatism of the French leadership. Despite the successful evacuation of British and French forces from Dunkirk, Britain now faced the prospect of invasion with an army denuded of the weapons and equipment to face it. Here Gilbert takes full advantage of then-recent declassification of the decryption of German codes to show how the insights offered by this intelligence shaped his decision-making. While he presents the invasion scare as over in official circles largely by July, Churchill nonetheless had to cope with the aftermath of France’s surrender, namely the disposition of French naval assets and the German aerial assault on the British Isles.
Here Churchill’s interactions with Franklin Roosevelt come to the forefront. Gilbert’s description of the relationship between the two men is one of the central parts of his narrative, reflecting the considerable effort Churchill put into cultivating his relationship with the American president. Through numerous letters, telegrams, and telephone conversations Churchill used a calculated mixture of flattery and begging to lobby Roosevelt for all the support the United States could provide. While he chafed at the limitations imposed by America’s isolationist currents, the attention Gilbert gives to Churchill’s ceaseless solicitation points to one of the greatest contributions the prime minister made to his nation’s war effort.
The same could not be said for his persistent meddling in British strategy, which grew worse as the war went on. Churchill’s preference for aggression over prudence led to many under-resourced operations that were launched prematurely, many of which ended in failure as a result. His intervention in the Balkans in particular proved disastrous for the inhabitants of the region, while the diversion of forces from North Africa in a futile effort to save Greece from German conquest created the opportunity for the Afrika Korps to intervene, turning a dramatically successful campaign into a grinding battle that lasted two and a half years. Yet when the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 Churchill did not hesitate to set aside his long-standing loathing of communism and offer Britain’s support for Joseph Stalin’s regime, a decision that did more to win the war for the Allies than any of his fanciful strategic contrivances.
Given the “official” nature of Gilbert’s biography, it is not surprising that he does not spend much time criticizing his subject for the mistakes he made. Instead, Gilbert prefers to let the details speak for themselves, and these he provides in abundance. His books rests on an awe-inspiring range of documentary research conducted over decades, which he supplements with interviews and personal inquiries with many of the people around Churchill at that time. The level of detail can be overwhelming, and little effort is made to provide any overarching analysis. But it makes for an absolutely indispensable resource about Churchill’s life and achievements, one that rewards reading for those with both the interest and the patience for what Gilbert has to offer.
Eight months later, Churchill would trade his job for an even more important office, that of prime minister of the United Kingdom. In the five years that followed, Churchill went on to lead the nation and the empire to victory over Nazi Germany, an achievement that cemented his reputation in not just British, but world history. Such was the momentousness of the events in these years that Martin Gilbert spends nearly 1,300 pages of the sixth volume of Churchill’s official biography covering just the first two-and-a-quarter years of his life during the war, addressing in considerable detail a period of Churchill’s life which saw him reach the iconic heights of his life while dealing with some of the greatest crises in his nation’s history.
What is perhaps most surprising is that roughly three-quarters of these pages are devoted just to Churchill’s activities during the first fifteen months of the conflict. Britain’s fortunes fluctuated wildly during this period, from its alliance with France against the German threat at its start, to its isolation from a continent dominated by the Axis powers less than a year later. As he was at the heart of policymaking during this period Churchill’s story was very much intertwined with these developments, offering a window on events from his perspective. At the start of the war, however, this perspective was very much naval-centric, given Churchill’s role as First Lord. Though a member of Neville Chamberlain’s wartime cabinet and someone never hesitant to offer his views on any matter before it, his focus was on the Royal Navy’s contribution to the conflict.
Part of the problem for Churchill was that this contribution was primarily defensive, with the bulk of naval activity at the start of the war focused on protecting British trade from German raiders. Unlike his colleagues in the cabinet and their counterparts in the French government, who preferred to wage a long defensive war that would defeat Germany using economic means, Churchill longed to go on the attack. With his proposal to mine the Rhine River thwarted by French fears of retaliation, Churchill focused on disrupting Germany’s supply of iron ore from Sweden. Gilbert charts his persistent pursuit of this goal throughout his time as First Lord, with schemes to bomb Swedish mines or to disrupt ore shipments by occupying the Norwegian port of Narvik ultimately reduced to a plan – Operation Wilfred – to mine Norwegian territorial waters. On 5 April, a force of ships left the British naval base at Scapa Flow to turn Churchill’s dreams into reality.
As the first mines were being laid, however, German forces began their invasion of Norway. Though the Royal Navy failed to prevent the Kriegsmarine from successfully landing German troops, it was Chamberlain rather than Churchill who suffered politically for this. Seen as insufficiently aggressive and out of touch, the loss of support in the debate in the House of Commons over the British defeat in Norway and the Labour Party’s unwillingness to serve in a government of national unity with him as the prime minister left Chamberlain with little choice but to resign. Gilbert emphasizes Churchill’s loyalty to his premier throughout this process, even as he became the beneficiary of Chamberlain’s resignation as the preferred choice as his successor.
Churchill took the reins just as the Allied war effort in western Europe began to collapse. Gilbert chronicles in detail Churchill’s efforts to keep the alliance alive even as France fell, which proved a hopeless cause in the face of the collective despair and defeatism of the French leadership. Despite the successful evacuation of British and French forces from Dunkirk, Britain now faced the prospect of invasion with an army denuded of the weapons and equipment to face it. Here Gilbert takes full advantage of then-recent declassification of the decryption of German codes to show how the insights offered by this intelligence shaped his decision-making. While he presents the invasion scare as over in official circles largely by July, Churchill nonetheless had to cope with the aftermath of France’s surrender, namely the disposition of French naval assets and the German aerial assault on the British Isles.
Here Churchill’s interactions with Franklin Roosevelt come to the forefront. Gilbert’s description of the relationship between the two men is one of the central parts of his narrative, reflecting the considerable effort Churchill put into cultivating his relationship with the American president. Through numerous letters, telegrams, and telephone conversations Churchill used a calculated mixture of flattery and begging to lobby Roosevelt for all the support the United States could provide. While he chafed at the limitations imposed by America’s isolationist currents, the attention Gilbert gives to Churchill’s ceaseless solicitation points to one of the greatest contributions the prime minister made to his nation’s war effort.
The same could not be said for his persistent meddling in British strategy, which grew worse as the war went on. Churchill’s preference for aggression over prudence led to many under-resourced operations that were launched prematurely, many of which ended in failure as a result. His intervention in the Balkans in particular proved disastrous for the inhabitants of the region, while the diversion of forces from North Africa in a futile effort to save Greece from German conquest created the opportunity for the Afrika Korps to intervene, turning a dramatically successful campaign into a grinding battle that lasted two and a half years. Yet when the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 Churchill did not hesitate to set aside his long-standing loathing of communism and offer Britain’s support for Joseph Stalin’s regime, a decision that did more to win the war for the Allies than any of his fanciful strategic contrivances.
Given the “official” nature of Gilbert’s biography, it is not surprising that he does not spend much time criticizing his subject for the mistakes he made. Instead, Gilbert prefers to let the details speak for themselves, and these he provides in abundance. His books rests on an awe-inspiring range of documentary research conducted over decades, which he supplements with interviews and personal inquiries with many of the people around Churchill at that time. The level of detail can be overwhelming, and little effort is made to provide any overarching analysis. But it makes for an absolutely indispensable resource about Churchill’s life and achievements, one that rewards reading for those with both the interest and the patience for what Gilbert has to offer.
December 6, 2016
The most technical, detailed history book I've read. But Churchill is an awesome character. I love the diverse set of sources - diary entries from his secrataries, doctor, family members, colleagues, generals along with all his direct memos sent out to members of his staff. Seeing the actual text being sent back and forth between Churchill and Roosevelt and Stalin is fascinating (esp the first hand look into the drafting sessions). The book pretty much doesn't skip a day, so one really gets a solid understanding of how much discussion and planning is involved in even the 'simplest' of military operations.
June 1, 2018
Great read
I loved the detail of this book, it gave great insight into key decisions that turned world events in the period before USA b enamel a belligerent
If you did not like Churchill before, you would have to agree his capacity for work, detailed knowledge of global politics and military matters is second to none
I loved the detail of this book, it gave great insight into key decisions that turned world events in the period before USA b enamel a belligerent
If you did not like Churchill before, you would have to agree his capacity for work, detailed knowledge of global politics and military matters is second to none
October 2, 2018
Learning a lot that we didn't learn in school. Very detailed. Glad that I'm reading it but I feel like I've been reading it forever.
December 22, 2016
Exactly what I expected ...
... from the official biography. Extraordinarily well researched. I never felt that I was reading a hagiography, the presentation seemed to be a "warts and all" depiction of the man. Sufficient information was provided to provide the necessary context for a reader some knowledge of the period, but some knowledge of the history of WWII is required (although a simultaneous reading of good history, providing you stay a jump ahead of the events described should work.) I plan to reread it at some point, but with a globe and good WWII atlas at hand.
... from the official biography. Extraordinarily well researched. I never felt that I was reading a hagiography, the presentation seemed to be a "warts and all" depiction of the man. Sufficient information was provided to provide the necessary context for a reader some knowledge of the period, but some knowledge of the history of WWII is required (although a simultaneous reading of good history, providing you stay a jump ahead of the events described should work.) I plan to reread it at some point, but with a globe and good WWII atlas at hand.
March 1, 2011
A tremendous source of information, and occasionally very dramatic reading. Gilbert is not afraid to criticize Churchill when he feels it necessary. The big drawback is excessive detail. Too often we can't see the forest, only all those trees.
October 22, 2017
Nearly a day by day telling
Thorough neatly footnote. I believe anyone doing a scholarly report will find this series invaluable. The casual reader may find this series a bit to slow. But I loved it.
Thorough neatly footnote. I believe anyone doing a scholarly report will find this series invaluable. The casual reader may find this series a bit to slow. But I loved it.
July 2, 2016
Absolutely magnificent retelling of this seminal point in history.
November 5, 2020
This is serious stuff, and if you're a Churchill buff like me, you'll love it although it's very detailed. It took me some time getting through this volume as I had to put it aside while reading some other books. However, I made it back and got through it. I take notes on non-fiction books and this one was a day to day diary of sorts of how Winston became the PM and how the war began. There's much devoted to his urging FDR and America to enter the war.
England was badly hit, bombed for months and the war was going on in northern Africa as well. Meetings were had with Stalin, FDR, and the Enigma decrypts played a huge role in tracking Hitler's forces. Thousands died, ship were sunk, cities bombed, but Churchill fought on. It was a socialist Nazi takeover of Europe and the end of England and her colonies, or a freer world.
Every quote is resourced, diaries of Churchill's assistants are fascinating and provide insight. If you're a WSC buff, get started on volume 1 and keep at it!
England was badly hit, bombed for months and the war was going on in northern Africa as well. Meetings were had with Stalin, FDR, and the Enigma decrypts played a huge role in tracking Hitler's forces. Thousands died, ship were sunk, cities bombed, but Churchill fought on. It was a socialist Nazi takeover of Europe and the end of England and her colonies, or a freer world.
Every quote is resourced, diaries of Churchill's assistants are fascinating and provide insight. If you're a WSC buff, get started on volume 1 and keep at it!
July 12, 2023
A comprehensive biography of Churchill during the first part of the Second World War when Britain and her Colonies stood alone. These were the hard years of the Blitz and many defeats and setbacks before things changed for the better and America entered the war in 1941 following Pearl Harbour. Churchill never gave up hope that eventually the Axis powers would be defeated although there were many grim moments during this period.
February 14, 2023
Biographer Gilbert provides the reader with an almost minute-by-minute witness to Churchill's thoughts, words, and deeds, especially the time from September 1939 until December 1941. Wonderful writer! Wonderful Pime Minister!
June 21, 2018
Like all of Martin Gilbert's bio of Churchill, terrific! RWB
April 17, 2019
Excellent book. The entries from multiple diaries gave different perspectives to various situations. I look forward to Vol VII!
November 22, 2022
Very detailed and an almost day to day account of the events of Churchill's like in the period. Enjoyable but in end a little more detailed than I wanted personally
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews