But you also write, “Hitler and Stalin influenced the war’s outcome far more than any Briton or American.”
The most important statistic of the war is that of every five Germans killed in combat, four died on the eastern front. That’s where the Allies bled the Wehrmacht to death. Had Army Group Center not been destroyed in July 1944, the Germans could have carried on fighting, no matter that we landed in Normandy.

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What most surprised you?
British historians have long liked to pat themselves on the back about Yalta: FDR was taken in by Stalin, but Churchill wasn’t. In fact, it was completely clear from Burgis’s notes that Churchill was just as taken in by Stalin.

What do you hope readers discover?
That all humans are fallible. These men who for years were under the most unbelievable pressure, who argued to the nth degree with each other—as they bloody well should, with so many lives at stake—were giants who needed each other.

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