Their Finest Hour

By the end of June 1940, Britain stood virtually alone against Nazi Germany, stripped of arms and shoved back across the Channel to face the twin evils of conquest or capitulation. The French army, reputed to be the greatest land army on earth, had crumpled before the German onslaught in less than seven weeks. Few expected the lonely and battered island to remain standing for long, but then something remarkable happened: the islanders, quite simply and quite stubbornly, refused to quit. As the Battle of Britain raged in the air, as American aid steamed inexorably across the sea, and as the vast British Empire and Commonwealth geared up for total and global war, German hopes of a brief and victorious campaign flagged. This would prove to show more be Nazi Germany's final hour, and this would prove to be the British people's finest hour.

The second book in Winston Churchill's history and memoir of the Second World War provides an illuminating window in the vast uncertainty, fear, and courage of the days during and after the fall of France. As Churchill presents it, most assumed the real war was over when France surrendered, and that British submission or subjuguation would follow swiftly. In truth, there's little reason history could not have gone that way. A lesser government could easily have chosen to cut its losses and strike a peace with Herr Hitler to mitigate the horrors of the Blitz or to prevent the dismemberment of Britain's empire. That they chose not to give in, and that the people sustained them in choosing to fight a war many outside Britain believed to be unwinnable, is a testament to the truth of Churchill's speech from which he drew the title of this volume. Victory over Nazi determination to remake the world in Hitler's image began with the pluck of a small island people who stared death in the face and denied its existence, who instead rose to the challenge of the hour, and who by their inability to admit defeat turned the course of history away from a new dark age and into broad, sunlit uplands. show less

A fine continuation of Churchill’s view of the Second World War. This book contains a close-up look at the difficulties faced by the average Brit…but does not discount the soldiers—both British and French, Australian, Canadian, Indian, and African. If you’ve read the first book, this is more in the same style. What’s different is some disclosures that surprised me for their not being mentioned in any of the other histories I’ve read.

Let me first provide an example of Churchill’s understated discussion of the French troop deployment against the initial German onslaught:

“One cannot be strong everywhere….[but] The spreading of forty-three divisions, of half the mobile French army, from Longwy to the Maginot Line show more forts….was an improvident disposition….A weight of opinion supports the criticism that the French reserves were inadequate, and, such as they were, badly distributed.”

He then goes on to discuss the weaknesses that the English should have pointed out, along with the anticipated, fairly strong, arguments in rebuttal by the French; and finally decides that the English should have made their case anyway. In other words, Churchill regrets that no one tried to point out that the French generals, left over from the First World War, were still trying to fight this war in the same way as before—without regard for the new developments in weaponry.

Without pulling punches, Churchill continues to describe the weaknesses of the French strategy and, after they entered the war, the Italian tactics (the which are too embarrassing to mention here). He notes that there seemed to be 2 types of French leaders responding to the German Blitzkrieg: the ones that decided that they’ve already lost the war and that everyone should just “give up”; and those that believed the British should give them more troops to continue the tactics that have lost the French so much ground already—in the belief that more of the same will finally win in the end.

And then there were the younger French generals…led by de Gaulle. One gets the impression that de Gaulle was a little bit too eager to use the British for all he could get and felt frustrated that the English put a higher priority on defending Great Britain than giving de Gaulle the extra support he needed to forge ahead.

Now here is something that quite surprised me:

In June of 1940 the British Cabinet and several French Ministers, including Generals, submitted to the French council of ministers a Declaration of Union wherein “The two Governments declare that France and Great Britain shall no longer be two nations, but one Franco-British Union.” The idea being that the British could absorb the ships and armies of the defeated French regime and continue the fight against the Nazis under the resultingly more favorable conditions of military unity.

“The overwhelming feeling of the [French] Council was to reject the whole plan.” You’ll have to read the various reasons for rejection…the sheer stupidity and short-sidedness of the ministers is also too strained, and painful, for me to rehearse.

Meanwhile, the English flirted with some other, pretty strange, weapons, including dropping parachutes with suspended aerial mines to intercept German bombers, and 3 inch rocket torpedoes against enemy aircraft. And it is impressive that Churchill had the time/energy/forethought to contemplate: how to save the broken London windows in order to melt them down and reforge them into replacement windows; efforts to speed up the refilling of the bomb holes in the airfield runways; devising various camouflage for the soldiers; using civilians, rather than soldiers for much of the “grunt” work behind the scenes—to free up the soldiers for actual fighting.

This book ends with the defeat of the Italians and the capture of the Italian “empire” in Africa. And America has still not declared war on the Axis.

The degree to which Churchill was committed to overseeing the British war efforts is astounding and very impressive—he not only ran the country, as the Prime Minister, be he also ran the war, as the Minister of War. And he did both so well. show less

This is the volume of the Second World War collection, in which Mr. Churchill really grabs the reader's attention. While the first volume had to present the background and all of the events leading up to WWII, this book focuses on the hard-pressed Brits and their resilience in the face of seeming victory for the enemy.

The Prime Minister's sardonic comments are sprinkled throughout, so you can laugh even when you want to cry. He is blisteringly honest in his evaluation of the constant losing and how the British population is close to just giving up altogether. Then comes the Battle of Britain and the beginning of the turnaround against the Germans. He keeps the reader glued with the detail, so that you feel you were there when it show more happened.

This is a big book, but once you get hooked, forget about putting it down. The human tragedy is mixed with human hope and that wonderful British upper-lip-ness. As London is being destroyed neighborhood by neighborhood by Hitler's flying bombs, a Home Guardsman is heard saying, "It's a grand life, if we don't weaken."

Book Season = Autumn show less

Stirring stuff. The chapters on Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain especially so. The absolute master at politely and diplomatically telling people to get their motherfucking act in gear. I was surprised to learn the internal discussion of offering to merge with France into one nation. Another surprise was the telegram to FDR mentioning potentially letting Northern Ireland merge with Eire.

Another fabulous entry in Churchill's series regarding World War II. This book roughly documents the year 1940 - the fall of France, the Battle of Britain and other activities during the year.

Churchill's grasp of the politics of the situation are breathtaking, the individual correspondence's between Churchill and FDR are amazing to read, as the finesse Churchill shows in documenting the case time and again to FDR that the U.S. must join Great Britain in their crusade against the Nazis, or face them alone if Great Britain should fall.

The strategic grasp Churchill demonstrates time and again of world events, and proper context is exciting to read. And this book is a great reminder that Great Britain for over a year held the tide of Nazi show more Germany at bay, and preceded to beat the Germans in the air, in Egypt, and at sea while absorbing a tremendous cost on their civilian population due to indiscriminate bombing.

Difficult to put down, fascinating in it's detail, this is a must read. show less

"For Romans in Rome's quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old."

Winston Churchill is at his finest when the subject is the heroic efforts of his beloved Britain during the darkest days of the Second World War. The poem above, which he quotes in the book, adequately summarizes the "temper of the hour".

If the subject is mobilizing people for a conflict (and, given current events, this definitely should be the subject), there is no better book to read than "Their Finest Hour". Second in Churchill's World War Two series, it brilliantly lays out England's struggle from the perspective of her leaders. The following paragraph should be a lesson to our generation:

"This was the moment when show more my colleagues felt it right to obtain from Parliament the extraordinary powers for which a bill had been prepared during the last few days. This measure would give the government practically unlimited power over the life, liberty, and probperty of all His Majety's subjects in Great Britain."

Could Americans (or Britons, for that matter) stomach such measures today? I have my doubts.

One last quote stands in sharp contrast to today's leadership in the present conflict:

"You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory--victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

http://www.comingstobrazil.com show less

'Their Finest Hour' indeed. A very close and detailed look at the events leading to the Battle Of Britain, the struggle itself and the very real impact of the 'Blitz' on civilians especially in London.
As in Volume 1 history unfolds on a detailed level with insights into the events and decisions of the day based on Churchill's minutes and orders (all done on paper at the time instead of just verbally).
Even though one knows the outcome, it is a gripping read. Seeing how many crucial junctions there were, where everything could have gone in a completely different direction. Especially Germany's strategic failure in their bombing campaign.