Closing the Ring

Winston sets forth in his 5th book of the study of the Second World War in describing the dominance of the Allies in all theaters. This book was first published on September 1, 1951. One month and 26 days later Mr. Churchill will again be Prime Minister of Great Britain. Winston goes into great detail of the Allies gaining control of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Churchill's travels to Quebec and to Washington again showing him as the ultimate World Statesman. His descriptions of his meeting with FDR at Cairo in preparation for the Teheran Conference begins to show the independence and direction of the U.S.A. During this time period Winston was gravely ill in December of 1943 and convalesced at Marrakech. He proceeded to his duties and started to plan along with the U.S.A. for the plans of the D-Day invasion. Also Churchill describes the US advance in the Pacific along with the Allies effort against the Japanese in Burma. We end with the fall of Rome and the preparations on the eve of D-Day. Winston will always get 5 Stars from me. He's a bit of a windbag but I still like his style!!

I've read all the volumes in this set and closing the circle is one of the best. Churchill is an excellent writer and when you read this volume, (and all the volumes) it is as if he were holding a conversation with you. His attention to detail is amazing and the correspondence between himself, Roosevelt and Stalin is absolutely eye opening. It gives one the feeling of being behind the scenes and sitting in on the conferences at Yalta, Russia and the middle east. Absolutely engrossing. It gives one an entire new understanding of WWII. I would recommend all six volumes to anyone interested in WWII .

Volume 5 of Churchill's great WWII series covers the time frame from June 1943 to the eve of Overlord (Allied cross-channel attack) June 5, 1944. North Africa had been cleared. India had been protected from invasion. Australia/New Zealand were free of danger and the Stalin's Army was driving Hitler out of Russia. The U-Boat dangers were greatly lessened and shipping increased. The Germans were also being driven out of Italy and Hitler's tyranny was doomed. The ring was truly closing. `Closing the Ring' deals primarily with the main conferences that were taking place. Quebec, Cairo, Moscow and Teheran conferences set dates and time tables that were difficult to accomplish but got everyone working on the same page.. Churchill endeavors to clear up misconceptions about his reluctance regarding Overlord. He was always in favor of the cross-channel effort but desired to use inactive forces to gain greater footholds in Hitler's underbelly. He desired to get some landing craft earmarked for Overlord, to use forces that were standing still in North Africa, for quick capture of several Aegean islands and then into Italy. FDR and his military advisers waffled back and forth delaying landing craft until many opportunities were lost. According to Churchill, one of the greatest failures, in spite of victories won, was not bringing Turkey into the War and the benefits that would have been gained. The Allies were kept out of the Balkans thus allowing the Russian Army to fill the void of the retreating Germans. At Teheran ,Roosevelt was making deals with Stalin in the absence of Churchill. He and his advisors continued to place too much trust that Stalin would do the right things for Europe and especially in the Balkans. This is an important volume as Churchill finds himself at times almost like a third wheel as FDR continues his courtship with Stalin. Churchill's insights were for the most part right on target, or at the very least in the ball park. He felt that there was more than one way to win this war and seemed at least to be trying to find ways to quickly bring this war to a close. Well worth reading and learning about this terrible time in history from Churchill's inside view.

It is fortunate for us as readers that Winston Churchill not only had the qualities of a writer, but that he also found the time to put them to such good effect. Many a retired politician has written his personal memoirs-few of them have ever done so quite as completely. In the war, Churchill used secretaries to help him cover the multitude of daily tasks he needed to get through and afterwards, when living at Chartwell, his home in Kent, he kept up the practise of using an amanuensis instead of writing himself. This allowed him to get far more work done, since he could literally do it with his eyes closed. Nevertheless, we may feel sure that the text is his own. Proud man that he surely was, there is little chance that he indulged anyone in much editing. When we see his virtually unedited copy sent from the field from India, the Sudan and South Africa at the end of the last century, we can feel sure that by the 1950s, he was a competent composer of text indeed. "Closing the Ring" is the story of the climax of the Second World War. Although he refused to admit it, Hitler probably knew deep down what everybody else could see very clearly after Stalingrad. The once mighty armies of the Third Reich were being forced to withdraw; some of the best divisions had by then been so savaged that little remained. Berlin was being mercilessly ground down to rubble by legions of British and American heavy bombers that ended up attacking their targets almost unopposed. It was the time when madness reigned in the Fuhrerbunker and when the Allies could see the fruit of their careful planning starting to ripen. Churchill was at once rewarded by the knowledge that he had been right in thinking America invincible, and at the same time he was sadly aware that an era was passing and the British Empire was fading away in front of his eyes. This is a long sustained narrative, written by a man in full command of his enormous personal resources. In addition, Churchill had access to a vast quantity of documentation concerning the period, because he had written much of that too! Frankly, this is an admirable work of history, told with a writer's gift for spinning a yarn and I enjoyed every word of it.

As with the other volumes in his monumental history, Churchill's language is sparkling and, from a literary standpoint, practically genius. The man really knows how to turn a phrase, to use the English language to its best advantage. As literature, this book is wonderful, and I recommend it highly. As history, it may be less important. Everyone acknowledges the work's idiosyncracies; it's Churchill's view, not a balanced attempt to cover the whole war. To be fair to WSC, he knew what it was, and made no pretense about it. But, after the USA came on to the European scene in mid-1943, Britain's position of authority declined, so there's less for Churchill to describe or represent. He's reduced to saying innumberable times "We were forced to accept our Ally's view." The reader, especially one who has read the first four books, can tell that he's no longer so engaged by the magnitude of events. He covers a year here in only 2/3 the space it took him in any previous volume. Maybe he's just exhausted, but whatever the reason, *Closing the Ring* lacks the grandiose-ness of the previous entries.