Commander in Chief: FDR's Battle with Churchill, 1943 (FDR at War) Paperback – May 16, 2017 by Nigel Hamilton (Mariner Books)

This is the second volume of Nigel Hamilton’s series on “FDR at War” and it is a gem. In this series of volumes the author has embarked on a mission to present Franklin Roosevelt as Commander-in-Chief and to tell the story of how he directed when and where the war would be fought. This is an important story because Roosevelt’s direction of the Western Allies has not really been told before.

This sequel to “Mantel of Command” covers the conferences of 1943 that decided what would happen after Nazi forces were defeated in North Africa. Hamilton has written a very lively and entertaining story that demonstrates that FDR was the senior partner of the Western Allies. The author exquisitely shows that Roosevelt had the clearest vision of how the war should progress, that he understood that this war must end with unconditional surrender, and that, of the Big Three leaders, only Roosevelt understood that an international organization would be necessary to ensure the peace in the post war world. What I really appreciated was Hamilton’s efforts to inform and remind the reader that the war could not have been won without full US participation and the war with Hitler would most probably have been lost if Churchill had been allowed to direct it.

It should be noted that even though this book is titled “Commander in Chief: FDR's Battle with Churchill, 1943” it does not cover all of 1943. The narrative begins with the opening of 1943 and ends in September of that year; just after the QUADRANT Conference in Quebec. FDR’s battle with Churchill was all about the cross-channel invasion. Winston did not want to do it under any circumstances other than a collapse of the Nazi war effort. It took three separate conferences to settle the matter. Roosevelt and his Joint Chiefs thought the matter settled after each conference only to later have Churchill insist that he had not committed to a cross-channel invasion. This duplicity on the part of Churchill did the most damage to the Anglo-American partnership and only Roosevelt’s patients, determination, scolding and threats kept the partnership together. Thanks to FDR’s efforts he finally did force Churchill to accept that the invasion of Northern France would take place in the spring of 1944.

I do find fault in the author’s assertion that Roosevelt blackmailed Churchill into accepting a firm commitment to the invasion. Hamilton says, “If Churchill would not adhere to the American Overlord strategy, as per the Trident agreement reached in May [1943], the President thus quietly indicated to the Prime Minister that the United States would have to withhold an agreement to share development of the atomic weapon.” (p. 313) No citation is given for this assertion so I assume no such ultimatum can be verified. I am willing to believe the author’s conclusion but it would have been wonderful for him to elaborate on what evidence persuades him.

All-in-all this is a very good, very entertaining and very fast read and I am hoping the author does continue his story with a final third volume.