The Gathering Storm Read Online
| Copyright |
The Gathering Storm
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 articles and reviews.
For information address [email protected]
First electronic edition published 2002 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York.
ISBN 0-7953-0600-8
| Contents |
eForeword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Book One
From War to War
1919–1939
1 The Follies of the Victors, 1919–1929
2 Peace at Its Zenith, 1922–1931
3 Lurking Dangers
4 Adolf Hitler
5 The Locust Years, 1931–1935
6 The Darkening Scene, 1934
7 Air Parity Lost, 1934–1935
8 Challenge and Response, 1935
9 Problems of Air and Sea, 1935–1939
10 Sanctions Against Italy, 1935
11 Hitler Strikes
12 The Loaded Pause—Spain
13 Germany Armed, 1936–1938
14 Mr. Eden at the Foreign Office. His Resignation
15 The Rape of Austria, February, 1938
16 Czechoslovakia
17 The Tragedy of Munich
18 Munich Winter
19 Prague, Albania, and the Polish Guarantee, January–April, 1939
20 The Soviet Enigma
21 On the Verge
Book Two
The Twilight War
September 3, 1939—May 10, 1940
1 War
2 The Admiralty Task
3 The Ruin of Poland
4 War Cabinet Problems
5 The Front in France
6 The Combat Deepens
7 The Magnetic Mine
8 The Action off the River Plate
9 Scandinavia, Finland
10 A Dark New Year
11 Before the Storm
12 The Clash at Sea
13 Narvik
14 Trondheim
15 Frustration in Norway
16 Norway: The Final Phase
17 The Fall of the Government
Appendices
Notes
About the Author
About this Title
| Maps and Diagrams |
The Hitlerite Aggressions, 1936–1939
The Polish Campaign
German and Polish Concentrations, September 1, 1939
The Inner Pincers Close, September 13, 1939
The Outer Pincers Close: The Russians Advance, September 17, 1939
Diagram of Scheldt Line and Meuse-Antwerp Line
Scapa Flow, October 14, 1939: Sinking of H.M.S. “Royal Oak”
Hunting Groups in South Atlantic
Search for “Admiral Graf Spee.” October–December, 1939
The Action with “Admiral Graf Spee”
Russian Attack on Finland, December, 1939
The Mannerheim Line, February–March, 1940
| eForeword |
One of the most fascinating works of history ever written, Winston Churchill’s monumental The Second World War is a six-volume account of the struggle of the Allied powers in Europe against Germany and the Axis. Told through the eyes of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, The Second World War is also the story of one nation’s singular, heroic role in the fight against tyranny. Pride and patriotism are evident everywhere in Churchill’s dramatic account and for good reason. Having learned a lesson at Munich that they would never forget, the British refused to make peace with Hitler, defying him even after France had fallen and after it seemed as though the Nazis were unstoppable. Churchill remained unbowed throughout, as did the people of Britain in whose determination and courage he placed his confidence.
Patriotic as Churchill was, he managed to maintain a balanced impartiality in his description of the war. What is perhaps most interesting, and what lends the work its tension and emotion, is Churchill’s inclusion of a significant amount of primary material. We hear his retrospective analysis of the war, to be sure; but we are also presented with memos, letters, orders, speeches, and telegrams that give a day-by-day account of the reactions-both mistaken and justified-to the unfolding drama. Strategies and counterstrategies develop to respond to Hitler’s ruthless conquest of Europe, his planned invasion of England, and his treacherous assault on Russia. It is a mesmerizing account of the crucial decisions that have to be made with imperfect knowledge and an awareness that the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
The Gathering Storm is the first volume of The Second World War. In some ways a continuation of The World Crisis, Churchill’s history of World War I, The Gathering Storm is his attempt to come to grips with the terrible circumstances that gave rise to Nazi Germany and a second, even more destructive world conflict. As he notes in his preface, Churchill was perhaps the only person who held such prominent positions of power in both world wars, so he is remarkably well-qualified to tell the tragic story of war to peace to war. The Gathering Storm considers the stipulations and consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the capitulation at Munich and the entry of the British into the war. The volume is pervaded by Churchill’s somber feeling that the Second World War was largely a senseless and avoidable conflict, but it sets the stage for the heroism and glory that are to follow.
Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 due in no small part to this awe-inspiring work.
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| Preface |
I MUST REGARD THESE VOLUMES of The Second World War as a continuation of the story of the First World War which I set out in The World Crisis, The Eastern Front, and The After¬math. Together, if the present work is completed, they will cover an account of another Thirty Years’ War.
I have followed, as in previous volumes, as far as I am able, the method of Defoe’s Memoirs of a Cavalier, 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 Cabinet office. Whereas, however, in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate posts, I was for more than five years in this second struggle with Germany 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.
Nearly all my official work was transacted by dictation to secretaries. During the time I was Prime Minister, I issued the memoranda, directives, personal telegrams, and minutes which amount to nearly a million words. These documents, composed from day to day under the stress of events and with the knowledge available at the moment, will no doubt show many shortcomings. Taken together, they nevertheless give a current account of these tremendous events as they were viewed at the time by one who bore the chief responsibility for the war and policy of the British Commonwealth and Empire. I doubt whether any similar record exists or has ever existed of the day-to-day conduct of war and administration. 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.
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