DescriptionOn the day that Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, Germany invaded Holland and Belgium. Despite all the efforts of the Allied armies, Hitler's powerful Panzer divisions smashed their way through to the French coast. For the retreating British Expeditionary Force, Dunkirk was the only practical point of departure, and on May 26, the order for total evacuation, Operation Dynamo, was given. Over succeeding days, the "miracle" of Dunkirk took place, and almost 400, 000 troops were rescued from the beaches. Meanwhile, in Britain, belated preparations were going on for the expected invasion: the Battle for Britain had begun.
DescriptionEyewitness provides a rare and fascinating opportunity to hear the events of the century described by those who saw them happen. A wealth of BBC archive recordings, some never previously broadcast, is interwoven with an illuminating commentary by t…
DescriptionIn the days between May 24th and 28th, 1940, the British War Cabinet held a historical debate over whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue the war. In this magisterial work, John Lukacs demonstrates the decisive importance of those five days. Lukacs takes us hour by hour into the critical unfolding of events at 10 Downing Street, where Churchill, who had only been prime minister for a fortnight, painfully considered his war responsibilities. We see how the military disasters taking place on the Continent - particularly the plight of the nearly 400, 000 British soldiers bottled up in Dunkirk - affected Churchill's fragile political situation, and how the citizenry, though only partly informed about the dangers that faced them, nevertheless began to support Churchill's determination to stand fast.
DescriptionAn intriguing look behind the congenial facade of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, this work reveals how each leader jealously guarded knowledge from the other in pursuit of separate national interests. David Stafford's masterly study shows that at the heart of the complicated - but always dynamic - relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill was an extraordinary fascination with clandestine operations. On this foundation the two leaders constructed a fighting alliance unlike any other in history. Stafford is a former diplomat who has written extensively on intelligence history, and The Independent calls him "an expert in Britain's wartime intelligence operations."…
