The Second World War: Milestones to Disaster, by Sir Winston Churchill

This is the first volume of the abridged version of Winston Churchill's series on the Second World War.  It mostly covers the events leading up to the war, from the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the formation of the League of Nations, the defense treaties of Locarno, and the unwise manner in which the treaties were enforced, with the former Allies putting undue emphasis on Germany's reparations payments while at the same time being lenient about seeing to it that Germany stayed disarmed.  Churchill also discusses how the economic conditions of the 1920's and 1930's destabilized German society and brought about conditions favoring Hitler's rise to the chancellorship and also the presidency after the death of Hindenburg. This book spans all the way up to the German takeover of Czechoslovakia and Poland, and Churchill's own rise to the prime ministership.  I would say that the most important lesson of the book is how the biggest war in history was brought about by an inordinate desire for peace.

Besides his knowledge and being one of the major players in World War II, Churchill is an excellent writer and storyteller.  I listened to the CD twice.  The reader of this audiobook, Christian Rodska, does an excellent job and his voice is somewhat like Churchill's so that you feel rather like the author himself is reading the book to you.

Alone: The Second World War Series, Book 2, by Sir Winston Churchill

This is the second volume in the audiobook version of the abridged World War II series by Winston Churchill.  It spans from Churchill's rise to Prime Minister in Britain and his formation of a government to the start of the German invasion of the USSR (Operation Barbarossa).  On the way it includes an account of the fall of France, the Battle of Britain, and the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern battles.

Until I listened to this audiobook, I did not realize how important the Middle Eastern and North African battles were to the British war effort, as they were determined to keep the Germans and Italians from taking control of the Mediterranean, the Suez canal, and the oil fields in the Middle East.

Churchill is in top form as a writer and storyteller, as in <i>Milestones to Disaster</i>. The main drawback to listening to this as an audiobook is that you don't have maps to reference as you probably would have in the book. I had to look up many of the towns on the Internet with whose location I was not familiar. Christian Rodska does an excellent job as reader.

Triumph and Tragedy, by Sir Winston Churchill

Brilliant last installment of Winston Churchill's World War II series that clearly outlines the surrenders of Germany and Japan to the Allies, the fateful decisions made about strategy and troop allocations among the different operations, from the Normandy landing to the Mediterranean to the Pacific theater and how these decisions shaped postwar Europe, particularly the formation of the Iron Curtain, the partition of Germany, and Soviet efforts to grab even territories that had been liberated by the Americans and British.  Churchill remarks on the differences between how Roosevelt and Truman handled the war, how the invention of the atomic bomb and its use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed not only how wars could be fought, but the calculations behind the decisions connected with war.  Also included are accounts of the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek against the Chinese communists, India gaining independence from Britain, its partition into India and Pakistan, and Churchill's thoughts on Gandhi and Nehru (given how we tend to lionize Gandhi today I was surprised at some of these!).

I listened to the audiobook of the abridged version and am now motivated to read the full version because there are so many things just touched on briefly that I want to learn about in more detail!  In sum, an extremely interesting book that I know will take much re-listening to digest since it covers so much ground, and quickly too.