British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was known for his ability to rally the British people and allies to fighting, sustaining and finally winning World War II. His command of the English language was a potent weapon.

There are many books written by and about this British statesman. This particular book takes a concentrated look at Churchill’s wartime journeys. He took great risks as prime minister, leaving England to visit President Franklin Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and to attend conferences from Casablanca, Morocco to Tehran, Iran. More significantly, Churchill ventured abroad to visit allied forces fighting in Egypt and North Africa.

Brian Lavery is curator of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. He is among the foremost naval historians in that country and is well known for his historical works concerning the age of fighting sail. This latest work looks at Winston Churchill on the road, at sea, and in the air in an effort to instill morale by his presence and words, and to work out the complex allied alliance needed to win the war.

The book opens with Churchill’s voyage of August 4 to 9, 1941 to Placentia Bay in Newfoundland to meet Roosevelt for the first time. Churchill would board the battleship HMS Prince of Wales with destroyer escort, evading German U-Boats. During the voyage while preparing for the meeting, Churchill read the multi-volume set of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower, a historical fictional account of Britain’s naval war with France in the eighteenth century. Lavery discusses the diplomatic setting a battleship provides, as Churchill first went aboard USS Augusta (CA-31) and the next day Roosevelt, despite the pain and paralysis of polio in his legs, was hoisted aboard Prince of Wales for a meeting with Churchill. It would be the beginning of several meetings between Churchill and Roosevelt, and would lay the foundations for the Atlantic Charter.

Upon learning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Churchill called Roosevelt. Within days the British prime minister would board HMS Duke of York and travel to Washington D.C., from December 13 to 22, 1941. What most Americans forget is that England had been fully engaged in a war with Germany since 1939, and the British had few battleships to spare. Churchill’s decision to go to Washington so soon after Pearl Harbor demonstrates the importance he placed on cultivating the alliance with the United States, despite fending off criticism demanding he stay in England. Aside from the details of preparing a battleship to accommodate the British Prime Minister, there are also interesting anecdotes, such as the movies, books, and conversations Churchill had aboard.

The book continues with such topics as Churchill’s air voyages on the Boeing 314, better known as the Pan-American Clipper. There is a photo of the man at the controls of this plane on his way to Bermuda. Lavery highlights Churchill’s dictating and readings on long train voyages in England. Churchill enjoyed observing sailors drilling, and took time to observe gunnery practice aboard HMS Duke of York. Not all of Churchill’s voyages were in comfort, he spent many long hours traveling to Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, and the Soviet Union aboard a converted Liberator Bomber called Commando. Instead of summoning flag officers from the front, Churchill took the passenger liner Queen Mary to hold wartime conferences with Field Marshall Wavell and Admiral Somerville. Travel during World War II was not only fraught with danger of German or Italian attacks, but required deception, intelligence and planning to get this major World War II statesman to where he could oversee the war effort first-hand.

Editor’s Note: Aboul-Enein writes for two Navy base papers, the Naval Training Command Great Lakes Bulletin and Naval District Washington Waterline. He wishes to thank Personnel Specialist 1st Class (SW⁄AW) David Tranberg, president of the Pentagon Chapter of the First Class Petty Officer’s Association for his edits and comments that enhanced this review.