Publisher's Note

Copyright 1959 by Houghton Mifflin Company Copyright renewed 1987 by Lady Mary So ames All rights reserved For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, z Park Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108. This abridgement has been prepared by Denis Kelly under arrangement with Cassell & Co., Ltd., London, England, publishers of the British edition, and Houghton Mifflin Company. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Churchill, Winston, Sir, 1874-1965. Memoirs of the Second World War: an abridgement of the six volumes of The Second World War with an epilogue by the author on the postwar years written for this volume / Winston S. Churchill. p. cm.I. World War, 1939-1945. 2. World War, 1939-1945 - Great Britain. 3. Churchill, Winston, Sir, 1874-1965. 4. World War, 1939-1945 - Personal narratives, British. I. Churchill, Winston, Sir, 1874-1965. Second World War. II. Title. D743q84 1990 90-38253 940.53 - dC20 CIP

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is an abridgement of Sir Winston Churchill's great work The Second World War, which consists of the six volumes: The Gathering Storm, Their Finest Hour, The Grand Alliance, The Hinge of Fate, Closing the Ring, and Triumph and Tragedy. The text has been reduced to approximately one quarter of its original length, yet it graphically presents the war events and planning in the words of the magnificent leader who for his writing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The result is not so much a condensation of history as the quintessence of the war as it was seen by its greatest protagonist.HIS VOL U M E

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