The Second World War had been ongoing since 1939, and the British had been immersed in the conflict from its outset. British citizens had weathered the Blitz of 1940, where London was bombed for nearly two months straight by the German Luftwaffe. The government underwent a shift in leadership as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was ousted in favor of Winston Churchill. Churchill was viewed as someone who could lead the government on a wartime footing. By December 1941, the United Kingdom was in a precarious situation. It was fighting in multiple campaigns across the world and relying on aid from neutral allies such as the United States. The resolve that had seen them through the first two years would need some reinforcement to continue the fight.

"ADVANCE BRITANNIA is a comprehensive and gripping narrative chronicling four of the tumultuous six years of British involvement in World War II.... This is a monumental work of history that captures a crucial period in time."

The December 7th attacks on the US forces at Pearl Harbor were tragic, and they compelled the US government to fully commit to the Allied cause. The British government felt sympathy for their American cousins, yet they were relieved to have the Americans join their side in fighting the Axis Powers. However, there were concerns about the US continuing to supply the British as they needed to prepare for war. Churchill met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, and his worries were alleviated as Roosevelt promised to continue the aid sent to his English ally. Churchill would need as much support as possible as the Nazis continued to gain ground in North Africa and the Japanese had quickly overwhelmed British-backed forces in Singapore. The British Empire was on a precarious footing, and there were rumblings about Churchill’s leadership.

The early part of 1942 experienced setbacks in Southeast Asia (Singapore) and the Mediterranean (Malta). The withdrawal of forces in Burma marked a low point in May 1942, and Churchill was getting frustrated with the direction of the military. The British Army needed a win, symbolic or otherwise, that would boost morale at home and stem the tide of Axis progress. The battles of El-Alamein (July, October-November) proved to be pivotal as Nazi forces under General Erwin Rommel initially were held back and ultimately were forced to retreat. The exemplary leadership of Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck and later Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery under the stewardship of Chief of Staff Alan Brooke mollified Churchill’s earlier discouragement.

The entrance of the Americans into the war removed some of the burden from the British, but Churchill soon realized that the American military would be assuming primacy of command. By 1943, the US military leadership was clamoring for a cross-channel invasion of Europe that would strike a decisive blow to the Nazis, but Churchill believed that Italy merited attention. Operation Overlord would wait until 1944 while the Italy campaign proved to be mired in a stalemate, where gains were quickly offset by setbacks. Cunning leadership and misdirection allowed the D-Day landings of June 1944 to be successful, and the British-American partnership helped guide the way through the remainder of the war.

ADVANCE BRITANNIA is a comprehensive and gripping narrative chronicling four of the tumultuous six years of British involvement in World War II. War makes for strange bedfellows, and the cast of characters who factor into this story are an eclectic sort. Winston Churchill was a political retread who had been out of office for over a decade when the looming conflict brought him back into power. Alan Brooke headed Churchill’s army and took all of the flack while often receiving little of the plaudits. Bernard Montgomery refused to adhere to Churchill’s demands and listened to his own counsel. The tragic senselessness of war was omnipresent as the British citizenry endured multiple bombing campaigns, and death wasn’t strictly confined to areas abroad.

Alan Allport is frank in his depiction of the British Empire, a once vast and sprawling kingdom that believed in “civilized subjugation” of its subjects and whose power was beginning its decline as it fought in its second global conflict in 20+ years. This is a monumental work of history that captures a crucial period in time.