On a typical day during the Second World War, Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, issued numerous memos to the ministers and service commanders on different subjects, on both the grand strategy and the detail of the war effort. It was not just his work rate and his self-confidence which allowed him to do this. He had a unique and intimate inside knowledge of all three services which allowed him to assess their real needs – a crucial task when money, material resources, and especially manpower, were reaching their limits. No defense minister in modern times has faced such severe problems. No-one else has ever been able to balance the needs of the services in such a way – most of them came from outside with little service experience, while for those trained inside one service, it is almost impossible to gain inside knowledge at a lower level without a bias in favor of one service or another. But Churchill’s knowledge of the three services was almost perfectly balanced by his experiences since he first joined the army in 1896. He made his share of mistakes as a war leader, but this unique balance served him, his cause and his country well. Churchill Warrior looks at how Churchill gained his unique insight into war strategy and administration, and the effect this had on his thinking and leadership. Each period (before, during and after the First World War, and in the Second World War) is divided into four parts – land, sea and air warfare, and combined operations. The conclusion deals with the effect of these experiences on his wartime leadership. Written in Brian Lavery’s acclaimed, insightful and anecdotal style, a grand narrative unfolds starting with the Marlborough toy soldiers and the army class at Eton, which then leads us through those early military and journalistic experiences, the fascinating trials and lessons of the First World War, the criticism and tenacity culminating in the ultimate triumph of the key events in the Second. It explores how some of Churchill’s earliest innovations were to bear fruit decades later, how his uncompromising, but uniquely informed, hands-on approach, and his absolute belief in combined forces in Normandy, led to a systemic victory against the odds. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Part I Preparing for War 1 Becoming a Soldier 2 Wars and Words 3 South African Springboard 4 Ruling the Navy 5 Strategy and Tactics 6 Churchill at Work 7 Personnel 8 Matériel 9 The Naval Air Service 10 The Aircraft Part II The Fortunes of War 11 The North Sea War 12 Antwerp 13 Defence and Attack in the Air 14 Armoured Car and Tank 15 The Underwater War 16 The Rest of the World 17 Plans for Attack 18 Work and Conflict 19 Forcing the Straits 20 Landing and Withdrawal 21 In the Trenches 22 The Ministry of Munitions Part III Peace and War 23 The Old Army and the New 24 Saving the Air Force 25 A Role for the RAF 26 The World Crisis 27 An Iron Chancellor 28 Marlborough 29 The Study of Air Power 30 The Drift to War 31 Winston is Back 32 The Navy at War Part IV Finest Hour and After 33 Finest Hour 34 War Leader 35 War on Land 36 War at Sea 37 Air Power in Operation 38 Air Support 39 Combined Operations Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index “Lavery does a nice job of tracing Churchill’s ideas, suggestions, and strategies during World War II to his earlier military experiences.” New York Journal of Books “…what Lavery does best is track Britain’s military development through the half-century prior to World War II, a process that often centered on Churchill… Lavery gives life to the arguments and compromises behind some of the most consequential military decisions of the last century, folding together crisp narration with quotes from British leaders.” Paul X. Rutz, HistoryNet “How the knowledge that Churchill had accumulated shaped his perceptions and actions during the Second World War is a subject very much worth examining.” International Churchill Society “Lavery's account of the coming of World War II and his analysis of how Churchill's military experience played out in his management of the British war effort are truly exceptional.” Booklist “Exhaustively researched, impressively informative, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Churchill Warrior" is an outstanding contribution to the growing library of World War II literature.” Midwest Book Review January 2018 “…very readable… [Churchill] also applied many lessons of the first war to help win the second. Indeed, that key point is too often forgotten or glossed over: Churchill was just about the only leader who occupied senior positions in both wars and was thus in a position after mid-1940 to apply all that he’d seen, done, and written about. We can all be grateful that he did.” The Churchill Project “The new work affords a thorough analysis and history of Winston Churchill the soldier and how he applied it to lead Great Britain to victory in World War II… T