Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War)

TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY

WINSTON CHURCHILL

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Copyright

Triumph and Tragedy

Copyright © 1953 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 0-7953-0652-0

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Contents

eForeword

1: D-Day

2: Normandy to Paris

3: The Pilotless Bombardment

4: Attack on the South of France?

5: Balkan Convulsions: The Russian Victories 6: Italy and the Riviera Landing

7: Rome:The Greek Problem

8: Alexander’s Summer Offensive

9: The Martyrdom of Warsaw

10: The Second Quebec Conference

11: Advance in Burma

12: The Battle of Leyte Gulf

13: The Liberation of Western Europe 14: Prelude to a Moscow Visit

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15: October in Moscow

16: Paris

17: Counter-Stroke in the Ardennes

18: British Intervention in Greece

19: Christmas at Athens

1: Preparations for a New Conference 2: Yalta: Plans for World Peace

3: Russia and Poland: The Soviet Promise 4: Yalta: Finale

5: Crossing the Rhine

6: The Polish Dispute

7: Soviet Suspicions

8: Western Strategic Divergences

9: The Climax: Roosevelt’s Death

10: Growing Friction with Russia

11: The Final Advance

12: Alexander’s Victory in Italy

13: The German Surrender

14: An Uneasy Interlude

15: The Chasm Opens

16: The End of the Coalition

17: A Fateful Decision

18: The Defeat of Japan

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19: Potsdam: The Atomic Bomb

20: Potsdam: The Polish Frontiers

21: The End of My Account

Appendices

Notes

About the Author

About this Title

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Maps and Diagrams

Normandy

“Anvil”

Northern Italy

The Gothic Line

Burma, July 1944–January 1945

The Southwest Pacific

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines: Approach and Contact, October 22–24, 1944

The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Decisive Phase, October 25, 1944

The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Pursuit, October 26–27, 1944

The Pursuit

South Holland

Northwest Europe

Operations on the Russian Front, June 1944–January 1945

The Frontier Regions

Rundstedt’s Counter-offensive

Greece

The Northern Crossing

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Crossing the Rhine

The Invasion of Germany

Facsimile of President Roosevelt’s Letter Occupation Zones in Germany as Agreed at Quebec, September 1944

The Battle of the River Po

Merchant Vessel Losses by U-boat January 1940–April 1945

The Withdrawal of the Western Allies, July 1945

Central Burma

The Last Phase in the Pacific War

Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria as Finally Adopted

The Frontiers of Central Europe

The Battle of the Atlantic: Merchant Ships Sunky by U-boat: The Last Phase

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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 Triumph and Tragedy

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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 sixth and final volume of The Second World War, Triumph and Tragedy documents with moving, dramatic detail the endgame of the war and the uneasy meetings between Churchill, Stalin, and Truman convening to discuss the plan for rebuilding Europe in the aftermath of such upheaval and devastation. The volume opens with the Normandy invasion, and Churchill recalls with evident admiration and relief the heroic landing of the redoubtable Allied armies as they effect the most remarkable amphibious operation in military history. Through Churchill’s recollections as well as his correspondence with Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman and others, we are given an insider’s perspective into such signal events as the liberation of Paris, the death of Hitler, and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.

The “tragedy” of the title points to the mistrust and hostility that arose between the victorious forces in the wake of the Second World War. Churchill watches as the uneasy coalition that knit themselves together to put down the Axis threat begins to fray at Potsdam. From his vantage point, writing only a few years after the close of the war, Churchill describes the birth of the Cold War with dismay, fervently hoping that a greater, more destructive war is not on the horizon.

Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 due in no small part to this awe-inspiring work.

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