“A fascinating and well-written account of a failed military operation that deserves to be on the bookshelves of all those interested in naval history.” —Marine News Continuing on from his study of the Oran operation of July 1940, when the French warships were destroyed at Mers-el-Kébir, the author investigates the allied expedition of September that year, with De Gaulle present, which unsuccessfully attempted to break the French at Dakar away from the Vichy Government. In addition, there is the story of the Admiral Sir Dudley North, Flag Officer Commanding at Gibraltar at the time, who was relieved from his post after allowing a French naval squadron to pass out of the Mediterranean and so jeopardize the Dakar operation. A pet operation of Prime Minister Churchill, it was undertaken against all advice, and it turned out to be a fiasco. In the author’s words, “Menace exemplifies, in its genesis, planning, and execution, all that can go wrong in warfare; an operation fouled up by unforeseen contingencies, the accidents of war, and human error, and against a background of undue political interference, inadequate planning, and half-baked cooperation between Allies.” Using Admiralty and Cabinet papers, as well as private sources of information, Marder weaves a skilled course through all the complex material to produce a masterly case-study of how an operation is mounted and how it can go disastrously wrong. It is a classic, tragi-comic illustration of the fog of war. “Marder’s analysis is neutral and objective; his research is exhaustive and its results instructive . . . This is an example of naval history at its best and this volume is strongly recommended.” —Warship World

The sixth volume in the official biography: “A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement” (Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War). Starting with the outbreak of war in September 1939 and ending with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, this volume in the epic biography of Winston S. Churchill draws on remarkably diverse material: from the War Cabinet and other government records to Churchill’s own archive and diaries and letters of his private secretariat to the recollections of those who worked most closely with him. On the day Hitler invaded Poland, Churchill, aged sixty-four, had been out of office for ten years. Two days later, he became First Lord of the Admiralty, in charge of British naval policy and at the center of war direction. In May 1940 he became prime minister, leading his nation during a time of grave danger and setbacks. His first year and a half as prime minister included the Dunkirk evacuation, the fall of France, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the Battle of the Atlantic, the struggle in the Western Desert, and Hitler’s invasion of Russia. By the end of 1940, Britain under Churchill’s leadership had survived the onslaught and was making plans to continue the war against an enemy of unlimited ambition and ferocious will. One of Churchill’s inner circle said: “We who worked with Churchill every day of the war still saw at most a quarter of his daily tasks and worries.” Martin Gilbert has pieced together the whole, setting in context much hitherto scattered and secret evidence, in order to give an intimate and fascinating account of the architect of Britain’s “finest hour.” “The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times