This book by Victor L. Albjerg is a part of the “Twaynes Rulers and Statesmen of the World Series.” I’ve always thought I should learn more about Churchill, so I went to the library and looked at the selection. This book was by far the smallest, and it was an excellent choice. It is full of fascinating and well-written information.

I knew little about the childhood and earlier manhood of Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill before reading this book. He began to earn the name “young man in a hurry” by being born six weeks premature. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill was said to believe there was no respectable future for his son. Winston was called a “problem child” who had the lowest academic status of all his classmates. His behavior earned him frequent beatings. He was sent to two women to try to straighten him out, but the only distinction he earned with them was to be called “the naughtiest boy in the school.”

Winston as a youngster was given little if any support by his parents. His mother gave him no attention until he became a handsome and promising army officer. His father was immersed in politics, and is said to have only spoke with him father to son three or four times. However, Winston “…never ceased to admire his father and hoped some day to sit in the House of Commons with him…” He did have a remarkable relationship with a stooped and obese woman, Mrs. Everest, who was his nurse. He maintained contact with her throughout her life and kept a photo of her in his study. “Loyalty and devotion to his friends were significant characteristics of Sir Winston Churchill.”

There are many interesting tidbits of information about Winston in the book. He once declared that he did not believe in any religion. He was almost always late to every appointment. He ate huge amounts of meat even with the royal family and the rest of Britain observed the strict rationing imposed during World War II. He was famous for his cigars and the amount of alcohol he consumed. He surprised society by marrying Clementine Hozier, the poor but beautiful product of a broken home. They had five children, one son and four daughters, and Winston was faithful for the fifty-six years of their marriage until his death. In the last months of his life Winston declared, “We lived happily ever afterwards.” He was prodigious at everything he did. He wrote numerous books and completed 500 paintings. He was an enthusiastic imperialist, and that was a disadvantage to him in his dealings with Roosevelt and Stalin.

Winston became a changed young man after it was suggested he should attend Sandhurst Military Academy. He studied diligently and was tutored intensely to finally be admitted on the third attempt. After graduation he asked for and was granted permission to join Spanish military forces fighting rebels in Cuba. He saw limited combat, but received the Order of Military Merit. He next was assigned to a post in India where he participated in battles against tribesmen who were harassing settlements. He acquitted himself well in combat and was paid to write articles about the situation and events. He served as a military officer and war correspondent in several circumstances, and would also make most of the money he needed by writing books and articles. He also established a pattern of earning powerful enemies by criticizing others, including senior officers. That tendency would follow him through his political career. He even criticized a key plank of the Conservative platform during his first political campaign and lost the election as a result.

He requested and was granted permission to travel to South Africa in 1899 to cover the Boer conflict as a war correspondent. The Boers opened fire on a train he was on and he immediately began giving orders to the soldiers. He then began to try to free some men who were taken prisoner, was captured himself, and managed a difficult escape a short time later. The Boers offered a reward for him dead or alive. He found the one Englishman, John Howard, in the area where he was being hunted. Howard eventually hid him in the center of a shipment of wool that was transferred by rail to an area where he was safe. The episode made Churchill a national hero.

Winston won election the Parliament in 1900 as a Conservative, but proceeded to disagree with many of their policies until he shifted to the Liberal side of the House of Commons. He made large numbers of political friends and enemies from his willingness to be confrontational. He argued and manipulated his way through several political posts with a diversion to be an army Lieutenant Colonel on the fighting front in France during World War I. He became Prime Minster and Minister of Defence in 1940, the position he had always wanted.

Winston’s leadership during the dark early days of World War II was indeed remarkable. Perhaps the moment that signaled what an inspirational and powerful leader he would be for a country on the brink of disastrous military defeat came when he heard France had surrendered. He said, “Then we shall be alone. For myself, I find that rather inspiring.”

I was particularly interested in the information about Churchill’s relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Stalin. Stalin was well aware that Churchill had played a significant role in the Allied intervention against the Bolshevik revolution and never trusted him. Churchill welcomed the Soviet role in defeating Hitler, but was correctly suspicious of Stalin’s motives while Roosevelt trusted Stalin until almost the end of his life.

I’ve always been interested in Churchill’s attempt to prevent the “Cross Channel” invasion (D-Day) in favor of invading through the Balkans. He contended that the Balkan route would win the war with many fewer allied casualties, and that the end of the war would not leave the Soviets in control of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt sided with Stalin, who did not want allied soldiers in the areas of Europe he coveted for Soviet control after the war. The Normandy invasion was the result of Roosevelt siding with Stalin. There weren’t as many casualties as predicted by Churchill, but the Iron Curtain (a term coined by Churchill) closed around numerous Eastern European countries as Eisenhower even decided to let the Soviets take Berlin.

The Normandy invasion continues to be universally presented as a heroic military event that helped defeat Hitler. There is no doubt there is truth in that, but I continue to be perplexed at whether many fewer allied soldiers would have been casualties if Roosevelt had sided with Churchill. There is also no doubt that the Soviet range of influence would have been much smaller after the war if Churchill’s advice had been followed.

Churchill’s distrust of Stalin led him to order General Montgomery to have German soldiers captured in Berlin to “…stack their weapons in such a manner that they could be easily reissued to those who had formerly fired them, if the Russians, after the capture of the city, should surge into Western Europe.”

There is much more of interest in this book, but I intend to maintain my promise to hold my typing to less than two pages. I recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about history.