My Name is Clement Attlee: British Prime Minister I served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the difficult years immediately following the Second World War. I was never a man given to theatrical speeches or grand displays. I preferred careful work, plain language, and practical results. Yet I found myself governing Britain at one of the great turning points of modern history, when an exhausted world emerged from one terrible war only to discover that another kind

The Red Army Moves West: Soviet Liberation Becomes Soviet Occupation The Red Army Moves West: Soviet Liberation Becomes Soviet Occupation (1944–1945). In the final years of World War II, an enormous military force surged westward across Eastern Europe. The Soviet Red Army was driving Nazi Germany back toward Berlin, liberating territories that had suffered years of German occupation. For millions of people, the arrival of Soviet soldiers meant that Nazi rule was finally colla

My Name is Joseph Stalin: Revolutionary, Dictator, and Leader of the Soviet Union For nearly three decades I stood at the center of the Soviet Union. I was born Ioseb Jughashvili on December 18, 1878, in Gori, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. My father was a shoemaker, and my mother hoped I would become a priest. Poverty and hardship surrounded my childhood. I attended a theological seminary in Tiflis, but revolutionary ideas interested me more than the priesthood. T

An Alliance Built to Defeat Hitler Not to Last was one of the strangest partnerships of World War II. The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union became the three great powers of the Allied coalition, but they were far from natural friends. Their governments, economies, and ideas about individual freedom were dramatically different. What brought them together was not a shared vision of the future but a common and terrifying enemy: Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. As

My Name is General Alfred Jodl: German High Command Officer I was a German soldier, a staff officer, and eventually Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command. For much of the Second World War, I stood inside the rooms where Germany's military campaigns were discussed, ordered, altered, and ultimately lost. I had been trained to believe that a soldier's responsibility was obedience and execution of orders. That conviction carried me from the German Empire

Germany Surrounded: The Final Months of the Third Reich By the beginning of 1945, Nazi Germany was trapped. From the east came the enormous armies of the Soviet Union, pushing through Poland toward Germany after years of brutal fighting. From the west, American, British, Canadian, French, and other Allied troops had liberated much of Western Europe and were preparing to cross into Germany itself. The German military that had once conquered enormous stretches of Europe was now

My Name is J. Robert Oppenheimer: Scientific Director of Los Alamos I was born in New York City in 1904 into a family that valued education, art, literature, and careful thought. From childhood, I was fascinated by the natural world. Minerals first captured my attention, but eventually I became consumed by questions far smaller than any stone I could hold: What is matter made of? What laws govern the invisible world inside the atom? I studied at Harvard and later traveled to

The Race for the Atom: Could Nazi Germany Build the Bomb? The Race for the Atom: Could Nazi Germany Build the Bomb? In the winter of 1938, scientists working in Germany made a discovery that would change warfare—and human history—forever. At first, no one knew whether the discovery would lead to a practical weapon. But within months, scientists across Europe and America realized that the energy hidden inside the atom might be powerful enough to destroy an entire city. Even mo

My Name is General Dwight D. Eisenhower: Supreme Allied Commander I was born in 1890 in Denison, Texas, but I grew up in Abilene, Kansas, in a hardworking family where discipline and responsibility were expected. As a boy, I loved history, competition, and stories of great military leaders. In 1911, I entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. I could not have known then that my greatest responsibility would someday involve commanding millions of men in the lar

Fortress Europe: Preparing for the Allied Invasion By 1943, Nazi Germany controlled or dominated much of continental Europe, but the balance of World War II was beginning to change. Soviet forces were fighting Germany from the east, while Britain and the United States were advancing through the Mediterranean. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin repeatedly pressed his Western Allies to open a major front in Western Europe, forcing Germany to divide its armies. Allied leaders agreed th