Churchill's War Lab
Churchill's War Lab

Author: Taylor Downing

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2011-06-02

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1590209931

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This WWII biography of Britain’s legendary Prime Minister examines his critical role in the military innovations that led to victory. Winston Churchill's vital leadership in the allied victory of World War II is undisputed. As a patriot, statesman, and orator, he successfully galvanized a beleaguered nation and helped coordinated a vast international bulwark against fascism. Yet, of his many unique qualities, Churchill's enduring legacy is attributable at least in equal part to his unshakeable fascination for the science of war. Churchill's War Lab reveals how Churchill's passion for military history, his inimitable leadership style, and his dedicated support of radical ideas would lead to new technologies and tactics that would enable an allied victory. No war generated more incredible theories, technical advances, and scientific leaps. From the development of radar and the decoding brilliance of Bletchley Park to the study of the D-Day beaches and the use of bouncing bombs, Churchill's War Lab is an enlightening and exciting new take on Churchill as a complex, powerful, and inventive war leader.

Churchill's Bomb
Churchill's Bomb

Author: Graham Farmelo

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 0465069894

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Perhaps no scientific development has shaped the course of modern history as much as the harnessing of nuclear energy. Yet the twentieth century might have turned out differently had greater influence over this technology been exercised by Great Britain, whose scientists were at the forefront of research into nuclear weapons at the beginning of World War II. As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill's Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country's lead and was slow to realize the Bomb's strategic implications. This was odd -- he prided himself on recognizing the military potential of new science and, in the 1920s and 1930s, had repeatedly pointed out that nuclear weapons would likely be developed soon. In developing the Bomb, however, he marginalized some of his country's most brilliant scientists, choosing to rely mainly on the counsel of his friend Frederick Lindemann, an Oxford physicist with often wayward judgment. Churchill also failed to capitalize on Franklin Roosevelt's generous offer to work jointly on the Bomb, and ultimately ceded Britain's initiative to the Americans, whose successful development and deployment of the Bomb placed the United States in a position of supreme power at the dawn of the nuclear age. After the war, President Truman and his administration refused to acknowledge a secret cooperation agreement forged by Churchill and Roosevelt and froze Britain out of nuclear development, leaving Britain to make its own way. Dismayed, Churchill worked to restore the relationship. Churchill came to be terrified by the possibility of thermonuclear war, and emerged as a pioneer of detente in the early stages of the Cold War. Contrasting Churchill's often inattentive leadership with Franklin Roosevelt's decisiveness, Churchill's Bomb reveals the secret history of the weapon that transformed modern geopolitics.

How Churchill Waged War
How Churchill Waged War

Author: Allen Packwood

Publisher: Grub Street Publishers

Published: 2018-10-30

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1473893917

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An analytical investigation into Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision-making process during every stage of World War II. When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success or failure of Britain’s war effort. It also meant that he would be faced with many monumental challenges and utterly crucial decisions upon which the fate of Britain and the free world rested. With the limited resources available to the UK, Churchill had to pinpoint where his country’s priorities lay. He had to respond to the collapse of France, decide if Britain should adopt a defensive or offensive strategy, choose if Egypt and the war in North Africa should take precedence over Singapore and the UK’s empire in the East, determine how much support to give the Soviet Union, and how much power to give the United States in controlling the direction of the war. In this insightful investigation into Churchill’s conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood, BA, MPhil (Cantab), FRHistS, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war. How Churchill responded to each challenge is analyzed in great detail and the conclusions Packwood draws are as uncompromising as those made by Britain’s wartime leader as he negotiated his country through its darkest days.

Night Raid
Night Raid

Author: Taylor Downing

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Published: 2013-05-09

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0748131310

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The loss of British bombers over Occupied Europe began to reach alarming levels in 1941. Could it be that the Germans were using a sophisticated form of radar to direct their night fighters and anti-aircraft guns at the British bombers? British aerial reconnaissance discovered what seemed to be a rotating radar tower on a clifftop at Bruneval, near Le Havre. The truth must be revealed. The decision was taken to launch a daring raid on the Bruneval site to try and capture the technology for further examination. The planned airborne assault would be extremely risky. The parachute regiment had only been formed a year before on Churchill's insistence. This night raid would test the men to the extreme limits of their abilities. Night Raid tells the gripping tale of this mission from the planning stages, to the failed rehearsals when the odds seemed stacked against them, to the night of the raid itself, and the scientific secrets that were discovered thanks to the paras' precious cargo - the German radar. Its capture was of immense importance in the next stages of the war and the mission itself marked the birth of the legend of the 'Red Devils'.

Britain's War Machine
Britain's War Machine

Author: David Edgerton

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-09-09

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 0199911509

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The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgerton's bold, compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light, with Britain as a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests, and in command of a global production system. Rather than belittled by a Nazi behemoth, Britain arguably had the world's most advanced mechanized forces. It had not only a great empire, but allies large and small. Edgerton shows that Britain fought on many fronts and its many home fronts kept it exceptionally well supplied with weapons, food and oil, allowing it to mobilize to an extraordinary extent. It created and deployed a vast empire of machines, from the humble tramp steamer to the battleship, from the rifle to the tank, made in colossal factories the world over. Scientists and engineers invented new weapons, encouraged by a government and prime minister enthusiastic about the latest technologies. The British, indeed Churchillian, vision of war and modernity was challenged by repeated defeat at the hands of less well-equipped enemies. Yet the end result was a vindication of this vision. Like the United States, a powerful Britain won a cheap victory, while others paid a great price. Putting resources, machines and experts at the heart of a global rather than merely imperial story, Britain's War Machine demolishes timeworn myths about wartime Britain and gives us a groundbreaking and often unsettling picture of a great power in action.

1942
1942

Author: Taylor Downing

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-10-04

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1639362339

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A revelatory new work of popular history focused on the year 1942, as the fate of Britain—and Winston Churchill’s leadership—hangs in the balance. Eighty years ago, Britain stood at the brink of defeat. In 1942, a string of military disasters engulfed Britain in rapid succession : the collapse in Malaya; the biggest surrender in British history at Singapore; the passing of three large German warships through the Straits of Dover in broad daylight; the longest ever retreat through Burma to the gates of India; serious losses to Rommel's forces in North Africa; the siege of Malta and the surrender at Tobruk. All of this occurred against the backdrop of catastrophic sinkings in the Atlantic and the Arctic convoys. People began to claim that Churchill was not up to the job and his leadership was failing badly. Public morale reached a new low. Taylor Downing’s 1942 explores the story of frustration and despair of that year, prompting Winston Churchill to demand of his army chief, "Have you not got a single general who can win battles?” Using newly discovered archival material, historian Taylor Downing shows just how unpopular Churchill became in 1942, with two votes attacking his leadership in the House of Commons and the emergence of a serious political rival.Some argue that Britain's most precarious moment of the war was in 1940—when the nation stood up against the threat of German invasion during the Battle of Britain. But in 1942, Taylor Downing describes, in nail-biting detail, what was really Britain's darkest hour of World War II.

Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill

Author: Christopher Catherwood

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-03-30

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1538120836

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Winston Churchill has for decades been regarded as one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, not just in his home country Britain but in the USA as well, where he continues to be an inspiration to many to this day. In 2002 he was voted The Greatest Briton, and the 2016 movie The Darkest Hour continues his global iconic status as someone who stood up to tyranny in 1940, against all the odds, and prevailed. But while 1940 has deserved iconic status, Churchill’s 60 year political career saw as many downs as ups, disasters as well as triumphs, and had he died in 1939 he would, historians judge, have been seen as a failure not the hero he went on to become. So we need to see the whole of Churchill’s life to gain a proper perspective, and that is exactly what this book sets out to achieve Includes a detailed chronology of Churchill’s life, family, and work. The A to Z section includes the major events, places, and people in Churchill’s life. The bibliography includes a list of publications concerning his life and work. The index thoroughly cross-references the chronological and encyclopedic entries.

Spies In The Sky
Spies In The Sky

Author: Taylor Downing

Publisher: Abacus

Published: 2011-09-15

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0748128093

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SPIES IN THE SKY is the thrilling, little-known story of the partner organisation to the famous code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. It is the story of the daring reconnaissance pilots who took aerial photographs over Occupied Europe during the most dangerous days of the Second World War, and of the photo interpreters who invented a completely new science to analyse those pictures. They were inventive and ingenious; they pioneered the development of 3D photography and their work provided vital intelligence throughout the war. With a whole host of colourful characters at its heart, from the legendary pilot Adrian 'Warby' Warburton, who went missing while on a mission, to photo interpreters Glyn Daniel, later a famous television personality, and Winston Churchill's daughter, Sarah, SPIES IN THE SKY is compelling reading and the first full account of the story of aerial photography and the intelligence gleaned from it in nearly fifty years.

The Last Escaper
The Last Escaper

Author: Peter Tunstall

Publisher: ABRAMS

Published: 2015-01-08

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1468311557

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“A remarkable memoir of a British lad’s salad days flying bombers against the Nazis and then repeatedly escaping their prison camps” (Kirkus Reviews). The product of a lifetime’s reflection, The Last Escaper is Peter Tunstall’s unforgettable memoir of his days in the British Royal Air Force and as one of the most celebrated British POWs of World War II. Tunstall was an infamous tormentor of his German captors. Dubbed the “cooler king” on account of his long spells in solitary, he once dropped a water “bomb” directly in the lap of a high-ranking German officer. He also devised an ingenious method for smuggling coded messages back to London. But above all he was a highly skilled pilot, loyal friend, and trusted colleague. Without false pride or bitterness, Tunstall recounts the hijinks of training to be a pilot, terrifying bombing raids, and elaborate escape attempts at once hilarious and deadly serious—all part of a poignant and human war story superbly told by a natural raconteur. The Last Escaper is a captivating final testament by the “last man standing” from the Greatest Generation. “Right up there with Stalag 17 and The Great Escape.” —New York Post “The historical account of behind-the-scenes drama makes this a valuable addition to the period literature.” —Publishers Weekly “The stark reality of war is ever present in his detailed accounting of life as a prisoner of war. We are taken through the highs and lows of not only each failed attempt but the psychological effects of imprisonment on himself, others in the camps and ultimately how it changed each person involved.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Operation Crossbow
Operation Crossbow

Author: Allan Williams

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2013-05-30

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 1409051730

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The story of the photographic intelligence work undertaken from a country house at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, is one of the great lost stories of the Second World War . At its peak in 1944, almost 2,000 British and American men and women worked at the top-secret Danesfield House, interpreting photographs - the majority stereoscopic so they could be viewed in 3D - to unlock secrets of German military activity and weapons development. Millions of aerial photographs were taken by Allied pilots, flying unarmed modified Spitfires and Mosquitos on missions over Nazi Europe. it was said that an aircraft could land, the photographs be developed and initial interpretation completed within two hours - marking the culmination of years of experiments in aerial intelligence techniques. Their finest hour began in 1943, during the planning stages of the Allied invasion of Europe, when Douglas Kendall, who masterminded the interpretation work at Medmenham, led the hunt for Hitler's secret weapons. Operation Crossbow would grow from a handful of photographic interpreters to the creation of a hand-picked team, and came to involve interpreters from across the Medmenham spectrum, including the team of aircraft specialists led by the redoubtable Constance Babington Smith. In November that year, whilst analysing photographs of Peenemunde in northern Germany, they spotted a small stunted aircraft on a ramp. This intelligence breakthrough linked the Nazi research station with a growing network of sites in northern France, where ramps were being constructed aligned not only with London, but targets throughout southern Britain. Through the combined skill and dedication of the Crossbow team and the heroism of the Allied pilots, throughout late 1943 and 1944 V-weapon launch sites were located and through countermeasures destroyed, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, and changing the course of the war. Operation Crossbow is a wonderful story of human endeavour and derring-do, told for the first time.