Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945

Masters and Commanders It is commonly asserted that about two-thirds of business mergers ultimately fail, usually because of an inability to mesh the cultures of the new partners. True in business, that seems also true in politics, especially when several nations, each with its own interests, attempt to work together in war to defeat a common enemy. Thus it was no easy task for the British and Americans to merge their forces in order to defeat their deadly foes in the Second World War. In this meticulously documented, but engagingly written book, Andrew Roberts explains how the two heads of state, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and their two senior military advisers, Generals George Marshall and Alan Brooke, charmed and debated and disparaged each other, but ultimately arrived at a consensus that allowed them to set out consistent policies and, ultimately, to win the war. Roberts is British, and his account has a British perspective perhaps, but that is understandable since the two democracies began their alliance before America had been attacked, and when the immediate threat came from Nazi Germany, which had almost effortlessly gobbled up western Europe and was preparing to swallow the "sceptred isle" as well. Much emphasis is given to the development of the "Germany first" policy, which was a tough sell to America after the assault on Pearl Harbor. Roberts does a good job of describing the character and traits of his four protagonists, none of them a shrinking violet. They emerge from his pages as powerful personalities who did not submerge their own ideas readily, but could eventually put the broad interests of their military enterprise ahead of personal pride. Their German opponent, Adolf Hitler, considered himself omniscient and never had to defend his ideas against the differing opinion of a subordinate. He ruled supreme, commanded without regard for his generals' apprehensions and concerns, and...lost. The author has recently published (in Britain, not yet in America) The Storm of War, a one-volume account of the Second World War. Masters and Commanders makes an excellent prelude to the new book. For those who enjoy the first book as much as this reviewer, it will be pleasing to know there will be another, for dessert.

So few Americans and perhaps even fewer Britons understand the state of the democracies in 1939 when Germany launched what became World War II in Europe. Poland fell in a matter of weeks. Then the Lowlands and Norway. Then it was France's turn. In a matter of weeks, the glorious French were reduced to a German vassalage. Only Britain remained of the European democracies - and things didn't look too hopeful with the United States still officially a non-belligerent. This huge (720 pages) and slow-reading history focuses on the relationships of four men. The political masters: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the Unite States and Winston S. Churchill, British Prime Minister. And their commanders: General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of staff and Alan Brooke, Chief of the British Imperial General Staff. "Masters and Commanders" is the story of how these four truly remarkable men came together to shape the strategy that ultimately defeated the Germans in Western Europe. Contrary to the impression the publicists fostered, the relationship was not smooth. Roosevelt and Churchill, despite their natural personal liking for each other, schemed to get their own way. Marshall and Brooke maintained a correct working relationship, but frequently clashed. This history provides more detail on the often contentious relationships than any other, due largely to the uncovering of several personal diaries which heretofore were not available. The very detail of this history is also its undoing: while Andrew Roberts is a competent writer, his style is conducive to slow and occasionally difficult reading. There is so much detail that it is wearing and, much of it could have been edited out without harming the book. For those who can deal with it, the rewards are rich - an unparalleled look at how these four titans, as they are accurately described, ran the war on a day to day basis and hammered out the strategies that would ultimately prevail. But as every history buff knows, it was not a smooth process and some of the strategies did not bring success. It is surprising, in fact, that this quartet survived the rigors of the war. (Roosevelt, of course, died in April, 1945, before the end of the war. It is an eternal disappointment to the student of history that he kept no diary or other independent record of his thoughts.) Part of the reason for the tediousness of this book is that it is a record of the often tedious work of staffs. It was they who put together the plans that allowed the field commanders, like Eisenhower, to reap the publicity as the conquerors in the field. But it was Marshall and Brooke who decided where the overall strategy, with the approval and often the interference of Roosevelt and Churchill. While Marshall went on to enhance his fame as U.S. Secretary of State, Alan Brooke is little remembered: the fate of the staff officer. Yet these two men together with Roosevelt and Churchill authored the plan that saved Wester

A book for those with a serious interest in the formation of the grand military strategy that eventually led to victory in Western Europe during World War II. Andrew Roberts focuses on the battles fought, not in the field, but in the war planning rooms and wartime conferences between the U.S and U.K. sides, with the major focus being placed on Generals Marshall and Brooke and political leaders FDR and Churchill. Mr. Roberts profitably makes use of contemporary diaries of various direct participants to weave his interesting history. This is not a book for readers seeking a general history of World War II: Combat generals rarely are mentioned; the war with Japan is only brought up when it might have affected resource allocations for the European theatre; Russian and German fighting is in the background. Again, quite a very good book for the reader seeking to understand how the two great English-speaking allies worked--and often disputed--at the pinnacle over the greatest of political and military stakes. (One question: Who wrote the caption for picture 13, which specifically points out General Patton's "pearl-handled revolver"? I have always understood the general's hand weapon to be ivory-handled since "only a New Orleans pimp would carry a pearl-handled gun.")