The Eleventh Hour: How Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. Brokered the Unlikely Deal That Won the War

Military historian Kenney (Lost in the Pacific) examines an impasse between the U.S. and U.K. over military strategy during WWII that was resolved at the autumn 1943 Tehran Conference%E2%80%94attended by F.D.R., Churchill, and Stalin%E2%80%94when the Soviets sided with the Americans. The U.S. wanted to focus on Operation Overlord, the planned May 1944 invasion of France, while the British, fearful of troop idleness, advocated for an equal emphasis on attacking the Germans in Italy, the Aegean, and the Balkans. Keeney recounts the discussions in depth and provides fine profiles of F.D.R. and his military leaders. Though Keeney reveals a number of fascinating anecdotes, he also gets a few important facts wrong, as when he writes that soldiers in France's northern half fought the Germans in the spring of 1940 while those in the southern half signed an armistice. Also, he writes too little about the British military leadership and the military context at the time, barely addressing the 1943 North African and Italian campaigns in two short paragraphs, and ignoring altogether the monumental 1943 Soviet%E2%80%93German tank battle at Kursk. While these flaws mar Keeney's briskly-narrated work, it still should appeal to those interested in WWII's military and diplomatic history. (Mar.)