(either) The Second World War by Winston Churchill or The Gangs of New York by Asbury, Hebert

THE SECOND WORLD WAR - THE GRAND ALLIANCE

BY WINSTON CHURCHILL

Introduction

Winston Churchill 's The Second World War is a monumental work of history related by its principal participant , the Prime Minister of Britain The Grand Alliance is the third volume in the series . This is considered the most significant volume and hence has been selected for the report It covers some of the main phases of the war . Book I mainly deals with the campaign in North Africa and Operation Barbarossa , Hitler 's offensive in Russia while Book II covers

how the grand alliance constituting the United States , Soviet Union and Great Britain amongst others was constituted and Pearl Harbor dragged America into the War

Purpose of Author

The purpose of the author is to contribute to the history of the Second World War . Churchill had a ring side view of the War , particularly its strategic aspects . Building the grand alliance of allied powers entailed a series of activities including exchange of notes , meetings discussions and summits . These were conducted at the highest level of leadership , Churchill , Roosevelt , the US President and the Soviet supremo , Joseph Stalin . Thus personal narration had a very significant historical importance and the author has certainly met the purpose for writing the book Four points that can be considered the most important

The first important issue covered in the book is Churchill 's appreciation of the War on 6 January 1941 , the text of which is included followed by Hitler 's letter to Mussolini covering the developments envisaged . These preliminary deliberations by the leaders developed the course of events during the year , 1941 . Churchill prioritized Greece and Balkans though operations were being successfully conducted by Wavell in North Africa and the subtle handling of Spain ensured that it did not join the Axis for which Hitler was clearly disappointed . The lack of flexibility by both the leaders , Churchill and Hitler is highlighted by these notes and study of subsequent events

The War in North Africa has been covered in detail and the see saw battles , advance by Wavell into Cyrenaica and the counter offensive by Rommel provides us a useful insight into how litheness plays an important role in military operations . The influence of personality both Wavell and Rommel is also highlighted as they overcame the deficiency in numbers to carve victories on the battlefield

The events leading to Hitler 's offensive in Russia are also a very important part of the book . Churchill has brought out how Stalin and the Russian high command ignored the signs of imminent war and were blinded by the treaty of friendship with Germany . The Soviet inaction as the Germans overran France is also adversely commented upon . The efforts that he personally made to develop a rapport with Stalin as he did with Roosevelt also receive detailed mention . A number of communications to Stalin have been included to highlight this facet . Stalin 's fixation with a second front however led to lack of a strong bond between the...