As the war in Europe entered its final months, the world teetered on the
edge of a Third World War. While Soviet forces hammered their way into
Berlin, Churchill ordered British military planners to prepare the top
secret Operation Unthinkable - the plan for an Allied attack on the
Soviet Union - on 1 July 1945. Using US, British and Polish forces, the
invasion would reclaim Eastern Europe. The controversial plan called for
the use of Nazi troops, and there was the spectre of the atomic bomb.
Would yet another army make the fatal mistake of heading East?In
Churchill's Third World War Jonathan Walker presents a haunting study of
the war that so nearly was. He outlines the motivations behind
Churchill's plan, the logistics of launching a vast assault against an
enemy who had bested Hitler, potential sabotage by Polish communists,
and he speculates whether the Allies would have succeeded had the
operation gone forward. Well supported by a wide range of primary
sources from the Churchill Archives Centre, Sikorski Institute, National
Archives and Imperial War Museum, this is a fascinating insight into the
upheaval as the Second World War drew to a close and former alliances
were shattered. Operation Unthinkable became the blueprint for the Cold
War.