Churchill provides behind-the-scenes details of battles from the attack on Poland to the dropping of the atomic bomb, and offers eloquent and frank opinions of prime ministers, heads of state, generals, ambassadors, and diplomats.

Selections from The Second World War. Includes maps of: German and Polish Concentrations; Inner Pincers Close; Outer Pincers Close; Forward Movements starting 10 May; Opposing Forces; German Advances; Situation - Evening, 18 May; Situation - Evening, 22 May; Situation at Nightfall; Situation, 28 May; Dunkirk Perimeter, 29 and 30 May; Dunkirk Perimeter, 31 May and 1 June; Phase I; Phase II; Phase III; German Attack on Russia; Atlantic Ocean - Defence Organization, 1942; U-boat Paradise; Crisis of the U-boat War; Alamein Front; Alamein - the Break-in; Alamein - the Breakthrough; German Campaign in Russia; Russian Counterattacks at Stalingrad.

The attack on Poland -- The invasion of France -- Dunkirk -- The Battle of Britain -- War against Greece -- The battle of the Atlantic -- The attack on the USSR -- Cyrenaica -- U-boats -- The Battle of Midway -- Malta and the convoys -- El Alamein -- the Caucasus and Stalingrad -- The Battle of Tunis -- The landing in Sicily -- The landing at Salerno -- The battle of Anzio -- Cassino -- The landing in Normandy -- The end of the Campaign in Italy -- The Atomic bomb -- Churchill -- Hitler -- Mussolini -- Chamberlain -- Roosevelt -- Stalin -- de Gaulle -- Chiang Kai-shek -- Tito -- Truman -- Ribbentrop -- Hess -- Ciano -- Eden -- Molotov -- Rommel -- Alexander -- Montgomery -- Marshall -- Eisenhower.