From 3 September 1939, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told his radio audience that Britain was at war with Germany, the nation faced its sternest challenge yet. At stake throughout the six years of World War II was the liberty of a proud people. The people of Britain set willingly about their task, revealing incredible depths of determination, bravery, improvisatory genius, and dogged stoicism.

From the smallest child to the women who supplied the troops and to the men who manned the defenses, every Briton stood up to the Nazis' fury. The Little Book of Britain at War tells how those people took on the might of a pitiless, immensely powerful war machine—and won.