Blood, Sweat and Arrogance

Trade Paperback

The Myths of Churchill's War

Gordon Corrigan's MUD, BLOOD AND POPPYCOCK overturned the myths that surround the First World War. Now he challenges our assumptions about the Second World War in this brilliant, caustic narrative that exposes just how close Britain came to losing.

He reveals how Winston Churchill bears a heavy responsibility for the state of the British forces in 1939, and how his interference in military operations caused a string of disasters. Gordon Corrigan investigates how the British, who had the biggest and best army in the world in 1918, managed to forget everything they had learned in just twenty years. The British invented the tank, but in 1940 it was the Germans who showed the world how to use them. After we avoided defeat, by the slimmest of margins, it was a very long haul to defeat Hitler's army, and one in which the Russians would ultimately bear the heaviest burden.