Operation Unthinkable

I am enjoying Max Hastings's Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945. The most entrancing bit so far is Operation Unthinkable: in May 1945, Churchill ordered up a study of what it would take for the British, the Americans, and the Germans (!) to roll back the Red Army far enough to liberate Poland. When the chiefs of staff assured him that the notion was indeed Unthinkable, Churchill ordered up another study, this one to determine whether Britain could repel a Russian invasion, assuming the Americans pulled out of Europe and the Red Army advanced into France. Churchill, it seems, had a much clearer view of the Soviet Union than any of his contemporaries (or indeed than many of our contemporaries). Blue skies! -- Dan Ford