The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate by Winston S. Churchill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I find that I am liking each one of these volumes more than the last. The pleasure of this history is that, through the eyes of Winston Churchill, the war takes the shape of an enormous board game, played over months and years. Far removed from the gore of the front lines, Churchill sees the conflict as symbols on a map, which he needs to arrange in the most advantageous possible way—a game he plays brilliantly. This is not to say that he is frivolous or superficial. But warfare is far more palatable when experienced from the command chair than from the trenches.
Added to purely military decisions is the messier business of courting allies. Indeed, the best parts of this book describe Churchill’s cultivation of his relationships with Roosevelt and Stalin. Dealing with the Americans was relatively easy, as Roosevelt and Churchill seemed to have gotten along very well. Nevertheless, working so closely together required constant coordination of plans, both short-term and long-term; and Churchill sometimes struggled to get the American command to accept his military vision.
With Stalin, relations were far more tense. The Soviet leader is constantly demanding from Churchill fresh supplies and for a second front in France. Churchill, meanwhile, does his best to placate Stalin while firmly refusing to do what he feels is unwise. This culminates in his 1942 visit to Moscow, narrated in the two best chapters of the book. Churchill, sure that he will not be able to invade France in 1942, decides he must deliver this message personally if he is to maintain his working relationship with the Soviets. Stalin, at first, doesn’t take the news well, but by the end they are up all night, drinking vodka. In virtually any other circumstances, the two men would have been sworn enemies, and it is fascinating to see them try to cooperate.
The title of the book is quite apt, as it contains the battles that marked the beginning of the end for both Germany and Japan: Midway, Stalingrad, and Tunisia. These books, it should be remembered, are public memoirs rather than objective history; and so Stalingrad and Midway, being battles Churchill had nothing to do with, get only a cursory treatment. Northern Africa, on the other hand, occupies much of the book, as British and then American forces beat Rommel, invaded the Vichy territories, and finally won a decisive victory in Tunisia.
As a final thought, I am constantly surprised at how much I am learning from these books. Somehow, after a lifetime of World War II media, I knew close to nothing about operation “Torch,” and had no real idea of the significance of the Northern African campaigns. I was also unfamiliar with the Katyn massacres—Russia’s mass executions of Polish prisoners, an issue which Churchill felt he could not raise with the Soviets, for fear of hurting their relationship. Indeed, having been in Dresden just two weeks ago, I’ve had occasion to reflect that it was not only the axis who committed war crimes.
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Have you seen the Churchill film that came out some years ago, the one with the very odd musical scene in the Underground? If so, what did you think of it in the context of reading these volumes?
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I’m afraid that doesn’t ring a bell. I saw Darkest Hour, with Gary Oldman, but I don’t recall singing… For what it’s worth I thought Oldman’s performance was very impressive but the movie itself struck me as one-dimensional.
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Yes, that’s the one. The train scene is one of the few things I recall about the film, maybe because it was such a surprise. But I forgot the detail until I looked at it again just now. No singing and dancing, but rather ‘theatrical’, seemed to stand out from the rest of the film….Gary Oldman was such a disappointment when he decided to go to the US in his youth, this was the first thing I’ve seen him do for lots of decades that seemed good. But was it all historically accurate? I was shocked by his desperation and Roosevelt’s capacity to say no.
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In those regards the film was indeed accurate. The British Empire was in dire straits at the beginning of the war, and Roosevelt was hampered by an isolationist congress from helping. For a time it was feared Germany would invade Great Britain. This is detailed in the first two volumes of these books.
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