Written by a highly respected military historian, this book was one of the first to undo the decades of irrational anti-German hate which had led up to the Second World War--and to openly state the reality that the Allies who sat in judgement of Nazi Germany at Nuremberg had been equally, if not more so, guilty of plunging Europe into its most destructive war.
By showing the actual progression of events in Europe from the time of the defeat of Napoleon to the early 20th Century, Grenfell demolishes the myth of the Germans being "the Butcher Bird" of European history, citing the fact that Prussia and Germany had only been involved in three conflicts--two of them minor--during the entire 19th Century, with the aim of creating a united Germany. In contrast, the author points out, there is a large list of conflicts waged by France, Britain, and Russia, all of whom engaged in numerous wars of imperialism in which Germany never featured.
Captain Grenfell delves into British and European history to show how Prussia--and then a united Germany--had in fact never been the aggressors, even though they were painted as "Huns" (the Asiatic invaders of Europe of 1,800 years earlier who had been driven off by Germans defending Europe). In spite of this fact, the author shows, the propaganda mill continually incited hatred against Germany over a period of more than a century.
It was this propaganda and incitement which, the author shows, led directly to the First World War. That conflict, started by the British and French against Germany, ended with the Versailles Treaty, which tore Germany apart, destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and blamed Germans for the war--even though the Allies had started it.
This treaty, the author shows, was the penultimate act of irrational and hypocritical hatred toward Germany, and used by the Allied Powers to once again plunge Europe into an entirely avoidable Second World War when Germany sought to take back the land and population--including the Danzig corridor--which had been illegally seized from it by the Allies in 1918.
Along the way, the author reveals that the Allied atrocities during the war--such as the bombing of civilians, culminating in the mass murder of Dresden--were ignored, while German military commanders were put on trial for losing a war which the Allies themselves had incited. He shows how genuine efforts to ensure peace--such as Hitler's repeated offers to peacefully settle all issues--were deliberately ignored, in the full knowledge that war would then result.
In spite of being the author of the renown military works Sea Power (1941), The Bismarck Episode (1948), Nelson the Sailor (1949), and Main Fleet to Singapore (1951), Captain Grenfell found that his book exposing what he called "perfidious Albion," was rejected by all publishers in Britain--and eventually only found a publisher in the USA.
This new edition contains the complete original text, a biography, and an index.
"Mr. Churchill was not a statesman seeking always his own country's advantage amid the twists and turns of a dangerous world. He was an international crusader preaching and conducting a holy war for the destruction of the Hitler regime and German military power at any cost; at any cost to his own country and the rest of the world. In his own words, there was no sacrifice he would not make to get rid of Hitler, although up to the British declaration of war against Germany in 1939 Hitler had done no harm to Britain and had actually gone out of his way to placate her at some sacrifice to German pride by agreeing to keep the German fleet at a third of the strength of the British. Mr. Churchill's war policy was not national but religious."