Bomber Command Churchill’s Greatest Triumph

Bomber Command Churchill’s Greatest Triumph written by Roddy MacKenzie

and published by Air World Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 368

Roddy MacKenzie’s father served in Bomber Command during the Second World War,

but like so many brave veterans who had survived the war, he spoke little of his exploits.

So, when Roddy started on his personal journey to discover something of what his father

had achieved, he uncovered a great deal about the devastating effectiveness of Bomber

Command and the vital role it played in the defeat of Third Reich. He realised that the true

story of Bomber Command’s achievements has never been told nor fully acknowledged.

Roddy became a man on a mission, and this startlingly revealing, and often personal study, is the result. Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph takes the reader through the early days of the Second World War and introduces all the key individuals who turned the Command into the war-winning weapon it eventually became, as well as detailing the men and machines which flew night after night into the heart of Hitler’s Germany.

The main focus of his book is the destruction and dislocation wrought by the bombing to reduce, and ultimately destroy, Germany’s ability to make war. In his analysis, Roddy dug deep into German archival material to uncover facts rarely presented to either German or English language readers. These demonstrate that Bomber Command’s continual efforts, at appalling cost in aircrew casualties and aircraft losses, did far more damage to the Reich than the Allies knew.

Roddy’s father served with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Roddy naturally highlights its contribution to Bomber Command’s successes, another aspect of this fascinating story which the author believes has not been duly recognised.

Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph will certainly raise the debate on the controversial strategy adopted by ‘Bomber’ Harris and how he was perceived by many to have over-stepped his remit. But most of all, this book will revise people’s understanding of just how important the endeavours were of those men who flew through the dark and through the searchlights, the flak, and the enemy night fighters, to bring the Second World War in Europe to its crushing conclusion.

This book is a fascinating book by a man whose father served for Bomber Command during the war, the book looks at a number of things from the role of Bomber Command, the men involved, the men who flew the planes and bombed Germany to how the men in control were perceived. It’s quite an honest book and tries to tell the story of what went on within Bomber Command, but actually what people thought of those in control. I can actually agree with this point in that my father too was in the RAF, although after WW2. The image of those outside of an organisation will always have a rosier picture, it’s often only when your within it that you know the truth or certainly here more of the going ons. It was nice to read about how the German records saw the bombing and the results of how their public were suffering under the constant bombing campaigns. This book is a very well researched book and credit should go to the author who has written a great book. Being from an RAF family I would happily recommend this book which had a bit extra and was well worth the read.

Winston Churchill as Home Secretary

Churchill as Home Secretary Suffragettes, Strikes and Social Reform 1910-1911

written by Charles Stephenson and published by Pen & Sword Books - £25 -

Hardback - Pages 280

There can be few statesmen whose lives and careers have received as much investigation and literary attention as Winston Churchill. Relatively little however has appeared which deals specifically or holistically with his first senior ministerial role; that of Secretary of State for the Home Office. This may be due to the fact that, of the three Great Offices of State which he was to occupy over the course of his long political life, his tenure as Home Secretary was the briefest.

The Liberal Government, of which he was a senior figure, had been elected in 1906 to put in place social and political reform. Though Churchill was at the forefront of these matters, his responsibility for domestic affairs led to him facing other, major, challenges departmentally; this was a time of substantial commotion on the social front, with widespread industrial and civil strife. Even given that ‘Home Secretaries never do have an easy time’, his period in office was thus marked by a huge degree of political and social turbulence. The terms ‘Tonypandy’ and ‘Peter the Painter’ perhaps spring most readily to mind. Rather less known is his involvement in one of the burning issues of the time, female suffrage, and his portrayal as ‘the prisoners’ friend’ in terms of penal reform.

Aged 33 on appointment, and the youngest Home Secretary since 1830, he became empowered to wield the considerable executive authority inherent in the role of one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and he certainly did not shrink from doing so. There were of course commensurate responsibilities, and how he shouldered them is worth examination.

This book looks at the year or so Winston Churchill was Home Secretary and his

involvement in a number of issues such as Feminism, Strikes, Suffragettes, Welsh

Miners and more. This was such a nice book to read purely from the fact that it

wasn’t about Churchill during WW2, which is usually the case. It was nice to read

about him during other points of his political career. Actually, I learned quite a bit

from this book in seeing how much social politics he was having to deal and the

way he went about things. Now he was obviously a young man then so I think he

actually improved with age because I found the way he acted sometimes or his

views were maybe a little of their age shall we say. A really good book I would

definitely recommend to others, especially if you want to read about Churchill in

periods other than WW2.