1942: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Darkest Hour, by Taylor Downing, Pegasus Books, New York and London, 2022, $29.95
Author Taylor Downing argues that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his nation’s mutual “Darkest Hour,” which the 2017 war film of the same name claims was 1940, is a label more aptly applied to 1942. That year, despite welcome support from Allies the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain’s military and Churchill’s reputation each took a pasting by Germany, Italy and Japan on every front. Overextended and facing parliamentary revolt, Churchill surmounted the greatest of tribulations to reverse the tide of war.
Downing, author of the 2011 book , notes that Churchill himself contributed to the relative historical back seat occupied by 1942 by commenting in his memoirs that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor meant “we had won.” That rosy assessment was obviously premature, as soon thereafter Hong Kong fell and four British capital ships were sunk. In his unique role as both prime minister and minister of defense, Churchill accepted
