Defender of the Realm

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Defender of the Realm, 1940 -- 1965" is the final volume of William Manchester's massive three-volume biography, "The Last Lion", of Winston Churchill (1874 -- 1965). The first volume, published in 1983, titled "Visions of Glory", covered Churchill's life from 1874 -- 1932, while the second volume, published in 1988, titled simply "Alone, covered the years 1932 -- 1940. This new sweeping third volume covers Churchill's life beginning with his ascension to the office of Prime Minister in 1940. It focuses upon the WW II years, follows Churchill during the years between 1945 and his second period as Prime Minister from 1951 -- 1955, and concludes with Churchill's years of comparative retirement up to his death. The biography was a near lifetime project for Manchester (1922 -- 2004). Manchester had researched the third volume of the trilogy, prepared well-organized and voluminous notes, and done some of the writing. Near the end of his life, however, Manchester realized he would be unable to complete the third volume. He selected journalist Paul Reid to complete the work. While Ruby did not exist in the games, aspects of her character (most notably her red ninja outfit) bear similarity to and makes her resemble Skarlet, a glitch character who would later become a full-fledged fighter in the 2011 reboot of Mortal Kombat. She is also a traitor to her home realm of Edenia, much like Tanya, who would be introduced in Mortal Kombat 4.

But DEFENDER is much more than a war story. Equally fascinating is the character study focusing on the relationships between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. Having saved western civilization from Nazism, Churchill was ill used by Roosevelt. Churchill and Roosevelt then were ill used by Stalin who emerges as the most Machiavellian of the three.And to make another remark, while I feel Churchill was most knowledgeable of events in Europe, I certainly do not share his views on maintaining the British Empire and colonialism. On the unusual features of Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding, who many credit as most responsible for winning a war of attrition in the Battle of Britain but whom Churchill failed to support when proponents of large-scale definitive air battles ousted him:

I close with a few choice examples of Reid’s narrative. On his combative style of debate, Sir Ian Jacob noted that he would “debate, browbeat, badger, and cajole those who were opposed to him, or whose work was under discussion.” Reid’s summary: As was his wont, Churchill worked past midnight and well into the early hours of May 9. Hundreds of telegrams had to be answered; the box was in dire need of attention. As he worked on, London officials doused the searchlights in hopes of encouraging the crowds to disperse. In the streets, Churchill's Englishmen, victorious, made for their homes.The show was focused on a group of warriors assembled by Raiden to defend Earthrealm from invaders of various other dimensions that entered through portals. The assembled warriors included Liu Kang, Kurtis Stryker, Sonya Blade, Jax Briggs, Kitana, and the younger Sub-Zero, with Nightwolf functioning mostly as tech support. The warriors operated out of a hidden base from where Nightwolf and Raiden monitored portal openings; the warriors would fly dragon-shaped jets to deal with disturbances. Shao Kahn was something of an arc villain throughout the series, being responsible for allowing other realms to invade Earthrealm. The finale involved Kitana leading a rebellion from Outworld against her stepfather, Shao Kahn. Yet though all saw him, all did not see him alike. He was a multifarious individual, including within one man a whole troupe of characters, some of them subversive of one another and none feigned.” This was a long read, but well worth the time. While this book is the last in a trilogy by William Manchester on the life of Winston Churchill, it covers World War II from the British perspective. Paul Reid was selected by Manchester to complete this this volume using Manchester’s research notes. The writing style is very readable. While reading this biography, I always felt compelled to keep reading, not just to finish a long read, but to understand this man without whom the world today would be completely different. Winterhalter, Ryan (July 8, 2010). "Five truly horrendous TV shows based on videogames". GamesRadar . Retrieved June 8, 2014.

Gradually Churchill realized that he was becoming the junior partner in the alliance, though he was older than both Stalin and Roosevelt (and outlived both). As allied victory became inevitable (long before the war was won), it also became clear that the US and the USSR would eclipse Britain in the post-war world. Roosevelt particularly wanted to rid the world of colonialism and had no sympathy for the old Victorian's goal of holding on to as much of the empire as possible. In retrospect, Roosevelt seems naive, as he was naive in thinking he could work well with Uncle Joe. Interestingly, this is a tale of war from the British POV and neither Roosevelt nor Eisenhower come off as well as they do in American versions.

After VE Day, despite Churchill’s unmatched popularity, his Conservative party was turned out in July 1945. Though devastated by the defeat, Churchill remained the party leader. He returned to office in 1951 to preside over a waning empire and escalating cold war until he finally retired in 1955. My son is 7 and so I'll probably save this for him to read in a few years' time but I can imagine him absorbing information such as the details of the Coronation and going to look them to see if they're true! (Wahoo - free history lesson. Win win!) At this point, I have to stop on details about the war as there is just too much here that fascinated me. I’ll just throw out a few questions and my leanings on them. Of most personal import to me is the question of whether I consider the pervasive bombing of German populations in cities by the Allies a war crime or was it a critical step in breaking their spirit? I come down on the former. Initially the Luftwaffe targeted military targets in England, but it took only one case of an accidental bombing of a civilian neighborhood for Churchill to unleash a prearranged agreement for the Brits to begin civilian bombing in Germany. Whereas the entire four months of the Battle of Britain resulted in about 40,000 dead, the Allied bombings in Germany caused over 300,000 deaths, with the fire bombings of Hamburg and Dresden alone causing 45,000 and 25,000 deaths respectively. Roosevelt was dead by the time Stalin’s post-war strategy began to unfold in Eastern Europe and Churchill recognized it only after he was out of office. But once he saw Stalin’s strategy for what it was, Churchill became one of the West’s most insightful and savage critics of Soviet expansionism. The series also featured the debut of the newly retconned Kano. His nationality was changed from American-Japanese to Australian following actor Trevor Goddard's performance in the first movie.