January 1, 1970

Gradually, however, the tide began to turn.

In the Pacific, the Battle of Midway saw the Japanese fleet ambushed by Allied forces, destroying four of their five frontline carriers. Their grip on the Pacific was broken; the tide in the East was stemmed. On the Eastern Front, the decisive and bloody battle of Stalingrad found the Germans weakened by lack of winter equipment and supplies and the army was unable to advance any further; the majority of German troops in Stalingrad were eventually captured or killed. It was the first time they’d been defeated in the East, and defeated on such an enormous scale.

In north Africa, in October and November, General Montgomery, who Churchill had put in charge a few months earlier, led the British Empire troops to a major victory over the combined forces of the German and Italian armies at El Alamein, driving them back to Tunisia.

Also in November 1942, the Allied landing in Algeria and Morocco – ‘Operation Torch’ – drove the Germans out of Africa from the west. It was a real turning point in the war – the ‘hinge of fate’ of the title of his war memoirs.

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Churchill was aware, though, that there were still long, hard days ahead.