Winston Churchill was one of the most iconic and important statesmen of the 20th century. He is most famous for leading Britain through the Second World War, after he became prime minister in 1940. His speeches in parliament and elsewhere during the war became symbolic of the resistance against Nazi Germany and its allies.
A resolute supporter of the British Empire, Churchill worked to protect his nation’s status as a world power, alongside the USA and Soviet Union. He was highly influential in the post-war settlement after the defeat of the Axis powers and was also instrumental in the creation of what would become the United Nations, in 1945.
Prior to these unparalleled accomplishments, Churchill had also been a soldier, writer and journalist, only entering politics at the turn of the 20th century, emulating his father’s career as a member of the Conservative Party. After navigating a path through the often cutthroat world of politics, he served in several top government positions, and during the First World War was the First Lord of the Admiralty. During these pre-PM years, Churchill played a key part in several major events in British history, from women’s suffrage protests to the Irish War of Independence.
Childhood and education
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war