Finest Hour

"Now at last the slowly gathered, long-pent-up fury of the storm broke upon us. Four or five millions of men met each other in the first shock of the most merciless of all the wars of which record has been kept." In this swelling prose, Winston Churchill last week introduced U.S. readers of LIFE, the New York Times, and publications in 50 other countries to Their Finest Hour* Vol. II of his memoirs. Like The Gathering Storm last year, the second volume will be published by Houghton Mifflin Co. and will be a Book-of-the-Month selection in May.

In Their Finest Hour, on which Churchill put the finishing touches while on a painting trip in France last summer, he carries his readers on to the fall of France and the 1940 blitz on London. He also provided a Churchillian lesson for generals, politicians, and business executives on the importance of being the head man.

"In my long political experience," he wrote, "... I readily admit that the post which had now fallen to me [the Prime Ministry] was the one I liked the best. Power, for the sake of lording it over fellow-creatures or adding to personal pomp, is rightly judged base. But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing.

"There can be no comparison between the positions of number one and numbers two, three or four . . . [Number two or three] has to consider not only the merits of the policy, but the mind of his chief; not only what to advise, but what it is proper for him to advise; not only what to do, but how to get it agreed, and get it done . . .

"An accepted leader has only to be sure of what it is best to do, or at least to have made up his mind . . . The loyalties which center upon number one are enormous. If he trips, he must be sustained. If he makes mistakes, they must be covered. If he sleeps, he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good he must be poleaxed. But this last extreme process cannot be carried out every day; and certainly not in the days just after he has been chosen."

* The title comes from Churchill's address to the House of Commons on June 18, 1940: "Let us therefore address ourselves to our duty, so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will say, 'This was their finest hour!' "

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