Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An excellent well-written book telling the history of Britain through war. A recommended read.

In what is such a well-documented subject area as the Second World War it is increasingly difficult to see how any author can really find anything new to add, or any novel perspective to explore. Somewhat against the odds, therefore, it is a pleasure to report that Alan Allport has succeeded with this first volume of an eventual two volume history of Britain’s involvement prior to and during the Second World War.

What makes this book such an interesting and worthwhile read is first and foremost the sense that here is an author with a proper passion for getting to grips with the subject matter. Simply retelling the narrative of pre-war crises, the Phoney War, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain etc is not in Allport’s grand plan for his history. For sure, there is plenty of detail of the key events with which most who pick up this book are likely to be familiar, but these are embedded in an evolving social history of Britain during these turbulent years as well as being properly integrated into an overall landscape, where the social, political and military contexts are explored. Allport also finds opportunities to include less well-known incidents that serve to provide a fresh feel and insights into his carefully constructed and - incidentally - very well written narrative. Occasional first person accounts from individuals caught up in the war’s events and horrors are used judiciously and help to provide a necessary counterweight to the inevitable issues of grand strategy that weave through the book. As others have noted, the author challenges some of the ‘accepted’ versions of events, or their real significance, but where he chooses to question - or even dispel - the mythic status of certain key moments in our history he provides a careful and compelling justification.

I’m not sure that a book about such a terrible period of twentieth century history as the Second World War can be described as ‘enjoyable’, but this is a book that will handsomely repay many times over the time devoted to reading it. Exceptionally strongly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for a review copy in return for an honest review.

A fascinating, well researched and engrossing history of Britain during WWII.
The author is talented storyteller and kept me hooked giving me a different point of view on how British people reacted to war.
I learned a lot and I think this is an highly informative book.
It's an excellent history book and it's strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is an unusual history book in that the first chapter deals with a comparison between JRR Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings" and the structure of British (or more specifically English) society in the 1930's with English people seen as being similar to hobbits - "the close cousins of these artless, introverted and complacent people of the Shire". Various writers perpetuated the myth of "Poor England - leading her free, careless day to day life [...behaving] as though the World was as easy, uncalculating and well meaning as herself".
But, as the author, historian Alan Allport, points out:"the British people who fought and defeated Hitler from 1939 to 1945 were not nearly as innocent as Tolkien's hobbits - nor as unprepared for the viciousness of Total War, nor anything like as nice".
"Britain At Bay" is the first part of a two-volume history of Britain's role in World War II and the opening chapters continue to set the scene in 1930's Britain with details of the Irish Republican Army's 1939 bombing campaign, while Britain's Empire was also changing, marked by civilian unrest and "terrorist" attacks in the Middle East. The aftermath of the First World War saw Britain's aristocracy began to fail and the 1930's witnessed the continued rise of Britain's middle class as a Labour Government was defeated and a Conservative-led Coalition Government took control in the final years of peace.
However, World War II was about to bring not only a transformation of peoples' lives, but also a change in their values. The 1930's saw an embittered middle class whose taxes paid for the bulk of Britain's rearmament programme. The gap in income between them and the working class was narrowing and Conservatives realised that drastic new Government powers would be needed to help win any future war. A war which would usher in "a new kind of egalitarian democracy" in the form of a "People's War".
Back home, the Government had tried to foster a better understanding of the Empire's role, but this failed to make any long lasting impression on the British public, which led to the "myth" that - after the Fall of France in the summer of 1940 - Britain stood alone, a claim which the author dismisses as "pure fiction".
Although most of the Empire's peoples were incapable of defending themselves against the military might of Germany, Italy or Japan, Britain also had Dominions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa which were provided much needed men and material to help Britain in the fight against the Axis powers.
But, even in the late 1930's Britain's future Prime Minister Winston Churchill regarded Fascists such as Italy's Mussolini and Spain's Franco as some sort of necessary evil and thought Hitler the right man for righting the wrongs of the treaty of Versailles.
Allport points out that, even at this late stage, there was no group of appeasers or one of anti appeasers in British politics and many politicians and public figures conceded that the Germans had "reasonable complaints" about the Versailles settlement. While most were appalled by the Nazis' treatment of their own people, it was felt that this was an internal German matter and there seemed to be many grey areas uniting both camps.
By 1938 and even early 1939, Chamberlain's opponents were definitely not "a harmonious chorus", with Churchill and other anti appeasers as uncertain as anyone else what would happen next.
The famed Munich Conference in September 1938 (one year from the outbreak of World War II) is described as "one of the most slapdash affairs in modern history". It ended with Chamberlain getting Hitler to sign a piece of paper which the former held aloft on his return home the following day. Later that day, he stated: "My good friends, this is the second time that there has come from Germany peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time". As we know, that peace didn't last and in March 1939, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia while the invasion of Poland in September 1939 was due to Chamberlain & Hitler drawing "exactly opposite conclusions from the Sudeten crisis the previous year". Chamberlain thought Hitler would back down from war over Poland. Hitler however felt he had the measure of "the little worms" he had met at Munich and was convinced Britain & France would betray the Poles just as they had betrayed the Czechs. However, although Chamberlain's appeasement tactics failed, they showed that he and the British nation had "gone to every reasonable length to try to prevent conflict with Hitler".
Allport dispels another popular myth - that of Britain's lack of preparation for war - contradicting the argument that Chamberlain failed to improve Britain's military defences in the years before World War II, providing a prodigious list of examples of increased defence spending by the Royal Navy, the RAF and even the British Army, although the latter received less funding than the Navy of air force and this was highlighted during the subsequent battles to save France and smaller nations from German occupation.
The RAF's decision not to support the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) meant that, if the Wehrmacht was successful in taking the Low Countries and Northern France, the Luftwaffe could use air bases there to deliver "an aerial knock-out blow" against Britain. In the aftermath of the disastrous Norwegian campaign, Chamberlain had resigned and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, although, at the time this was seen by many as a temporary measure and that someone such as Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden would take charge and see Britain through the war.
Just as Churchill took office, the Germans invaded Belgium and within weeks France would sue for peace. Allport dismisses the idea that the French army was incompetent. Like the BEF, it suffered from a lack of promised vehicles and weapons and the inadequate training of many of its soldiers. Despite this a large number of French troops did not surrender until July 4th 1940 - 9 days after the Armistice came into effect. Eben Churchill admitted that there had been a "lamentable failure" to support the French during the first year of World War II. However,while the decision to abandon France after Dunkirk "may not have been very noble", under the circumstances it was the right move to make. On the subject of the evacuation of most of the BEF and some French troops, Allport dispels the myth of that rescue being carried out by the Little Ships of Dunkirk, partly because many of those ships were manned by naval officers and naval ratings, but mainly because more than two thirds of those rescued were troops who embarked from the east mole of Dunkirk harbour on to Royal Navy ships. (The "mole" stretched nearly a mile out to sea).
Allport provides an in depth analysis of the Fall of France and Operation Dynamo (the evacuation from Dunkirk) and provides a similar analysis of The Battle Of Britain, the effects of "The Blitz" on London and various British cities, the war in The Mediterranean and the Desert War in North Africa.
He writes of the "historical myth making of 1940" when detailing the horrendous suffering of German and Italian internees, many of whom had fled their countries because they are anti-Fascist or anti-Nazi.
Throughout the book are eyewitness accounts and comments made by civilians and members of the various armed forces along with statements and speeches by politicians and public figures.
An analysis of The Battle Of Britain shows why the RAF was far better prepared than the Luftwaffe and why the latter switched from the bombing of RAF airfields to the attacks on London. There are some eye-opening statistics such as the fact that only 15% of fighter pilots ever shot down another aircraft during that battle.
Just as the Luftwaffe failed to win The Battle of Britain it also failed to have a major effect during its bombing campaigns of 1940 and 1941. A Government estimate showed that the Blitz on London and other cities had caused a 5% loss of national production. As Allport points out: "Such a meagre rate of attrition was never going to win the war for Hitler".
As for the effect of the Blitz on Britain's civilian population we learn that: "Bombing, it turned out, was something you could get used to."
Earlier in the book, Allport states: "Every time, during the Second World War, that the British tried to muddle through with inspired amateurism, the result was a disaster. Every time they accomplished something it was because of careful planning and professional expertise."
This latter statement is proved time and again as Allport challenges some of the existing historical interpretations of events such as Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the war against Germany's U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic and Britain's "special relationship" with the United States of America, which ultimately benefited the latter the most.
Many of the conventional views of the history of World War II are challenged by Allport and this will probably upset some readers, along with fans of Winston Churchill. For example, describing Churchill's dealings with his Service Chiefs, his aide Jock Colville stated that "Churchill fascinated and impressed the Service Chiefs, but he often exasperated them with proposals they deemed unrealistic, or, at their most extravagant, sheer fantasy". We are reminded that Churchill was the first major figure to publish a history of World War II. As stated earlier, Churchill was never a lone voice speaking out against Nazism, but that is what many people still believe to be true. (Not included here but I was reminded that in the run up to the 1945 General Election (which Churchill lost) he declared that Labour "would have to fall back on some form of a Gestapo" to impose socialism on Britain.
My review can't do justice to what is an epic work. This is a fascinating take on the history of Britain during the final days of peace and the opening years of World War II. Time and again I was reminded of the famous quote from director John Ford's Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend". Recommended to all students of history.
My thanks to NetGalley and to Serpent's Tail / Profile Books for an ARC of this book in return for an unbiased review.