SOURCE: A review of Closing the Ring, in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 39, No. 3, December 1952-53, pp. 582-83.

In the following review, Hubbard finds Closing the Ring to be an absorbing account of England's involvement in World War II.

The fifth volume [Closing the Ring] of Mr. Churchill's memorable series [The Second World War] deals with that period between the wresting of the initiative from the Axis by the United Nations on all fronts and the launching of the final crushing offensive against Germany. The U-boats are mastered; the transparency of Japan's ability to hold Asia is apparent; Russia's massive attacks are everywhere successful in the East; the Luftwaffe's doom is sealed; and Mussolini's strident lunacy vanishes from the Palazzo Venezia. Gone, then, is the threnody of near defeat; yet to come is the paean of “Overlord.”

The central military theme is the Italian campaign, and actions...