"When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. He was not going to play the chairman's role, adjudicating between the competing claims of the ministers below him. He was going to get his hands dirty and take direct personal control of the day-to-day running of military policy. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success, or failure, of Britain's war effort. In this insightful investigation into Churchill's conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war."