Dan Todman

Britain's War Into Battle, 1937-1941, by Daniel Todman (read 6 Nov 2016) It took me nine days to read this book and while it is a massive book (718 pages of text, 70 pages of notes--but unfortunately no bibliography as such), my reading was delayed by the delicious experience of watching the Cubs win the World Series--far more satisfying than reading the book, which is kind of ploddingly written without a great deal of verve and no attempt to add drama to the events related. The account of the leadup to the war is full of interest and some of the accounts of parts of the war, e.g., the Blitz, and how the people viewed the events, are full of interest, there are a lot of dull statistics. There was not much good news during the two years of the war which the book covers and it is clear that the best thing that happened to Britain was that Hitler made two big mistakes: he did not occupy Britain before he attacked Russia, and he declared war on the United States three days after Pearl Harbor. How fortunate Britain and all of us were that Hitler was so stupid.… (more)