Tag: World War II

Action
Action aplenty in the Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, 1898. In old age Churchill reflected: “It was very stimulating, but I did think ‘Suppose there is a spoil-sport in the hole with a machine gun?'” Painting by Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. (1856–1927), Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Churchill Quotes: “Action vs. Inaction….Religion of Blood and War”

Churchill Quotes: “Action vs. Inaction….Religion of Blood and War”

Comments 0 Comments

N.B. We do not see Churchill in Woodville’s dra­mat­ic paint­ing above. He had drawn his pis­tol not his sword, in def­er­ence to his weak right shoul­der. For the skill and dex­ter­i­ty it took to sheath his sword and aim his pis­tol, see my review of Brough Scott’s Churchill at the Gal­lop (with Ben Bradshaw’s paint­ing of Churchill in the charge.)

Action and inaction

Q: Could you ver­i­fy the cor­rect word­ing for the Win­ston Churchill state­ment:  “I nev­er wor­ry about action, but only inac­tion.” There are var­i­ous iter­a­tions among the sources. —S.D.

From Churchill by Him­self, page 190 (note he placed quotemarks around “wor­ry”): “I nev­er ‘wor­ry’ about action, but only about inaction.”…

Read More Read More

Praise for “Avoidable War”

Praise for “Avoidable War”

Comments 0 Comments

Churchill and the Avoid­able War will cost you the price of a cup of cof­fee. You can read it in a cou­ple of nights.  You may then  decide if Churchill was right (or wrong) that World War II could have been pre­vent­ed. Click on “Buy Now” under the book image at right on this page.

Here is an excel­lent sur­vey of the key “what if” junc­tures where his­to­ry could have tak­en a dif­fer­ent turn. What I like about it espe­cial­ly is that it con­sci­en­tious­ly steers away from any defin­i­tive pro­nounce­ments about one zig or zag mak­ing all the dif­fer­ence in pre­vent­ing World War II.…

Read More Read More

World War II Official Histories

World War II Official Histories

Comments 0 Comments

Does Eng­land have an offi­cial His­to­ry of WW2 like the “Green Books” that are print­ed in the US as their offi­cial his­to­ry of WW2 and where might find them?  —L.L.

Yes: sev­er­al spe­cial­ized mul­ti-vol­ume series, under the umbrel­la title His­to­ry of the Sec­ond World War, were pub­lished by HMSO (Her Majesty’s Sta­tionery Office, since 2006 part of the Office of Pub­lic Sec­tor Infor­ma­tion with­in the UK Nation­al Archives, for­mer­ly the Pub­lic Records Office).

There are five sub-series, for exam­ple, Llewellyn Wood­ward, British For­eign Pol­i­cy in the Sec­ond World War (five vols.,…

Read More Read More

“If you will not fight…when you can easily win…”

“If you will not fight…when you can easily win…”

Comments 0 Comments

I remem­ber a quip: “When will we fight. When we have no hope.” Can you help me iden­ti­fy the source?

Those words do not track among Churchill’s 15 mil­lion  pub­lished words.. You may be think­ing of:

…if you will not fight for the right when you can eas­i­ly win with­out blood­shed; if you will not fight when your vic­to­ry will be sure and not too cost­ly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a pre­car­i­ous chance of sur­vival. There may even be a worse case.…

Read More Read More

“The Last Lion” Volume III is Published

“The Last Lion” Volume III is Published

Comments 98 Comments

Over 400 read­ers asked when we will see the third and final vol­ume  of William Manchester’s Churchill biog­ra­phy, The Last Lion: Win­ston Spencer Churchill, Defend­er of the Realm 1940-1965. Answer: Ama­zon was ship­ping copies as of mid-Octo­ber 2012—only twen­ty-four years since Vol­ume II!

Mr. Reid kind­ly asked me to proof the man­u­script for Vol­ume III, as did Mr. Man­ches­ter for Vol­ume II.

This will be good news to the many Man­ches­ter fans who have wait­ed for years. Paul Reid’s vol­ume is writ­ten in the Man­ches­ter style, as dra­mat­ic and grip­ping as the first two vol­umes.…

Read More Read More

RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
Links on this page may earn commissions.