Person1874 – 1965

Winston Churchill

British prime minister (1940–1945, 1951–1955) who led Britain’s resistance through the Battle of Britain and named the “Iron Curtain” in 1946

Where they went

1
1915 – 1916Gallipoli Campaignleader
British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula to force the Dardanelles and strike at Istanbul, but were held by the Ottoman army and withdrew after eight months.
2
1940Battle of Britainleader
The Luftwaffe tried to win control of the air ahead of an invasion but could not defeat the RAF, which fought back with radar and fighters; Hitler postponed the landing.
3
1945Yalta Conferencediplomat
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met at Yalta in Crimea and agreed on the occupation of Germany, the founding of the UN and Soviet entry into the war against Japan, laying the foundations of the post-war order and the Cold War.
4
1945Potsdam Conferencediplomat
Truman, Stalin and Churchill (later Attlee) settled the treatment of defeated Germany at Potsdam. During the conference the US, Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration demanding Japan’s unconditional surrender.
5
1947Truman Doctrine and Marshall Planrelated figure
The United States declared a policy of containing communism (the Truman Doctrine) and offered massive aid to rebuild Western Europe (the Marshall Plan). The Cold War began in earnest.

Film: Darkest HourDramatizedFilm · 2017 · Joe Wright
Book: The Second World WarBook · 1948 · Winston Churchill (tr. Cha Byung-jik) · Kachi

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

Joseph Stalin1878 – 1953
General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party who ruled the USSR from the late 1920s until his death, led the war against Germany and drew Eastern Europe into the Soviet bloc
Harry S. Truman1884 – 1972
33rd US president (1945–1953) who ordered the atomic bombings, set the policy of containment with the Truman Doctrine and sent US forces to the Korean War
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882 – 1945
32nd US president (1933–1945) who led the New Deal and took the US to war after Pearl Harbor; he attended the Cairo and Yalta conferences
George C. Marshall1880 – 1959
US Army Chief of Staff in the Second World War and Secretary of State (1947–1949) who proposed the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan); Nobel Peace Prize 1953

World War I and the Russian Revolution1908 – 1923
From the Balkan crises to a war of trenches and total mobilization that toppled four empires; the Russian Revolution it unleashed, which created the first socialist state; and the Versailles settlement of national self-determination and the League of Nations
World War II1939 – 1945
From the invasion of Poland to the surrender of Japan — the largest war in human history, across Europe, Asia and the Pacific
The Cold War1945 – 1991
From Yalta to the dissolution of the Soviet Union — half a century in which two blocs led by the US and the USSR divided the world