Customer Reviews

Churchill's Bunker (Imperial War Museum)

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This is by far the best book on where Churchill spent much of the war - in the Cabinet Office War Rooms under the streets of London. This is now part of the Imperial War Museum and can be visited by those interested to see where Churchill made some of the key decisions that rescued Britain from Nazism in 1940-1941. This is an absolute must for Churchill buffs everywhere: buy it and then come to Britain to see it for yourself. (Christopher Catherwood: author of WINSTON CHURCHILL: THE FLAWED GENIUS OF WORLD WAR II: Berkley, 2009)

Churchill's Bunker was not just an underground shelter, it was the guiding heart of the British war effort. Of course the man who drove that heart was Churchill. The tales of many of Churchill's foibles and idiosyncrasies are told, as well as others involved in this effort. The story of the role of civilian women is also included.
Richard Holmes is a British historian who one can tell has a love of these rooms that still exist under Whitehall. He includes the belief that the phrase `phony war' was something they were told...made up by American journalists, but that is about the only inclusion of the role of Americans, with the exception of Churchill's and Roosevelt's collaboration.
The rooms evoke deep feelings in the hearts of Britain's and also those who have a love of history and respect for the accounts of WWII; but somehow the 197 pages do not go all the way to the real essence of the place, maybe it would have been better to have had a longer book to relate this history. It is good to see it in print; but somehow it lacks the heart and character of a woman I sat with in the canteen during a tour, who, with tears running down her cheeks, said" you know this is the place where Britain saved the world, until America could win the war". I wish the strength and quality of those days were more present, but I still appreciate this history finally being written.

Chatty, rambling, focused on the people and personalities, this book is fine if you want a who's who of the history of the war fighting efforts within the British government in the 1914-1944 period. If you actually want to know something about the bunker itself, other than a few cursory construction comments and a worthless floor plan, then look elsewhere. Clearly the author has an encyclopaedic grasp of the players and the soap opera that was inter-war Britain, but little or no interest in the engineering or technology. Perhaps it is not Mr. Holmes' fault for not writing the book I was expecting, but then again the book's title is not "People who planned and occasionally visited Churchill's bunker, including Churchill himself", although that would have be far more accurate. A disappointment.

A serviceable, but not outstanding telling of the story of the underground bunker where the English led by Winston Churchill plotted strategy and directed armies, ships, and the RAF during the last great war.

We are given light touches of Prime Minister's history, including his wartime journeys well beyond London and the now famous bunker. In the end, to me, Professor Holmes has written a book to be sold to and enjoyed by the many casual tourists visiting this historic facility now overseen by the Imperial War Museum.

For those interested in the travel arrangements for the many arduous foreign trips taken by Prime Minister Churchill, I recommend "Churchill Goes to War" by Brian Lavery (2007)