Tai Lieu Chat Luong The Grand Alliance The Second World War [3] Winston Churchill Mariner Books (1954) Rating: ★★★★☆ Tags: World War II, General, Historical, Churchill; Winston, Biography Autobiography, Military, History, World War; 1939-1945, World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Africa; North, World War; 1939-1945 Diplomatic history, Africa; North, Campaigns, Non-Fiction, War, World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Eastern Front, Eastern Front, Africa; East, World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Atlantic Ocean, World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Africa; East World War IIttt Generalttt Historicalttt Churchill; Winstonttt Biography Autobiographyttt Militaryttt Historyttt World War; 1939-1945ttt World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Africa; Northttt World War; 1939-1945 Diplomatic historyttt Africa; Northttt Campaignsttt Non-Fictionttt Warttt World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Eastern Frontttt Eastern Frontttt Africa; Eastttt World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Atlantic Oceanttt World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Africa; Eastttt The Grand Alliance describes the end of an extraordinary period in British military history in which that country stood virtually alone against the German onslaught Two crucial events bring about the end of Britains̓ isolation and prove to be key turning points in the war against Hitler The first is Hitlers̓ welldocumented decision to attack the Soviet Union, opening up a battle front in the East The second event is the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the war THE GRAND ALLIANCE WINSTON CHURCHILL The Grand Alliance Copyright The Grand Alliance Copyright © 1948 by Winston Churchill Cover art and eForeword to the electronic edition copyright © 2002 by RosettaBooks, LLC All rights reserved No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical ayrticles and reviews For information address Editor@RosettaBooks.com First electronic edition published 2002 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York ISBN 0-7953-0612-1 The Grand Alliance Contents eForeword Preface Acknowledgments Book One: Germany Drives East 1: The Desert and the Balkans 2: The Widening War 3: Blitz and Anti-Blitz, 1941: Hess 4: The Mediterranean War 5: Conquest of the Italian Empire 6: Decision to Aid Greece 7: The Battle of the Atlantic, 1941 The Western Approaches 8: The Battle of the Atlantic, 1941 The American Intervention 9: Yugoslavia 10: The Japanese Envoy 11: The Desert Flank: Rommel: Tobruk 12: The Greek Campaign 13: Tripoli and “Tiger” The Grand Alliance 14: The Revolt in Iraq 15: Crete: The Advent 16: Crete: The Battle 17: The Fate of the “Bismarck” 18: Syria 19: General Wavell’s Final Effort: “Battleaxe” 20: The Soviet Nemesis Book Two: War Comes to America 1: Our Soviet Ally 2: An African Pause: Tobruk 3: My Meeting with Roosevelt 4: The Atlantic Charter 5: Aid to Russia 6: Persia and the Middle East Summer and Autumn, 1941 7: The Mounting Strength of Britain Autumn, 1941 8: Closer Contacts with Russia Autumn and Winter, 1941 9: The Path Ahead 10: Operation “Crusader” Ashore, Aloft, and Afloat 11: Japan 12: Pearl Harbour! 13: A Voyage Amid World War 14: Proposed Plan and Sequence of the War 15: Washington and Ottawa The Grand Alliance 16: Anglo-American Accords 17: Return to Storm Appendices Notes About the Author About this Title The Grand Alliance Maps and Diagrams The Advance from Tobruk The Campaign in East Africa The Battle of the Atlantic: Merchant Ships Sunk by U-Boats in the Atlantic Phase I From the Outbreak of War to the Invasion of Norway, September 3, 1939, to April 9, 1940 Phase II The Western Approaches, April 10, 1940, to March 17, 1941 Phase III The Ocean up to the Entry of the United States into the War, March 18, 1941, to December 6, 1941 The Balkans Rommel’s Counter-Offensive, April, 1941 The German Invasion of Greece Habbaniya-Falluja Syria and Iraq Crete and the Aegean The Chase of the Bismarck Map 1: Situation at 6.00 a.m May 24 Map 2: Situation at 3.06 a.m May 25 Map 3: Situation at 10.30 a.m May 26 The Grand Alliance Plan 1: Situation at 9.00 a.m May 26 Plan 2: Situation at 8.48 a.m May 27 Plan 3: Situation at 10.15 a.m May 27 The Syrian Campaign Diagram to Illustrate Operation “Battleaxe” The German Attack on Russia Operations in Persia The Mediterranean Area, June 21, 1941 Enemy Dispositions November 18 Opening Phase, November 18-19 First Battle of Sidi Rezegh Rommel’s Raid November 24–28 Second Battle of Sidi Rezegh, November 29– 30 The South China Sea Malaya Chapter 9 1 The invasion of Sicily 2 The actual date and the code-name “Crusader” were given in a separate note 3 See Chapter VII, page 509 4 See Chapter VII, page 510 5 Oberkommando des Wehrmacht, Supreme Command of the German Army Chapter 10 The Grand Alliance 1092 1 The following was the composition of the Eighth Army: XIII Corps (GodwinAusten): 4th Indian Division, New Zealand Division, 1st Army Tank Brigade XXX Corps (Norrie): 7th Armoured Division (7th Armoured Brigade, 22d Armoured Brigade), 4th Armoured Brigade Group, 1st South African Division (two brigades), 22d Guards Brigade Group The sea was too rough for the re-embarkation of the survivors of the two raiding parties, and under fierce pursuit Colonel Laycock ordered them to scatter and hide in the broken country Only Colonel Laycock and Sergeant Terry, who had been conspicuous in the attack on the German Headquarters, eventually regained our lines, after five weeks of privation and desperate adventures Chapter 11 For those who wish to study this matter in more detail, the correspondence which passed between me and the First Sea Lord at this time is printed in Appendix E, Book Two For reasons which could not at this time be foreseen, the Prince of Wales and not the Nelson or Rodney was sent 2 The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, Volume II, page 1081 3 The reader need not be puzzled by the datings of the telegrams, so long as they are in their proper sequence I worked up till two or three in the morning (British time), and any message I sent took two or three hours to code and decode Nevertheless, any message which I drafted before I went to bed would reach the President almost The Grand Alliance 1093 instantaneously for practical purposes – i.e., when he woke up, or was, if need be, awakened Chapter 14 1 See Chapter IX, pages 544–48 This paragraph was to be falsified by General Auchinleck’s later defeats At this time we had good grounds for hope 3 Part I, paragraph 11 Chapter 15 1 Author’s italics 2 Author’s italics Chapter 16 1 History of the War Production Board, 1940–1945 2 Sir Charles Wilson, now Lord Moran 3 Head of the United States Army Air Force Chapter 17 1 Paragraphs 9, 10, 14, 15, and 16 are omitted for reasons of space 2 Commander Thompson, R.N The Grand Alliance 1094 3 Thomas Campbell’s Lord Ullin’s Daughter Appendix C, Book One 1 P.F.: An early type of proximity fuze 2 A.D.: A rocket and parachute device for use against aircraft 3 A Communist circular addressed to all active working men and women A highly successful raid was carried out in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway on March 4, 1941, by two Commandos Important enemy supplies and much shipping were destroyed, two hundred German prisoners taken and 314 Norwegian volunteers brought safely out In a second raid, carried out December 26, the port was again occupied temporarily by our forces 5 This is a reply to a minute from the Minister of Home Security, the Secretary of State for Air, and the Minister of Information about measures to check the spread of harmful rumours about air-raid casualties and damage 6 Castelorizzo Island lies midway between Rhodes and Cyprus and forms a link in the chain reaching out from the Dodecanese towards Syria A British Commando occupied this island on February 25 after slight opposition The naval forces then withdrew to Cyprus without watching events Later heavy air attacks developed and the enemy landed reinforcement, unopposed by our naval forces It was necessary to abandon the island The Grand Alliance 1095 D.F.: Direction-finding equipment used to determine the direction of the source of a wireless signal 8 A.S.V.: Airborne radar The Actaeon net defence against torpedoes was being developed for use in merchant ships It could not be towed by escort vessels without seriously hampering their freedom of movement See Volume I, page 727 10 The Gneisenau had in fact been torpedoed in Brest Harbour on April 6 by an aircraft of Coastal Command In this gallant attack the aircraft and all the crew were lost The pilot was awarded a posthumous V.C A few days later Bomber Command aircraft scored four hits on the same ship with bombs These successes were not known to us at the time In July the Scharnhorst moved from Brest to La Pallice, in the Bay of Biscay, for trials and sea training, but three days later she was successfully bombed in harbour there and severely damaged She returned to Brest for further extensive repairs 11 General Ismay, for C.O.S Committee 1.IX.40 Of course, if the glider scheme is better than parachutes, we should pursue it, but is it being seriously taken up? Are we not in danger of being fobbed off with one doubtful and experimental policy and losing the other which has already been proved? Let me have a full report of what has been done about the gliders 12 The Grand Alliance 1096 13 See footnote at page 760 14 About four hundred Polish officers were sent as proposed to the West African Division and served with high credit 15 This minute shows the genesis of the landing-craft flak (L C.F.) which was a converted tank-landing-craft carrying a powerful battery of light and antiaircraft guns It was used to provide close air defence to landingcraft during an assault Six of these were in service by May, 1942, and thereafter the numbers greatly increased Appendix D, Book One 16 See Book One, Chapter 3, page 39 et seq Appendix E, Book One 17 The losses in December include about 270,000 tons lost in the Far East Of this 194,000 tons was British Appendix F, Book One The Grand Alliance 1097 18 Extra to original 57 19 One South African division extra to original 57 Appendix A, Book Two 20 C.I.G.S.’s Minute of 5.VII.41, referring to the Prime Minister’s request for a detailed distribution list of equipment, by formations, in the Middle East 21 About deliveries of Martlet II aircraft 22 About the action of the 2d Armoured Division during the withdrawal from Cyrenaica, in March and April, 1941 23 This refers to a Minute from Mr Amery about conditions in Burma and a proposed visit to this country by the Burmese Premier, U Saw 24 This refers to a minute about Blenheim attacks on shipping in Rotterdam 25 This refers to early plans for atom-bomb research, for which we used the code-word “Tube Alloys.” 26 The explanation divided the responsibility to an extent which was difficult to follow by disciplinary action 27 This was the U-boat captured by a Hudson aircraft in the western approaches in August 1911 See Book Two, Chapter 7, “The Mounting Strength of Britain,” page 519 The Grand Alliance 1098 28 Later types of British fighters could not at this time be spared by the R.A.F for the use of the Navy (See also minute of 16.VIII.41, pages 809–10.) 29 WingCommander “Paddy” Finucane, D.F.C and two bars, was killed at the age of twenty-two in July, 1942, when after continuous exploits, he was leading a fighter wing in a mass attack on enemy targets in France It was always said that the Luftwaffe would never get him, and it was actually a ground shot from an unusual single machine-gun post which hit his Spitfire He flew slowly out to sea, talking calmly to his comrades Finally, when ten miles from the French coast, he sent his last message, spoken probably as his engine stopped: “This is it, chaps.” He crashed from about ten feet above the sea, and his machine sank at once Finucane had always vowed not to be taken prisoner, and it was probably this that made him fly out to sea rather than inland, where he would have had a good chance of survival 30 Unrotated Projectile Disguised name for rocket See footnote to minute of 6.XII.41, page 838 31 These comments refer to the Admiralty programme of new naval construction for 1942 Many changes were made in it at later dates The following notes indicate the size of our effort: (1) Convoy escort vessels Over one hundred frigates, ordered about this time and built in American yards, were delivered to us by the middle of 1944 The Grand Alliance 1099 (2) The aircraft-carrier Eagle is referred to here for the first time She was laid down late in 1942, and was expected to take nearly four years to build In fact this ship has not yet been completed (3) -inch-gun cruisers Two of the ships mentioned became H.M ships Defence and Superb The eight-inch-gun cruiser was never built (4) Destroyers The following were on order or in various stages of construction: (5) Landing-craft Very large increases in all types of landing-craft construction were made in later years 32 Post-war analysis shows that German U-boat losses at this period were as follows: September, 2; October, 2; November, 5; December, 9 British submarine losses during the same period were three 33 Post-war figures show that the average daily number of U-boats operating in the North Atlantic during December, 1911, was eight In addition, on any given day many others were on outward or homeward passages The Grand Alliance 1100 The shipping losses by U-boats during November, 1941, were 61,700 tons, the lowest figure recorded for any month since May, 1940 34 “Gee” was the name given to a radio device by means of which our bombers could fix their positions when operating over Germany 35 Type K – Antiaircraft rocket Apparatus A.D., Type L, Apparatus A.D., Type J – Rockets for defence of aerodromes and similar places against low flying aircraft Rocket U, 5 inch – Original design was for delivering chemical warfare charge, but subsequently became area barrage weapon Rocket U, 3 inch – Antiaircraft barrage weapon Appendix B, Book Two 36 See Book Two, Chapter 2, page 411 Appendix C, Book Two 37 See Book Two, Chapter 4, 445 Appendix G, Book Two 38 See Volume I, Book One, Chapter 9 Appendix H, Book Two The Grand Alliance 1101 39 The office of Minister of Transport was united with that of the Minister of Shipping, and a new oflice of Minister of War Transport created May 1, 1941 The Grand Alliance 1102 About the Author One of the most significant leaders of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill was born in 1874 He served as a war correspondent during the Boer War and after his capture and release became a national hero in England He parlayed his celebrity into a political career, getting elected to the Conservative Party just ten months after his return Churchill joined the Liberal Party in 1904 After serving as Home Secretary under David Lloyd George, he became Lord of the Admiralty, but a military setback suffered in World War I forced him to resign Churchill’s political career suffered many ups and downs during the 1920’s and 30’s owing, in part, to his support of King Edward VIII during his abdication But when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Churchill was reappointed Lord of the Admiralty In 1940, Churchill succeeded Chamberlain as Prime Minister and remained in office until 1945 During that time, he successfully guided the nation through World War II, inspiring and mobilizing the British people and forging crucial ties with American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Despite his success in the war, Churchill’s government was voted out in 1945, owing in part to the nation’s lack of confidence in his domestic policies He remained in Parliament and was reelected in 1951, ultimately resigning in 1955 at the age of 80 After retirement from public life, Churchill spent his time writing, publishing The History of the English Speaking People That work, along with his sixvolume history of The Grand Alliance 1103 World War II and The World Crisis, his history of World War I, earned Churchill the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 In 1963 Churchill was made an honorary U.S citizen Winston Churchill died in 1965 at the age of 90 The Grand Alliance 1104 About this Title RosettaBooks is the leading publisher dedicated exclusively to electronic editions of great works of fiction and non-fiction that reflect our world RosettaBooks strives to improve the quality of its electronic books We welcome your comments and suggestions Please write to Editor@RosettaBooks.com We hope you enjoyed The Grand Alliance If you are interested in learning more about the book and Winston Churchill, we suggest you visit the RosettaBooks Connection at: www.RosettaBooks.com/TheGrandAlliance Table of Contents Book One Book Two Book One Book Two Book One Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 20 Book Two Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17