The Second World War : abridged edition with an epilogue on the years 1945 to 1957

1323 Pages·1959·11.04 MB·English

by  Winston S. Churchill

The Second
World War
TITLES IN THE BLOOMSBURY REVELATIONS SERIES
Aesthetic Theory, Theodor W. Adorno Being and Event, Alain Badiou
On Religion, Karl Barth
The Language of Fashion, Roland Barthes The Intelligence of Evil, Jean
Baudrillard I and Thou, Martin Buber
Never Give In!, Winston Churchill
The Boer War, Winston Churchill
The Second World War, Winston Churchill In Defence of Politics, Bernard Crick
Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy, Manuel DeLanda A Thousand
Plateaus, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari Anti-Oedipus, Gilles Deleuze and
Félix Guattari Cinema I, Gilles Deleuze
Cinema II, Gilles Deleuze
Taking Rights Seriously, Ronald Dworkin Discourse on Free Will, Desiderius
Erasmus and Martin Luther Education for Critical Consciousness, Paulo Freire
Marx’s Concept of Man, Erich Fromm and Karl Marx To Have or To Be?, Erich
Fromm
Truth and Method, Hans Georg Gadamer All Men Are Brothers, Mohandas K.
Gandhi Violence and the Sacred, Rene Girard The Essence of Truth, Martin
Heidegger The Eclipse of Reason, Max Horkheimer The Language of the Third
Reich, Victor Klemperer Rhythmanalysis, Henri Lefebvre
After Virtue, Alasdair Maclntyreq
Time for Revolution, Antonio Negri
Politics of Aesthetics, Jacques Ranciere Course in General Linguistics,
Ferdinand de Saussure An Actor Prepares, Constantin Stanislavski Building A
Character, Constantin Stanislavski Creating A Role, Constantin Stanislavski
Interrogating the Real, Slavoj Žižek Some titles are not available in North
America.
The Second
World War
Abridged Edition
With an Epilogue on the Years
1945 to 1957
Winston S. Churchill
Moral of the Work
IN WAR: RESOLUTION
IN DEFEAT: DEFIANCE
IN VICTORY: MAGNANIMITY
IN PEACE: GOODWILL
NOTE
The Second World War is an abridgement by Denis Kelly of the following
volumes composed by Sir Winston Churchill: The Gathering Storm (1919–May
10, 1940) Their Finest Hour (1940) The Grand Alliance (1941) The Hinge of
Fate (1942–July 1943) Closing the Ring (July 1943–June 6, 1944) Triumph and
Tragedy (June 6, 1944–July 25, 1945) Space compelled the omission of many
passages from these volumes, and sequence and proportion demanded a
considerable re-arrangement of the remainder of the text. Apart, however, from
some linking sentences which are insignificant in number, this abridgement is
entirely in Sir Winston’s own words.
The Epilogue, now published in book form for the first time, was written by
Sir Winston at the beginning of 1957. It is unabridged and reviews the period
since his relinquishment of the office of Prime Minister of Great Britain on July
26, 1945.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must record my thanks to Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall,
Commodore G. R. G. Allen, and Mr. F. W. Deakin, Warden of St. Anthony’s
College, Oxford, for reading and criticising the early drafts of this abridgement.
I, however, bear the sole responsibility for all defects and deficiencies in the
present version.
I am also much obliged to Mr. C. A. Butler for correcting the proofs, to my
publishers on both sides of the Atlantic for their customary generosity and
patience, and to many others who have given me their help, encouragement, and
advice.
D. K.
15 December, 1958.
EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE TO THE
GATHERING STORM
I MUST regard these volumes as a continuation of the story of the First World
War which I set out in The World Crisis, The Eastern Front, and The Aftermath.
Together they cover an account of another Thirty Years War.
I have followed, as in previous volumes, the method of Defoe’s Memoirs of a
Cavalier, as far as I am able, in which the author hangs the chronicle and
discussion of great military and political events upon the thread of the personal
experiences of an individual. I am perhaps the only man who has passed through
both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high executive office.
Whereas however in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate
posts, I was in this second struggle with Germany for more than five years 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. I do not describe
it as history, for that belongs to another generation. But I claim with confidence
that it is a contribution to history which will be of service to the future.
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 criticising any measure of war or policy after the event unless I had before
expressed publicly or formally my opinion or warning about it. Indeed in the
afterlight I have softened many of the severities of contemporary controversy. It
has given me pain to record these disagreements with so many men whom I
liked or respected; but it would be wrong not to lay the lessons of the past before
the future. Let no one look down on those honourable, well-meaning men whose
actions are chronicled in these pages without searching his own heart, reviewing
his own discharge of public duty, and applying the lessons of the past to his
future conduct.
It must not be supposed that I expect everybody to agree with what I say, still
less that I only write what will be popular. I give my testimony according to the
lights I follow. Every possible care has been taken to verify the facts; but much
is constantly coming to light from the disclosure of captured documents or other
revelations which may present a new aspect to the conclusions which I have
revelations which may present a new aspect to the conclusions which I have
drawn.
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly 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 the victories of the Righteous Cause we have
still not found Peace or Security, and that we lie in the grip of even worse perils
than those we have surmounted. It is my earnest hope that pondering upon the
past may give guidance in days to come, enable a new generation to repair some
of the errors of former years, and thus govern, in accordance with the needs and
glory of man, the awful unfolding scene of the future.
WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL
Chartwell,
Westerham,
Kent
March 1948
BOOK I
MILESTONES TO DISASTER
1919–May 10, 1940
I THE FOLLIES OF THE VICTORS, 1919–1929
II PEACE AT ITS ZENITH, 1922–1931
III ADOLF HITLER
IV THE LOCUST YEARS, 1931–1933
V THE DARKENING SCENE, 1934
VI AIR PARITY LOST, 1934–1935
VII CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE, 1935
VIII SANCTIONS AGAINST ITALY, 1935
IX HITLER STRIKES, 1936
X THE LOADED PAUSE, 1936–1938
XI MR. EDEN AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE. HIS RESIGNATION
XII THE RAPE OF AUSTRIA, FEBRUARY 1938
XIII CZECHOSLOVAKIA
XIV THE TRAGEDY OF MUNICH
XV PRAGUE, ALBANIA, AND THE POLISH GUARANTEE
XVI ON THE VERGE
XVII TWILIGHT WAR