July 16, 2024

Finest Hour 200, Fourth Quarter 2022

Page 04

By David Freeman, October 2022

When he came to write the fourth volume of The Second World War, Winston Churchill chose the title The Hinge of Fate. In this book he recounted the decisive events of late 1942 and early 1943 that sealed the fate of the Axis powers and the ultimate victory of the Allies. Most of 1942 had been a year of great tension for Churchill. Twice he faced down a vote of confidence in the House of Commons. He knew that the outcome of the war had been made certain by the entry of the United States, but he also knew that it would take time before the full power of the Allies could be brought to bear. Finally, in the autumn of 1942, military victories started to accrue. The hinge had swung.

Churchill began his account of the turning of the tide with the war in the Pacific, and so do we. John H. Maurer shows how the apparently unstoppable Japanese assault on Asia and the Pacific islands was finally blunted. At the same time, the all-important Battle of the Atlantic reached its climax, as Evan Wilson explains.

“Before Alamein we never had a victory,” said Churchill. “After Alamein we never had a defeat.” But victory at Alamein was never certain. Nigel Hamilton illustrates the anxiety experienced by Churchill during the ten days in which the battle unfolded. Henry Weeds then examines the postwar friendship between Churchill and Bernard Montgomery.

The battle in northeast Africa just preceded the Torch landings, which introduced Allied troops into northwest Africa and doomed the Vichy French government. We present Churchill’s own account of this operation and follow it with Fred Glueckstein’s overview of the subsequent Casablanca Conference, when Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to the campaigns of 1943 and the policy of unconditional surrender.

2025 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 42nd International Churchill Conference. Washington, DC | October 9-11, 2025

2025 International Churchill Conference

Perhaps the greatest battle of the war unfolded on the Volga River, where the armies of Germany and the Soviet Union fought an epic struggle at Stalingrad. Robert A. McLain shows how this battle ultimately turned on control over nothing more than square yards and why Churchill’s “second front” in Africa made a critical contribution to the outcome.