Churchill's Generals

Churchill’s reputation as Prime Minister during the Second World War fluctuated according to the successes and failures of his generals. Most of them were household names, and often heroes, during the war years. All of them were prey to the intolerance, interference, irascibility – and the inspiration – of the man who wanted to be both the general in the field and the presiding strategie genius. As his long-suffering Chief of the Imperial General Staff Sir Alan Brooke (later Lord Alanbrooke) remarked: *Winston had ten ideas every day, only one of which was good, and he did not know which it was.’ He sacked his warlords ruth-lessly, yet in the end he came to be served by perhaps the greatest generals this country has ever produced.

In this unique collection of essays by eminent historians, John Keegan has assembled a cast of twenty generals whose reputations were made (and some of them broken) by Churchill and the Second World War. They include Wavell, Ironside, Ritchie, Auchinleck, Montgomery, Alexander, Percival, Wingate, Slim and Carton de Wiart.