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.
T HIS VOL U M E is an abridgement of Sir Winston Church-
ill'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.

I. World War, 1939-1945. 2. World War, 1939-1945 - Great Britain.

3. Churchill, Winston, Sir, 1874-1965. 4. World War, 1939-1945 - Per-
sonal narratives, British. I. Churchill, Winston, Sir, 1874-1965. Sec-
ond World War. II. Title.
D743q84 1990 90-38253
940.53 - dC20 CIP
Printed in the United States of America