As with his “World Crisis 1911-1914,” Churchill again found himself in a unique position to write about the war. From Churchill’s Preface -In dealing with a field so wide as the last three years of the World War, a highly selective process has been necessary. . . . I had many and varied opportunities of learning about the war. During the first five months which this volume covers till May, IgI6, I commanded a battalion in the line at ‘Plugstreet.’ Thereafter, until July, I9I7, I was occupied in Parliament, and also in defending my conduct as First Lord of the Admiralty before the Statutory Commission of Inquiry into the Dardanelles Expedition. In both these periods I was closely in touch with some of the leading personalities, military and civil, who were conducting British affairs, and also to a lesser extent with those similarly placed in France. I was therefore able though in a private station to follow with attention political and military incidents. In July 1917 I became Minister of Munitions in Mr. Lloyd George’s administration, and thus for the last seventeen months of the war I was responsible for supplying the Army and Air Force with all their war material. I deem it of interest to record before they fade the impression and emphasis of various episodes, so far as I was personally able to appreciate them.
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