"Launching Liberty" by Doug Most (2025)

This is an outstanding book about the Liberty ships which were so important to winning the Second World War. This will become known as the definitive book on the subject. A cast of real life characters you'll never forget.

Henry Kaiser was a key player in taking the simple design plan proferred by the British government and turning it into reality.  Britain was losing more ships to the U-boats than she could build and turned to America to deliver 60 ships in 1941/42. Kaiser, known for such projects as 200 miles of highway in Cuba during the 1920's, and 3 major dams in the U.S. during the 1930's, delivered 200. By the 3rd year his partnership with Todd Shipyards and others on both our East and West Coasts, he was delivering 200 and finally a ship every 7 days. 

Working with President Roosevelt, Admiral Land and a host of others, they first had to build the shipyards to handle the job. He brought every project in under budget and ahead of schedule. He built cities to accommodate the workers, transforming the land in order to help win the war. 

Best anecdote in the book is when his mother asked him what he wanted for Christmas. He was 8 years old at the time and said he wanted a baby sister. It was already Thanksgiving and his mother told him there wasn't enough time between then and the holiday to do that. He told her that his dad always said, "You can do anything if you put enough men on the job...." And that is how he and others, too numerous to mention here, approached the task of building these ships which President Roosevelt called "the ugly ducklings." 

Two of these Liberty ships are still around and operational, including the S.S. John Brown, ported in Baltimore. My Dad went to Maritime High School aboard her when she was berthed in Manhattan just after the war. 

A fascinating story of resolve and determination, this book will keep you turning the pages, racing with the same rapidity as the men and women who built these ships.

"A Daughter's Tale" by Mary Soames (2011)

Mary Soames; Winston Churchill's youngest daughter; passed away over the weekend. In 2011 she released her memoirs, which I reviewed here. Her book was a fascinating account of growing up during the war years and her service; at first making bandages; and then as her father's assistant during his many wartime journeys.  Here is that review;

Mary Soames is the last surviving daughter of Winston and Clementine Churchill. Born in 1922; she was a surprise baby; and lived through some of the most historical times in the history of the world. Her perspective on life before the war, and the changes engendered by the war, are a real eye opening experience into the daily lives of one of the world’s most notable families.

Winston Churchill was the face of England in World War Two. The fate of the Empire literally rested on his shoulders. Emerging from the shadows of the Great Depression; and at odds with Prime Minister Chamberlain; Sir Winston proved to be right concerning the threat posed by Germany’s military build-up; which was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Churchill staged one of the most extraordinary comebacks in political history, and then went on to win the war. And Mary Soames was there every step of the way.

In some ways Mrs. Soames, as the youngest, was surely the favorite daughter of the Prime Minister. She came of age just as the war broke out and served with a Women’s Auxiliary Unit, whose duties were to man artillery guns and shoot down enemy aircraft, including the new German V-2 rockets.

From life at Chequers, the family home outside of London during the war, to the family estate at Chartwell, with its panoramic views of the English countryside, Mrs. Soames takes you on a journey through a past which no longer exists. Along the way she manages to give you not only the cold hard facts of the peril which England faced, but also the very essence of the spirit which pulled them through their darkest hours. Her descriptions of air raids and the way the British people coped with the crisis, speak highly of them all.

Along the way Mrs. Soames manages to entertain, as well as explain, some of English history, as in her description of Lady Jane, whose bedroom she occupied briefly at the beginning of the war. She found her to be a kindly host, though at times she confesses to shielding herself with the bedclothes when she would hear the bombers overhead, not knowing whose they were.

Her encounters as a young woman in her early teens with the likes of T.E. Lawrence and Lloyd George will be of interest to anyone who is curious about that era of English history. Told from the perspective of a privileged young woman, these events take on a whole new direction and meaning.

Raised at first by her Nana, Mrs. Soames came to know her mother well only after a series of trips they took together when she was a young teen. Her descriptions of these trips are fascinating, in that they give us a look into a world which, for the large part, no longer exists.

When the war broke out in 1939, Mrs. Soames found she was old enough to help in the war effort. And help she did; serving in every position, from making bandages; which she admits to being very poor at; to manning an anti-aircraft battery, and also serving as Aide-de-Camp to her father on several trips to meet with President Roosevelt, crossing the Atlantic several times. On one trip she was almost swept overboard, and her account of that incident is harrowing.

The author has done something with this book which is very hard to accomplish. She has, at once, given us a look at a world which no longer exists, while chronicling some of the most harrowing years of the 20^th Century. All the while, she brings a new humanity to a man who was larger than life when he was with us, and whose legend looms large in these troubled times. And, in addition to all this is, it is a wonderful tribute to the love between a father and daughter.

       

"Chasing Churchill" by Celia Sanders (2003)

This little book, penned by Winston Churchill's granddaughter, Celia Sandys, is a wonderfully candid look at one of the most powerful, and quirky, leaders of the 20th century. It is also the story of a changing world, going from aristocracy to a nascent middle class; under the careful tutelage of both Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt; as the two battle in unison for victory over the Nazi's during World War Two.

All of the stories which you have heard about Churchill are true. He liked to dictate his letters in a flowered dressing gown, often finding it hard to keep a stenographer for very long. At the beginning of the Second World War he is assigned a young woman who managed to "stay the course", and when she was unavailable Sir Winston sometimes used his daughter Mary, who was serving in the British Armed Forces at the time.

From his earliest years traveling as a correspondent in the Boer Wars, and later as a soldier and statesman, there is not much missing from this surprisingly brief, 260 page book. His famous car accident in New York, in which he was struck by an automobile, while looking the wrong way before crossing the street, is recounted here in a more accurate way than I had previously read. And Ms. Sandys' accounts of being a passenger aboard Aristotle Onassis’s' yacht in the late 1950's and early '60's, are a rare look into the world of the rich and powerful people who control the commodities, and the cartels, which rule our lives.

The World War Two years are of great interest. At the age of 66 in 1940, Sir Winston logged more than 112,000 nautical miles, in addition to an almost equal number of air miles in the prosecution of the war. He was very much present at the front, even having to be recalled at the demand of the King when he attempted to land at Normandy on the first day of D-Day in June 1944.

His wit and wisdom are on full display, as in the time he returned to Canada after 50 years, and was asked if Niagara Falls looked any different to him after so many years; his reply was a succinct "Well, the principle seems to be the same. The water keeps falling over."

From his many foibles, to his passion for painting, Ms. Sandys' has done a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of Winston Churchill, as well as the indomitable strength of the British people, in facing the ravages of the Great Depression and the Second World War. It is hard to imagine that success without his presence and direction.

"The Gathering Storm" with Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave

This film, like "Adams" with Paul Giamatti and Laura Finney, is an historical docu-drama. But it is also the story of a marriage. At the same time as Germany was gearing up for war, a once powerful Winston Churchill, played by Albert Finney, has, by 1934, been reduced politically to a joke. He is hooted and booed on the floor of Parliment, and seems lost in his efforts to awaken a pacifist population to the gathering storm. When Clementine, played by Vanessa Redgrave, goes on a cruise for four months, he is challenged as he has never been before, both politically and emotionally.

At the same time this is also a bit of a spy story, as Churchill attempts, through a "backdoor" channel into the Foreign Office, to gather all the facts and figures he needs to turn around a Parliment, and a King, who seem oblivious to their own looming destruction at the hands of the Nazis. Through his efforts, which almost wrecked his career, he was able to awaken the people, barely in time to mount an adequate defense against Germany, thereby saving England, while ascending to his coveted role as Prime Minister. He would hold this post throughout the war.

A well written, and directed film that takes a "peek behind the curtain" and gives the viewer a look at the ordinary aspects of life, and the relationships, which sometimes help to shape world events.